Do Not Be Afraid to Eliminate Poor Features from Sites

A recent UX case study made some interesting points even though the design of the study was terrible. It isn't mobile-friendly and it forces desktop users to click through for each one to two paragraph blurb, like click-bait. The top findings in the study include:

User Retention

Triggers are very useful for retaining users. A good UX design uses internal triggers and external triggers. An internal trigger is something which evokes an emotion, such as we've missed you with a sad person or animal. External triggers are emails or notifications. Combining the two is a good way to get people to reengage. However, too many notifications from an app will annoy people and risk losing them forever.

Options

Presenting the user to too many options to reengage causes confusion. Make one choice prominent and if there are other choices, they shouldn't compete with the one you want the user to select.

Sunk Cost Effect

People will continue doing something, such as engaging with an app if they already have time, money or effort invested in it. They are reluctant to cut their losses if reminded of their investment.

These UX findings mainly app to app developers, specifically developers who design apps for young adults. In web design, the most important UX factor is functionality. Yes, it's important to have clear calls-to-action and to avoid too many options, but it's not necessary to remind users what they have already invested in a site. It's more important to offer an experience that makes visitors come back without tricks.

UX developers role in user retention is to always consider the end-user. People like consistency; elements should be where users expect them. Sites should load quickly; more than three seconds is annoying.

Good UX designers don't need a study to tell them what makes a good UX design; they simply create a website which provides a great experience at every step of the visitor's journey. For more information click here https://growth.design/case-studies/duolingo-user-retention.