Improve app conversion with data-led UX and UI optimisations

Data doesn’t birth great ideas, but harnessing quantitative and qualitative data can turn a good idea into a huge success.

So how can numbers inform User Experience or User Interface decisions for your apps?

You need to consider what elements are ultimately affecting your user’s conversion. For example, by making UI changes (like resizing the copy of your onboarding screens) you could decrease the risk of user drop-off. Equally, by making UX changes (such as changing your sign-up flow) your subscription rates can see an uplift. Data is essential in identifying these optimisations and measuring their impact.

As a full-service global mobile marketing agency, we’re in the habit of turning abstract objectives into actionable optimisations with measured learnings. Here’s how we think you can make the best use of your data to inform UX and UI decisions for your app.

Don’t silo your data

To harness the full power of data it is important that your marketers, designers and developers have access to the whole picture by implementing a single-view of your app users. Once this is achieved you will have a stronger indication of your users’ interactions with your app. By implementing a mobile-first analytics tool (see more from our Mastering Mobile Marketing video) you are well on your way to understanding the complexity behind your users’ behaviours. However, this is just the first step — the more comprehensive your information architecture is, the better.

Why is this so important?

This insight of cross-device/platform behaviour will reveal significant nuances in your users’ behaviour. This way you can see what role your app plays in the wider user journey across your digital offering. From this you can form the hypotheses that will instruct your UX or UI decisions.

On that note…

Hypothesise

You can’t rely on data to give you all the answers, but it certainly can help to prove or disprove your theories that will determine the changes you make to your app. Data can’t work alone — a human approach is essential to understanding behaviours such as emotion or intention. Context is key and your hypothesis should make use of all the data available — this includes noticeable patterns from your analytics, app store review sentiment and social media sentiment.

Every vertical has unique user behaviours and expectations, so you need to have a clear understanding of the marketplace. Have a goal in mind and work across your business, sharing knowledge, to reach this end.

A great example of a business that has done this well is Trainline, UK’s leading independent train ticket retailer. The team utilised marketplace research to note an integral issue faced by their commuters: overcrowded trains. This is how BusyBot was born. Using aggregated passenger feedback users can create a “busyness score” for that train, ultimately helping other users to locate train carriages most likely to have empty seats and space to travel more comfortably. This is a great example of using data to better a product, and Trainline are continuously optimising BusyBot by harnessing the data from their passenger feedback through their app, and have seen a huge increase in feedback over time.

Test and measure

After each optimisation, however small or large it is, you need to attribute its effect through your analytics.

This will not only prove or disprove your hypothesis, but will also offer insight into its effectiveness. Your UI and UX hypotheses ultimately aim to achieve different goals. Your UI optimisations should aid with clarity; they will focus on imagery, fonts, copy size, colours and so on. UX optimisations should ensure your product is intuitive; they will focus on elements such as onboarding, layout, flow to make the experience seamless. This is the beginning of a continuous optimisation loop, so it is important to consistently gather learnings.

Consider A/B testing to refine your granular iterations further. However, don’t be afraid of making some big changes. As they say; no pain, no gain.

By harnessing your data, and by being very frank about the successes and failures of particular elements of your app, you have already taken the first step in the continuous process of achieving mobile marketing success.

This article was originally published on the Yodel Mobile blog.