How Customers Really Feel About Mobile Applications
The study used EEG headsets and eye-tracking glasses (measuring what users looked for first, last, most and least) in order to take a look into the user’s brain activity while they made purchases using a mobile device. The user’s attention, along with positive and negative emotions, were measured while the 30 subjects (14 females, 16 males) completed transactions in three different mobile commerce apps: Pizza Pizza, Best Buy, and Hyatt. The user journey included the following steps:
- App download and open
- Browse products and services
- Select a predetermined product or service and add to cart
- Go to checkout
- Purchase by entering personal information
Since the days of Mad Men, marketers and advertisers have relied on surveys and focus groups to understand what customers want. However, people will always act on how they feel and not what they say. This is where neuroscience comes in, to measure the emotional engagement of a communication and to optimize it for a specific audience, says Diana Lucaci, Founder and CEO of True Impact Marketing.
Mobile shopping is a highly competitive area and brands are fighting a fierce battle to engage users on their mobile devices. The key to driving loyalty using mobile is to create a great user experience that people find helpful, useful, and easy to navigate.
Jason Hyde, Creative Director at Plastic Mobile, says: There is a definite science to creating great usability in apps and now we can measure the subtle layer of quality that’s associated with a well-designed user experience. The insights will help brands understand why taking the time to design high-quality mobile apps is so important.
According to the researchers from True Impact Marketing and Plastic Mobile, knowing what users are actually seeing, feeling and paying attention to can help brands and businesses design a stellar mobile user experience. Results state what what people said and what they felt was not always aligned. The report titled “The Science Behind Mobile Design” is available for download here and you can also watch a video about the results here. The authors claim that the insights and recommendations will offer a new perspective on mobile user interface design and usability testing, while helping marketers better understand the overall mobile user experience.
I enjoyed reading the full report and I appreciate the efforts put into presenting the research. Good luck with future research, True Impact Marketing and Plastic Mobile!
