It’s easy to understand why many businesses develop mobile apps to satisfy their target audience’s needs. The problem is that only some mobile applications become successful because businesses let their opinions rather than data drive their decisions. 

Data science and data analytics are necessary to outclass the competition and succeed. They give tailored insights to help you make the right decisions in hours rather than days. In this article, we’ll discuss why data is the main game-changer in the mobile app market and provide insights into designing user-centric mobile apps using data.

How Does Data Make Apps Better?

By reading mobile app development blogs, we can conclude that data science is taking centre stage. In app design and development, the mission of data science is to make things look, feel, and work better. The mission is achieved by the following steps:

• Finding the app’s target audience, aka who’s using the app, where they come from, their age, and the types of devices they use.
• Knowing the hot hours when these people use the application and how long they use it.
• Understanding what app parts/functions users like the most and where they typically get stuck.
• Calculating how much money the app makes thanks to happy users.
• Testing different approaches to catch problems, avoid issues, and fix errors, if any.

For most businesses, data science has become the weapon that makes better software and happier users. So, how should this weapon be used?

Quantitative and Qualitative Data for App Design

There are two data types when it comes to mobile app design: quantitative and qualitative. Each type serves a different purpose. But you can choose only one type and go with it. They work in complex, complementing each other.

Quantitative data uses metrics to tell designers and developers about what an app user is doing, how frequently they’re doing it, and when they’re doing it. These metrics are page views, conversions, and click-through rates. So, the main task of quantitative data is emphasizing user trends and usage patterns.

The types of questions answered by qualitative data differ since instead of answering the what questions, it answers the whys. This type of data assists app designers and developers in comprehending users' emotional drivers and barriers that influence their decisions. This type of data can be collected in diverse ways: focus groups, user interviews, or usability tests.

What Is User-Centric Design?

According to a 2023 Statista report, the global number of smartphone mobile network subscriptions has reached 6.7 billion. This means that almost 90% of the world’s population owns and uses a smartphone daily. This new principle of software development, where data science plays a major role, takes these statistics into consideration. 

Data is obtained after analyzing user preferences, behavior, and feedback, tracking their paths, studying their interaction, and identifying pain points and areas of joy. This science gives designers and developers the knowledge to create apps that deliver the best experience to end-users. Overall, this approach assists in making engaging, intuitive, and responsive software.

Data-Driven Analytics

There was some analytics before. But it wasn’t enough. In addition to traditional interviews, usability tests, and surveys, modern designers and developers are profiting from using Hotjar, Mixpanel, and GA4 to monitor the activity of mobile apps and websites. Employing various heatmaps, they now know app areas that are interacted with the most. They see popular features, pain points, and new development challenges.

Data-Driven A/B Testing

Yes, there should be a place for design-focused A/B testing. For instance, a designer can develop several design iterations and then test each one to see which performs better than others. This approach also allows for determining the most successful design elements, comparing interactions and conversions, and making data-driven decisions backed up by data. 

Data-Driven Design

Previous knowledge and some intuition have always been powerful tools for helping designers create app interfaces. Though this approach may have worked in the past, it lacked accuracy or depth. When a designer gathers and comprehends user data, analyzes the insights received, and has profound knowledge of how end-users interact with an application, they make knowledgeable decisions in line with real market requirements.

Data-Driven Personalization

Data helps designers get valuable insights about user preferences and, based on them, create customized user experiences. What is this personalization for? It’s been proven that customization boosts user engagement and enhances conversion rates. For instance, fintech institutions can provide personalized services based on user history, while e-commerce applications can suggest similar goods. 

Data-Driven Improvements

There’s hardly a better route than using data. In the post-production phase, designers need more time to study user flows and identify drop-offs or flaws in the user experience. This approach is immensely helpful for lessening contentious issues.

Data-Driven Creativity

Data-driven insights are the middleman between the original design and new creative ideas that suddenly appear. They give a precise understanding of user behavior and the whys behind it and explain where and when creativity is a suitable option and when it should be avoided. Data helps to create a design that will appeal to consumers on a deeper level, evoking their emotions and even empathy. 

Conclusion 

Data is the foundation behind the user-centric design of mobile apps. Data science and data analytics are essential for creating an app that promotes corporate growth and meets the needs and expectations of users. 

If you invest in data quality and protection on every level of software development (and especially when designing an app), the app you create will allow your business to reach its full potential. Isn’t that what you’re looking for?