As common as having our breakfasts, using mobile applications (popularly known as apps) have become an integral part of our day-to-day activities. From checking mails to tracking calories, maintaining different apps for routine activities has become a habit. It’s the first thing that we do in the morning and rest peacefully only after updating the day’s activities before we go to sleep. Although these tools which commit to simplify our lives help us manage various things with a touch of a keystroke, they may also become irritating with pop-ups, unwanted notifications and the revenue generating advertisements.
These issues which come piggybacked with installed apps may vary from user to user, but there are a few which are, kind of, universal. Here’s a list of common areas where these apps miss out on pleasing their users.
1. Why Not Make Some Money: Ads are one of the biggest sources of revenues for developers. But at the same time, ads may disturb people while they are using the apps. Ads are sometimes so flashy that it becomes unavoidable to ignore them. A small bar at the top or a full screen ad in the beginning not only wastes time of the users but also irritates them. It gets worst when someone is redirected to the web browser if he accidently clicks on the ad screen.
2. The Social Connection: The second thing that app users don’t like is everything getting posted on their facebook profiles. The apps have become integrated these days and use platforms like facebook for different reasons ranging from logging in to bragging about the app usability. But then, the users don’t like it when an unwanted update goes on their wall saying, “I’m using shed-your-weight app, and it really works”! The users don’t like to share every single thing they do on their social profiles.
3. The Mid-Age Crisis: One of the worst mistakes that developers make is – giving up on an app and not updating it on regular intervals. Not updating the app means the bugs will keep floating which is a big turn off for the users and they end up uninstalling the app. It’s a literal death of the app! The developers need to understand that implementing user feedback is the only way they’re going to survive in the market.
4. Rate Me! Rate Me!: One more irritant in the users top list is the regular ‘rate my app’ requests. We understand that everybody likes getting a good rating for the work they've done, but bugging users every now and then would make sure that the user doesn't rate it. The rating requests can, instead, be made after (say) 10 uses or would be even better if made while installing new updates. Users would be more than happy to share what they feel once they've used the app satisfactorily.
5. The Notification Mess: As the world is getting smarter, so are the mobiles. The apps have made mobile a world in itself. But there’s still a long way to go when it comes to notifying the users. Since people use a number of applications at a time, throwing notification for every single thing might get overwhelming. With too many notifications on screen, the users might miss out on some important ones. The apps should give an option to the users to be selective of what they want to see on their screens. Updates from selective group of people or particular entities might do the trick.
Using the feedback that users give and doing a thorough market research about usability of the app would be the deciding factors in the competitive market. The developers need to understand not only ‘what users want’ but also ‘how they want it’, if they want to spread their user base.
