Effective user engagement is critical to make your product stand out. If you want your product to be more than just a “gimmick” then you’ll have to invest time and resources into improving user engagement. Audit the performance of your product in the following areas to see which of these could stand to improve to increase user engagement.
Improve the User Interface (UI)
The window into your product’s features is through the user interface. Is your product’s user interface as clean and simple as it can be? I’ve seen demos of lots of products that have a great set of features only to be spoiled by a lackluster user interface. An effective user interface is no longer a luxury, it is now a necessity. Users correlate the effectiveness of your product with how it looks. If the user interface is poorly laid out and improperly formatted (not responsive) it will increase the likelihood of your users becoming frustrated. To increase user engagement start off by seeing what you can improve about your product’s user interface.
Improve the User Experience (UX)
You always want to ensure your product has a pleasant user experience. Can your users quickly and easily get your product to do what they want? Is navigating your product intuitive for your users? These are all important aspects of user experience to consider when looking to increase user engagement. A poor user experience will only frustrate your users and possibly send them back to the marketplace to find a new product. Keep a close eye on user experience to ensure optimum user engagement.
Educate Users When On-boarding
One of the most effective ways to quickly increase user engagement is to ensure your users are properly educated on how to use your product. Users are typically eager to get started using your product so this is the perfect time to educate them about using your product’s main features. I’d recommend configuring your product to show users a few screenshots or highlighted buttons to indicate where and how they can access the main features of your product. Training and educating users on how to use your product is one of the most effective ways to quickly increase user engagement.
Improve Your Product’s Performance
Product performance has become increasingly important over the past few years. It is becoming more and more difficult to capture new users if your product is lacking in performance. The latest data are showing that milliseconds can make the difference between a captured or lost user session. With performance becoming this competitive it is important to make sure your product is up to the task. If you are building a website, run your site through the Google PageSpeed Insights test to find some possible areas for performance improvement. If you are building a mobile app, instead of using a hybrid framework that relies on the performance of the web, consider instead using something like React Native which more closely emulates the experience of true native mobile app performance. Improving your product’s performance is an excellent way to increase user engagement.
If you’d like to learn more about product management or talk more about the services I offer as a product management consultant please feel free to reach out to me at sean@nxtstep.io. Keep disrupting.
