There are three frequently encountered components in mobile onboarding flows: feature promotion, customization, and instructions. An onboarding flow may contain one or more of these components.
HOW TO DEVELOP MORE USABLE MOBILE APPS
Content customization can create a relevant experience and is more likely to be appropriate for initial app onboarding. There are dozens of examples of content customization in apps. For example, for a language-learning app, picking a language and identifying how proficient you are in that language will be essential in order for the app to be useful.
The goal of instructional onboarding is to teach users how to use an interface. Instructional onboarding should not be used to supplement poor design. Resources are better spent for making a UI more usable than for creating instructional content. That said, there are cases where instructions are warranted (for example, the features or workflows are unique to the app, different from standard UI patterns, or legitimately new and unfamiliar to users) or expected (mobile gaming).
For e-commerce or retail apps, in particular, checking out can be frustrating. You have to type in your address, email address, and confirm that you selected the right product all while using a small screen. One practical approach is to make it simple to create an account with a Facebook login. Designing your app with a convenient guest checkout option will also encourage users to make more purchases in less amount of time. Other notable features to consider during development are using an autofill and large checkout buttons. These design elements will amount to a seamless path-to-purchase and overall satisfaction with the UX.
The most important thing you can do to test usability is to use mobile A/B testing platforms. A/B testing allows you to compare two or more variations of a particular app design or layout. For instance, you can test the effectiveness of buttons and how they differ in driving conversions. Which design layout converts more users? Instead of guessing what users prefer in your mobile app, test to validate these assumptions. To improve mobile app usability, you cannot overlook testing.
Clearbridge Mobile is an award-winning, full-stack mobile app development company dedicated to helping companies strategize, develop, and scale dynamic mobile app solutions that enhance business performance and enable innovative growth opportunities.
Background: The use of information and communication technologies is transforming the lives of millions of people including children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the process of developing a user-friendly and effective mobile app needs to follow a complex standard protocol and culture-sensitive customization, and involves multiple sectors. This complex work becomes even more challenging when considering children with ASD in low- and middle-income countries as the users.
Methods: A participatory design approach was utilized in this study in which 40 children with ASD, 5 teachers, and 10 parents of children with ASD participated in focus group discussions (FGDs) and usability testing. A narrative literature review was performed to explore existing mobile apps and compare previous studies to design the questions for FGD and facilitate a framework for designing the app. The agile methodology was used to develop the mobile app, and the heuristics evaluation method was used to test and evaluate the usability of the initial version of the app to improve its functionalities. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following the guidelines of the qualitative narrative analysis (QNA) method.
Results: During the FGDs the respondents shared their need for a mobile app in teaching and learning numeracy for children with ASD and pointed to possibilities of integrating the mobile app into existing curriculum. Ten themes emerged from the FGDs and exercise of developing the mobile app. The themes were related to (1) teaching and learning numeracy for children with ASD, (2) planning and development of a mobile app for a person with ASD, (3) testing a mobile app, (4) strength of the developed app against the existing ones, (5) behavioral maintenance and relapse prevention, (6) possibilities to integrate the mobile app into the existing curriculum, (7) data protection for users, (8) social implications, (9) challenges in Rwanda, and (10) focus on future.
Conclusions: The community plays an important role in the planning, development, and evaluation of a mobile app for children with ASD. In this study, inputs from teachers and parents resulted in an optimally designed mobile app that can improve numeracy skills in children diagnosed with ASD to support the implementation of competency-based curriculum in Rwanda.
Nowadays, there are millions of apps available in the market, and there is a prediction from Goldman Sachs and population projections, United Nations that, "in 2018, 14.4% of the billion people on earth will purchase at least one mobile device." So, it is clear just by looking at the figures that mobile will overtake desktop purchases.
The obvious reason for these figures is the increase in mobile usage among people. People have started scrutinizing the User Experience (UX) of any mobile application, along with viewing products, comparing prices, reviewing, purchasing etc. So, if you want your users to spend more time on your mobile application, then you have to make it more user friendly and interesting. Hence, without UX, we may never revamp app usability.
The reason why you should choose native is that people will know how to use it. For example, when an application tells you how to navigate from one screen to another, it can be really complicated for users to figure it out. Therefore, if users already know the native UI element, it will be easy for them to follow the steps, as they will intuitively understand the application. Moreover, you can add animation, transitions or automation, since they 'look good' in native mobile apps.
The users of your application have certain goals in mind and if they find an obstacle in their way, they may get frustrated or spend more time than expected, losing their way in the meantime. Similarly, the unwanted features and functionalities of your mobile app will only lead them away from their goal. Thus, you should have a minimalistic design approach in order to create a simple and highly usable mobile application.
The best way to test the mobile usability is to perform remote user testing. This will allow you to get feedback from remote users after they have already used your product. After this, the app development team will move on with quality assurance and get rid of any 'bugs' they may meet. Hence, user testing is a great way to see through your users' eyes and feel like they do while they are actually using your application.
You should create a mobile experience that will make your users want to try your app and visit it again. In order for you to accomplish this, you should start implementing best practices for your mobile application. You must think of user goals while designing the mobile app. You must test your mobile application as frequently as time allows you to. If you implement these points, then your mobile app will be more engaging and useful for your users.
Smaller screens and custom aspect ratios are hallmarks of mobile devices; designers need to account for them when building native apps. A smaller screen limits how much information people can take in at one time, especially when users need to magnify content due to poor vision.
Gestures used to control native apps should be as easy to execute as possible. Complex gesture control can be particularly challenging for users with motor or dexterity impairments. Create alternatives to allow simple tap or swipe gestures in place of more complex ones.
WCAG outlines general color contrast ratios that are acceptable for most users, but extra attention must be paid to mobile devices and applications. Mobile devices are more likely to be used outdoors, where glare from the sun could impact ability to see the screen. Using good contrast is important for all users; bad contrast can compound the challenges that people with reduced vision have when accessing content on mobile devices.
As you execute your accessibility strategy, be sure to keep both website and application channels in mind, and implement the best practices shared here regarding screen size, touch targets, mobile gestures, layout consistency, data entry, and color contrast. Connect with a member of the UsableNet team to learn more about how we can help you solve for accessibility.
So let me kick off this guide with a question. What do phone users spend most of their time on? Interacting with mobile applications (or apps as most of us refer to them). Yes, you read that correctly. A recent study shows that phone users in the US spend 86% of their mobile usage time solely on apps. Another study actually calculated this figure to be as high as 89%. And taking this further, it has also been found that mobile users spend 80% of their mobile app usage time using just five apps (out of the total of 24 apps they typically use in a month).
Research shows that usability is key for the success of mobile apps. In fact, a common trend among successful mobile phone applications is that they are perceive by users as being easy to learn, user-friendly and less time-consuming when completing tasks. Other researchers have actually identified a direct link between mobile application usability and user acceptance.
The mobile application usability testing method that will be discussed in the next section is a user-oriented testing technique, meaning it involves real users undertaking realistic tasks that the app is intended to achieve. Although testing with real users is more resource-consuming, this realistic scenario tends to yield more accurate results. 2ff7e9595c
Comments