Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Appsee

If you can imagine your mobile app as a business that has to scale to great heights over the next 10 years, what kind of UX decisions would you make today?

You could always start with the obvious essentials, such as…

Ensuring that your app is crash-proof
Writing clean code
Providing crystal-clear navigation between feature sets
Building a simple but strong interface

But, there are still many other equally important UX elements that can sometimes be overlooked during the development process.

To build a five-star UX that withstands the test of time and consumers’ swaying interests, you’ll have to understand important UX initiatives. The following 4 initiatives that apply to app developers will help you avoid bringing about potential damage to your UX, while also allowing you to build long-lasting relationships with your users.

1. Establish transparency with the UX designer/team

Being able to break the invisible barriers which often separate app developers from their design team counterparts is important for not only developing great friendships, but also for obtaining the clear, face-to-face communication that’s advantageous when crafting an exceptional mobile UX.

While it can be common for design teams and mobile engineers to not always have the most compatible working chemistry (some liken it to a “left-brain vs. right-brain” battle at times) — those bold mobile developers who can conquer the imaginary divide will have a nice edge when it comes time to implementing the design aspects of your build.

If your team isn’t making it a point to overcome the “friction” separating developers from designers, this is an area that can be improved to great benefit. Yes, it may feel a bit uncomfortable at first. But it will also be well-worth the long-lasting benefits that arise from achieving complete team transparency.

2. Gather actionable insights

By implementing a reliable source of UX in-app analytics into your mobile app, you’ll understand precisely where in your app your users are spending most of their time, how exactly your users are responding to your UI, and also why your users are taking certain actions which you may have previously been uncertain about.

Using a quality source of in-app analytics will allow you to tweak and refine your app’s greatest weaknesses up until the point in which your users are immersed in a UX that feels almost magnetic. Creating a wonderful UX is admittedly a pretty difficult feat to accomplish, but we’re confident that tracking your analytics more closely will help you move much closer towards your goals.

In particular, Appsee offers a robust and lightweight UX analysis solution that can integrate with your mobile app in seconds. Appsee’s realtime in-app analytics help to solve your UX problems by allowing you to visualize your product through the eyes of your end-users, while also performing valuable data analysis for you. These qualitative insights can greatly extend the lifetime value of your users among many other critical metrics.

3. Maintain speed of access and strong connectivity

It is crucial that you take into account environments/scenarios that can affect connectivity and to guarantee that your app loads quickly for the entire extent of a user’s session. Most mobile users are impatient, as many of us know, so a slow UX can hurt your entire business. To maintain speed of access, you should first optimize all of your images, audio and video files for mobile usage (minimizing both the file size and dimensions if necessary). Taking steps to reduce the elements of your UI and also streamlining your code are also effective ways of supercharging your app’s speed of access.

Regarding optimizing connectivity, you can use network simulation tools or perform real-life network simulations which put your app’s connectivity to the test. It is also essential to consider factors such as moderate/low network speeds and bandwidth variation.

Maintaining strong connectivity is becoming even more important given the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution which is quickly making all of our lives more fun and efficient. You can count on the fact that the demand for IoT feature integrations will continue to grow, as many mobile consumers are already obsessed with some of the basic tricks that apps like IFTTT can offer.

The issue with early implementation of mobile IoT features is that they have to work flawlessly. Your users will be very disappointed if your digital product fails to “power” their real-life, physical products. Strong connectivity is crucial for not only delivering on your app’s UX promises, but also for assisting in your users’ adoption and affinity for your IoT device.

4. Optimize keyboard for relevant text input

Optimization of the keyboard for the relevant text input within your mobile app might sound like a detail that most users wouldn’t give too much thought — but sometimes, it’s these slight details that can make all of the difference when you’re pushing to deliver the greatest all-around mobile package you can offer.

In-app keyboards deserve a lot of love and attention since they provide your users with a form of expression and sense of control over their experience. Make sure to understand exactly how your users are using your app’s keyboard, and optimize each keyboard within your app for the relevant text input.

Displaying numeric keypads, ‘.com’ buttons, ‘@’ symbols, emojis or other keyboard characters that are catered specifically to your users’ needs (depending on the relevant screen/text input being displayed) can make the difference between a frustrating feature of your app and a positive one.

In Conclusion

App optimization is an ongoing process. This is why we reinforce the importance of focusing on UX above all else, especially before getting too carried away with marketing automations and supplementary tools. Mobile marketing is also crucial, but your UX is the absolute foundation of your app. It’s your business’ greatest asset, and it’s what allows your users to absorb your unique personality as a company or mobile developer, which is absolutely necessary for consistently bringing users back.

A great UX is not just the result of having a great design team, but high-quality development practices as well. App developers play a massive role in creating a wonderful UX with personality and class. In fact, the days of developing an anonymous app without personality or memorable character are largely behind us. It’s for this reason that you shouldn’t be too nonchalant about most aspects of your app. Embrace the opportunity to impress your users each time that they open your product.

This article was originally posted on Mobile Master’s Magazine.

4 initiatives app developers can take to avoid UX mistakes was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

4 initiatives app developers can take to avoid UX mistakes

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