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These days a lot of blogs mention the virtues of personalizing and customizing the online user experience but only a few actually mention the way to do it.
More than simply offering a friendly experience, the whole concept is based on customizing according to the interests and preferences of the user on a website.
There are more than 1.2 million apps offered in the app store. Also, 50 million mobile applications are downloaded every year. Only 5% are able to hold its users and rest 95% are abandoned within a span of one month. It is quite obvious that the apps that survive for a month by retaining its customers have proved their worth.
It is important for the developers to design an app that is sticky and provides spontaneous solution to the user`s issue or need. This needs to be done efficiently by understanding the real problem. There is a huge demand of apps that deliver high value and functionality among the users. They desire and appreciate the applications that make their life easy and comfortable instead of the ones that do not let them to focus on their work.
Contextual and relative data is required to not only deliver the valuable and significant experience to users in real time, but also for global optimization of an app in order to suit the entire audience. This is most critical for mobile app development. Mobile phones have observed an increase emphasis on user personalization. Phones these days offer interactive wallpapers, VGA and MP3 Tones. To make the user feel associated to the phone, these services are downloaded through the provider.
Why to opt for Personalization?
Time Saving:
Personalizing the content according to the interest of the user is beneficial to the both the user and the business. In this way, they are able to navigate easily through the sites and find products quickly rather than going through huge piles of content.
User hold:
The most valuable and efficient form of marketing is word-of-mouth recommendations. Personalization undoubtedly encourages this. It helps to build a strong customer base and return visits.
Higher Conversion Rates:
Personalizing the user experience permits website owners to attract sincere outlook and target the correct audience.
Increased Revenue:
This will be positively affected for sure as solid leads will transform and direct towards more sales.
Human Touch:
Personalizing the user experience helps to imitate the communication customers enjoy when making purchase in-store or over the telephone. To offer this sort of personalization, you will require user data and also some knowledge on how to analyze it.
Advantages of UX Research
User research is essential and highly challenging discipline. Many big IT firms and startups utilize it to make their product eye catching for their end users. Despite this, many people fail to capture it in the product cycle. The first two principles the iOS human interface guidelines by Apple explain the whole concept in a much better way. It tells to focus on the main task and promote the content which users care.
Customization vs. Personalization
With mobile devices, customization of experiences became very difficult. This was mainly because of gesture interfaces and size of the screens. There is not much flexibility in creating custom designed interfaces for every user on mobile screen. There is a need to make shifts in thought pattern and how things work. This is driving the trend and need towards personalization.
For some time now, this type of customization has been implemented for desktop web interfaces by some eCommerce giants like Amazon. Quite recently, this has become important on mobile devices. There is a need for the developers to keep all of this in mind while mobile app development. Some rules should also be set to get the best and desired results.
Rules for Personalizing Mobile UX
Personalized Content:
This is a vital step in creating an experience that is personalized in mobile app development. It can be done by putting the visitors into distinguished groups so that the app presents the users with only the relevant and refined content. Users are able to save a lot of time which is otherwise wasted by going through the unwanted and unimportant content.
Personalized Recommendations:
According to the decisions customer is making while selecting the products and services, recommendations should appear. Say a user purchased denim during their past shopping activity. How about a shirt or tee? A matching coat for winters?
Location-Based Personalization:
The User`s location is utilized to personalize the experience by online retailers and e-commerce businesses. For example, a user is looking for a hotel in a new city; an application can offer him offers and deals of the nearby hotels and resorts.
Push Notifications:
This gives users an option to choose to receive push notifications to their mobile. These notifications could be anything from offering them discounts and concessions or promotions based on their previous shopping interests.
In order to personalize the mobile user experience, there is a whole array of customer requirements and demands that have to be researched even before the app is designed. Also, there is a need to track what others are doing and get more creative. Mobile app development is impossible if there is absence of empathy for the targeted users.
Plan your mobile app development and personalization while keeping the user in mind. This will provide them an ultimate experience and bring them back to your app.
