—TechRound does not recommend or endorse any financial, gambling, betting, trading or investment advice, practices or operators. All articles are purely informational—
It is fascinating how some apps captivate your attention while others fall hopelessly short of expectations. We see it all the time- mobile apps that are immersive, engaging and thrilling. For those who believe it’s hit or miss, think again.
It’s a deliberate design and development strategy intended to drive engagement. The app developers burn the candle at both ends, expecting to create the ultimate user experience. All sorts of features, functions, and in-game elements go into it.
Gamification is a big part of the appeal. A loose definition of gamification is a non-game system that uses gaming-style elements to create a sense of community through engagement, achievement, and participation from players. Interactive apps with level-ups, rewards, badges, and audiovisual encouragement are examples.
Genuinely successful mobile applications are deeply invested in behavioural traits. This is geared towards enhancing user engagement and ramping interaction to fever-pitch levels.
Think of the thousands of quality apps currently populating the App Store, Google Play Store, or native apps. They are locked in fierce competition, but the cream always rises to the top. Much of this concerns the psychological principles of user engagement with applications.
Remember, it’s all about creating habit-forming practices with apps. If apps don’t succeed in bringing users back again and again, they render themselves useless. While the techniques are subtle, they are powerful, and it is imperative to understand the psychology of mobile app engagement.
What is Cognitive Load?
Here’s a fascinating concept deeply rooted in psychology. It describes how much mental acuity is required to utilise an app. The objective of app design and development is to minimise the cognitive load.
In other words, it’s about making apps more straightforward, engaging, and streamlined. App developers certainly don’t want users or players to struggle when trying to download and install apps, use their features and functions, or update them.
There are many examples of minimised cognitive load apps that are intuitive, like papaya solitaire. The fact that this app is appealing and comprises a user-friendly interface works in its favor. The app’s reward-based elements, playability, cross-platform functionality, feature-rich A/V elements, and instant updates make it a hit sensation with fans.
Of course, many other apps fit the bill, notably fitness apps that provide instant feedback and gamification with rewards like virtual celebration balloons or level-up achievements for achieving fitness goals for the day, week, month, or year.
It’s always about making the user or player feel like their presence matters and their actions count. Customer appreciation is a big part of app design and development. And consumers are fully aware of this.
Scores of competing apps offer similar or identical products and services, entertainment options, and rewards programs. To stand apart from the crowd, apps must be exceptional. In today’s culture, it’s all about instant gratification. But app users also want to feel like they have earned their accolades; therein lies the balancing act.
By personalising apps to user or player expectations, an instant connection develops. As time passes, this becomes a deeper and more meaningful relationship between the technology and the user. The more we engage with apps, the stronger the psychological bond between the human and machine paradigms. T-Mobile Tuesdays is an example of a popular app that does a lot of work as an account management and reward system.
Consumers always check their usage statistics, but they’re also engaged in the app’s gamification elements through the rewards program for members. For example, $5 movie tickets are often offered for the latest releases through the app to members. This reduces the cognitive load required to enjoy the existing platform.
How Important is Bias with Apps?
Cognitive bias and confirmation bias are essential considerations when designing and developing apps. Our innate characteristics as individuals factor into how we interact with applications. Consider the anchoring effect as a case in point.
This occurs when customers, players, or users rely heavily on the first thing they encounter in an application. This is the hook that anchors them to the application.
If you like the user interface and the features, it creates a mental anchor for you. Many examples, such as pricing options, quality offerings, discount/sales, and limited-time offers, abound. Often, an app will present users with information that has a long-lasting effect. For example, if an item is priced at X$, but the app offers it at less than X$, users feel like they’re getting value from it.
With confirmation bias, users choose apps that align with their thoughts and reinforce their selections because of their psychological bias. For example, a liberal may watch MSNBC and download the MSNBC app to strengthen their thinking with others who share the same opinions. A conservative may download and install the Fox app to reinforce their opinion and thinking.
These are pre-existing beliefs confirmed by deliberately made choices. This is a powerful way to drive engagement. Again, cognitive load, a psychological construct is imperative.
The app’s success is downgraded when too much is thrown at users or things are too tricky to navigate. The converse also holds: an easy-to-navigate app with all the features and functions users want, which decreases their cognitive load and makes it more appealing.
—TechRound does not recommend or endorse any financial, gambling, betting, trading or investment advice, practices or operators. All articles are purely informational—
