Mobile apps and mobile websites are becoming increasingly important today, at Humix we know how you can adapt your business to this new way of life! If you know that in 2016 the number of worldwide mobile searches on Google raised above the number of desktop searches (Statcounter, 2016); then you cannot and must not ignore Mobile Design. Therefore, we will provide you with some handy tips in this article!
1. Start at the beginning.
What do you want to develop and why? Don’t be just another company that creates an app because everyone else does. What are your customers looking for and how can an app add value for them? If there is no added value, focus on mobile responsive design; but again, start at the beginning. Don’t just start at the desktop version and especially, listen to your clients. Go back to the drawing board and be guided by your users.
2. Keep it simple!
You don’t want to bother your customers with a manual for your app or website. Provide an intuitive and user-friendly user experience and remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of the users will use only 20% of the app. Please note that this doesn’t mean you can start deleting functionalities. Because users are so used to mobile, they have high demands for functionality and user experience. Therefore, it is important to understand your users and to set up a task analysis. And so we arrive at tip 3 & 4.
3. Know your users.
You can never make a good mobile design if you do not know who you are designing for. Do extensive research on your users, your different target groups and their tasks. What information are they searching for on their smartphone? Are they looking for specific information or do they just browse around on your website/app? An important method in mobile design is what we call ‘design for interruption’. The changes are very high that users will be interrupted while surfing. Such interference can come from reality as well as from their smartphone itself. Do not forget to include this in your task analysis.
4. Make a task analysis.
The task analysis is already discussed in tip 2 and 3. During a task analysis the tasks a user performs to achieve certain goals are listed and described. The primary (core) tasks are distinguished from secondary tasks. On this basis, a task hierarchy can be defined. Because the task analysis may differ from the one of the desktop version you’ll have to remake it for your mobile design.
5. Follow standard UX-guidelines
As we already said, you need to go back to the drawing board to create your mobile designs. Nevertheless, it’s important to follow the standard guidelines. Users have habits and they are very intolerant for mistakes, frustrating actions and unexpected behaviour. So again, the golden UX rule, you need to test, test and test again!
6. Measure is treasure!
Use web analytics to collect data and be creative with it. But above all, us this data, collecting is not enough. Poor UX is the main raison why users delete an app. Try to discover on time where people drop out, and apply improvements as quickly as possible. And definitely take the time to check your reviews in the app store.
7. Keep learning.
Our last tip is that you need to continue to measure, know and optimize. Treat your mobile design as a continuously evolving entity. Keep measuring and testing, and implement your findings in your designs, over and over again.
With these tips, we can hopefully bring you one step closer to the optimal UX of your mobile website or application. Any questions? Do not hesitate to contact us!
