The Application Developers Alliance recently held our third London meetup, kicking off at Wework Devonshire Square to discuss user experience and creating apps that customers love to use. Moderating the night’s panel was George Osborn, founder of Mobile Mavericks. Our expert panelists were Emma Cox (Head of Product of Grabble), Jaka Levsteck (CEO of D-labs), and Alana Wood (Studio Design Lead of Ustwo), who gave their top tips for creating great mobile products.
Here’s some top tips from the experts…
1. UX is about customer insight
All three panellists agreed that at its bare bones, creating great UX is about having a clear understanding of who your customer is, and what they want. Alana Wood of ustwo suggested that the key is to test, test, test with real people.
Following Apple guidelines is important as consumers already have assumptions about how an app should work—but don’t treat them like idiots. Apps should be easy and familiar enough for users to find it simple to navigate from their first interaction.
2. Constant measurement is key
Build a hypothesis, measure it, and then revisit these measurements every week to ensure your hypothesis is still in line with what your customers are doing on the app.
While there is a plethora of great app tracking products, early stage startups should not be put off. Free tools like Google Analytics can give you incredible insight and should be your first port of call when looking to measure how customers are interacting with your product.
3. UX needs to be embedded in your culture
UX should not be treated as an add on, or a separate function within your development team. It needs to be a constant part of the product lifecycle. Emma Cox of Grabble mentioned that on joining the company she brought the UX team in-house, so that they can communicate daily with the rest of the team. Without this, UX can become an afterthought, meaning customer data fails to give direction to the rest of the business.
If you have other top tips for improving UX, and integrating the user into the heart of mobile products we would love for you to share them in the comments section below.
The Alliance’s fourth London meetup will be taking place in November, so make sure you join the group here, so we can let you know as soon as it’s announced
