As mobile app design continues to evolve, app designers are fervently working to improve product design and performance.
And the reason for that can be summed up in two simple words: User Experience (UX).
Keeping UX at the centre of your decision-making when designing your app can help fulfil your needs for both functionality and an appealing design.
It can also help you foster meaningful relationships with your customers, encouraging trust and long-term loyalty.
Enter: The importance of microinteractions.
One of the most important aspects of UX-focused app design are well-placed and carefully chosen microinteractions between the app and the user.
Today, we’ll explore the potential microinteractions have to empower your app to connect with your audience.
Let’s get started!
What are microinteractions?
Microinteractions are responses to individual tasks performed by app users.
These responses can acknowledge a setting change, such as vibrating the device when a user toggle switches to physically engage users
- Suggestions and password rule reminders to serve as guides for use
Microinteractions are powerful because they keep users engaged by helping them feel connected to the experience of using your app.
And that brings us to …
Why microinteractions work
Microinteractions are “micro” because they’re considered small-scale interactions. This means they’re momentary experiences someone may have within your platform that, on their own, may not be memorable.
If someone were to survey a dedicated follower or loyal customer of your organisation about why they feel connected, it seems unlikely that they would point out the easy-to-use volume control in your app or the helpful prompts that appear when filling out one of your forms.
But the collective experience of feeling supported, guided, and informed by these features can create a positive feeling for your brand.
Features that provide helpful information about how to use your product or service (especially for SaaS brands) can also cultivate long-term benefits. Once users are comfortable with your platform, they may become less likely to seek out a competitor and learn a new interface.
Use microinteractions to help your users feel positive, confident, and informed when they think of your organisation.
Types of microinteractions
With such a broad definition, different types of microinteractions can appear throughout your mobile app and serve lots of purposes. Here are some of the most common microinteraction categories.
Display status
The time users must spend waiting for content to load can be tricky to manage. Ask people to wait too long without acknowledgment and you may see your bounce rate increase.
However, you may find that content that loads too quickly also falls short of your goals.
Finely tuned microinteractions can guard against distraction and also create the feeling that your content is worth waiting for. Loading screen graphics, such as percentage bars, pie charts, and spinning wheels are common visual cues that can help boost user anticipation.
Some apps also incorporate brief, written content here as well.
Pro tip: Use a paragraph rewriter to test different copywriting tones, lengths, and styles before finalising your app messages.
For instance, Duolingo has mastered this by incorporating a cute graphic and an auto-generated fact, promotion, or encouraging message related to their services into each load screen.
This not only gives users a healthy dose of anticipation, it also reiterates the value they can receive by dedicating just 15 minutes a day to the app.
Emphasise changes
New content, messages, and opportunities need to be highlighted and microinteractions have the power to do that just right.
Some common examples include an indicator for newly received inbox messages or a small animated graphic to draw attention to a new app feature.
For instance, the popular productivity and communication app, Slack, features colourful and intuitive indicators for new direct messages, mentions, and activity in each user’s channels.
Matchr, one of the best payroll software platforms available, succeeds in part because of its highly effective use of powerful microinteractions. Users can see staff payment approvals confirmed with money symbol graphics and upcoming months in a colour-coded schedule.
Respond to user input
As users deepen their engagement with your app, microinteractions can make users feel seen and encourage further use. This can be an important step in developing or strengthening the relationship between your brand and each user.
For instance, apps that involve order placement or multi-page forms should continually make clear to each user where they are in the process and how to navigate forward or backward.
For example, when Doordash users place an order using the company’s app, they’re able to monitor a simple progress bar at the top of the screen. This is also an ideal place to include specialised offers and discounts.
If your goal is to share information, small animations and visual cues can improve your data storytelling and visualisation.
Whatever you’re trying to share with your audience, how you choose to respond to their user input will play an important role in shaping their UX.
Calls to action (CTAs)
CTA microinteractions support brand goals and play off user activity.
The microinteractions that can work best here build on the relationship you’ve created between your brand and the app user by expressing sensitivity to their experience.
For instance, a text banner that reads “sorry to keep you waiting, here’s 10% off for the wait” can be a helpful response to a user that’s waiting for a late order to arrive.
Or a pop-up that reads “buy these items again” can offer a helpful reprieve to a busy user that’s navigating through your app at record speed.
Additional things to keep in mind about microinteractions
Here are some other important things to keep in mind when adding microinteractions into your app experience.
Source or create high-quality graphics
Simple, eye-catching graphics are a basic requirement when it comes to app design. The design of each user interaction should support the overall visual theme of your platform.
If you don’t possess the graphic design skills to do it yourself, don’t worry.
Because compatibility across devices is crucial for successful app design, vector graphic libraries can be a great option. You can easily scale or change these images without losing quality.
You might also consider using AI image generators to make creative, unique images for your UX animations. For instance, tools like Picsart’s AI allow you to turn words into custom-generated images.
You can produce these images in many styles, from abstract to photorealistic, to fit seamlessly into the overall layout of your app.
Offer gated content and resources
To maximise your chances of achieving your goals, consider whether you’re implementing microinteractions that bring users value.
If you’re unsure, a simple way to deliver value is to offer additional resources like gated content and free downloads.
For instance, Onboard offers a board meeting minutes template in exchange for a few pieces of user information in a readily embedded form. And some stock apps offer free trading and investment guides to new subscribers and trial users.
Other examples of gated content include:
- A link to an eBook teaching the user a new skill relevant to your industry
- A pop-up inviting the user to subscribe to your email list
- An alert reminding the user about their opt-in options for your upcoming webinar
Monitor your audience
Keep an eye on users as they navigate through your app.
Be sure to offer plenty of survey and feedback opportunities so you can identify changing needs and course-correct as needed.
Be sure to also offer users plenty of ways to learn how to use your app via ultimate guides, videos, and tutorials. Integrating a solution like LOVO, an AI voice generator, can significantly enhance your video creation process for tutorials and guides. You can also use an AI companion app like Kindroid to act as your audience and test with it.
This technology offers a diverse range of realistic, human-like voices, allowing you to produce high-quality, engaging audio content for your videos without the need for professional voice actors. You can easily tailor the narration to suit different languages and regional accents, improving accessibility and personalization in your app’s support and learning materials.You’ll also need to provide support options, including language support, technical support, and general customer support.
Wrap up
As we’ve seen, employing personalised microinteractions can help your app foster an engaging user experience.
These interactive responses can set positive expectations, highlight important information, and respond to users’ input. Most importantly, they can guide members through your app’s features to ensure they have the best experience possible.
That’s it for today, friends.
Are you ready to use the power of microinteractions in your mobile app design?
To your success!
Author Bio: Ioana Wilkinson
Ioana is a freelance content writer and SEO strategist for B2B and B2C brands specialising in Business, Digital Marketing, SaaS, Tech, and Mental Health. Born in Transylvania, raised in Texas, and transplanted to Barcelona and Mexico, Ioana’s most recent move has taken her to windy Oklahoma City.