As we enter the 2nd half of the year, now is as good of a time as any to take a hard look at your portfolio of mobile websites and apps to assess the need for changes in strategy, design or technology. How will you know whether apps or websites in your digital portfolio are obsolete or in need of customer experience improvements? The good news is you don’t need consultants, designers or technology experts to tell you that your organization’s app or website is in desperate need of a makeover.
Here are signs that it may be time for a tune-up:
Lack of Mind-Blowing Features
It is increasingly important to offer a compelling set of features that users love, and keeps them coming back to your app. It is also becoming more difficult to get noticed in today’s crowded mobile landscape, and having features that makes your app stand out from the crowd is imperative.
You have probably spent lots of time building your app, and have insider knowledge of the most useful features. Use this knowledge to your benefit as you craft your app’s unique selling point. It can also be useful to read positive and negative feedback from customer reviews in the app store. This includes customer reviews for your company-branded app as well as third-party apps from competitors and vendors in your industry.
This raw feedback can serve as an unbiased perspective for understanding how customers, employees or other target users experience the highs and lows of different features and usage scenarios.
Outdated UX / UI Design
Unlike websites, today’s most prevalent mobile operating systems from Apple and Google introduce new navigation patterns and controls, user authentication methods, sensor interface protocols and end-to-end design changes on an annual basis.
If your mobile app fails to keep pace with these operating system updates, the result will be lower customer engagement and users will begin looking for more modern alternatives. This is where a well-defined, repeatable design process helps ensure your mobile app remains relevant.
Lack of Personalized Experience
In an increasingly digital world people tend to adopt and use services and products that are most convenient. The ability of mobile websites and apps to deliver these highly-personalized experiences has evolved with technology advances in smart phone hardware and software. Using digital analytics you can obtain real time data into how users interact with your application as well as predictive algorithms which anticipate what users are going to do next.
Building your mobile and web applications is not a one-time process. Because of the ever-changing audience and technology needs, you will need regular updates to make sure that your piece of software remains relevant and successful over a long period of time.
