User Experience or UX design is a term that is often stressed on and for a good reason. It focuses on the experience of the customers while using the platform on their device and culminates in their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
The main goal of User Experience is to ensure that the platform fulfills the customers’ needs in a smooth, convenient manner and confirms their long term loyalty to the product.
All this being said, it is quite challenging to determine the customers’ needs, owing to their evolving needs. That is why it is imperative to track their behavior on the platform, get actionable insights, and make necessary changes to make the customer experience as pleasant as possible.
There are five key elements that all UX Designers need to bear in mind while designing the product:
The foremost important aspect of user experience design is the aesthetic appeal. It plays a significant part in determining the customer’s first impression on the product and is a step to grabbing their attention. It involves a culmination of tangible elements such as the layout, spacing, images, videos, text, graphics, and colors. Every designer and brand has their style, but the key is to avoid clutter and keep the layout clean enough for the user to be able to browse through seamlessly.
Information architecture is the method of organizing and labeling the mobile app to ensure that the customer can effectively locate vital information and complete their desired tasks. It helps build a structure that connects content with functionality.
The following four components form the basis of a well-defined Information Architecture of user experience:
It defines the way information is organized, categorized, and structured.
This refers to the art of presenting information in a simplified manner.
This is the method of designing a self-exploratory browsing mechanism that facilitates a seamless flow towards the intended information.
This leads users to seek information that they are looking for directly.
Interaction design focuses on user behavior and how design can personalize the user’s experience. It controls the way users interact with the product in terms of sound and feel, with aesthetics being the core objective.
The rule of thumb when incorporating interaction design principles in the UX flow is to make things transparent & straightforward for the users.
Usability is one of the most critical elements of user experience. It enables users to attain their end goal without confusing them effectively. For ensuring this, it is best to implement the KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) design principle. The idea of this principle is to design an interface that is simple enough for the user to understand the app during the first interaction itself quickly.
The basis of all good design is research. What does the customer want? To enhance the user experience, it is imperative to understand user behavior, preferences, mindset, and objectives so that the final design perfectly resonates with their needs.
UX Analytics is the measurement and analysis of user activity on a mobile app or website that provides qualitative and quantitative insights into the platform’s design. This information can be used to recognize the needs of the user, rectify any design loopholes, and improve the overall quality of the product.
There are several types of analytics tools for mobile apps, and all of them serve different purposes.
Some tools are specifically designed to track and analyze the user’s experience:
These platforms provide robust tools to measure user’s behaviour and usage pattern on the mobile app. They often come with a suite of tools that help paint a vivid, data-informed picture of user behavior.
User Flow Maps provide a visual representation of the users’ journeys so that one can see the paths that users take toward a notable event, such as making a purchase.
Funnel Analytics shows the conversion rates across different points of the users’ journey so that it is easy to see where users might be dropping out.
Heatmap Analytics consolidates data in a way that makes it easy to visualize, at a glance, which parts of a page are getting the most interaction. It is done by overlaying a color-coded ‘heat’ gradient on the web page or mobile app to indicate clicks or finger touch activity.
Real-time analytics tools help to see how users are interacting with the app in real-time. For example, these tools might tell how many users are viewing a page at the present moment.
Session recording tools help go back and watch individual user sessions to gain insights into their behavior.
There is no one size fits all set of UX analytics. Every product is built for a different purpose and with various customers in mind. The best way to satisfy customers is to pay attention to how they are interacting with the mobile app, measuring every move they make that leads to an event and understand where they are facing trouble or losing interest in the app. By collecting all this data, the designer can create a conclusive analysis and better the product. It is essential, though, to balance the quantitative metrics against qualitative user feedback.
But a simple method to choose the set of UX specific metrics is by using the “HEART” metrics pattern:
UX Analytics can be a difficult topic to grasp, but when used correctly it can be a game-changer. Analytics tools can play a powerful role in marketing activities and help your product managers understand the problems faced with the app better. Each metric can be examined closely with an array of tools like heatmaps and session replays, ANR android and ios. In order to make the most of analytics data, UX professionals need to integrate this data where it can add value to the qualitative processes.