The number of apps on App Store and Google Store has greatly increased over the past few months but only very few of them has the expected success. The first seconds are crucial and it all remains on the user experience (UX), in other words, the way users will behave on the app or on the website : 88% of them are not willing to come back on an interface where they had a bad user experience. That is the reason why the interface has to be effective and easy to use in order to simplify all the interactions and not to discourage the users. The first use is crucial and will determine the follow-up of the relationship with the consumers.

 

Thanks to its experience in mobile optimization, Tapptic will go through three key steps for developping an effective UX strategy.

  1. The analysis : a crucial step to guarantee the success of the project

 

Before designing an app, it is important to have a detailed analysis of the competitive situation, in order to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the competitors’ apps. This way, we can figure out how to be different and to be the most effective as possible. The main purpose of an app is to satisfy the need of its clients or its users. To do so, creating personas is very useful to identify precisely who is the target audience of the interface in order to remain closer to the expectations by analyzing their behaviors on a similar interface.

 

In order to be pertinent with the latest trends, it is also important to be aware of the ones promoted by the « Operating systems » such as Google Chrome OS, Linux or even OS X which contribute very efficiently to the identification of the users’ expectations.

  1. Persistent hypothesis to find THE perfect solution

 

The best way to make sure to be on good tracks is to test repeatedly different options (A/B testing) to compare the user’s behaviors and to see which solutions is the most completed ones. In certain cases, such as Instagram for example, several test phases were necessary to figure out the exact personas who are susceptible to use the app.

 

There are many tools that can optimise the UX experience such as the heat mapping that enables is to see where the users are likely to click and how they behave on the interface.

  1. The critical phase of the onboarding

 

In other words, the onboarding is the first interaction that the user will have with the interface. It is a moment that will determine if the consumer will choose to keep the app or to delete it. 25% of the app is only used once, that is the reason why it is crucial to optimise this process in order to avoid losing users on the way.

 

To do so, consumers and users will have to know intuitively where to click and what to do to reach their final objective. The number of clicks must be very limited, the subscription form very short and the process very easy to follow as it is the case for Snapchat or Uber.

 

Also, the app doesn’t have to remain on a single channel, a « seamless » experience has to be provided, in other words the experience must be the same on every devices. Users should be able to start the interaction on their decoder, keep it on on their tablet and then finish it on their smartphones.

 

In order to remain coherent with the consumers’ expectation, the challenge of endless renewal cannot be neglected. New UX trends have to be monitored and interfaces adaptations should be expected. With the rise of bots and personal assistants, the user experience will become more and more diverse, especially with « conversational mapping ». The key will be to see in the upcoming months what will be the the craze of those new devices and the consequences for the apps.