Mobile Momentum: What we’ve learned from creating mobile apps
The online world has broken down the barriers to commerce, shopping has become borderless. 70% of consumers globally already make at least one cross-border purchase annually. Where a brand is physically located is irrelevant, customers assume they can buy from any website and the product will arrive on their doorstep within a matter of days. However, due to more online choices, consumer expectations have also risen. They demand seamless experiences. Furthermore, there has been a noticeable shift from desktop to mobile apps.
Despite the significant growth in mobile traffic, we still don‘t see the same growth in conversion rate, which often still happens on desktop. This depends on many factors, some dictated by users’ preference to buy on desktop, but also because many companies underestimate the importance of mobile apps in their strategy. Learn how your business can increase mobile conversions by following these simple pointers.
A more usable app ranks higher in terms of user experience and has reduced chances of app uninstalls.
Here are five UX tips for designing mobile apps:
1. Usability and User Goals
You’ve got no petrol in your car and you’re already late for your morning meeting. You download a taxi app. As a user, what is that one thing you’re hoping to get done as soon as the app opens?
Get a cab, ASAP.
If your users have the possibility of being stuck in a sticky situation and urgently need your services, design your mobile app around such users and their needs. Create a UX flow that allows them to complete their order with minimum time and steps. No smoke, no mirrors – just complete simplicity is the way user experience is met.
2. Define clear CTAs
The button which ensures that the user gets a cab, requests an appointment etc.
Two things you must keep in mind when defining your CTA. Firstly, you must define the action clearly. In regards to the taxi example, the action button ‘request a cab’ explains the purpose better than ‘submit’. Secondly, the button should be easily visible and approachable.
3. Don’t drain the juice
When an application is heavy on complex navigation or calculations, there’s a higher chance of it draining users’ mobile battery charge. Background services such as location detection are high on battery consumption.
4. Design for fingers, not cursors
Although mobile phones are becoming increasingly larger, and laptops are becoming equipped with touchscreen, the mobile and desktop navigation experiences are essentially different. On mobile, it’s best to use multiple choice instead of typing, enlarge buttons to fit big thumbs, and generously implement swiping and scrolling for comfortable one-hand use. People are changing how they hold their phones depending on the context, so adjust your functions to be in line with how users will interact with your type of content.
5. To-the-point-payments
Users who make payments on mobile devices prioritise speed. The express payment options such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, and PayPal are essential for mobile commerce. Other ways to speed up check-outs are scanning a card number with the camera and making recurring billings automatic.
If we haven’t convinced you yet, take a look at our portfolio of mobile apps below…
Our Portfolio
Loyalty Wallet
Tired of carrying around countless plastic cards? Look no further, Loyalty Wallet enables users to carry their loyalty card in the safety of their mobile devices with our online wallet. Subscribe to your favourite rewards scheme of your favourite brands who have partnered with Loyale.
Dizz Loyalty
A mobile rewards marketing application which serves to encourage new customers to stick around by creating mutually beneficial shopping experiences as well as ensuring that existing loyal customers of Dizz feel valued by getting rewarded. We used our Whitelabel template for this project and skinned it to contain Dizz’s branding.
Zen to Go
A custom built sushi take-away/delivery mobile application, the first of its kind on the Maltese Islands. We integrated not only Loyale’s API so customers can get rewarded for their purchases but we also integrated with their custom delivery system and their POS system to ensure a seamless customer experience.
MPG Rewards
A rewards application housing sports, fashion and pharmaceutical brands. We incorporated Loyale into this custom built mobile application so customers can get instant savings and redeem rewards. This mutually beneficial shopping experience benefits both shoppers and MPG as it enables them to retain their loyal customers as well as to reward them for doing so.
Welbee’s
A custom built application enabling Welbee’s to retain and reward their loyal customers using our API. Welbee’s now incorporates four of Malta’s leading supermarkets under one roof.
Lava Rewards
A custom built rewards application housing over forty outlets and brands enabling customers to not only get rewarded whilst shopping at the multitude of stores under this scheme but also to redeem them at whichever store they please. For this product not only did we design and develop the mobile application, we also took care of the branding.
My Panino Giusto
My Panino Giusto is a custom built rewards application wherein users can get rewarded for purchasing their renowned panini and any of their twenty stores or may do so online through the application. The application includes GPS location, online ordering and delivery features as well as an ‘order to table’ function when dining in store.
Costa Club Malta
This custom built application for Costa Club Malta has attracted close to ten thousand users within its first year of launching. To date there have been more than 1.6 million points issued through the application. One of the advantages of using the application for customers is that they are also awarded points depending on the frequency of their visits to a store in a rolling 30 day period.
If you’re interested in developing a mobile application you can learn more about the process, or you may get in touch with us.
