8 Things that can make or break mobile user experience
In US only 77% people use their smartphones to search products, which is a massive share of potential buyers. Mobile app culture is not new but its exponentially rising trend has made a stiff competition for app developers and marketers. What to do and what not has become a deal for developers. Here I am compiling a few quick fixes that every mobile app must have. These tips will help you increase the user engagement.
- Interstitial
Instigating your mobile visitor to download your app, sign up your newsletter or fill a survey with an interstitial is no more a good thing. Many mobile websites have interstitial that block valuable content, and even make it difficult for the user to close it. This definitely frustrates the user who doesn’t want to take action on this. Thus, a bad user experience you are delivering, this may impact negatively on your rankings. Instead, an on page small banner for promotions of your apps would serve the purpose.
- App Indexing
Google has finally launched app indexing, which means, if your client has your app in his mobile… he would be able to see pages from your app in his mobile search results. In the other scenario, if user doesn’t have your android app, he would get an option button to install your app, provided, it is relevant to his searches. App indexing has still in its limited release, and it has limitations for iOS users. Although, your results can be seen by iOS user, but that requires different development technicalities Another benefit of getting App indexing, API enabled for autocompletion of queries, then atleast, Google will show your app with relevant mobile content in autocomplete queries.
- Unplayable content or videos
Providing a video for mobile browsing is way different than for web browsing. You will have flash usage restrictions, proprietary video format restriction, License constrain etc. are few problems to count. So, you better provide your videos using either HTML5 standards or embed your videos in format which is playable on all devices. If you can manage to have a transcript of the video that would be a good thing to do. Users that don’t have high-end smartphone will also get the access to content that you want to convey.
- Mobile 404s
It is always advised to have a corresponding mobile page to every desktop page. Redirecting to a 404 error for a desktop page would definitely give a bad user experience.If you don’t want to create corresponding mobile pages of your desktop website, you may atleast have responsive design, so as not to kill the user experience.
- Testing your website
Last but not the least, testing your whole website to mobile friendliness. If you are optimizing your website for search engine giant Google, you can now easily test it with one step process. Test it here.
- Touch Targets
Mobile apps are all about touch and tap. If your user cannot target a tap properly, would that keep him stick long? No. So it is very important to have targets atleast of 45-57 pixels. This can accommodate 1.5 -2 cms circumference very easily, which is average size of adult finger. So, designing big is very important for better user experience.
- Ignoring the fold
Just like a newspaper, the information on the second fold doesn’t get as much reader’s attention as on the upper fold. We all know that a user knows how to scroll to bottom, but there is no guarantee of him visiting till down there. So, you must put up all our call of actions in first fold.
- Features overloaded
Apps are made to simplify life, so do not complicate it by adding tonne of features. Do little but in the best way. Add a few features in your app and let your users explore all these features with an ease. Cut down all the unnecessary functionality to the minimalist. This would help you assemble features in the best possible way.
