You’ve heard the saying “There’s an app for that.” What an understatement! There may be a hundred apps for that. So how can your app stand apart from the crowd? How do you make a Killer App that users love and recommend to their friends and colleagues?
It’s not a secret, but it’s damn hard to do.
"Killer App" Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1 cup functionality
1-1/2 cups ease of use
1 cup delight
DIRECTIONS
Step 1: Get to know your users. What jobs do they need to do? What frustrations do they have performing those jobs? How can your software make their work easier? Selecting the highest priority jobs (and leaving out lower priority jobs) will yield the most delight.
Step 2: Layer your app’s navigation in a way that makes sense to your users. Do NOT give them access to all functionality on one screen. You may think that makes things easier for users, but it only results in cognitive overload and makes it harder for new users to learn your app. Some jobs are more important for your users, or there’s a sequence to their workflow. Take that into consideration. Make it obvious to your user where they are in your app at all times. They’ll thank you for it.
Step 3: Slowly add the delight. If you haven’t done a great job on steps 1 & 2, it’s impossible to add delight to your app. If you’ve prioritized the most important functionality and designed the app to work the way they expect it should work - you’re well on your way. Now you just need to add a pinch of magic pixie dust to create a refined and beautiful design.
Step 4: Build your pixel-perfect app. Spend as much time as you need doing design QA (Quality Assurance)
Step 5: Serve your app piping hot on the App Store!
Why this recipe is so tricky?
Many of you may be familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Aaron Walker, in his book Designing for Emotion, describes a hierarchy of user needs that is similar to Maslow’s. He says that superior needs like pleasure and delight (at the top of the pyramid) can only be achieved after foundational needs like functionality and usability are fulfilled.
Here’s my take on the user needs hierarchy - showing the areas where most apps fail to become killer apps: Gaps of Execution.
GAPS OF EXECUTION
Let’s assume for a moment that an app creator has found a legitimate reason to build an app. They know that if they build the app, it’ll make it easier for countless people do their jobs. The Product Manager has a clear vision for what the app is, and also for what it isn’t. The Dev Team knows how to build all the functionality that’s required. Sounds easy. Now they just need to execute. But they'll need to bridge two very significant execution gaps in order to create their Killer App.
GAP #1 - Making it Usable
Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, ease-of-use is in the mind of the user.
Most app creators think their app is easy to use. Sadly, they’re often mistaken. Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, ease-of-use is in the mind of the user. Common mistakes are making the app work in a way that doesn’t match how the user thinks it should work. We call this a mismatch of 'mental models'. The Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) published a good piece about mental models here.
Another common mistake (especially in a complex apps) is to give the dozens of different things they can do from their home screen - mistakenly thinking this will help them. I liken this to someone dumping a big drawer of wrenches, screw drivers, saws, clamps, etc. onto the floor in a pile and saying “There. Now you can do any job you want to from this pile of stuff.” Behavioural scientists call this 'cognitive overload'.
Does your app's home page feel like this?
Better to categorize your functionality into ‘buckets’ and let the user choose which to use. Getting the organization and navigation right is critical. Your users need to know where they are at all times, and feel like they know how to get around.
GAP #2 - Making it Delightful
Let’s assume that the app has great functionality, and they’ve worked with a UX Professional to get the user experience and visual design just right. That should be enough to guarantee a delightful app, right?
Wrong. Now you have to build it and faithfully implement that great design. The design (and hi-fidelity prototype) are handed over to the Dev Team. The developers do their best to implement the design. But their primary concern is making the functionality work reliably. That's the way their engineering brains are wired. A UX Designer is someone who deeply understands and cares about how users feel while using the app.
The critical step that's missing from the vast majority of the projects I've worked on over the years is Design QA (Quality Assurance). This involves budgeting for your designer to vet the app builds as they happen, to make sure that what gets built is exactly what was designed. And you need to ensure that your Dev Team is accountable to make all of the changes required by your designer. This requires time, money and fortitude. But for the few who take this final step, the payoff is a Killer App.
Adequate Design QA is the only way to make sure that what gets built is exactly what was designed.
Need some help creating your Killer App?
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