How To Develop User-Centered Mobile Apps Effectively
User-centered mobile apps are those that provide the user with an excellent User Experience (UX) and involve user engagement at each stage of development in order to create a perfectly designed application.
The best way to have an app that differentiates from others and not let your app development efforts go in vain is to let your users guide you in what they want and how they want it, as they are going to use the end product of your development, i.e. the mobile application.
Before going for a user-centered approach, there are certain things that developers must consider in app development. Following is a list of them:
1. Understand Your Users
To have a perfectly customized and tailored mobile application, the most crucial step is to realize the needs and requirements of the user. Try to come up with as many queries as you can relate to the User Experience, such as their time and usage of the application, their connectivity, their overall User Experience, and what they want in the applications they use.
Try to create various user personas defined in various categories so as to get a clear picture and understanding of the user needs and requirements.
2. Choose A Simple Design
Try to have a simple and easy-to-use design, since not all users are familiar with technology. The users should not have difficulty when trying to use your apps. At the initial stages, try to get the points where users get stuck in the application usage and do modifications to that. Getting reviews from the users at each stage will make your work easier and efficient.
3. Present Information Clearly
Try to make the app as informative and clear as possible through your designs. The developer should keep in mind to use proper space and arrangement of the information to make it clear for the audience. Try not to flood the app with too much information, as it might not seem good to the users of the application.
4. Multi-Platform Support
The developer should try to develop the application for multiple platforms because users nowadays do not stick to only one platform. They will move from one platform to the other if they use mobile devices. They should not face any issue with your application while transiting from one platform to other.
5. Minimal Features
While developing user-centered mobile applications, keep in mind not to include too many features in them. Learn the purpose of each application and keep your focus on adding the necessary features only. Having an app with multiple goals is often harmful because you cannot provide the necessary quality, so try to stick to a single functionality.
Also, a good practice is to avoid the banner ads, as they might annoy the audience and they might even steal their attention.
6. Quicker Response Time
The most annoying moment for a user is when the mobile application takes too much time to load the screens and features. The approximate loading time should be less than 3 seconds for any application. If the application takes a long time to load, then usually the users might switch to other mobile applications for better User Experience.
7. Proper Testing And Checks
Before the release of your mobile application, make sure you have multiple rounds of testing for the application to ensure that it does not crash at any point in time. Also, try to have a user level testing by allowing users to use the trial version of the app and give their valuable feedback so that you can improve onto certain points before the app release.
8. Query The Users
This is a crucial and important consideration when designing an app. Try to query your users as much as you can regarding their needs. You can reach out to the users through various social media platforms and ask for suggestions.
Out of all the suggestions and responses that you receive, try to filter out those which are actually aligned to your business needs, and start working on them.
9. Maintain Consistency
One of the best practices is to maintain the consistency of your application. Try to have a consistent behavior for your application. The consistent behavior marks a value for your app and users usually prefer consistent interfaces. Whatever approach you follow for designing it, you should always try to address the consistency issue.
10. Offline Performance
One of the major features of a mobile application that attracts users is offline performance. The mobile app should work effectively even in offline mode, and provide features flawlessly. One can take references from the popular mobile apps working effectively in offline modes.
All these are some of the considerations that mobile app developers and companies must keep in mind while designing a user-centered application. A user-centered mobile application will reap the benefits in terms of ROI and save time, as you know the user needs and wants. A key point to remember is to try to have a specific consideration in mind that aligns (even not totally) with users’ needs, and then start the development.
Try to filter out the user requirements before reaching any decisions, as it’s not possible to meet all the needs of the customers. Have a right path and approach over the whole development cycle guided by the users’ feedback and reviews for widening your vision and scope, but stay focused on what was your mobile app’s initial goal and purpose.
