Tech: How Important Is UX For App Development

UX is everything

Having a visually appealing app is eye-catching and important, but that means nothing if it isn’t complemented with a very good user experience. The point of creating an app is for it to have long-term usability, which means satisfying customer needs even if new customer requests come every day and your app continuously changes shape from new updates.

So far, app development and design have mostly been about customization.

Here, users are given the opportunity to customize the look of an app to their expectations. Personalization is much more about optimizing an app for each user; Providing the right offers at the right time by pushing notifications to the taste of the user ultimately strengthens an app’s longevity.

Apps are tools that should lead users to a specific goal. If the UX is bad and the user has to take several laps to get to the main 2-3 functions of the app, the experience is destined to fail. Good UX is only good if it fits in perfectly with the target group. People are different and so are their claims.

If an app is perfectly tailored to one target group, another one may feel neglected.

Guideline to the user-friendly app

Incarnate with your users: Creating an app for a certain audience consists of thorough research and target group definition. You have to delve deeply into your customers’ needs and requirements, analyze their reviews and even interact with them. Be an investigator, collect valuable information on what your targeted audience wants and craves for. Embody your customers, walk in their shoes and understand what is expected from your app. Only then you will be on the right path of designing a great and user-friendly app.

Make your app adaptive to multiple devices: You never know which device will your customers use to get in touch with your app. Thus, responsiveness and adaptiveness are the main characteristics that make an app user-friendly.

By making your app’s design adaptive, you make it possible for the app to modify its dimensions and look like it was built for the device that it is being used from. Basically, by using adaptive design, an app’s user interface adapts its structure and size based on the display screen which might manipulate with the orientation or aspect ratio. A professional app design agency should be able to do this as part of the design process. So, the advantage is that extra programming will not be required or charged to adapt your app to different screens by making your app adaptive from start.

Make it “light”: Functions and content that are not absolutely necessary in the mobile usage context should be deleted. Too many options are confusing, so avoid fitting too many goals in one app and filter the ones that really matter. Make it neat and clean. What really annoys a user are certainly pop up ads and banners, so stay away from them. Use the amount of space that a mobile device like the iPhone offers wisely.

Offline availability: Making it possible for an app to work in an offline mode is one of the most user appreciated features. The most successful apps are characterized by their ability to work offline. By making your app available in an offline mode you make high efforts of eliminating all network issues that can mess with your app’s usability.

This feature is a true blessing for users since it makes it possible for them to use the app everywhere and show it to everyone. This builds customer loyalty and better reviews.

Pay attention to high contrast ratio: Just because mobile devices are used more often in places where the lighting conditions are significantly worse than in the environment of a desktop computer, it should be ensured that the app has a high contrast ratio (font, controls, graphics, etc .). Otherwise, the user can no longer use the app – it has to be appropriately visible regardless of where – in the living room at home, on the way to the sunny park, or everywhere else.

Provide clear feedback to the user: For all interactions between the app and the user, users should receive direct feedback on what is happening at any given time. For example, if the user presses a button, feedback should be provided as to whether it has actually been pressed (such as highlighting or changing position). Particularly in the case of touchscreen devices, where there are no physical keys, the visual feedback has to address other senses of the user as well, such as sound and vibration.

Support the user: Always contemplate the situations when your users reach the app while on the move, don’t have the time or are placed in a hectic environment. These should be the times when your app brings out its full potential and usability, making their lives easier and allowing them to really manifest your app’s objective. After all, who will keep an app that doesn’t work when they most need it?

Testing the app with users: Test the app with users as early as possible and ideally during the entire development process. After all, users are the ones who not only download or buy the app but also want to use it with enthusiasm in everyday life.

Observing users in their natural environment: As an alternative to user tests in the laboratory, it may be useful to observe users in their natural environment (on site) due to the mobile context that apps bring with them. This makes it easy to determine whether the app can be used without any problems even in the real (mobile) context or whether the environment influences its use – which in turn begs for special adaptations to the design of the app.

Conclusion: Designing a user-friendly app that is also inspiring and profitable is not an easy task. Above all, to identify the needs and requirements of users in a mobile context and to consider them in the app design is a challenge but it certainly has its rewards, because the essence of an app is its usability. Sooner or later your efforts on designing the ultimate UX will bring fruitful results.

Author’s Bio: Rilind Elezaj is an experienced a Digital Marketing Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Rilind possesses a strong entrepreneurial mindset and has devoted his career to enhancing the sphere of digital marketing. In his methodological approach, Rilind integrates web development and other digital marketing solutions to create hybrid strategies that bring the best results.