An intuitive, fast, creative and interactive mobile app can help you grow your brand and build relationships with your customers. When developing a mobile app for your business you want to maximise customer engagement as much as possible and with 73% of users expecting mobile apps to be easier to use than a website it’s vital that you get the design and development of your app right.
Good user experience (UX) is essential to a successful app, after all, a more usable app means increased user engagement and reduced app uninstalls and user retention is one of the main aims, right?
Here are six UX tips to help you design an engaging mobile app.
Define a clear call to action button
It’s important when designing a mobile app to define a clear action button. It needs to be easily visible and approachable. For example, don’t put it in the top-left corner of the screen because for a right-handed user this is hard to reach. It needs to be easily accessible for all users, so you always need to consider reachable thumb zones. The call to action content also needs to clearly define what you want the user to do, so make sure you clearly state the purpose.
Keep it simple
When a product offers more features than a customer needs this can be confusing and complicated and create an overwhelming environment meaning users will abandon the app.
Functional app design supports clean and simple design elements that make it extremely clear what the app or feature does. It’s all about creating an app that’s so easy to use a customer could use it subconsciously.
Think about screen size
Even today developers still manage to forget that the user experience of mobile is different to that of a desktop. When developing your mobile app you need to make sure that it’s optimized for all different screen sizes. This covers text, CTA buttons and all other app elements. Keep the design of your app responsive and for users of smaller screens so that all crucial elements work on mobile devices.
Make it visual
To really capture user’s attention, you need to create a truly intriguing mobile design and this includes visual elements and a great colour scheme. Striking visuals will keep user engaged and will encourage them to return. Users of mobile apps don’t want heavy text so make sure you get the balance right. This also applies to loading pages, creating visual, animated loading pages will encourage users to stay and wait.
Optimise user flow
It’s vital to understand how users interact with an app to be able to optimise it appropriately. Knowing what the user’s goals are will help you to identify friction points during task completion.
There are a few different ways you can optimize user flow:
- Prioritise one primary action per screen
- Provide a natural next step
- Separate big tasks into several subtasks
- Use information you already have on your users
Design for personalisation
Not to be confused with customisation, personalisation is about displaying content and functionality that is relevant to a specific user. You can personalise the user experience by using geo-location to generate relevant location-specific content. Allowing users to create their own profiles is another way of personalising the experience, take Netflix as an example. Designing your app around seasonal events such as Christmas, Easter and New Year is also a way of personalising your mobile app and boosting sales.
Minimize content
Users want their mobile screens to render the same amount and quality of content that they used to get through their computer monitors or even their television. So, the main principle that should be at the forefront of design is minimalism. Although, keep in mind that the core message should still be clearly conveyed.
Even if the amount of information can’t be reduced, making it easier for users to navigate will make the experience simple and productive. Features like arrows and scroll-bars can aid this process.
These are just a few UX design tips for developing an engaging mobile app but the most important thing to remember is that you design your app for your users rather than for content. An app that smoothly guides users through the application, with clearly defined call to action buttons and personalised design is the aim.