What is the first thing you grab as soon as you open your eyes in the morning? Ok, your mobile phone. You turn off the alarm clock, check for notifications and messages on your social networks and email, and check the news for the latest events. Only then can you start your daily routine, but even being busy with other errands you don’t let the device slip out of your hands for long. What is the last thing you touch before going to bed? The smartphone, again, most likely not.
In our digital driven world, people use their mobile devices not only as a means of communication, but also for work, education, shopping, entertainment, etc. All these activities are possible through mobile applications, using most of the time we spend on our smartphones.
Given these impressive statistics, it’s no surprise that IT companies that provide custom application development services go to great lengths to make their products as user-friendly as possible.
Very often the concept of a user-friendly app is limited to proper UI/UX design of the app. While generally correct, this is only partially true.
The user experience (UX) provided by the app boils down to the ability of the app to meet the needs and meet the expectations of the people who interact with the device. This notion encompasses four aspects:
- Value, or how the product benefits the user.
- The operation, or how well the product works.
- Usability, or how easy the product is to use.
- Overall impression, or how pleasant the product is to use.
The convenience of a user interface (UI) application means that the target audience can quickly figure out how to use the product.
As important as the user-friendly UI/UX of the application is, the very philosophy of ease of use is a broader notion. It covers the full scope of features that make the solution simple, easy to use, bug-free, secure, and reliable in operation. How can you make sure your app is like this?
With dozens of top-notch apps in our portfolio, we at Sigma Software are well versed in the UX best practices that can make your product a user-friendly solution.
Before embarking on the development effort, you should form a clear vision of the user audience your app is intended for and the value it can bring to them. So start by finding out user demographics, location, purchasing preferences, professional concerns, and other characteristics that are relevant to the nature of your app. You have to imagine when, where and how they will interact with it. Then find out how the app should benefit them. Should it save them time, reduce expenses, or make their lives easier and more comfortable? Once you have all the puzzle pieces in place, you’ll have a better idea of how your app should look and function.
The intuitive design of the app’s user interface is all about foolproof navigation. People should find your app easy to understand and operate. It occurs when elements and functions are linked naturally, and the user must expect what will come next and what to do without intensive training. When the user’s journey through the app is smooth and returning to the home screen is enabled in multiple ways, you can say you’ve made it.
Very often a UI/UX specialist is just one person. However, being closely related, UI and UX actually serve different purposes.
- UX designers need to ensure that the information architecture is clearly organized and labeled. All the features users need most should be easily accessible from any screen with just elementary navigation. In a word, the app should feel very familiar to anyone using it for the first time.
- UI designers need to think about neat layout, icons, fonts, buttons, animations, color, brightness, contrast, spacing, and other graphic elements and visual features that implement UX best practices. Additionally, all application UI components must be consistent throughout the solution and reflect the brand identity.
If users don’t feel safe interacting with the app, their experience can hardly be called friendly. With the increasing number of cybercrimes, people want to be sure that their personal and financial data is not compromised when they download an app on their mobile devices.
Yet 43% of app developers neglect the security of their products in favor of a shorter time to market. Do not repeat your mistake and implement security best practices that ensure the sanctity of user data, especially if you are building a fintech application.
- Monitor the APIs, server connections, third-party tools, open source software, and other assets your application relies on and measure their vulnerability.
- Remove, replace, or upgrade non-penetration-proof items.
- Avoid possible attacks by reinforcing the weak points of your application ecosystem.
- Introduce high-level measures (encryption, double authentication, social logins, privileges) to ensure strong protection of customer data.
The rapid pace of technological progress prompts IT companies to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field with a dual purpose: to keep up with rivals in the fierce competition and to live up to customer expectations. That is why an innovation driven application should make use of cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data, blockchain and other innovative technologies.
However, you must be careful not to make the use of cutting-edge technologies an end in itself and fill the application with useless and complicated features. After all, the functionality and simplicity of the application are the main goals you should aim for.
Reinventing the wheel when you can use the existing one is not a good option. So if there is a payment system, file sharing system or chatbot that many people already use and know about, you should integrate it into your application.
By doing this, you will kill four birds with one stone. First of all, it will cater to the tastes of customers who are used to some software and know how to handle it. Second, it will bolster your product with a fully functional component whose high-profile performance has been proven by millions of users. Third, you’ll have less work to do than custom development of such systems would require. Fourthly, by using the ready-made building blocks, you will be able to complete the project in a much shorter time.
They have a checkered reputation among customers and businessmen. On the one hand, they are an extremely useful tool that reminds people on time of the things they need to do and increases the retention rate by 190%. On the other hand, it is easy to get carried away by the desire to exploit them to the maximum and exceed them, which will result in annoying users and a high rate of abandonment of apps. What, then, is the best way to take advantage of push notifications?
- Time is crucial. Users should receive notifications at the exact moment they need a reminder.
- Send a notification when you can’t do without it. For example, apps similar to Uber should inform the passenger that the ride has arrived and avoid other irritating messages.
- Put customers in control. They should always be able to choose which notifications they want to receive or even turn them off entirely.
Building a user-friendly app isn’t rocket science, but you need to keep some fine points in mind when developing one. To get the best possible result, it is best to hire a team of experienced experts to do it for you. Sigma Software specialists have the necessary skills and experience to create a top-notch application that will impress you with smooth performance and excellent UX/UI design.
Categories: Technology
Source: SCHOOL TRANG DAI
