By: Steph Dlugon
When I was a little kid I read every “Choose Your Own Adventure” book I could get my hands on. A few years later (circa 1985) you could catch me playing interactive story games like Bard’s Tale on now ancient computers. But even now as an adult, I find I’m still drawn toward interactive forms of entertainment. Over 25 years of monkeying around on computers and various game consoles has made me, and a whole generation of technophiles, connoisseurs of interactive entertainment. Mobile apps are my latest playthings. But what I’m learning with apps is that there’s a fine line between engaging me, and frustrating the crap out of me.
Good developers keep the user experience in mind when creating an app. I recently looked at a number of retail shopping apps for the iPhone and was generally disappointed by them. Here’s why.
Adding Stuff Because We Can
Upon launching, one retail app prompts me to enter my zip code. When I do, the app opens to a “Local Suggestions” page that shows me the current temperature and a list of products that seem to be loosely related to my location (which is Cleveland by the way). Why on earth would a shopping app take up the valuable home page to display the weather and then suggest a full size, authentic, Cincinnati Bengals football helmet that costs $259.99 to me? Location awareness is cool, but in this case, it’s not being used effectively or efficiently.
Spending Time on the Wrong Functionality
I’m amused by gift finders and other fun in-app extras, but they shouldn’t be the highlight of the app. If I’m using a shopping app, I want to shop. And I want my shopping experience to be safe, easy and convenient. A surprising number of mobile shopping apps by BIG name retailers are missing this boat on this obvious list of demands. Instead of incorporating useful functionality within the app, they’re simply redirecting shoppers to mobile versions of their sites and creating a frustrating shopping experience.
Wild Goose Chase
It’s easy to spot the less sophisticated shopping apps. They lack common sense features like the ability to search or browse for products. Instead, they group things in categories. This inefficient method can get frustrating because multiple products end up in multiple categories.
