Your apps are easier to use with progressive usability

Usability is what makes a mobile app work for the people using it. Apps have changed a lot over the last decade. Early on, teams built idiot-proof apps that non-techy people could use, and now the trend is apps with progressive usability.

Progressive usability means the app adapts to the changes its users need. The latest banking and food delivery apps keep releasing updates that make them easier to use for what their users need. A feature that is hard to use frustrates people, and it can be the reason they switch to a different app. It matters when you build an app because it puts your customer first and makes you think about how users will move through the app.

We asked our Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dave Overton and Chief Design Officer (CDO) Dan Pantinople how they use progressive usability.

Getting users to enjoy your app

Dan, Chief Design Officer of Symph

In life, there is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, in UX there is Aarron Walter's Hierarchy of User Needs. It talks about meeting basic user needs that interfaces must fulfill first before more advanced needs can be addressed. On the fundamental level, it's about making your product satisfy your user's needs and be useful - it should be functional first. The second is reliability where the interface should always work as expected. Next is Usability where it's about making it easy for users to discover, learn and use all features. These 3 are prerequisites in order for your product to become delightful and make users have an emotional experience which takes me to the last level - Pleasurable.

Designing for emotion or making the experience delightful or pleasurable is key to having users enjoy your app more. There are a lot of ways of making it delightful, some basic things you can do on the surface level are animations (when done correctly), microcopy - where you can establish a persona or a voice or add in some humor to your UX copy, beautiful imagery, and more. On a deeper level, when all of these prerequisites are met, users start to go be "in the zone" or achieve a state of "flow" wherein users are so immersed in using the product. This state of deep delight is what all products should aim for.

Dave, Chief Executive Officer of Symph

"In the growth stage of a startup, you're looking at expanding. Through the classic Crossing the Chasm type of advice, you're looking at starting on a beachhead and expanding through that, and as you expand, you go into the mainstream market. I think one of the things that block a mainstream user is the non-techy users, such as the older generation. For example, I understand why my parents think about things a certain way because it was different from how we grew up. It's important to get their perspective so you can also understand their behavior in an app.

With cryptocurrency, getting started is so complicated and requires some techie-ness. If I tell my mother to go sign up for a crypto wallet, she might be able to create a Coinbase account because they've done a lot to make the older generation understand it. For a crypto wallet, she might get lost along the way (Mom, I love you 😂) especially when it comes to making an address. Using this example and thinking about things from that perspective can be very valuable as you go into this growth stage as a startup."

Apps from the UI/UX side

Dan, Chief Design Officer of Symph

It's like how the internet started. It was just all cold at the start and it was hard to understand technical terms. It was mostly targeted at developers or techy people, but eventually, everyone got into it. There are great solutions out there with great user experience. People flock to solutions with better experiences, that's how a target market grows. When it gets better, more people get exposed to it. An example is a cryptocurrency that always aims to have good UX. Lots of these solutions are coming out with better solutions, including UI and UX to make it easier for users. It's making progressive enhancement, as long as the core is intact, you can make the experience better for people.

Dave, Chief Executive Officer of Symph

You have to be able to identify what is this next target market that we're looking to expand into, and then what are the obstacles that we will meet to make us rethink (our strategy). The early adopters or the first market are important in the development phase, and as you want a bridge out from those early adopters into that mainstream market, these are the challenges that you're going to face if you want to grow, making sure that users understand how to use the app. That's where UI/UX can help you because it can help you identify what are those challenges that all users will face when they try to sign up for your product or service.

How progressive usability helps

Dan, Chief Design Officer of Symph

I see it as an evolution of the experience. When you first launch a product, you usually start with the core idea, whether it's e-commerce or a completely new idea you begin with making it easy for users to get to the end goal (e.g. checking out on e-commerce). As you gain more users and learn more about their behavior and motivations you start to optimize the experience that makes it better, easier, and more delightful for them to use. This will make it more rewarding for your loyal users and a better initial experience for new users that will make them come back for more.

Dave, Chief Executive Officer of Symph

In general, your app should be usable. It should be very clear on what a user should be able to do with the app. And to get started should be very easy, very basic, and very straightforward. And I think a lot of those things are enabled by UI and UX.

You do have to understand your users, you shouldn't launch your app and be confused about what your users should do next, and I think that there are a ton of principles about this. As the user grows or matures, you would find ways to be able to unlock more features for them. When it comes to the term idiot-proof app, it's not just saying that they're an idiot but you don't necessarily have to show them everything right at once. If I, a user of the app, have this overlay guide that shows me all the features that I can do, I'm just going to be overwhelmed. It will result in me just clicking through so that I can do the one thing I want to do.

When you build your app, work out how people will use it, because that is what helps you grow your users. Keeping progressive usability in mind gives your app a better chance of success. You can also read why UI/UX helps a company's growth.

If you are looking to build web and mobile apps, we can help.