In this edition of Mobile Monday, we are taking a look at myths of mobile apps according to a leading mobile intelligence company as well as how removing frictions in the user experience can improve long-term engagement.
Mobile Myths
With the mobile ecosystem ever-changing, the proliferation of outdated or inaccurate information is common. To combat this, App Annie recently debunked a few common mobile myths on Entrepreneur, including:
- The myth that app installs are down. In actuality, app installs grew 15% year-over-year in 2016.
- The myth that only the top pubs are growing. Rather, new apps grew 20% last year.
The article also covered the the discrepancy between downloads and revenue as it relates to engagement, the true future of bots, and how apps have become a “need to have” and not a “nice to have” for brands.
The Need for Engagement
Touching on the App Annie myth regarding revenue discrepancies and the need for engagement, Akamai released a report on why users leave games, citing and classifying frictions to engagement as the culprits. In short, the study divided these frictions into quadrants based on whether they were avoidable or unavoidable and beneficial or harmful.
Setting aside the unavoidable frictions — payment, hardware, and legal matters — the study advocated attention on the harmful & avoidable frictions of poor user experiences, poor user interfaces, and slow loading times.
While UX & UI concerns are always included in app design best practices, what was most interesting here was that slow loading times as broken out as a separate issue and not folded under the poor user experience umbrella. This top-level designation is yet another clear indicator that users expect a smooth & buffer-free user experience. Anything less is apt to turn them away.
The Engagement Potential
Yes, the Akamai study may have reminded that 95% of users will leave an app within 30 days of first use and the App Annie piece may have served as a reminder that simply capturing a new user will not lead to revenue. Nevertheless, the outlook for smaller to medium sized mobile publishers remains positive. After all, these publishers are the ones enjoying notable year-over-year growth.
For a publisher to take advantage of this, however, frictions hindering the user experience need to be addressed, leaving the following questions for publishers:
- What can be done to improve the app’s file size and load times now ?
- What can be done to improve the user experience in the short term?
- What does user behavior data tell us needs to be improved about the UI?
About AdColony Mobile Mondays
Mobile Monday examines the latest news, trends, and developments in mobile apps, tech, and advertising. Do you have a story to share for the next Mobile Monday? Tweet it to @AdColony. For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow @AdColony on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on Linkedin.
- Rewarding to Engage: New Mobile User Survey Results Now Available - March 28, 2018
- Mobile Monday: Mixed Reality Promotion, Seriously Connected Fans, & FCC Acceleration - March 26, 2018
- Mobile Monday: GDC 2018 - March 19, 2018
