Is human nature anyway related to the process of designing your mobile app UX? The answer is undoubtedly yes, considering that there are so many different devices with varied screen sizes.
The fuss about nature or psychology
Human nature or psychology, is the study of user behavior, as to how they perceive a website or an app when they come across it. It all depends on what all thoughts strike at that moment, letting users to embrace, or abandon the app. Psychological behavior determines the level of trust or distrust, a user shows towards an app.
Here appearance does have a role to play. If user eyes find your design, soothing enough in terms of images, colors, fonts, and other stuff, they will not just find an emotional connect, but willingly install your app right away. If they don’t, they would not give even second chance to your app, and shun it immediately.
Each of the design elements, have a specific purpose to fulfill. It is an action, leading a user to result. The actions, like tapping or swiping, work just like a trigger, which activates a reaction.
Experience on mobile versus the web
Triggers might be the same on both the platforms. However, user experience is quite certainly not the same. Whether users are on the web, or on mobile, they expect a similar kind of experience onboth, no matter how the content is presented to them. What they do not realize is, the way they interact with web platform, is a lot different from what they do on their smartphones.
Desktop websites are primarily meant for reading things in details, and that too majorly related to work. You might find users looking for some entertainment, pleasure, or social connect with people, but professional objective is the primary goal for surfing the web. In addition, desktop users relatively depend upon a keyboard and a mouse, for performing all their interactive tasks with the computer. Hence, they do not get a chance for an actual physical interaction with the device. Also the size of a desktop computer or laptop, is way larger as compared to a smartphone or tablet.
Mobile applications are primarily meant for taking actions, and that too majorly related to personal use. You might find users doing some work here and there on their mobile, but personal pleasure and entertainment is the primary goal for surfing the apps. App users completely depend upon human fingers and thumbs, for performing all their interactive tasks with the smartphone. Hence, they do actual physical interaction all the time with the device. Finally, size does matter because a smartphone screen or tablet screen, is too small as compared to a desktop or laptop.
Expectations of user from an app
Everything just boils down to a single question, “What does a mobile user expect from an app?” With a comparatively smaller screen real estate, it is one hell of a task to deliver an engaging experience that is visually not only stunning, but also dynamic in nature. Especially nowadays, mobile users expect a virtual 3D experience delivered right on their palms through mobile apps, just as they would expect the same on the web.
We have come up with certain parameters that users would definitely expect from an absolute smooth interface.
- An action should be easily tappable, by being touch sensitive.
- Loading of images, graphics, and other heavy files, should not take much of a time, allowing for a better performance.
- Provide only relevant options suiting the context. Users should be properly guided with their current location within the app, and the destination they will reach if they perform a certain action.
- The app should appear and respond equally across screens. Make it responsive enough to deliver a same kind of appeal, as well as performance, when accessed on different screen resolutions.
- Go for standard designing patterns, and keep it simple enough because of a zero attention span area. If app components and elements do not work the first time, or if they are hard enough to understand, then a user would hardly visit the app ever again.
Learnings from real life examples
You might wonder, what it really takes to design a memorable user experience. The secret lies in user expectations and triggers, working in tandem with each other. There are so many articles telling you loads of things on UX design and principles. However, let us make the process much simpler for you by introducing you to five real life app examples, which in our opinion have the right ingredients of a perfect app UX design.
Mint – a financial utility app
With a card style interface present, users are provided with the clickable boxes, within the app. On the other hand, the desktop version has more of clickable style links. What makes the app standout is a streamlined interface with too much of white space to spare, and addition of bright colors, uplifting the content.
Distiller – a liquor ecommerce app
Herein, is a good example of a responsive framework that looks and works the same on an app, as you would experience on the web. If the site offers unique ways to navigate through content, an app does the job of keeping things simple with a nice contrasting use of fonts, differentiating products and categories.
The Weather Channel – a weather news app
Although the weather channel offers the exact same content on both platforms, the experiences offered are drastically different. While the website focuses on providing all the weather related information, with details on possibly everything, the mobile app provides details on what is happening right now as far as the current weather is concerned.
Domino’s – a food delivery app
Domino’s has two contradictory offerings, with a website giving a traditional feel, while an app loaded with all the contemporary functionalities, including voice ordering. In addition, the app screen is formed of multiple small images, making it easier for an app to load, and process faster.
A few passing thoughts…
Most users want a same kind of content backed by experience on their smartphones, as they would see on big screen. The device specific tailor made experience, enhances customer loyalty, as well as deliver experiences, which is hard to forget.