Did you know that if your platform loads for over 3 seconds, it’s considered a snail? It’s true; and imagine how many are rendered slow by search engines, even though their quality and reputation are great.
This shouldn’t happen to you. If the results of the first launch didn’t meet your expectations or it’s time to test and improve the prototype by schedule, let us help you do it.
We’ve gathered 5 ways you can check your digital project and improve it to get more traffic, leads, conversions, email list subscribers, and overall human attention. We’ll touch on the topics of UX audit, marketing, customer research, and inviting new people to work on the project.
1. Perform a Heuristic Evaluation of the Product
UX audit is crucial to find out how user-friendly the platform is. You can do it:
- Reactively.
If you see that the digital product doesn’t perform the way you need (high bounce rates, low conversion, etc.), an evaluation is a must-do. Also, if you plan a major redesign or feature update, it’s better to test the project first to see what exactly should be updated or improved. - Proactively.
A regular heuristic evaluation which shows whether the project still meets potential users’ standards and needs. Every couple of years, a full audit should be done to see problems with outdated strategies and target audiences. It helps a web app stay afloat and keep being useful for people.
The process is performed by professionals from a UX agency of your choice. You don’t need to involve actual users.
The results of the test can direct you to a new development strategy and/or renew the platform using all recommendations from the specialist.
2. Organize a User Testing
Another kind of usability testing is when you encourage users to give feedback on certain features of the app or it as a whole. If it’s a new product and you don’t have existing users, create focus groups for every TA.
Ask them to use the app for some time, find potential pitfalls and strong points, and give comprehensive feedback. According to the rendered data, you can improve the project even further before the launch.
If it’s an existing web app that already has users, post surveys and encourage people to complete them. You can offer a discount or a free guide, checklist, or another artifact so that people realize they are going to get something in return for their help.
Going through replies, you’ll be able to see which part of the project needs an update ASAP.
Also, you can create or enhance an existing email list this way and use it for marketing.
3. Analyze Your Marketing Strategy
Going on to marketing, think about:
- How many ads or marketing tricks you have within the app;
- How aggressively do you promote products;
- Whether the product accounts are present on social media.
First of all, if there are too many ‘buy, buy, buy’ messages or ads, understand that nobody likes that. Native advertising is what the world is leaning towards nowadays.
Then, remove aggressive marketing. Don’t tell people something bad will happen if they don’t buy or use your platform. Don’t tell them it will ‘100%, undoubtedly, totally, completely’ fix all their problems.
After that, embrace social media. Did you know that Instagram has over 1 billion users? Thousands from your target audience are most likely a part of that number. You can enrich your backlink profile with the use of SNS, connect to your audience, gather more feedback, and offer solutions live!
4. Check for Innovations
If your digital project is a result of continuous development, maybe it’s time to check for innovations you can improve it with. Inviting an outside specialist to take a look at the web app may change its (and your) life for the better.
This may even be a partner from another industry who can share experiences of problem solutions in their field.
You must be a professional in your niche, but this creates a kind of a box. It’s difficult to see through it and expand your products. But maybe innovation and expansion beyond your specialty are what the users need.
Trust young experts that can make your app:
- Faster without losses in quality;
- More ergonomic;
- Easier-to-use;
- More creative and interesting.
An ‘outsider’ can also positively impact the product development process and speed, showing you opportunities you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.
5. Test Customer Segments
Digital projects rarely have only one target audience. There are customer segments you can offer different plans and services to. If it’s a mobile app with TV channels, you won’t offer 18-year olds and 70-year olds the same programs, right?
If the app doesn’t perform to your expectations, maybe a problem is in one particular segment.
To check the hypothesis, you need a strong target specialist that will evaluate your TAs and make corrections. Then, you’ll need to communicate with the users. Create a survey or contact a focus group for every TA and ask about their:
- Positive thoughts on the project;
- Negative ones, what disrupts them from using it properly;
- Problems and perfect solutions, etc.
You may be surprised by how many people from one segment link to a particular problem. If this happens, consider it a valuable insight and start working on the solution as soon as possible.
Analysis is Key
If you see a problem or your expectations aren’t met (which may mean there is a problem you don’t know about), analysis comes in handy. There are many sections where you could have gone wrong: design, usability, marketing, targeting, innovation.
One by one, check all the segments and find out where you’ve missed out. Consider getting a fresh look at the project. Hire UX agencies to work on better user experiences and strong marketers to see if you’re using an outdated strategy.
If something doesn’t perform as well as it can, there are reasons. And you need to find them through diligent analysis and apply proper solutions like incorporating tech advances, automation, reducing loading speed, improving accessibility, etc.