Delight Users With These Mobile App Design Best Practices
Delight Users With These Mobile App Design Best Practices
A mobile app is a collection of connected experiences. It’s a designer’s job to make those experiences cohesive and frictionless. This is no small task. UI patterns and components must look and behave consistently across all screens. Interactions must be intuitive and aligned with users’ desired outcomes. The entire app must incorporate accessibility guidelines.
User research and testing are the best ways to uncover the nuanced insights needed for an app to achieve lasting success. However, there are widely applicable best practices that can help you design mobile apps that delight and retain users for the long haul.
Simplify and Streamline Your Onboarding Process
Studies indicate that users who are presented with onboarding tutorials tend to perceive tasks as more difficult compared to those who don’t see tutorials. In certain situations, onboarding screens and tooltips can be effective ways to introduce an app’s key features and encourage users to engage with the app as part of their routine. However, asking users to review more than three or four onboarding screens or read too much information upfront can be a nuisance; users would often rather figure things out for themselves.
In general, an app’s UI should be so instantly familiar and intuitive that it does not call for a tutorial. However, if you find it necessary to use onboarding strategies, limit the number of steps in the tutorials and, if possible, show them only in contexts related to the actions users are already taking. In addition, limit tooltips to a handful of your app’s most important features.
Offer the Same Features on the App and Desktop Versions
With mobile web traffic increasing, most users expect to be able to do the same tasks on their mobile devices that they can on a desktop. While one study shows that a majority of users still prefer to complete complicated tasks on their desktops, a Pew study found that 15% of American adults use smartphones as their only means of accessing the internet. Being unable to access all the features on a mobile banking app, for instance, can be a source of frustration that ultimately leads users to take their business elsewhere.
Managing feature rollout expectations can be the difference between a good app review and a bad app review. If you need to launch your app before implementing its full feature set, go beyond posting a “Coming Soon” screen, and create a publicly accessible feature roadmap to establish accurate expectations.
Use Notifications Wisely
Notifications are among the most powerful tools for retaining users, providing timely nudges to re-enter an app and engage with content. But it’s crucial to consider the frequency and timing of your push notifications — along with the content they offer. Receiving too many pings or irregular bursts can lead users to disable notifications altogether.
When you display a notification, keep it contextual; for instance, ask for permission to access the camera when users attempt to take a photo. Add granular notification settings that are easy to access so users can tailor notifications to their needs. Also, refrain from asking users to allow notifications until the third or fourth time they interact with your product, after they’ve had a chance to experience your app and the value it provides.
