Organizing UX for Large Scale Mobile Apps

Just wanted to share a few pics of the inter-workings of designing a large scale app that crosses vast social media integration and numerous content touch points. A considerable amount of time is put into organizing, structuring and designing such a product so that it will make sense for end users and appear simple and easy to use.



Forgoing these steps at this level will ensure confusion and ultimately the absence of returning users to your ecosystem. I have taken traditional website building methods and modified them to develop a system of what I am calling a 'Tap Map'. Very similar to a site map, but in this instance you can easily see where particular parts of the app are nested inside each of other and how many taps deep a particular piece of content is. This also allow certain pieces of information to be accessed in multiple ways inside the app without having flow lines and arrows running wild.

Mobile is definitely a different animal and as such the traditional web way of tackling things no longer makes as much sense. Within the confines of iOS and android each screen has to have special attention paid to it whereas in many web design instances content flows more freely and design is more about building buckets to drop things in. A few dozen page designs for the web will quickly turn into a few hundred for an app if attention to detail is taken into account. Adding touch and gestures to the user experience changes the architecture and every element has to fit in a particular place within the fixed dimensions of the screen. Links and more info to come soon - once this product is launched. Big stuff on the way, stay tuned.

Usability at the Pump

For a commodity that gets so much of my money, it seems little (if any) thought or planning has gone into the research of customers interacting at the gas pump.

With every new station it seems there is an entirely different payment system and process. The order in which you select a grade of petrol, the random chance of being asking for your zip code or the unpredictable inquiry about whether or not I want a car wash - when all I really want is the gas to begin flowing.

My personal favorite of poor customer experience would be the "Do you want a receipt?" prompt. This turns into a trick question and seems to be handled differently at every pump. Generally it will say something like, "Would you like a receipt?", then below it have a "Yes" and a "No" next to side buttons that you would think correspond to those choices… But not always! There is actually a tiny button on the the manual keypad that says "Yes Receipt" and one that says "No" in mouse print.



It reminds me of an occasion when I wanted a delicious Snickers bar from a vending machine. Below my treat that was being held hostage in a giant cork screw it said, "D14". I put in my money.. I press "D", then I press "1", and before I can hit the "4" the machine starts cranking and a pack of gum falls down to the chute. Perhaps I should have known that there was actually a "14" button and all of my years interacting with a base-10 keypad were just nonsense.

With the amount of money consumers spend at the pump every day, it would be nice to invest the tiniest portion of that into making it a bit easier to take my money from me. Here is a very simple idea to start with.

1. Create a mobile app. Not one that just has a store locator and nothing else. Create a free, useful app for your chain of gas stations that doesn't suck.

2. Allow the "bump". Once I have set up a secure account I should be able to simply bump my device on a pump console to pay. (Some stations have a plan you can join and carry an extra key fob with you for this - but what is the point of that really? I get that its on my keys and I should notice it and go there, but once its on there with every other place that thinks its a good marketing idea it just becomes a clump of garbage I carry with me and never look at.)

3. Integrate cool tools. Track me when, where and how much fuel I have bought over time. Add in mileage tracking that would normally be a paid app. Tell me if my car is being efficient and green and all that trendy stuff. Ask me for my mileage when I am waiting on my tank to fill up - or tell me I can buy a hot dog on a rotating machine just inside the door. Give me the ability to email all my records to myself or my accountant.

4. Send push notifications. If you know how often I buy gas, and if you prompt me to enter my mileage - it wouldn't take much to figure out when to send me a push notification to "bump" in the next 24 hours for a discount on the gallon. You could even notify me if I am near a station when you think I am getting close to the "E".

5. Time savings. Make it easy and quick. If you did all of this really well and it could save me time as a customer (instead of searching for the "Yes Receipt" button) - then perhaps you really would have the beginning of a loyalty program that could work. I don't really want to go into the whole reason why social media integration could also work here, but I could at least tell my friends, "Josh has gas" on my fb profile for fun.

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After reading my post my friend Christine told me she had gas too. So much so that she felt the need to snap a photo at the time and then create this little animated gif of the experience and send it to me. Thanks Christine!

Mini Golf & Mobile Apps

In celebration of a friend’s birthday Saturday night we played miniature golf. At 8 p.m. it was still a hot and humid Texas evening, but one thing that changed it was the fantastic idea to search for a mobile app that would keep a running score of the 11 people who came to compete.

Nothing is more frustrating that finishing last place on the mini-links other than one thing - the daunting task of being the score keeper. Generally this task somehow seems to always fall on my shoulders, giving me two choices, 1. hurriedly try and calculate who was winning from hole to tee each time, or 2. the blind approach of calculating once after hole 9 and then hoping for the best end result.

Tiny score cards and 3 inch pencils as sharp as my finger do not add up to fun. Thankfully with the cliché statement "there's an app for that" the night changed course.

Mini Golf Score Card by Baliza GmbH was the real winner for the evening. It easily lets you add players and change their respective ball colors to keep track of the madness. It keeps a running score so you know exactly who is up or down and how many strokes separate them. And it even allows you to remember that sweet putt putt victory forever by emailing out the results.



Not a big amazing breakthrough App, but certainly a useful utility that makes scorekeeping less stressful and the game more exciting. It’s the little things that count. And I lost by one stroke! Dang.

Mobile Apps - Does your business need one?

Great infographic from BuySellAds...