We Don't Need Mobile Apps. Do We?

A product evangelist I recently spoke to, as part of a technology forum asked, “Why do we need mobile apps?” At first, I got into an argument on how the mobile apps are changing the world. Changing the world – yes to some extent. But are mobile apps REALLY changing the world? Am I saying that creating another billion mobile apps will wash out out poverty, reduce crime, provide reasonable healthcare to senior citizens or other valuable benefits to the society? May be not. I kept wondering about this for next couple of days.

This article is not a justification to the million dollar question, “Why do we need mobile apps?” This is a view of how I think mobile apps can impact the world in its own way.

We need mobile apps for three reasons if not more:

1. People are mobile and expect products to be accessible on the move
2. Mobile app is another new channel
3. Mobile app is a strong touchpoint in customer experience

Let us look at each one in detail.

People are mobile and expect products to be accessible on the move

According to a study done by Statista in 2018, the number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019. In 2016, an estimated 62.9 percent of the population worldwide already owned a mobile phone. The mobile phone penetration is forecasted to grow, rounding up to 67 percent by 2019. China was predicted to have just over 1.4 billion mobile connections in 2017, while India was forecast to reach over one billion. By 2019, China is expected to reach almost 1.5 billion mobile connections and India almost 1.1 billion. 

Most of the mobile market growth is attributed to the increasing popularity of smartphones. The users are all over the smartphones. So where should the products be?

The products better be on the smart phones.

Consider Oracle, SAP and other enterprise giants. Each one has built a mobile offering in the past 10 years for better outreach to their customers and users.

Mobile app is another new channel

A channel is the medium of interaction between a customer and an organization. Mobile app is a key channel in today’s world.

Each organization has its own set of relevant channels built over a period of time. Some prefer brick and mortar stores, while others are on the internet. Even on the internet, organizations are faced with the question of whether they must just have a a website or a mobile app, live chat support, chatbot or some latest technology offering. Take the example of Pepsi soft drink. Users can buy it from supermarkets, retail stores, order it from online marketplaces or vending machines placed in public places. Now, Pepsi might be faced with the challenge of adding a mobile app as an additional channel to users. Just adding a mobile app offering may not increase the sales right away, but it does become a new channel to users using mobile apps.

Note that adding a mobile app may or may not generate revenues in many industries. It is up to the organization to decide if adding a mobile app works well with the overall product strategy and if it can impact long term sales and revenues in a positive way.

Some organizations may even create their own unique channels to support their business. For example, Amazon’s dash buttons are Wi-Fi connected physical devices that allow users to reorder a product from Amazon with one press. Take a look at the video HERE.

Mobile app is a strong touchpoint channel in customer experience

During a customer journey, a user may interact with an organization several times using different channels. Each of these interaction instances represents a touchpoint between the customer and the organization.

Customer touchpoint is the interface of a product or service with users before, during, and after a transaction. Touchpoints go a long way toward defining customer experience and an organization in general.

Consumer habits are changing to a mobile-first lifestyle. Everyone is a fingertip away. Take the example of airline travelers. 1 in 4 airline leisure passengers worldwide is mobile only. "Mobile only" passengers own smartphones and tablets, but not desktops/laptops. Given these insights, mobile app is a critical part of the customer touchpoint.

The users expect an omnichannel experience. Consider a simple traveler journey from flight shopping to the airport: Users search flights on the mobile app, continues flight booking process on the website, receives tickets over email, completes check-in on mobile app, receives boarding passes over email and mobile phone wallet, enquires about baggage allowance over chatbot (linked to the mobile app and/or website), asks specific questions using voice commands on the app, receives notifications about flight on the mobile app, books a taxi to the airport on the app and finally gets to the airport.

The above example is just one type of customer journey. Some users might book flights on the mobile app and perform other interactions on web/chatbot/email/toll free phone lines. The whole idea of plugging in the mobile app into the customer journey is not forceful in this context, rather the need of the hour because users *ARE MOBILE* most of the time.

What about Progressive Web Apps?

There is no denying that progressive web pages/apps, iOS app spotlight, Android app slices and other recent technologies are simplifying the complexities introduced by mobile apps (like download/install/uninstall hassle, offline availability etc). Having said that, one must note that newer technologies do not necessarily pre-empt older innovations all the time. Rather, some new technologies augment the value offered by older innovations and even take them to a higher level of value.

So, What's the Future for Mobile Apps

The future of mobile apps does not lie in adding to the existing trash pile of mobile apps in the market. The future lies in integrating mobile apps seamlessly into the daily lives so pervasively that they no longer need to be used by unlocking the phone, tapping on a few commands and waiting for them to respond. Take a look at this short video summarizing the work of the great David Rose.

The future I believe in does not rely on how many websites, mobile apps, chatbots or phone channels are stitched together to onboard more users and charge them.

The future I believe in makes technology SO HUMANE that we humans do not have to open a laptop to access a website, or unlock a mobile phone to access an app or put your mouth close to a hardware device and make orders.

The future I believe in works so seamlessly that it almost seems HUMAN without challenging me on my intellect, emotions or privacy.

Sadly, today, we have left ourselves far far behind!

Fortunately, we have some humane things happening around us. Stay tuned!

NOTE: I am talking about the future of mobile apps in my upcoming talk, "Enchanting Experiences - The Future of Mobile Apps" at Sydney. If you are in Sydney, then come say Hi at Test Bash Australia 2018. 

Is Sydney too far or too expensive? Take a look at an old version of this talk HERE. 

Customer Touchpoints

This article was originally published on TechWell.

When testing a product, testers often are focused on which flow the user executes or how the user interface looks. It can be easy to neglect how support processes such as call verifications, email communication, online chat, and service request processes function. Does a user receive a welcome email upon joining the site? Does he get a verification call from the company? How is a complaint from a user handled?

These are all examples of customer touchpoints: the interface of a product or service with users before, during, and after a transaction. Touchpoints go a long way toward defining customer experience and an organization in general.

Key touchpoints include:

• The organization’s website
• Its brick-and-mortar store
• Calls and text messages
• Email
• Chat channels
• Service requests
• Feedback
• The field service team

How user feedback is handled also builds credibility to the organization’s care for the users. If an email complaint from a user is never acknowledged or responded to, she likely wouldn’t try contacting the organization again. Instead, she would complain online in a forum or over social media, sharing her poor experience with millions of people and possibly discouraging others from buying the same product or service.

Measuring Customer Touchpoints

Products have to be tested for different touchpoints to measure users’ experiences. Consider an example where the user needs to call a call center in order to activate a new cell phone number. Testers could use a questionnaire with queries such as:

• How long did it take to get to the call center analyst?
• Was the analyst courteous while communicating?
• Did the analyst take corrective action appropriate for the situation?
• How did you feel about the entire interaction?

These questions might seem unrelated to testing, but it’s just that instead of testing the product, they’re testing the process. And if we don’t test the processes that serve our users, the products themselves will fade away.

Another technique to measure customer touchpoints is recording calls and emails from customers. The traditional approach is to measure response times in seconds or minutes, but this leads to analysts responding to customer calls or emails in the quickest possible time rather than focusing on actually solving problems. Many call recording procedures now are monitored for studying the patterns of calls and improving the effectiveness of resolving customer issues.

The goal is always to provide users with a delightful experience, but this can be especially important when it’s in response to an initial customer complaint. Bigbasket.com is one of the leading online grocers in India. Bigbasket has a no-questions-asked return policy and compensates a customer every time it is not able to deliver as promised, resulting in high customer loyalty and repeat business.

It is becoming increasingly important to create good customer touchpoints because users are no longer looking just for products that serve their needs—they also want engaging experiences while using the product.

I presented the tutorial User Experience Testing: Adapted from the World of Design and the session How to Design a Custom Mobile App Test Strategy at STARWEST 2015, between September 27–October 2 in Anaheim, California.

Testing for Errors

This article was originally published on passbrains blog HERE.

Great designs transform the way we live and we all act as designers in our own simple ways. When we rearrange objects on our desks, the furniture in our living rooms, and the things we keep in our cars, we are designing. Through our designs, we transform houses into homes, spaces into places and things into belongings. While we may not have any control over the design of the many objects we purchase, we do control what we choose to purchase.

Faulty Designs

A year ago, at least 40 people were killed in a tragic accident involving a private Volvo bus on the Bangalore-Hyderabad National Highway. The incident happened when the bus was reportedly trying to overtake a vehicle at high speed and hit a culvert and caught fire. Before the passengers could realize what had happened, they were charred to death. Investigations revealed that this accident was a result of poor design and absence of safety measures in the bus.

Faulty Designs

The point here is that design can play a key role in making or breaking products. Volvo bus was never designed to hit the culverts nor was it tested for that. However, the driver ended up hitting the culvert. If faulty designs are not tested in multiple contexts like these, it can wreak havoc. Faulty designs are a result of inaccurate mental models perceived by designers and users contrary to system images of products that exist in real. Let’s take a brief look at what mental models are and how they can help us in creating better designs that handle error situations effectively. 

Mental Models

A mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person's intuitive perception about his or her own acts and their consequences. Mental models can help shape behaviour and set an approach to solving problems (akin to a personal algorithm) and doing tasks (from Wikipedia).

Mental Models

According to Don Norman, there are three aspects to mental models:

• Designer’s model: The model present in a designer’s mind
• User’s model: The model a user develops when he sees/attempts to operate the system
• System image: The way a system operates, the way it responds, manuals, instructions etc.

Every designer builds a model of the system or product while the user will have a mental model of his own. Any inconsistencies in these models lead to errors. But errors should be easy to detect, they should have minimal consequences, and if possible, their effects should be reversible.

Testing for Errors

While speaking, we can correct ourselves if we stumble or mess up. Products and systems often do not correct themselves because they are only as intelligent as the people who built them. This leads to “slip” which is the most common error – when we intend to do one thing and accidentally do another.

Well-designed products allow us to detect slips through feedbacks. For example, in a delete operation, it is good to ask for a confirmation to verify if the user wants to proceed. If that operation is irrevocable, it is better to warn him of the consequence and take his consent. A general heuristic is to never take away control from the user.

Recoverability of errors is a key aspect in designing products. When errors do occur, the following should happen:

• Give visibility to the user of what was done
• Do/Show/Tell the user what went wrong
• Indicate how the user can reverse unwanted outcome
• If reversibility is not possible, indicate this to the user

  

Error Messages Coverage

Error messages coverage can be achieved at multiple levels:

Errors-based Scenarios Testing

Testers could get a list of all error messages programmed into the product and design scenarios for each and every error message

Negative Testing 

Negative testing is not the same as error messages testing. In error messages testing you start with known error handling and test it. This is essentially "positive" testing for error handling code. In negative testing, however, you think differently. Negative testing means to "negate" required conditions. In other words, you consider all the things that the programmer/designer requires for his code, then systematically block those conditions. Example: the program needs memory, so reduce memory

Recoverability Testing Matrix

Every error message needs to be tested for Recoverability. 

• Visibility to the user of what was done
• Do/Show/Tell them what went wrong
• How the user can reverse unwanted outcome
• If reversibility is not possible, indicate to the user what needs to be done next

Some Examples

Failure Usability Heuristic by Ben Simo

Error Elimination Testing by David Greenlees

Feedback Parser by Santhosh Tuppad

** This article is inspired by Don Norman’s book “The Design of Everyday Things”

** Negative testing input was provided by James Bach

Regards,

Pari

Supportability Experience & Customer Touchpoints Testing

This article was originally published on passbrains blog HERE.

eCommerce industry sector is burgeoning in India with new players starting shop every now and then. But what is it that sets Flipkart, India’s largest online retailer, apart? Flipkart identified 2 key problems in the eCommerce world – delayed delivery and poor customer service. They fixed these problems and made online shopping a delightful and memorable experience for their customers. There is no surprise why Flipkart is being touted as a competitor of Amazon.

Applying this analogy to the testing world, while testing a product, more often than not, testers are focused on which flow the user executes or how the user interface looks. What goes missing is the level of attention and detail to support processes like call verifications, email communication, online chat, service request processes and other services. Does a user receive a welcome email upon joining? Does he get a verification call from the company? Do they call the user if his need is not addressed beyond a certain time? How is a complaint from a user handled? This describes the supportability experience of the product.

Customer Touchpoints

A customer touchpoint describes the interface of a product/service with customers/users before, during and after a transaction (adapted from Wikipedia). Several times, a user is not just unhappy with the product/service, but customer touchpoints too. As a user, think of yourself. How many times did you stop yourself from visiting that supermarket whose attendant didn’t pay attention to your questions? How did you feel when you were the first to enter a pharmacy, yet the pharmacist served customers who came after you? Supportability factors go a long way in defining customer touchpoints and how they feel about the product and the organization in general.

Supportability Factors

What are the factors creating product loyalty? Are they in the product itself? Price? Color? Quality? Quantity? Others? Great user experience is a sum total of all the above listed aspects including supportability factors listed below:
• Calls / SMSes
• Email
• Chat
• Service Requests
• Feedback
• Field Visits

If a user calls customer care and is put on hold for 30 minutes, he would not like it. If he gets 20 messages a day on his phone after buying a product, he would be annoyed. If an email complaint from the user is never acknowledged or responded to, he would never complain again to the organization. He would complain in public over the internet by writing his story of poor experience, with a wider reach and visibility and hence, discouraging other users to buy the same product/service.

If an organization provides a chat channel but a support personnel is not available to support customers, this damages the reputation of the organization. From time to time, users might raise service requests (or tickets) to solve problems on the products they are using. If the tier1 and tier2 analysts don’t know anything about the service requests they handle, it becomes a showdown of sorts. How are user feedbacks handled also lends credibility to the organizations’ care model for the users. When a field service technician from the organization visits the user’s site to fix the product or replace it, user’s experience with the technician goes a long way in defining whether the user will remain loyal or not.

How to measure Customer Touchpoints?

Supportability factors are the key to determine whether customer touchpoints are good or bad, if the products are making a good impact or not or if the customers/users are sticking around or saying goodbye. Products have to be tested for supportability factors to measure users’ experience at several touchpoints. How do testers test for it? There is a way.
Testers can come up with a survey questionnaire that asks questions about different support factors. Let’s take an example of the activation process for a new network connection on a cell phone. User needs to call the call center, provide details to them and get the network activated which usually takes up to 24 hours in India. We could come up with a list of questions like:

Supportability Rating Matrix

These questions might seem unrelated to testing but they are testing related in reality, because if we don’t test the processes in the organization that serve products and product users, excellent products might fade away in a short time period. Apple became the Apple it is today because of the time and money they spent on every little detail associated with the product – be it the product itself or the packaging, the color of the product, support experience and so on. It is becoming increasingly important to create good customer touchpoints because users are no longer looking just for products that serve their needs, but also for engaging experiences while using the product.

What customer touchpoints have you had trouble with? Share your experiences.
Regards,

Pari