Uncover three devil details that quickly improve the user experience

Today this recommendation, chat is the user experience the most gripping three processes: licensing consultation, registration and loading wait. The author has summed up a number of practical methods, can quickly improve these three aspects of experience, suggest learning >>>

As a product designer for mobile apps, I download a lot of apps every week to try and see what kind of interactive mode or stunning visual design can inspire you. Sometimes you can actually find some apps with good ideas, but more often than not, you just feel disappointed because you see too many apps and don't know how to respect users.

In the design and development process, there are some of the most basic principles of practice need to remember in our hearts and implement to the product, the purpose is very simple, is to make the product better, so that users happy. In this article, we will focus on the following three issues:

Consulting Authorization

The dilemma of registration

Load and wait

　　Consulting Authorization

There is nothing more annoying than being asked immediately after opening the app for the first time. You don't even have a chance to see the product introduction or the most basic interface, it's a window on your face that says, "Do you agree that I'm bothering you every day?" Whenever I encounter this situation, I immediately uninstall the app; Through the phenomenon, I know that the designers behind this product do not respect the users There won't be anything worth learning about here.

Imagine that your foot just stepped into the door of a restaurant, the waiter immediately jumped over and said: "Please leave your email, we will send you a new message every day," Is it rude? Will you listen to him? How does this "service" make you feel? You haven't even experienced the quality of the meal in this restaurant, Why pay attention to their new news?

As is the case in reality, it is important to ask the user for permission and the time point, from asking whether to allow messages to be pushed, whether they need to be subscribed to, and how credit card information is to be consulted. In terms of presentation, I am more accustomed to using custom designs that are harmonized with the global UI instead of the rigid system dialogs to make it more polite to ask the user-and, more importantly, to explain to the user why authorization is required.

Some types of apps, such as Uber, are entirely based on the user's geographic information. This is how they seek authorization from the user:

Is the most basic mode of iOS modal dialog box. Now, everyone knows and trusts Uber, but what if I don't know? If I clicked "do not allow" because I did not understand and distrust?

If you refuse to authorize at the outset, I will either manually set my own location in the search box or go to the system settings to reopen the authorization. In either case, the natural and smooth product experience will be destroyed.

It may be possible to add an additional step before the authorization is sought to address these issues:

This extra custom dialog box doesn't require a lot of work, even adding such a step before the user enters the app is a good deal, because this customized form allows users to know that you care about them and respect them, that they feel more secure, and that they are expected to have a personalized service experience.

　　The dilemma of registration

In a recent startup project, I racked my brains to ensure the best initial experience for the user, because the mechanism of the product is relatively special, requiring a user to register an account and first inviting a friend to join before starting work – The challenge is really not small.

If you think that simply placing a "Log on with Facebook" button will solve all the problems, it only means that you have not actually tested the related features of the social platform account login. Using Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other platforms to log in directly is not always applicable in all cases, and our actual research results suggest that some users are unwilling to authorize their own social platform accounts for use by other products. So, how do you make sure that users are willing to create new accounts in your product?

　　Show the value of the product

The routine registration process we used to think about is really crazy. Although it's still available most of the time, it's very unreasonable from a user experience standpoint.

We've seen this process in many apps: after the initial load, there are a few screen features that no one is looking at, or a novice boot, and then on the last page you have to sign up for an account to start using the service.

In what world would you give all your personal information without having experienced a service? This is a point that we have previously asked about licensing.

But it is also true that there are certain types of products (including my own) that really require the user's real information to work.

If you can, try to add a tourist mode, although the core functions and services are not available, but let users do not register in the case of the product to produce intuitive awareness. When potential target users understand how your product is helping them solve their problems, they can create a desire to participate without having to guide them, creating accounts. These users are your real target users, because their motives are entirely spontaneous.

　　Ask one question at a time

Sometimes you need users to provide a lot of information to make sure that the core services are working properly, but we all know that filling out forms is one of the most painful things in the world; it's even worse if you don't get value feedback immediately after submitting the form. So pay attention to the right amount of information at the appropriate point, so that users can provide a small part of the most necessary information at once and get feedback immediately.

For example, I am on a new platform for online shopping, they will not ask me to register immediately and fill out the credit card and delivery address information. I didn't have to fill out the payment until I found out what I was buying and had a buying behavior. When I finished the deal, they invited me to create an account to get the discount code I could use for the next shopping. This experience is complete and smooth, one ring after another, the friction is very small.

The same is true of other types of products. When I downloaded an app that looked good, I wanted to be able to use it at once. If necessary, I might be willing to provide a username and a mailbox, but do not ask me about my gender and birthday when I first meet you, even if I really need to, and then wait, through the actual service flow let me first understand why I want to provide more information.

　　Load and wait

When you interact with real people in reality, both sides respond to each other, whether through words, gestures or eyes. The same is true in the digital world, where software must express the current state in some form and interact with the user.

In most apps today, as long as something is loaded, it shows a daisy turn and a never-ending daisy turn.

Have you ever felt like you've never been able to serve in a restaurant? All you can do is sit there and find something to pass the time, and there's no way to know what's going on behind the kitchen.

To make things worse, no waiter will come over to check the situation and tell you how long it will take to wait in the process.

Is this experience bad? Will you recommend this restaurant to your friends in the future?

In fact, in many cases, the use of chrysanthemum to convey the load state of the same will give people this feeling.

　　Progress bar

As a percentage of blessings, we can show it in the form of a progress bar ... Progress, whether the so-called "strips" are strips or rings, or other forms. In this way, you can let the user know that "the target state is here and is now done."

But I don't like the progress bar. The mode takes the form of the whole screen focus, and the user can't do anything else but wait. Depending on the load type, in some cases, you can try to make the load and wait process friendlier by some small tricks.

YouTube brought a new design pattern in 2013 – a red 5-pixel high progress bar clings to the top of the browser window. For more than two years, countless products have been drawing on this model because it not only conveys information about progress status, but also allows users to use navigation and other functions while awaiting loading.

The so-called "progressive enhancement" design pattern can be Tim for the product experience. Imagine that you have a lot of content in your interface, including pictures, videos, text, links, and so on. The interface is pretty and full after the content is loaded, but what if I'm looking for some of these links, or other things that can be loaded in the first few milliseconds?

So, try not to let the content loading process hinder the user's behavior; The data that takes a lot of time to load is just part of what the user is likely to need.

　　Entertainment users

In some cases, the user does need to wait, such as the process of logging in.

Let's take a meal. Do you remember how boring it was to wait for food in the dining room when you were a child? I remember my mother always put paper and coins in her bag, so I can blindly draw, entertain myself and get bored when I am bored.

When users are waiting for something in your app, don't forget, this is a mobile touch screen device that contains a lot of functionality, always online. I bet you can actually come up with a lot of good ideas for entertaining users, even for a moment.

See how the Games are done. Most of the time, in order to load beautiful graphical elements, the app takes a long time for the user to wait. Game designers will be in the loading process to provide users with lightweight games for their entertainment, not only to cancel out the waiting for the negative emotions, but also a lot of fun.

　　Talk to the user

One of the most efficient ways of interacting between the two living beings is through dialogue to exchange ideas. Sometimes, language is the simplest and easiest way to communicate. This is also true in human-computer interaction, such as adding a text below the progress bar to further describe the current state, which does not require a great cost, but allows the user to know more, while bringing a human flavor to the product.

However, remember to use short text that accurately conveys information, rather than "loading cool stuff", "Don't be nasty," which is superficial and meaningless nonsense.

　　Tips and Hints

Have you ever played sports games on the host? The game host's handle usually has a large number of buttons, each has its own functions, and many times completely inconsistent with the intuitive combination of key mode is in charge of a very important function. So in the game loading interface, you will often see a variety of "tips and hints," they will sometimes play randomly, repeatedly help you to deepen the impression that you can enter the actual game to know the important way to operate.

If necessary, you can also try to use the loading process to explain to the user some complex or important methods of operation.