Application developers can learn a lot from the top applications in the world. Psychology plays a major role in an application’s success, and interactivity is often the main difference between one app playing off of the user’s psychology of not.
Human behavior can teach us a lot about an application’s success.
For example, casinos are popular despite most people walking into a casino and losing money. Interactivity and psychology are the reasons. The bright lights, sirens and clanking of the change overwhelm a person’s senses and causes them to feel comfortable taking risks.
Interactivity can be addicting, too.
If you look at eCommerce development services over the past decade, you may have noticed bidding sites and special offers.
Special Offers and Interactivity
Bidding sites are immensely popular, and the most popular in recent years have been the sites with timers. A buyer makes a bid, the price and time left increase, and this form of interactivity plays off of the person’s senses.
Many apps have this same level of interactivity.
Games, such as Candy Crush, have fun graphics, special offers and different forms of interacting that make the app a success.
Notifications and Numbers
Interactivity keeps users using apps, but even long after closing some apps, they continue to try interacting with you. Social media apps are notorious for continually interacting with users to keep them on the app.
Facebook and Snapchat, for example, will put a number on top of the app icon to almost force interaction with the app.
If someone sends you a snap, the red number is hard to miss and ignore. You’re compelled to interact with the app, so you’ll click on the application. Once opened, the app will grasp your attention keeping you on the app that you wouldn’t have opened otherwise.
eCommerce apps also use notifications to interact with users in a way that is more straightforward and bound to:
- Increase app opens
- Increase visibility
You’ll find a lot of eCommerce apps using notifications to promote discounts and sales. This level of interactivity is one way for the app developer to force users to open and interact with an app.
Of course, there are several ways interactivity can lead to an app being a success.
4 Ways to Use Interactivity to Boost App Success
No one wants an application to be a failure. You need to use everything at your disposal to make your application a success. There are a lot of variables at play that you can and can’t control.
The factors that are in your control that you can use to enhance your app’s interactivity are:
- UI/UX. User interface and user experience are paramount. If an application isn’t smooth and easy to us, you’ll have a lot of users that download the application and never continue using it. Make your application easy to use,
- Psychology. We’ve talked a lot about psychology, and it’s one of the key reasons for you to learn more about your users. Get deep into the mindset of your users, learn about their pain points, and you’ll be able to make an app that isn’t intrusive yet is a major success. You can learn what user choices work best, how to best interact with users and how to keep users interacting without being overly aggressive with notifications and sounds.
- Stimulate. Another aspect of psychology is to help stimulate the emotions of users. A lot of users need to be stimulated, and an interactive app is a great choice. When you stimulate users, you may be encouraging them to go out on a limb and try a new fashion style, or you may notify them of their latest weight loss progress and to continue using the app to continue their success.
- Testing. Forgetting to test an app is one of the biggest mistakes that developers make. When an app is buggy or doesn’t perform on the same level as others in the industry, it is a major reason for abandonment by users and uninstalls. Apps need to be tested thoroughly to ensure that interactivity can actually occur in the app from the start.
Working towards success requires interactivity measures to be in place. An application that focuses on interactivity will be far greater of a success than one that doesn’t prioritize interactivity.
