How To Analyze Usability Before Mobile App Development?

Mobile App Development

Mobile apps are now talk of the town. Everyone seems to be talking about advantages and loopholes of apps. A Research conducted in the US says that in America 86% of mobile usage time is spent totally on mobile apps.

They have also predicted that the usage may increase from 1 to 2 percent every year. There are over 1.5 billion apps on the app store. So if your concept is not new, then do enough analysis before going towards mobile app development.

What should be kept in mind while designing an app?

• The small screen is an important factor to be considered while designing an app. A Wide amount of information doesn’t fit here. So, keep information sufficient and relevant.
• The User engagement is not continuous. The user might be working somewhere, or in a meeting or watching TV. In between these, the user is surfing on the app, too. So user’s involvement may not be continuous.

Checklist for successful mobile app development

1. Easy navigation- Apps should be user-friendly in a way that there should not be any sort of trouble to the user to find out what he/she wants.
2. Security regarding login and data- Information provided by the user must be kept secured. Check whether the user is available logged in even after closing the application. This kind of feature is a huge concern where money transactions are involved.
3. Speed is essential- Your app should be fast enough to sustain the user.
4. Accuracy is a key- If the app provides location details, then it should be accurate enough to be approved by the user. If the advertiser says something and the apps offer something else, then the user would be confused and the app won’t be considered a trusted one.
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5. Does it speak user’s language- App should be developed in a way that user can understand its language. Say suppose if the app is about grocery shopping than technical words should be minimally used.
6. Fewer data inputs– If there have to be some data inputs, keep them minimum. The user should not get frustrated or be bored because of too many data entries.
7. Chances of the crash or hang- Check it with normal surfing on the app and then check in a haphazard manner. Change the page without having it loaded completely, quit between, click on so many buttons at a time. One would get to know about the chances of abnormal behavior of an app.
8. Guide or Help must be there- User can’t quit the app because of lack of knowledge regarding how to use the app.
9. Is it suitable for every type of mobile?- The developer may test the app on few mobiles but reality may be different? So each time if mobile app development is on the floor, it should be tested for all kind of mobiles.
10. What more will you offer?- Your app should be such that each time user opens it, he/she should get something more out of it than last time.
11. Feedback section must be there- Don’t forget to take feedback once the user goes for quit. Feedback helps to make the app more relevant and useful.
12. The back button must be there- Back button must be there on every page offered by an app. At every point, the user can go back. This will give more flexibility to the user.
13. The save button is also required — User should be allowed to save the essential details so that in future whenever he may visit again, he doesn’t have to fill all details from scratch.

Methods for testing mobile apps

• Take small user group- Choose your ideal set of users, take their feedbacks, implement accordingly and move further. Sometimes 5–6 users are enough to do the initial test.
• Test with different devices- If you want to your app to be successful, test with every possible device to reach out to all customers.
• Send an email invitation to test app- This time choose a big group and send them an invitation to use your app and share a feedback. Mobile app development becomes accurate with it.
• Conduct test with tools — There are many tools available in the market which gives a good amount of testing experience. Usability Hub is a free tool which gives feedback about navigation, systems and other things of the app.
• Involve friends, colleagues, family members- Involve all the people around to have valuable feedback. Provide them coupons, deals or other gifts so that they grab the offer and helps in bettering process.

A key to a successful app is through customer’s review. A Customer comes in center always. So develop and test mobile apps very well before launching in the market.