4 guiding principles of mobile login

With so many people using mobile for browsing and purchasing, it’s worth investing the time and thought to create a great user experience’

Today, 4.6 billion people own a phone and over half of them are connected to the Internet. Next year, 64% of mobile phone owners are expected to be logged onto the web, according to a report by Statistica.

As mobile users grow, companies have to follow best practices to keep users engaged. This includes UX, UI, design, providing value and understanding when less is more. Here are four guiding principles of mobile login.

1. Providing value

For users to continually engage with your app you need to provide value. If you want them to register with personal information you will need to provide this value upfront so they are willing to disclose their email and other pertinent information. It is your job to clearly articulate the value you offer at the point of registration to encourage conversion.

2. Less is more

The more hurdles and barriers a user has in their mobile experience, the less likely they are to continue using an app. Mobile is traditionally harder to use than desktop, shown by the fact that conversion rates for checkout are 3% on mobile, compared to 28% on a desktop.

Walk through your mobile process and try to eliminate any unnecessary steps and consolidate wherever possible. You will be more likely to keep a user interested and engaged with a simpler platform.

If you are struggling to determine what can be removed and what should stay, ask yourself three questions. One, is it mission-critical to know a customer’s zip code immediately? Two, is it more valuable for the user to create an account and capture their email? And three, what is most important in order to make a better first impression and get them through the door?

Remove distractions and make your call to action clear for the user.

3. UX and UI

If you have a bad UX and UI, users will not come back to your mobile experience. This seems like common sense, but take into account the following challenges on mobile verses desktop.

Consumers are less tolerant of mistakes in compressed spaces. They don’t have a mouse or keyboard, so they want the app to be easy to use. On mobile, many desktop functions take more effort and have higher barriers: switching between tabs, copying and pasting, going back to a previous screen, and having multiple tabs visible at once. Registration and login add an extra step to the consumer’s experience. Make this barrier as unobtrusive as possible to avoid abandonment and frustration from the user.

4. Fingertips

Mobile screens are small and our fingers are not tiny. Apps that have cluttered spaces or text links cause user frustration. Keep fingers in mind when designing interfaces.

By following simple guiding principles for mobile login, you can maximise the user experience for mobile. It’s a different experience than desktop, but with so many people using mobile for browsing and purchasing, it’s worth investing the time and thought to create a great user experience.

Sourced from Russell Loarridge, EMEA managing director, Janrain. Janrain is a customer identity management platform on the cloud. It helps companies build a unified view of their customers across all devices by collecting accurate customer profile data to power personalised marketing.

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Ben Rossi

Ben was Vitesse Media's editorial director, leading content creation and editorial strategy across all Vitesse products, including its market-leading B2B and consumer magazines, websites, research and...

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