Mobile Application Developer

User onboarding is the process of increasing the likelihood that new users will successfully adopt your product.

When launching a product, you need to spend a lot of time and resources to attract a sufficient number of users. There are a variety of means to attract users to your app, including advertising, referral programs, public relations, and content marketing. But when people finally download the app, they sometimes feel abandoned or let down. Therefore, you must do a good job at showing users why they need your app and how they should use it.

Onboarding can sometimes be an integral part of the app, where we show the user how to behave within the app. This dive in effect is especially useful if we incorporated some new features that might be unfamiliar to our users. Tooltips can also be used to show them how things work.

The same approach can be used when we have complex systems. With tooltips we can explain why some things are there or why others are not. It’s something like a guided tour of your app, where hints are only triggered when the user reaches an appropriate point in their experience. Thus, hints may appear in different orders for different users and actions.

Displaying faceted-search controls on mobile devices in a ‘tray’ overlay is a new and effective way of displaying both results and filters on relatively small mobile screens.

Faceted search lets users refine a set of results by applying filters that comprehensively describe the search space. The ability to narrow down searches is invaluable for users who need to find something specific within a large content set. This type of search has become common for e-commerce/m-commerce and travel websites, as well as many different types of document and media collections.

A faceted system includes two critical elements:

Simple controls to construct sophisticated searches - providing familiar controls like drop-down menus and checkboxes with natural-language labels. This allows ordinary users to narrow down a large set of results to a smaller set that meets their exact criteria, without any knowledge of Boolean logic or query syntax.

Simultaneous display of the facet controls and the results - Showing both the filters and the results at the same time makes it easier for users to understand the relationship between the two; ideally, this is reinforced by dynamically updating the results set as soon as the user selects filter criteria.

Pokemon Go changed the rules of the game and created a new trend in mobile design and gaming. The combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and flexibility provided by smartphone platforms helped create a whole new user experience. These emerging technologies will bring monumental changes to digital product design.

The gaps between smart devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, wearables) are being blurred with each consecutive product generation. Rapidly evolving hardware is bringing AR closer to mainstream users, even though the concept has been around for a while. There are many reasons why the interface will evolve. Designers are no longer limited by technology, their biggest limitation today is their own creativity. It is also important that many of these emerging technologies are reasonably priced, or seamlessly integrated in new devices at no extra cost to the user.

The design process in the future will change. For example, in order to make an interface for VR we need specialist skills, and we need to create UIs in 3D. In addition to designing 3D assets, designers will also have to master certain skills, for example learn some Unity basics, or employ 3D design software.

Animation has long been used as an eye-catching element that helps differentiate an app from its competitors.

Now, however, more designers are incorporating animation as a functional element that enhances the user experience, to simulate the appearance of interacting with a real object.

Animation is no longer just for games. It also illuminates navigation: Think of a button that toggles a panel of otherwise hidden content, such as a menu. Closing the panel shrinks the menu, where it disappears back into the button. Other examples include zooming content or providing feedback to confirm a user’s action.

Functional animation makes app experiences more dynamic and provides a more direct visualization of the user’s actions. As smartphones become more advanced, designers are adding HTML5 animation and parallax design to mobile apps to bring a new level of richness and excitement to the mobile user experience.

More important than the actual development of an app is the testing itself. You don’t want to launch an app that hasn’t been thoroughly tested. Bugs and problems with features can happen, but should only happen during the testing period.

A mobile app developer should handle all of the testing and employ methodologies that tracks all features, establishes that they have all been implemented, and are in working order. Testing should be conducted during and after mobile app development.

It’s important to seek outside help in mobile app testing. You and a mobile app developer will have been working on the same project for a while, therefore may be unable to identify flaws or drawbacks. Consider seeking an outsider’s point of view.

Big players like Google and Apple are already using this approach to provide better UX while using their mobile platforms. Apple has Siri, while Google has Google Now. In order to enhance UX at some point, we can use voice for certain actions.

Cars can teach us a couple of basic things about designing with audio input for better user experiences. The first is that user experience design should not be limited to the usual graphic user interface (GUI).

For example, automotive apps could use voice to enhance user experience while the user is focusing on driving. Various car manufacturers have been integrating voice controls in their automotive infotainment systems for years.

Let’s imagine you are building an app that will alert the driver when the vehicle is approaching a speed camera or a built-up area. All it will take for the driver to take notice and adjust their speed is a simple audio alarm. The car has no means to visually inform drivers that they are about to hit the curb, which is why audio warnings are used for lane departure solutions as well, and similar audio warning systems have been employed in aviation for decades.

Sound tends to be very useful when we go beyond the GUI, especially when it’s necessary to alarm users and prompt them to act as soon as possible. This could be one of the examples how audio can enhance the user experience well beyond the screen.