3 Thoughts On: Mobile UX Concepts

23. Feb 2023 |

- min Lesezeit

As the world becomes increasingly reliant on mobile devices for everything from communication to entertainment, creating a positive user experience (UX) for mobile applications is more important than ever. We all have heard of mobile-first approaches and the change from third to first screen in the past, therefore we as DPM experience deliver more and more mobile app projects. In this blog post, I want to share three thoughts about developing UX concepts...

1. High fidelity, or not to high fidelity?

Becoming aware of how the level of fidelity influences the perception of the concept when presenting it to the customer and the internal team is crucial.

Depending on their experience, the developed concept might be more accessible if the prototype has a higher degree of fidelity, as this is closer to the final product.

A common problem with high-fidelity prototypes is, that people often forget they are just a concept state and start referring to design issues.

In this case, it is crucial to clarify what each deliverable is, so they are not confused by low-fidelity prototypes when they expect designs: what is UX, what is design, what is a concept / click dummy, how do you get from the UX concept to the finished app? It’s all about expectation management.

Some designers also face the challenge of moving away from overly detailed wireframes and coming up with innovative designs. We overcame that issue by teaming up with a UI designer that hasn’t been part of the project and can give unbiased input. This makes it easier for teams to break out of given boundaries.

To be fair, this is not exclusively a mobile UX issue. But in project teams with different levels of experience in app development, this is a challenge I often face.

Low fidelity prototypes

Pros

quick to build, easy to iterate
focus on functionality and UX instead of aesthetics
better for exploring a rough concept, and user flow before content
no (difficult) tooling required, just pen and paper

Cons

limited user testing and feedback (works only as a moderated test)
limited ability to test and refine interactions
less inspiring (mostly inadequate for stakeholder communication)

High fidelity prototypes

Pros

look and feel of the final product (clickable and interactive with aesthetic appeal)
suitable for stakeholder presentations
more diverse user feedback for detailed concepts (UX, content, functionality, design…)
detailed requirements for implementation

Cons

more effort/budget needed to create and iterate
design and content are required
advanced tooling is required

2. Dig for gold: Leverage mobile benefits

Free user testing? If there are already similar players in the market, you can get free user insights with the perfect recruitment by simply browsing their reviews in the app stores. You will easily find out what they are doing right or wrong, and what their users wish for. Often, that’s super valuable feedback that you should consider while developing your app concept.

Hardware influences software. Compared to the big brother “web”, there are meanwhile enough possibilities to also make use of various context menus, be it through gesture navigation (swipe-left-right-up-down), multi-finger-gestures (like zoom or two-finger-scroll) or through long-press (or even 3D touch). But even more, the hardware of mobile devices provides possibilities that can hold interesting use cases, such as the use of a camera, microphone, GPS, various sensors (acceleration, tilt), Bluetooth/NFC, and others. Leveraging those built-in benefits can ease the user experience significantly.

3. Putting the need for a ‘Home’ to the test

Needless to say, the home page is the user’s first touch point with the app after opening it, but this means that it should offer unmissable added value in terms of engagement and continued retention (ever got stuck on Instagram’s home and asked what you initially wanted to look at? Gotcha 😉 .)

Especially with MVP concepts, the question of a start page tends to be difficult, as content is only available very limited and there is often a tendency to simply mirror the navigation.

Honestly, ask yourself and answer if this home page is really useful or if you just did it because other applications have a home too. So you can be brave and ditch the classic home page and take the user straight to the app’s highlight feature.