We are living in the most sophisticated age of consumerism ever and customers are getting more sophisticated and choosy by the second! If you are an app producer you are, unfortunately, in one of the most competitive and demanding marketplaces of all and anything outdated, substandard or failing in any way is likely to get left behind pretty swiftly.
How you keep up, keep yourself relevant and interesting and ensure people want to engage and continue to engage with you and your products is the challenge of the moment. Unless you have happened to hit on something that nearly everyone wants and needs and no one else is providing you are likely to be continually running to keep up with competitors. It will always be useful to have a few vital areas to concentrate on so you can continue being competitive and improving your usability with a little less effort. Here are some suggestions of aspects to keep in focus :
1. Continue to observe and analyse how users interact with your app – it might tell you how to enhance and develop it to increase usability and make it more appealing. It might also suggest other ways of marketing it and expanding your user base.
2. Keep it simple to use and familiar; people like familiarity and usually don’t want to work too hard figuring stuff out – so make it intuitive and recognisable for what it is; this will automatically improve the perception of usability.
3.Provide added value wherever you see the potential. Users will love your app more and be better disposed towards you and your products. Perhaps have an active process in train, looking for opportunities to add value.
4.Users like to be guided so make your app logical and sequenced. This has the double advantage of making sure users get to where they want to be (and, therefore presumably, where you want them to be) and improving their opinion of the app’s usability.
5.Try to make your app original and different. Look at areas where you can differentiate yourself from others in your part of the market. Attempt to make your users’ experiences unique and memorable.
6.Make it as easy as possible for users to have the questions answered. Provide help menus, drop down explanatory boxes, Q&As, live help and anything else you can think of to make the experience as painless and smooth as possible.
7. Test and retest – don’t assume that because you appear to have it right at one moment in time that it will always be so. User needs move on, the market and competition can shift and produce better options, technical or social moves can render some facets redundant or reveal new ones that need to be exploited. Don’t rest on your laurels just because you appear to have some semblance of success. Keep recreating and reinventing.
A reasonable amount of attention and care can make a big difference. If you are interested in improving your app, why not give us a ring on +44(0)800 0246247 or email us at hello@ux247.com for an exploratory chat.
