Analysis of Users of Applications for macOS

Consumer analysis is crucial as a result of it helps to check individuals’s conduct, wants, and motivations. UX designers are sometimes liable for a transparent interface. Nonetheless, product managers and marketing departments additionally want to check consumer habits and assist designers enhance the interface.

Merchandise are developed primarily for the customers. We analyze what choices they use, why they selected this product, what they don’t like about rivals’ merchandise, and many others. They continuously work together with the product and take note of utterly various things than we beforehand thought within the firm. Though there isn’t any common checklist of questions to grasp the wants of customers higher, there are particular factors that we’d advise you to contemplate.

This text relies on the Nektony software program growth firm’s expertise creating Mac cleanup functions. On this article, we’ll let you know how we chosen customers for in-depth interviews and evaluation of our functions and what we modified in our merchandise because of the info we acquired.

A typical mistake when analyzing customers

Up to now, once we made some modifications to merchandise, we frequently relied on our personal subjective opinions of what can be higher for the customers. Nonetheless, product utilization situations amongst firm staff could be very totally different from the utilization situations of actual customers. Whenever you work with a product for a very long time and know all its choices and capabilities completely, you take a look at the interface, usability, and many others., in another way. Subsequently, firstly, it’s mandatory to check the ache factors of shoppers and ask them about doable modifications within the product.

How to decide on interviewees

Originally of the product evaluation of Nektony apps, we confirmed the merchandise to everybody we knew, associates and colleagues from different firms, and requested them what they thought concerning the apps. However, as I famous above, this isn’t the proper method. Later, we began working solely with actual customers who as soon as contacted our technical assist service.

Among the many letters in assist, yow will discover many customers who could also be loyal to the corporate.

• First, it’s not chilly contacts we’re reaching out to. We already communicated efficiently with them; they contacted us, and we solved their issues; that’s, they remained happy clients.
• Secondly, individuals who write to technical assist to unravel a query (relatively than go, for instance, to some discussion board and complain) – normally it is a particular class of people who find themselves able to share their ideas, spend their time to make the product higher for personal use sooner or later. So, such individuals willingly comply with turn out to be interviewees.
• Third, these are actual customers, not hypothetical ones. Interviews with such customers present extra accurate data on what precisely they like and what they don’t like, which choices are used extra usually, and which aren’t clear.

Stage 1: Gathering contacts to whom we’ll write concerning the interview

We promote our apps by means of the App Retailer and our web site worldwide. Nonetheless, we didn’t choose respondents by nation. The principle criterion for amassing respondents is the extent of their loyalty to the corporate, which characterizes the extent of their willingness to comply with an interview. In our case, the assist service all the time provides the shopper’s loyalty tag after speaking with him when fixing points. So, downloading an inventory of such contacts was not an issue.

Stage 2: Sending letters and making ready for the interview

We ready a letter asking you to comply with an interview and assist us make our product higher. We despatched these letters individually, not by means of a mailing service, as a result of personalization is essential. Typically, we experimented with the content material of the letter. We modified it relying on the historical past of interplay with the individual, in addition to on the outcomes of responses to my earlier letters to different individuals.

You may instantly provide a bonus to the consumer for the time spent, for instance, one other app as a present or a reduction on the subsequent buy. However my private opinion is that it’s higher to offer a present to the consumer after the interview as a pleasing bonus. From expertise, these individuals who agree to supply an interview, not for a bonus, are normally extra within the outcomes of the interview. They’re actually extra loyal and open — extra prepared to speak concerning the execs and cons of the appliance for them personally, and many others.

Earlier than beginning the assembly with the respondent, it’s critical to arrange a script. It may possibly change a little bit relying on the individual. The respondent ought to be relaxed, and all the dialog ought to be in a pleasant ambiance.

Stage 3: The interview

Approaching the interview itself — The first purpose and all our inquiries to respondents encompass understanding the next:

• Who’s a consumer of the appliance?

• How will customers be divided by sorts? (Like situations of conduct, relying on age, sort of exercise, pursuits, and many others.)

• How precisely do individuals use our apps? (launch frequency, most favourite choices, why they selected our product, and many others.)

• What’s the product’s most vital worth to customers?

Now, we’ll briefly discuss concerning the situation of communication with the respondent in accordance with the pre-prepared script. It is usually essential that you just open a doc or have a paper the place you’ll take notes.

• Introduction: greetings, remembering to say thanks for his or her time, and asking some brief questions of the individual to gather details about the nation of residence, sort of exercise, age, and many others. In fact, you don’t have to ask straight about all this; for instance, you may mark the approximate age of an individual (perceive visually), or in the event that they let you know how they spent the weekend with their household — you already know their household standing and life-style. At this stage, I additionally requested how lengthy the individual has been utilizing a Mac as a result of, in our case, it is rather essential. The individual’s consumer habits could depend upon this.
• Permission to document a video. In fact, we have been making notes, however the video recordings allowed me to return to the interview, examine it extra deeply, and make a transcript of the dialog.
• Finding out the appliance utilization situation. We requested the individual to run our app and use it of their regular mode with out my feedback. Within the course of, you may ask the individual questions — however make sure that you don’t distract them from the standard actions in this system.
• Query. After observing the consumer’s actions, we requested them extra questions: open and closed questions. Listed here are some pattern questions:

Open questions:

1. How did you discover Nektony applications, and why did you select them?
2. When was the final time you used MacCleaner Professional, and what performance did you employ?
3. Which choice was tough so that you can perceive and why?

Closed questions:

1. Was this or that performance in this system helpful for you?
2. Would you want us to vary the app’s interface?
3. Is it doable to get again to you after a while for a re-interview?

To sum up. At this stage of the interview, you may ask the interviewees if they’ve any questions for you. Hear! And provides a bonus present as a thanks to them for his or her time.

Sudden outcomes from interviews

Lots of the consumer responses got here as an entire shock to me and all the crew as an entire. Issues we by no means paid consideration to and thought that customers didn’t want in any respect turned out to be a major a part of their interplay with functions:

• Sound results. Folks prefer it when apps have sound results after they launch or press buttons. It wasn’t essential to anybody on our crew, so we didn’t even give it some thought earlier than.

• Welcome window and outcomes. Folks just like the animations when this system begins and additionally after some motion, corresponding to cleansing the disk. Folks needed to see a window with congratulations on their profitable outcomes (to point out the completion was carried out accurately). Quite the opposite, we all the time tried to simplify this system and do away with pointless home windows and consumer clicks.

• Texts. Folks don’t wish to learn. Beforehand, we tried to all the time add an explanatory textual content to 1 or an alternative choice in order that the consumer might familiarize himself and make sure of his actions when cleansing the Mac. So, we shortened all these texts and left solely the necessary ones. You will need to make the names and icons of every choice clear in order that all the things is intuitive with out textual content. On the interview — it turned out that not all choice icons have been comprehensible to customers.

• Expectations. The consumer typically expects one thing utterly totally different from this system or a sure choice. Earlier than including any new options, it’s higher to conduct interviews and check your hypotheses. Our firm retains an inventory of all needs from customers. Earlier than including a brand new characteristic, we first analyze this letter, kind by the variety of requests, see how many individuals are searching for such a characteristic, and solely after that decide about the necessity to add a brand new characteristic.

Stage 4: First prototypes and repeat interviews

It can be crucial that after analyzing the mandatory modifications within the applications, prototypes ought to be made and re-shown to customers. As we mentioned above, typically you might encounter unreasonable consumer expectations. Listed here are my subsequent steps earlier than finalizing product modifications:

• Preparation of prototypes. There could be many prototypes. In my case, I made greater than 20 prototypes till we selected essentially the most handy model of the interface.

• Demonstrating the prototype to customers. This stage is a repetition of all our earlier steps, the place we observe exactly how the customers use the appliance on the first launch, how a lot all the things is obvious to them, which choices they noticed at first, and which they neglected. It occurred when the customers used the choices — they selected in another way than we supposed. Then, we redesigned the product.
• Ultimate decision-making. Once we lastly discover an choice that’s comprehensible to customers, we will hand over the duty to the designer and all the development team. That crew then works on the modifications within the applications.

Examples of modifications primarily based on interview outcomes

Utilizing examples of the interface of a few of our applications, we needed to point out what modifications occurred in them, because of the evaluation of consumer wants by means of interviews. This course of should not solely be about UX design but additionally should think about rethinking some choices and the necessity to present these choices to customers.

App Cleaner & Uninstaller

Beforehand, on the first launch, the consumer noticed the details about the variety of applications on their Mac, the variety of service information, and extensions. We discovered that this data scares many non-geek customers who don’t perceive what service information are used for. We additionally added the Skilled Mode Possibility, and solely on this mode can the customers see the checklist of service information that shall be deleted when uninstalling applications. The typical consumer doesn’t wish to see these information; they solely wish to click on on one “magic” button — and for this system to unravel their downside instantly.

Earlier than Unneeded data in the proper panel. The principle choice under this data is within the blind spot.	After The principle operate for which this app is downloaded is now in the proper panel.

Duplicate File Finder

Through the interview, it turned clear that every consumer has their very own targets when utilizing the appliance. Some customers wish to discover solely duplicate pictures within the Photograph Library; others run this system to merge their folders with duplicates. We all the time information them in accordance with the situation of looking for all duplicates they’re comfy with.

Beforehand, they needed to take further steps to succeed in their purpose. So we utterly modified the primary window and added totally different features to it — instantly — in accordance with teams of consumer wants.

Earlier than	After

Disk Area Analyzer

Through the interviews, it turned clear that persons are extra acquainted with and perceive when the appliance interface is much like the interface of system applications on macOS. For instance, individuals discover it simpler to click on on folders and discover their contents, as they’re used to doing within the Finder, relatively than clicking on a chart. So we’ve added a Folder Define file view as carried out within the Finder.

Earlier than	After

MacCleaner Professional

It can be crucial for customers to see animations, stunning photos — and a minimal of textual content. Due to the truth that we took all this into consideration within the new design (after the interviews), we managed to make the appliance extra comprehensible for the consumer and enhance buy conversions after downloading the trial model.

We additionally added the “magic” that customers requested for — cleansing all junk information in a single click on.

Earlier than	After

Ultimate suggestions

I like to recommend transcribing every particular person interview after which utilizing the Worth Proposition Canvas to determine consumer values and wishes. This subject wants a separate article, however you may google it and discover loads of details about this course of. Take the time to do the next for the very best success.

• Alternate experiences with different product managers and present them the product. Sure, these managers aren’t your customers, however typically they may give you helpful recommendation, relying on their expertise.
• The consumer likes to be led by the hand and informed what to do subsequent after every step.
• Make the command names and icons as easy and clear as doable to be instantly comprehensible with out extra textual content.
• Combining performance and displaying extras, like extra choices the place the consumer doesn’t count on to see them, is a nasty thought.
• Carry the principle performance of this system to the beginning window (as proven above within the Duplicate File Finder instance).
• Be very cautious with letters to technical assist. It’s a storehouse of knowledge from the place you may get loads of insights into what’s essential to customers. Quick and good technical assist is the loyalty of your customers and the chance to additional interact with them for the development of your organization.

 

We hope that our expertise and examples are useful for you and offer you many insights of your individual.

Featured Picture Credit score: Supplied by the Writer; Thanks!