Product experience is not good? Let’s take a look at the three steps to improve user experience!

We prefer to develop new features (or products) because we can see the effect in a shorter time, it is more challenging, and it seems to better reflect one's ability. Especially in this era where everyone advocates agile development, everyone is desperately rushing forward, fearing that they will fall behind their competitors and be preempted by their competitors' new features, so they often ignore the user experience of existing features.

If you develop a function and then abandon it, not only will you waste manpower and financial resources, but you may also fail to attract more new users and cause the loss of existing users due to poor user experience. That's really not worth it.

Since improving the experience of existing functions is so important, how can we optimize existing functions and improve user experience? I have summarized a method, a three-step method to improve user experience. The method is for your reference only. If there is anything unreasonable, please correct me.

The three steps are as follows:

• Where am I now? What are the issues with the existing functionality?
• Where am I going? That is, setting goals for existing problems, that is, what results do we want to achieve?
• How to go? What is the solution?

Below, I will briefly introduce the three steps to optimize existing functions and improve user experience through a practical case.

Where am I now?

Why do I need to first clarify where I am and what the current problems with the product are? This is like a doctor treating a patient. Only by clarifying the patient's problem can he prescribe the right medicine.

Let’s take a look at the following case.

Nowadays, apps generally need to obtain the user's location permission, make personalized recommendations based on the user's location, provide accurate services, and bring a good experience to users. I am also used to allowing apps to obtain my phone's location permission by default when using apps, so that I can filter the information I need according to my location, which is very efficient.

However, such a practical positioning function, if not implemented well, is likely to be criticized and complained by users, or even lead to user loss.

Now there is a function of online car wash reservation. Users can first select the car wash location and time online, fill in other necessary information, and complete the reservation operation. After the reservation is successful, you can go to the car wash shop to wash the car at the scheduled time, which can greatly save the user's waiting time at the store.

Since you need to select a car wash online, you need a "nearby car washes" viewing function, which can display nearby car washes from near to far according to the user's location (here we mainly introduce the positioning issue, and do not consider the situation where the user manually searches for car washes, etc.), so you need to obtain the user's current location first to accurately display the information of nearby car washes.

However, although the user has enabled the app's permission to obtain the phone's location, the phone's GPS positioning has not been enabled. At this time, the page has been in the Loading state because it cannot obtain the user's location information. It is not until 1 minute later that the prompt message "Failed to obtain location, please check whether your permission to obtain location is enabled" pops up.

There are three main problems with this function:

The response is slow. When the user's location information cannot be obtained, it stays in the Loading state for 1 minute, which is too long.

Studies have shown that if the feedback result is displayed in less than 0.1s, users will not notice it; if the feedback result is displayed in more than 1s, users will notice the delay; if it is more than 10s, users are very likely to turn around and leave. On mobile devices, the time standard is even shorter, and it is usually said that "3s wait", that is, on mobile devices, if it exceeds 3s, users will turn around and leave.

The prompt message is unclear. It asks the user to check whether the location permission is enabled, but the user has clearly enabled the app to obtain the phone's location permission.

The operation path is long, and there is no direct entry for users to turn on location information. Users need to leave the app first, then turn on the location information switch, and finally return to the app to operate.

Where am I going?

Once we have identified the existing problems, our goals will also be clear. For the above three problems, our goals are:

• Fast response, response time <1s.
• The prompt information is clear and unambiguous.
• Simplify the operation path and provide a direct entrance to location information settings.

How to get there?

How to do it is to provide corresponding solutions based on our design goals.

1. First, we can propose a preliminary solution

• If the user has not enabled location information, you can provide a default value to improve response speed.
• The user's problem is that the location information (GPS) is not turned on, so we can directly remind the user that the location information is not turned on.
• Provide a direct access to location information settings on the prompt interface.

2. Secondly, competitive product analysis

Competitive product analysis is to verify the feasibility of our solution. At the same time, if competitors have better solutions, we can also learn from them.

(1) Competitive product selection

You can choose no more than 5 competitors. You can choose competitors in the same industry, or non-industry competitors with the same functions. Here I chose ICBC app, CMB app, and Meituan app.

(2) Competitive product analysis

After selecting the competitor, we can use the "process analysis method" to see how the competitor handles the above problems.

a. Let’s first look at the processing flow of the ICBC app

If the user has not enabled positioning and enters the "Life" page, the user's last positioning information or the location information that the user last manually selected will be automatically displayed.

Click "Current Location (Hefei)" to enter the "Please Select Province" page. A pop-up window will pop up saying "Positioning service is not enabled. Please check whether the switch is turned on in the settings" (fast response, <1s). Click the "Agree" button to directly enter the "Location Information" settings page of the mobile phone. After turning on the location information switch, click the "Return" button. The "Please Select Province" page will automatically display the user's current location.

If the user clicks the "Reject" button in the pop-up prompt, the pop-up prompt disappears. At this time, the prompt message "Positioning failed, please click to retry" can be seen on the current page, and the user is provided with an entrance to the "Location Information" settings page (just click the "Retry" button).

b. Let’s take a look at the processing flow of the CMB app

If the user has not enabled positioning and enters the "Life" page, the user's last positioning information or the location information manually selected by the user last time will be automatically displayed (the processing logic is the same as that of "ICBC").

Click "Current Location (Hefei)" to enter the "Select City" page. A message will pop up at the top of the page saying "You have not enabled the location service and cannot locate your location" (short response time, <1s). Click the "Go to Enable" button to enter the "Location Information" settings page on your phone. After turning on the location information switch, click the "Back" button. The "Select City" page will automatically display the user's current location.

c. Let’s look at the processing flow of the Meituan app

When the user does not turn on positioning, the default city is provided to the user, and a "prompt bar" is directly displayed at the top of the page to remind the user to "turn on the location switch and immediately get nearby food, drinks and entertainment" (fast response, <1s).

Click the "Open" button to enter the "Location Information" settings page of the mobile phone. After turning on the location information switch, click the "Back" button and the homepage will automatically display the user's current location.

If the user closes the prompt bar on the home page, they can also enable GPS positioning in the following ways:

• Click "Current Location (Hefei)" to enter the "City Selection" page. The user will be prompted "Positioning failed, click to retry" at the top of the page. After clicking this prompt, enter the "Location Information" setting page of the mobile phone. After turning on the location information switch, click the "Back" button, and the "City Selection" page will automatically display the user's current location.

Conclusion :

• Through comprehensive comparison, we found that the above three competing products responded quickly when the user's location information was not turned on, and all provided default values. The prompt message about the location information not being turned on was also relatively clear, and a direct access to the location information settings was provided, which provided a good experience.

All of the above have verified that our solution is feasible.

Let's take a look at their prompt methods. The three competitors use different prompt methods. ICBC uses a pop-up box, Meituan uses a prompt bar, and CMB uses neither a pop-up box nor a prompt bar, but directly displays the corresponding prompt information on the top of the page. The pop-up box is quite disturbing to users and will interrupt their operations, while CMB's prompt method has a relatively weak reminder effect on users, so we can refer to Meituan's handling method and adjust the product's existing pop-up box prompt to a prompt bar.

3. Finally, prototype design

(1) If positioning is not enabled, we can automatically display the user's last location information or the location information that the user last manually selected. If there is neither the user's last location data nor the user's last manually selected location data, a default location information can be provided, which can greatly improve the page's response speed.

(2) A “prompt bar” is displayed at the top of the “Nearby Car Washes” page (this method is moderately disturbing to the user and relatively eye-catching) to remind the user that “Positioning failed, please enable your location service”. The user clicks the “Go to Enable” button to directly enter the “Location Information” settings page on the phone. If the user closes the prompt bar, the user can click the “Go to Enable” button below the search box on the current page to enter the “Location Information” settings page again.

(3) Similarly, the “City Selection” page also needs to add relevant prompt information and an entrance to the location information setting page, but the “City Selection” page only needs to add prompt information, otherwise the double prompt bar will cause great disturbance to users.

Summarize

Don’t underestimate a bad design. It not only wastes users’ time, but also makes users lose confidence in the product, ultimately leading to user loss.

Therefore, as an interaction designer, you should not only pay attention to new functions, but also pay more attention to the user experience of existing functions. The "three steps to improve user experience" can help us discover problems in the product, clarify design goals, prescribe the right remedy, and quickly improve the user experience of the product, while effectively avoiding the waste of manpower and financial resources.