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4 Reasons Why UX/UI Design Research is Crucial to Mobile App Development

The surge in the mobile industry has not only brought a plethora of opportunities but has also increased the competition. Designers are the major differentiators here as they have the opportunity to fabricate the customer journey. Right from the elements, they interact with on a mobile device within the application to simplifying their app-using experience. Crafting such an experiential journey will demand a significant amount to user research which consists of understanding them in a better way. For once, designers will need to put themselves in the shoes of users, weeding out their design assumptions and mental models. This makes way for creating a user-centred design.

And the key to enabling state of the art user experience will involve user research by implementing right user research techniques. One of the ways to do this is to adopt any UX research method and replicate it for the mobile app user research. Such techniques are the ones that come with proven value.

A cohesive mobile app development research will have different teams right from marketing to sales to even programming/developing who works rigorously to improve the final product. Similarly, app designers who consider improving UX/UI as a key to making a perfect app will need to involve themselves in research. A typical UX/UI research will involve understanding the product goals blended with the use of the right technology.

Let us try and understand why UI/UX design research is important to develop a successful mobile application for startups

#1 Qualitative research designing helps to study customer needs

With qualitative research, designers try to build empathy towards users. This helps them to comprehend real, unmet and unexpressed user needs. Empathy is the key element that contributes to creating a desirable final product for the users. One way to look at it is to consider how people communicate with each other daily. Here is where the product sets the right expectations amongst the users. Consider how a great app YiK Yak, once valued 400 Million failed to meet the expectations of its younger audience by failing to establish communication norms.

Stringent user research digs deep from various other perspectives which enables mobile app businesses with a fair idea of how it will impact the finances. Therefore it gets important for mobile app business owners to associate itself with a team of experienced designers through a mobile app development company.

#2 Bring all users to a common ground

App designers need to understand that not all users have the same level of mobile usage expertise. So if the app is targeted to a whole bunch of market with vast age range and deep demographics, considering such an aspect is important.

App designers and developers may indeed have a great sense of knowledge regarding technology. But they are not going to be the ultimate users. Therefore, simplifying UX/UI design and development to a great extent may well help the users to adapt new mobile app easily. Again, stepping into the customer’s shoes is important. For that, the UI/UX designers need to have a layman’s outlook and find even the silliest way to use the apps and have a fool-proof design structure in place to make things easier for the users on a distant tangent of expertise in using the mobile applications.

#3 Research consistency based on technology, market and users

With time all the three crucial elements that can define the success and failure of a mobile app viz. technology, market and users make progress. Therefore, keeping consistency in research is crucial. For app designers, setting realistic expectations is the only way out to do so. They need to consider that users may feel exhausted if they fail to find out anything unique and engaging over a while. With the market being so dynamic and trends keep changing the user demand too will shift.

Therefore, constantly investing oneself in research is important. The only thing that makes any innovation stand out is the ‘change’. So one need to constant with the change by keeping the mobile app design as fluid as possible.

#4 Apps should bring delight to users

Designing a mobile app to bring delight to users will certainly involve user experience research. Designers engrossed in crafting a brilliant mobile app may sometimes feel to skip something so insignificant to them but it can be something that users may find useful. For example, a welcome text. One needs to get inside the flesh and born of the users to understand what exactly brings joy to them. What is something that makes them so elated using an app that they can spread positive word of mouth about it?

Here, the UI research is important to know how the user interacts within the mobile application and how buttons, colours and even typography can make a huge difference. Certain font style may indeed turn a user off while other styles may just elate their app user experience. Investing time and resources in finding out the detailed design-level preferences goes a long way when developing an app that users truly love. 

With the constant evaluation in technologies and emerging competition, user expectation is incresting tremendously. To match up with the rapidly changing trends, you need to be ahead in your game by having minimalistic UI/UX design for better conversation as well as user retention.  

Conclusion

Always consider the return of investment when designing a mobile app. Users certainly make an in-app purchase if they find it meaningful and worth spending their penny on. Moreover, chances are, they will suggest using your app to their friends and family too, so make sure you stay consistent with design, flow and elements. You will certainly reap the gains of all the efforts you have put if you have successfully tested user scenarios at the design level. 

Hire the best mobile app developers to leverage their research material, experience and expertise in designing user-centric mobile app. The user research must reflect the users’ perspective at large and not only for a group of audience.

Tuhin-Author
Tuhin Bhatt
Co-Founder

Tuhin Bhatt is a co-founder of Intelivita, a leading Web and Mobile App Development Company with offices in the UK and India. He has expertise in Mobile Game, iOS, Android, AR and VR app technologies. With flawless command over mobile app development, Tuhin also has a passion to share his expertise with clients and other enthusiasts. His write-ups are usually based on Technology, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship.

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