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May 25, 2018

5 Tips to Improve UX On Your Mobile Apps

 

Smartphones have grown to become the device of choice in accessing online content. Rapidly increasing mobile data speeds have fueled demand for rich content, and the trend seems to be accelerating with time.

According to comScore, mobile users surpassed desktop users in global numbers since 2014, growing from 400 million in 2007 to more than 1.6 billion in 2014.Further, mobile digital media engagement in the US is much higher at 51% as compared to desktop time at 42%.



With these trends in view, it is therefore important for publishers and app developers to ensure speedy and reliable delivery of content to end-users in addition to providing a worthwhile user experience. The key is to ensure ease of use for the end-user. Some important tips to ensure an accessible and friendly user experience are discussed below.

Use Responsive Design

If you are building a web app meant to be accessed on both desktop and mobile devices, one of the foremost requirements should be a responsive app design. If your app looks and works great on a user’s screen, regardless of the device, operating system or system size, they will not have any difficulty in navigating or using your app.

This has become increasingly important in a world governed by mobile data traffic. Mobile apps are becoming a dominant medium for distributing content.Websites should be able to catch up, however, with responsive designs that will feel right at home on both small screens as well as larger ones.

Optimize Code to Speed Up Content Delivery

Mobile users are speed-hungry. A study reveals that 70% switch apps due to excessive loading times. So if your app can deliver contentfaster, this translates to happy users and better usage stats.

One way to optimize speed is to minify elements, which involves removing all the extra clutter in the source code, such a white spaces, comment and superfluous calls.The result is slimmer app content that loads more quickly. To do that, you can deploy a content delivery network (CDN)to automatically minify your app or website code, while at the same time optimizing content load speeds in other ways.

Localize Your Mobile App

App usage is spreading evenly across globe, which means that if you have an English-only app, you are missing out on precious users elsewhere in the world. A study reveals that consumers from the APAC and EMEA regions would generate 3.8 times more mobile app downloads as compared to users in the Americas.Localization is key to success in building an international user base and keeping these users engaged.

Localization includes offering multi-language support in the app. And that doesn’t just involve translating an app into multiple languages, butensuring that the very user experience of an app will be targeted correctly across multiple contexts and cultures. A wide range of services, including one offered by Google (News - Alert) through its Developer Console, offer quick and efficient localization.

Use a Touch-Optimized Interface

If you are aiming to design a mobile app with ease of use, make sure that you get the touch-optimization right. Touch-optimization will mean that you are following design standards set forth by the platform (Android (News - Alert) or iOS, for instance), which give specific recommendations on the placement of navigation elements for best accessibility, among others. This also means that the app or mobile website UI itself will be easily navigable through the common tap and swipe gestures, which take away the learning curve in using your app.

You will also need to provide adequate visual cues or tactile feedback whenever a user interacts with the on-screen elements. This includes changing button color or size upon being touched. You can also use standard feedback when swiping to refresh. Furthermore, the interface should support the standard pinch-and-zoom actions, so that it is as intuitive to the user as possible.

Personalize the Experience

App personalization will involve a targeted user experience, such that users feel the content is customized for them alone. This will require smart management of data and preferences, in order for your app to deliver just the right content at the right time. For instance, you will need adequate demographic and location data, as well as other preferences that might be unique to the target user or audience.

Given the sheer volume of apps out there, providing a personalized user experience sets your app apart from the others, and this can foster affinity and loyalty among users.

Conclusion

With users moving toward mobile as the preferred access point for getting online, app and content developers will need to take extra effort to target this growing market. Your app hinges heavily on the quality of user experience you can offer to the audience, which means you need to speed up content delivery, along with a pleasant user experience in order to attract users and keep them returning.



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