5 Tips For Making A Mobile App With Great User Experience

The average app user has up to 36 applications installed on their smartphones, Google says. Only around one in four of those apps are used on a daily basis.

source: pixabay.com

That means you need to do a lot more to convince customers to download your app and software.

You also need to create an experience that keeps your customers coming back for more.

What Makes a Great App?

There’s more to creating a successful app than designing something fun or useful for your target audience.

Although you need great features to keep your customers engaged, you also need a design that’s going to make it easy for your audience to explore and make the most of your app day after day.

The more usable your app is, the better your engagement will be and the fewer uninstalls you’ll need to deal with too.

Here are just some of the ways that you can make sure your app is prepped for amazing user experience.
 

1.  Build Your App Knowledge

These days, the functionality and features of the latest apps are constantly changing.

That’s because technology is growing increasingly more advanced, with new solutions appearing in everything from artificial intelligence to automation.

If you want to provide your customers with a modern and immersive app experience, then you need to make sure that you’re on the cutting edge of the industry.

As an app developer, make sure that you’re committed to constantly building on your education with new information and insights.

Keep your favorite articles and guides bookmarked, and sign up for available courses and hackathons in your area.

While you’re at it, make sure that you’re constantly updating your apps too.

Don’t just roll out the first version of your tech and stick with it for the next five years. Evolve with your users.

2.  Personalize Your Apps for Your Users

You can’t necessarily build a different app for every user in your consumer base, but you can get to know your audience and design your UX according to their needs.

Create user personas for your customers based on what you already know about them, including information on whether they’re more likely to be Android or Apple users.

From there, you can begin to build on an app experience that’s customized to the kind of audience member you’re trying to attract.

During the early stages of building and developing your app, you could even consider working with a beta test group and getting some feedback from them.

When you launch your app, always give your customers the option to share their thoughts.

If some of the feedback that you get is negative, don’t panic. See every comment as an opportunity to build on your tool and make it even better.

Creating an incredible UX isn’t always easy, but it becomes much simpler when your customers are there to guide you.

3.  Simplify and Minimize

It’s easy to get carried away as an app developer.

The transformative world of technology that we live in today means that the opportunities for innovation are practically endless in the app space.

When 5G and new connectivity solutions arrive for all smartphones, there will be even more ways for you to connect with and engage your target audience.

However, it’s important to remember that functionality shouldn’t come at the expense of simplicity and accessibility.

It’s all too easy to forget that not everyone in your customer base is as tech-savvy as you.

If you get carried away adding new functionality and features into your app to the point where the system is bloated and difficult to use, then your customers will simply uninstall your tech.

When in doubt, simplify and minimize.

This is where information architecture (IA) comes in. This design principle can guide you in organizing all content within your app – from written texts, visuals, all the way to audio and video too.

The ultimate goal of using IA is to make the app intuitive and simple.

Help customers to focus on the core benefits of your app by making your menu bar simple and easy to navigate, and using visual iconography to guide customers, instead of patches of text.

The easier your app is to use, the more likely your customer will be to fall in love with it.

4.  Cater to All Screen Sizes

There are some parts of building an app where you might need to be restrictive. For instance, if you’re operating on a budget, you may want to create your app just for iOS or Android before you roll it out for every customer.

However, other parts of app development are reliant on you making your tool as universal as possible for many different kinds of customers.

For instance, one of the most important things you can do is ensure that you’re catering to multiple screen sizes – including tablets. This will help to keep your app relevant when new manufacturers roll out updates on their phones.

From the CTA buttons to the text and photos, make sure that all of the elements of your apps are specifically designed for the users of various makes and models. This is a bit more complex with Android than with iOS. 

5.  Create Seamless Micro-Interactions

Finally, many of today’s leading apps, including those from social media giants like Instagram and Facebook, are successful because they capitalize on micro-interactions.

When you’re designing your app to make the most of UX, it’s important to ensure that you’re keeping micro-interactions in mind.

Every aspect of engaging with your app should feel natural and painless for your target audience.

Whether your customers want to share a picture of their progress on an app to social media, or contact the customer service team, ensure that using your app feels as painless as possible.

This will help to ensure more engaging and interactive experiences that your customers love!

Creating the Perfect App Experience

Developers often see the world through the eyes of a developer.

However, in today’s age of customer and user experience, it’s essential to think carefully about how you can put your clients first.

Creating your app to adhere to the usability needs of your audience will help to encourage engagement, drive more downloads, and boost retention for your business.

Never underestimate the power of a great UX.

Author bio

Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor and a striving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter @LisaBMichaels.