Great mobile user experience (UX) – easier said than done?  

2023 04 05

Have you ever got hooked on certain mobile apps finding them so easy and pleasant to use? While other apps make you frustrated and confused. Here you enter the space of user experience (UX) – the process that enables some apps to thrive or others to fail when done wrong.

UX design is not just a buzzword that has taken the world by storm. 52% of users do not feel like engaging with a company after going through a poor mobile experience. And if you wonder – why do we even care about UX? Try to scroll down through some mobile UX gems like Airbnb, Spotify or Uber (the list is huge) and feel the seamlessness while surfing through different app functions. 

Some businesses still ignore UX design because they need extra resources, do not acknowledge its value of it or have yet to find the right white-label app solution. Yet, a well-thought UX design is a true driver for better user engagement and overall mobile product success. 

So grab a cup of coffee and let us explore UX design, why it is vital when developing mobile apps, and finally, why it is so hard to achieve simple-to-use, neat and convenient mobile UX.

What is UX design?

User experience (UX) design is the process of designing products, systems or services. It entails understanding the user’s needs and product development that meets or exceeds those expectations. UX designers work to provide pleasant, easy-to-use and efficient products by thoughtfully considering accessibility, usability and an overall product’s design. 

You may wonder what is so magical about UX? 1/3 of customers say they would stop using brand services after one poor experience. Just imagine investing loads of your time and money into building a perfectly working product that your target audience cannot wait to use, and then…crappy UX happens. Your users are disappointed and will likely not be motivated to put their fingers on your product or, worse – they leave you a bad review which is visible to everyone. It definitely has a damaging impact on your brand and business success.

Therefore, UX design implementation plays a critical role in product development, enabling users to have a flawless experience while getting all possible benefits from a product.

5 reasons why it is challenging to achieve flawless UX design

There might be multiple reasons why achieving a great mobile UX can be difficult. Here we explore five factors that can affect mobile UX design:

• Limited understanding of users’ special needs. Do you know that 15% of people worldwide live with a disability? Also, 51% of 50 years and older people need clickable on-screen elements to respond reliably. Thus, insufficient knowledge of your users’ needs can turn into poor UX design, making a mobile app or some of its functions possibly unusable by users with special needs;
• Not enough testing. A high-class UX design depends on many variables, such as desirability, functionality, speed and performance, ease of use, visual aesthetics, clarity, simplicity and usability, structure and navigation, human psychology, and accessibility. Thus, it is crucial to enable strategic mobile app testing practices, especially when our population uses 9000+ different types of mobile devices worldwide. Without proper testing and mobile app optimisation, it is harder and way more expensive to ensure the highest-quality mobile UX;
• Lack of contextual design approach. In mobile app development, contextual design is a significant joined of understanding the context in which a system (app) is used. Whether a mix of internet connectivity and/or network coverage, ergonomics and psychological context are poorly combined in a mobile app, it can hardly affect the whole mobile UX design. Thus, analysing the user journey and understanding how an app is used is paramount;
• Interruptions. 47% of US smartphone users feel that constantly popping notifications make it difficult to maintain all mobile app functionalities. Although some interruptions may impact a mobile journey, the right UX decisions can ease users’ frustrations, e.g., keeping necessary buttons or information on the opposite side where notifications pop;
• Users’ expectations.  Today’s users are very familiar with global mobile app leaders, such as Instagram, Airbnb, Revolut and others – making them keep a high bar for every mobile application they use. 76% of users think mobile apps should be personalised, while 69% of people would negatively perceive the brand if its mobile UX is not adapted to their needs. Not every mobile app can quickly adjust to all the latest trends or replicate world-class mobile apps’ features. Thus, users might stop using their current mobile app and choose another one with mobile UX, meeting their needs and preferences in real-time.

Why is UX design crucial when creating mobile apps?

People often choose to enable various services right in their palms instead of using web applications. Well, the reasons for that are pretty simple – you can use your smartphone on the go, easily change screen orientation (portrait, landscape), and run multiple functions with a few fingertips without needing to turn your device on or off (like computers).

With the fresh start of AppStore in 2008, there has been a steady year-on-year constant growth in mobile app users. So, such a thing as mobile UX has existed for less than decades compared to computers. Yet, an always-growing number of mobile app users proves that massive attention to mobile UX is more than necessary.

Here, we present a few reasons prove why UX design should be a default element of every mobile app development:

• Easy to navigate. Users can be super diverse – some of them use mobile apps when sitting, walking or cycling, while others – have difficulty moving, hearing, seeing, communicating or learning. Here UX design helps to adapt the mobile app’s usability to the user’s movement or special needs, ensuring easy navigation through different mobile app functions;
• Better engagement. According to a recent Net Solutions report, users are more likely to purchase from a brand that provides a helpful or relevant mobile UX. Users also are more likely to continue using and recommending your app if they find it enjoyable. It naturally helps you increase your user engagement and retention rates;
• Zero frustration for users. Considering that mobile phones have limited screen space compared with other devices, UX design can make it easy for users to go through the mobile app’s features without feeling overwhelmed;
• Higher ROI. A detailed report of UX design usage in world-class companies, such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and others, proves that any investment in UX design can generate a financial return of up to $100 for every invested $1.

Overall, achieving a smooth mobile UX requires careful planning, design and lots of prototyping and testing with live users. Especially in such a vibrant industry as fintech, with which constraints are something we – FinCell team – deal with every day.

As a mobile banking app development provider, we put the end user’s experience at the forefront of our product development – making all mobile UX components work together seamlessly can lead you towards ultimate product success.

Looking for a white-label solution to kick off your mobile banking journey and bring the best possible mobile UX from day one? Request a free demo now or feel free to contact our team for a quick consultation.