During these unprecedented times, while many businesses are struggling even for survival due to the novel Coronavirus, businesses with a strong digital presence and effective supply chain are growing at an exponential rate! Also, judging by the WHO’s prediction that COVID-19 might become an endemic like HIV and Ebola, social distancing and mask-wearing will become the new normal for the world and so will be the Digital Transactions and Online Purchases.
So, not only will the Digital Transformation see a massive uproar, the need for Mobile Applications and Mobile Web platforms will also surge as cosmopolitans will rely on Smartphones for their online surfing and purchases. But, investing in a Mobile Application is not only a time-consuming process, but it is also an expensive endeavour. Apart from that, it is also essential that your website is seamlessly integrated with your mobile application and that it has a uniformed User Interface.
But, what if there was a way that you don’t have to develop your Mobile Application from scratch and that your website will serve your customers as a Mobile Web or Mobile App platform? The answer to that is a Progressive Web Application aka PWAs!
What is a Progressive Web Application PWA?
PWA is a combination of web technologies that allows enterprises to offer their website as a substitute for a Native Mobile application! When you develop a PWA, your users can access your website offline, they can save your website on their mobile screens with a logo and you can also send push notifications to your users! The only difference is Native Apps are stored on Mobile’s OS and PWAs run on enterprise’s local servers. Apart from that, unlike Native Mobile Apps, it doesn’t take much space in users’ smartphones and this technology is the brainchild of Google.
So, now that you know how PWAs function, you know that it is essential that your PWA has a uniform User Experience on both your website as well as Mobile Web and that you use the best Progressive Web App builder to give your PWA the native app feels and features. While it is the UX designers who have the technical design knowledge, you are the ones who truly understand your users and thus, you must know about these 6 tips when it comes to UI and UX designing of your PWA:
6 Tips for Entrepreneurs to create Seamless and uniform UI and UX of Progressive Web Apps:
1. Give offline access to your Key Business Processes:
The best thing about PWAs is that since it is built on JavaScript, the technology is truly dynamic and you can ask your UX designers to integrate both your business goals and your customer expectations when they design the PWA UX. Also, many Progressive Web App builders in the market gives you complete freedom. Thus, when it comes to the offline access of your website as a PWA, you must choose only the crucial Business processes that directly impact customer expectations. Choose features that are an important part of your business or the features that are most used by your end-users on your website and make them available to them on their fingertips.
2. Effectively plan The Thumb Zone reach:
While people access your website using a monitor screen that is pretty wide and mostly it is accessed with a mouse, the smartphones have a limited space and most importantly, users use their Thumb to click on the screens and thumb has a limited reach.
Thus, when you plan your Mobile UX of the PWA using the progressive web app builder, it is essential the buttons and areas that are important for the ordering and search process, they are available at the Thumb’s reach and ensure that users don’t have to stretch for it. To give you an insider tip, tell your UX designer to remove the footer of your website from each page and then set the page elements. This will not only clear the unnecessary space, the UX designers will have plenty of space to organize essential buttons.
3. Plan your Back Functionality wisely:
There are two major things to consider here, a) the back button is usually at the far upper end of the screen and b) usually users click on the back button when they do not see what they desire and they need to search for the right product. Thus, when you plan your back functionality, it must take them back to exactly where users were when they were scrolling and ensure that they can easily resume their search without returning to the home page. This will save your PWA from delivering an annoying or unsatisfactory user experience.
4. Introduce App interactions:
The point here is simple, communicate with your users that the app has registered their actions. This might look like a small thing but it is an essential step especially when your PWA is having a slow response rate due to high traffic. Make sure that UI designers have introduced visible App interactions when they build your PWA.
5. Avoid Screen Jumps at all costs:
One of the most annoying thing when you use a website or a web app is that when a user clicks on a page, the page takes time in loading especially when they are not cached and thus, when images load at last, the page jumps the content and that irritates the users. Thus, when you design your Mobile UX, ensure the blank image spaces are replaced by grey screen or blurred thumbnail till the time the actual image loads so that the content doesn’t jump.
6. Introduce a live splash screen:
Splash screen is the introductory screen that comes when users click on your logo. The splash screen stays for at least 2-3 seconds till the site loads and thus, you must ensure the user that the app is loading and it is not stuck. To give your users that assurance while your app loads, introduce some customizations to your splash screen.
While these are more generic tips but many other things must be considered while developing your PWA. Hence, you must choose the best progressive web app builder that has relevant domain experience and the design expertise.
