Any website or online application that has been developed has a problem that it was designed to answer. The problem may be creating invoices, scanning bar codes, ordering food from restaurants or clothing from boutiques, or even keeping track of your steps. Whatever the issue, it’s feasible that the app was created to address a user’s issue; however, in today’s world, almost all issues have solutions. Numerous apps are readily available to address almost all issues. Therefore, you need something to entice users to switch from the app they are using to yours when creating your own app that addresses a specific issue. What do you need, and where can you find it? In this essay, I’d respond to these queries.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO ENTICE USERS
What could you possible do to move users to you app? The answer is straight forward, build something better. Fix the issues that users have with other programs. These programs work, however they occasionally encounter issues. Applications can occasionally be difficult to use, making it difficult to do specific tasks or access certain features. You only need to address the issue that competing apps have in your own design in order to attract users to your app, along with having top-notch designs. Your design is your selling point since it is what people initially see. Never overlook the design phase of your app development since, no matter how functional your app is, consumers won’t switch to it if it doesn’t have a good design.
HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PROBLEM THE USERS ARE FACING
You might be asking how you would be aware of the problem people are having with other applications. You need to conduct a competitors analysis in order to learn what problems people are having. What is a competitor analysis? As the name suggests, competitor analysis simply entails examining other competitors, or other apps that address the same issues as your own. Competitor analysis is the process of locating competing companies in your sector and learning about their various marketing tactics. In order to determine your company’s strengths and weaknesses compared to each competitor, you may utilize this data as a point of comparison.
Competitor analysis is one of the various research method available for user experience research. It is a technique UX researchers use to understand the competition, identify opportunities, and find an edge. This analysis provides UX design teams with valuable insights to develop a UX strategy to enhance a product’s user experience and business value. UX competitive analysis focuses primarily on design and interaction. The competitor analysis shows you users pain points so you work on it on your own app.
STEPS TO DO A UX COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
You could be asking yourself, “How can I do a competitors analysis?” I will talk about the 10 stages that make up a complete competitor analysis.
- Industry Analysis: You must have in-depth understanding of the sector for which you are designing the app. Analyzing the industry in its whole is the first step. For example using the Fintech industry I can say
“A youthful population, increasing smartphone penetration, and a focused regulatory drive to increase financial inclusion and cashless payments, are combining to create the perfect recipe for a thriving fintech sector. However, the sector is still relatively young. As Africa’s largest economy and with a population of 200 million — 40 percent of which is financially excluded — Nigeria offers significant opportunities for fintechs across the consumer spectrum, notably within the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and affluent segments and, increasingly, in the mass-market segment.”
- Outline Goals & Priorities: Ask yourself why you are conducting this competitive analysis and what you intend to accomplish. For your analysis to stay on track, be explicit in your aim and design emphasis.
If you’re trying to create a Fintech, for instance, you can say that the goal of your analysis is to thoroughly examine and research the journey and procedure people go through to fund their accounts so that you can identify trouble spots and capitalize on joyful moments.
- Identify Your Competitors: You have to make a list of all your competitors
Name: MajPays
Platform: iOS and Android
Market share : Approx 17%
Summary: MajPays is arguably the biggest financial service provider in Africa and not just in Nigeria alone, they also offer an online payment gateway for merchants to get paid via credit cards and debit cards. But MajPays offers comprehensive services because they’re affiliated with more than 40 different banks in Africa and they’re currently partnered with Paypal to allow merchants to get paid via Paypal.
- Define your Analysis Methods: In this stage you state the method you would be using to analyze this app.
Will be analyzing MajPays by speaking to the users.
- Outline User Goals You want to Analyze: Here you state the goal you want to analyse
For example 1.) Fund account 2.) Set a scheduled transfer
- Outline User Journeys For use goals: You create a journey of the all the steps you go through to achieve this goals.
- Outline Features for each Journey: Create of a table of the features on all the pages involved to achieve your goal.
- Launch Test for User Journeys: Test each feature on the table to see which is the ideal.
- Conduct A SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) are the four components that make up the strategic planning technique. You may assess internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) elements that have an influence on your product or design choices using the SWOT framework. SWOT analysis is frequently used in strategic planning to find possible competitive advantages. It’s a common technique in UX competitor analysis since it may identify problems with the product and provide a solution rapidly.
- Document & Present Findings: At this stage you just need to create a document for your research.
COCLUSION
Before you start designing your product, it’s crucial for UX designers to do in-depth research and discover as much as you can about the competitors. It helps you create a better product solution and makes your design selections better by looking at the competitive landscape through various frameworks. Utilizing the results of a UX competitive study, you can finally provide a better product that enhances the value of your brand.
You can contact me on [Twitter] [LinkedIn] on via email okeziejephtah@gmail.com
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