With millions of apps available for download, smartphone users are spoiled for choice. This means your app is likely not the only one of its kind, and people will choose which one to use based on how user-friendly it is and how well it suits their needs.
When you want your app to be noticed and appreciated, the user experience (UX) is where you must focus your attention. Give app users what they need by doing the following:
Get Professional Help
As skilled as you might be at app development, there are bound to be UX-specific elements that could be improved with objective, professional input. Work with a UX design agency to draw upon the expertise of professionals who can offer valuable insight thanks to their breadth of experience.
Design agencies assist with the development of many apps across a range of industries, so they can help you with every step of the process. This is the best way to guarantee you develop an outstanding tool that genuinely helps people.
Keep It Simple
As clever as you may want to be with app design, keep it simple for the sake of user-friendliness. Make it easy to find the most critical features, and never value fancy features over basic functionality.
If you’re not sure how to define “simple,” check out your competition. Pay attention to some of the most popular apps and their layouts to find out what the winning recipe might be.
Provide a Search Function
Depending on the type of app you have and your business offerings, a search option may be an easy way to improve the user experience. For example, if you’re creating a shopping app, customers might want to find specific items rather than scrolling through countless pages to find the style they’re after.
Provide a search function, and they can simply type in what they’re looking for and have the results appear within seconds. Without such a function, you may find that time-poor customers choose other apps over yours.
Don’t Neglect Usability Testing
Launching a new app can be pretty exciting, especially when you’ve been working hard to create something you know people will appreciate. However, no app is perfect right away, and you may be too close to the project to be able to notice all the imperfections.
Before you officially launch it to the market, undergo usability testing. Create a range of realistic testing situations, and have real customers use your app as if it had already been launched.
They can provide feedback on a wide range of areas, such as the loading speed, design, menu layout, and checkout processes. You can then be sure you’ve ironed out all the kinks before you make it available for a wider audience.
Prioritize Security
Scammers and hackers are everywhere, and they’re also lurking in the backend of phone applications. If you want to improve the experience customers have with your app, make security a priority.
First and foremost, write secure code. Hackers are proficient in reverse-engineering and tampering with the code to make apps unsafe and unstable for users. It’s also essential to encrypt all data, look out for system vulnerabilities that you can patch quickly, and even consider tamper-detection technology that alerts you to someone tampering with your code.
Practice makes perfect, and the first draft of your app may be far from a masterpiece. However, if you make your refinements with the user experience in mind, you’ll be well on your way to launching a convenient and successful app that your customers love.
