How to design and build a ‘sticky’ app

Ritam Gandhi, Founder and Director, Studio Graphene

App downloads, usage, and engagement has exploded over the past year, as the pandemic saw general user activity skyrocket, with apps capitalising strongly on the increased share of attention. This is nothing new; indeed, for the past decade the inexorable growth in popularity of mobile applications has been impossible to ignore. The reasons for this are clear; a well-designed app provides a content platform for businesses and creatives which offers a more engaged, personalised and dependable user experience than traditional CRM such as email, while eschewing dependency on social media platforms affords direct content with freedom from the algorithmic ebbs and flows associated. The efficacy of applications for a variety of purposes is well-established, as is their increasing market edge over other forms of customer or client communication. The real question is why apps have spiked so dramatically in use in recent years, and how this phenomenon can be capitalised upon. A recent study conducted by App Annie suggests that the average global user now clocks 4.2 hours each day just using apps on smartphones. This is up 30% when compared with only two years prior. This is not solely a question of the market penetration of high-performance smartphones reaching the threshold required to see significant user focus for any contained platform – indeed, further research has found that most users spend the vast majority (87%) of their screen time using apps. This points towards the innate worth of app development as a means of reaching a significant user base, and servicing an existing audience. As such, an unavoidable design preoccupation is ‘stickiness’. It is clear that there is a healthy appetite among users for more and better applications, in a saturated market that appears to be growing sustainably. Accordingly, developers and clients should look to affirm a core set of foundational principles to guide the delivery of the application and ensure it is able to onboard and retain users more effectively than others offering similar functions.

An engaged user base is the name of the game when building a sticky app. As such, the starting point should always be user experience (UX). Well-designed UX will make the app intuitive to use, guide users seamlessly through the core functions and utility, and can indicate both visually and kinaesthetically that the app is easy to use. In most cases, this will be a user’s first contact with the brand or content, so a strong first impression is crucial. UX which is unintuitive is likely to frustrate users, and result in hasty exits from the app. After onboarding, it is important to plan strategically to keep users returning. With access to huge amounts of ongoing user data, the temptation for developers will always be to troubleshoot all issues as they arise to tweak their app to perfection. This should be handled delicately, with updates carefully considered for instinctiveness and proximity. Overwhelming users with consistent fixes and overhauls is likely to confuse and disengage users – a long-term growth strategy may prioritise tuning the user interface (UI) and UX to appeal to new users, but existing users should not be ignored.

Next steps

Once these fundamental approaches are in place, developers should consider what the app itself will do. It is important, in such a crowded marketplace, to strike the right balance between innovation and familiarity. For instance, while leaning on the established zeitgeist visual language of apps is a good shortcut to an intuitive app, an over-familiar app will appear obsolete and outdated to a user. The most important aspect of creating ‘stickiness’ is to avoid crowding the app with ideas and content. Apps have overtaken browser platforms for a number of reasons, but the key ones to bear in mind are accessibility, simplicity, and convenience – smartphone operating systems are almost unfailingly designed with seamless interfaces with little clutter, so it holds that apps should look to follow suit. Developers should ensure they avoid distracting users from the core function they visit the app for, or complicating the UI resulting in disordered user journeys and confusion. The hypercompetitive app market can be intimidating for those launching products – but sticking to these fundamental principles will go a long way in gaining a competitive edge. App stores across mobile systems are overwhelmed with low-quality and needlessly complex platforms, with unfocussed design process and minimal consideration for user retention. In a fast-paced mobile digital landscape, holding user attention will be critical in getting the most out of an application. Those who concentrate on considerately tweaking their primary function, and consider the app experience as a whole from the user side, will be well-placed to capitalise as app usage continues to propagate in the years to come.

Ritam Gandhi, is the Founder and Director of Studio Graphene – a London-based company that specialises in the development of blank canvas tech products including apps, websites, AR, IoT and more. The company has completed over 100 projects since first being started in 2014, working with both new entrepreneurs and product development teams within larger companies.