What makes a good mobile app user experience?
Today most businesses use responsive and adaptive websites. However, these same businesses are also considering using mobile apps – but are these mobile apps user-friendly?
When it comes to online shopping, the smartphone has now surpassed desktops. In October 2016, nearly 51.3% of the global population browses online using a tablet or a smartphone, compared to the 48.7% that use a desktop. Starting in 2015, Google began rewarding mobile-friendly websites with higher rankings in the search results; a good reason for businesses to have a strategy in place for mobile.
Today most businesses use responsive and adaptive websites. However, these same businesses are also considering using mobile apps – but are these mobile apps user-friendly?
In a research study carried out by Oracle, almost 55% of Millennials expressed that if the mobile app experience are poor, they would be less likely to use the products or services of that company. Additionally, due to a poor app experience, 39% would also be less likely to recommend a product or service. Lastly, 27% even said that a poor experience would adversely affect the image of a business.
Suhas Uliyar, VP Mobile Strategy & Product Management at Oracle says, “An engaging and personalized user experience has become the new weapon in the battle to attract and retain millennial customers. Businesses that cannot add value for customers with a more convenient, functional, and relevant mobile experience have little chance of coming out on top.” Therefore now is a critical time to start heavily investing in the usability of your app. But how do you do that?
We’ve got three quick-wins for you in this blog.
1. Provide a good and efficient interface
A lot can go wrong during the design and development phase of the app. The search function goes missing, content cannot be filtered, or perhaps icons are unclear. So to prevent your customers from leaving the app, you must adhere to certain rules:
- Use a clear search bar at the top of the app that brings up search suggestions and search history
- Organise and label the ‘menu’ category so that your customer can take a quick glance and see which category they need
- With ecommerce apps, always make sure there are good filters for the products and services so that the customer can filter by price, color, size, etc.
- Do you work with ordering funnels and long forms in your app? Nothing is more frustrating than having to fill in all of that information again because you missed a section. It is better to highlight the data that is filled in incorrectly or not filled in at all so that your customers will see right away what needs to be adjusted.
2. Don’t spam your users with notifications
You know how it goes: you unlock your phone and see all of those annoying notifications from a newly installed app. These kinds of apps are pretty much comparable to that one pushy friend that can’t take a hint. In short, (too many) notifications are irritating. Therefore, you should always ensure that your users can decide whether or not they want to receive notifications. And if so, what they want to receive. Otherwise, there is a big chance that they’ll quickly remove the app.
3. Use customer feedback
Nowadays, customer feedback collection is usually done via the (mobile) website, but why not in a mobile app too? The customer is the only one who knows what he/she wants to see so take advantage of their feedback. By using their feedback, things such as bug reports are solved much more quickly in the app. However collecting this feedback in an app is done a little bit differently than on a website. In this blog, you will find more information about how to gather the best in-app customer feedback.
Also keep in mind that the feedback button shouldn’t take up too much space, or worse, cover important content or app functions. An alternative is to incorporate it in the navigation of the app.
A user-friendly mobile app is just as important as a user-friendly website. So don’t wait too long to ask for user input, because that’s what it’s all about: a happy and loyal customer.