Build Apps Users Want To Use

It’s an unfortunate truth that most users don’t stick with new apps very long. Every developer is looking for the one secret that will make users love their app. Sadly, there is no secret but there are a number of techniques available to developers to help create an app more compelling for users. These techniques actually focus on user psychology and even physiology, but there is no reason any developer could’t employ these ideas when creating an app. Understanding some of the underlying user psychology has a direct bearing on how you write code for user interactions. This session covers different techniques you can learn and apply to your designs and code to make your app awesome and keep your users coming back.

Transcript

1. Build Apps Users Want To Use David Truxall, Ph.D. http://bit.ly/ladev17
2. About Me @davetrux https://davidtruxall.com http://bit.ly/ladev17 spnsurvivors.org
3. Agenda 1. Choices 2. Making Expert Users 3. Getting Users Hooked
4. The Secret to a Successful App ?
5. Cognitive Load
6. Cognitive Load ?
7. Choices, Choices, Choices
8. Choice is Demotivating vs
9. Choice Harms Users
10. The Paradox of Choice
11. Ouch Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Upload_Form.png
12. Learn to Love Constraints
13. Login
14. Better Login
15. Reduce Choices – Choose for the user whenever possible – Less than 10 options – Reward at the end
16. Expert Users
17. Make Users Into Experts A Can’t Do B Can Do With Effort C Mastered
18. Make users into Experts – Help them actually get better – Help them practice correctly – Help keep them wanting to – Focus on what makes them stop – Help them progress – Provide Payoffs – Help them get exposure to the right things
19. Users Derail Easily
20. Stalled on B A Can’t Do B Can Do With Effort C Mastered
21. Lower the Threshold
22. When A User is Wrong
23. Sometimes You Can’t Close the Gap
24. Provide Channels to Help Users – Community / User Groups / Forums – Product / context blogs – YouTube videos – Posters/Ads (“everyone sucks the first day”) – New user training, seminars
25. Provide A Path
26. Reduce Cognitive Load
27. Just in Case Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Upload_Form.png
28. Just In Time
29. Building a Habit-Forming Product
30. Operant Conditioning
31. Building A Habit Frequency Attitude Change
32. Hooked Model Trigger Action Reward Investment
33. Triggers Internal External
34. Negative Emotions Are Triggers
35. Understand your user’s narrative or story ?
36. Build A Narrative – Who is the user? – What are they doing right before your intended habit? – Find trigger hypotheses – Which trigger is most frequent? – Where can you insert external triggers when internal triggers fire?
37. Actions
38. Action Action = Motivation + Ability + Trigger
39. Define an Action – Map user flow – Which user resource is lacking – Find testable ways to make the action easier
40. Rewards
41. Variable Rewards Tribe Hunt Self
42. Rewards Are Not Enough +
43. Investment $$
44. Hooked Model Trigger Action Reward Investment
45. Sources http://bit.ly/ladev17
46. Shameless Plug @davetrux https://davidtruxall.com http://bit.ly/ladev17 spnsurvivors.org