User expectations when it comes to user experience (UX) are exceedingly high these days. In addition, factor in low barriers to entry, a wealth of competing products, and cutthroat competition, and it’s clear why UX is now a critical element in any app’s success.
Customer Experience
CX is the sum of the user’s interaction with the app or product, starting at the consideration stage and moving through support, upgrades, and eventual replacement or removal from use.
- Think about the interactions with your customer during each of these phases-before, during, and after they use your products.
Show informative error messages
Errors happen, but if messages are not clearly visible and informative, they’re just an annoyance
- Looking at both the strategic and tactical levels where you can affect user experience, engagement, and satisfaction will help you avoid some of the mistakes I’ve seen made, and create a truly differentiated product.
Validate your assumptions with actual users
Follow up after general availability with customer surveys, support feedback, and social media interactions
- Once you receive feedback, be sure to follow up on it in a timely fashion and apply it to your product
- Include a handful of carefully selected customers as design partners and several others as beta users
Use clear, recognizable, and consistent icons
Skeuomorphism is a great way to make something resemble its real-world counterpart, but don’t invent new concepts or representations.
Performance is just as important as functionality and design
Nothing other than perfect will do – test performance under real-world conditions, using 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi, and then test while moving between these networks
Align fonts for mobile
Fonts should look good and be easy to use on any platform and at any resolution your users might require.
- Make sure fonts as well as graphics are part of responsive design, and be sure that you honor any accessibility settings that the user has configured.
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TechBeacon’s Buyer’s Guide for Selecting Software Test Automation Tools
Use clear and simple navigation
Users should know where they are in the application at any given time, regardless of the actions they’ve taken
- Make it easy to go forward and backward easily within your app-not just when scrolling but also after page refreshes.
A double-scroll is poor UX
Double scrolling occurs when you have two scrolls in the same direction, with one of them in a frame, or a combination of horizontal and vertical scrolls. This is extremely confusing for users and often leads to errors.
