10 Things Mobile Users Hate
Of course users hate apps that don’t work – or don’t work as expected – but that’s fairly obvious. What about the things that mobile users hate that aren’t so obvious? Here with a great list of such things is Mashable. Here are a few of my favorite (and by that I mean worst) mobile pet peeves:
Irrelevant Push Notifications
Yes, many of us put close friends and family into a list on Facebook, so we could stay abreast of what’s going on in their lives. But do we need to know every single time they upload a photo?
Push notifications annoy us even more if they’re delayed — it’s not breaking news if someone else broke it hours before.
What does a relevant push notification do? Look at Foursquare, for instance — when you walk by a venue that’s on your to-do list, the app reminds you that you wanted to go there, so it’s an actionable, contextual pop-up.
When Great Apps Are Abandoned
If a developer builds an awesome app but then abandons it, users might abandon it. When seemingly minor bugs persist, frustration builds among users. ExitStrategy is a good example of this — the app is fantastic but can be a little buggy, and it hasn’t been updated since August 2010. And still, it has a loyal following; imagine what would happen with a few little tweaks.
Frequent “Rate This App” Requests
Positive ratings in the app store can help to push downloads. But we’re probably doing a million other things and just need to check the weather real quick before heading out the door — we don’t want to be stopped and redirected to the app store to rate the app. And if a user has just deleted the app, you probably don’t want to ask for a review. I mean, he just deleted it — he’s likely not going to give it a good review.
So when are “rate this app” requests okay? We’ll let them slide in the wake of a major update (emphasis on the major).
Non-Wrapping Text
Not everyone can read size 10 font. If a user is zooming, your text should wrap so that he doesn’t have to drag the screen across manually to read each sentence. Responsive design is the way of the future — and we want it now.
