CRyder Design

App Store Reviews are Significant: Here’s Why

The Apple app store that we all know and love, but did you know that it can provide helpful information to UX designers?

App Reviews

I’m sure at some point in time you’ve spent a bit of time scrolling through the reviews in an app store. Laughing at all of the poorly worded negative ones and reading through some of the positives. But, did you know that those reviews can provide profound insights to the designers and developers? It’s true! When a user reviews an app, oftentimes they are providing a real unbiased opinion of an app. This is gold to a user experience designer. With these reviews, they are able to learn what users like, dislike, and think could be improved.

Most reviews in an app store can be categorized into 3 different boxes: positive, negative, and suggestive. A positive review is when a user explains a positive experience with the app and typically highlights the features that they enjoy, and how it has affected them. A negative review is when a user explains a negative experience with the app and typically highlights the features that they believe work poorly, and how it has affected them. A suggestive review is when a user may have a positive or negative experience with the app, but highlights features that could be improved upon.

Importance of Reviews

Take the Headspace app for example, very mixed reviews on the app store, but why? Reading through them will tell you all of the positives and negatives that come with downloading the app.

By simply listening to your users, you may uncover insights that you may not have found otherwise. Their experience is likely to be different from your expectations of their experience. Everyone’s experience is different. When you are able to pinpoint a common frustration among your user base, you have a better understanding of what needs to be done to improve it.

Author Baptiste Debever states, “…13% of unhappy customers will share their disappointments with more than 20 people. Instead, aim to satisfy all your customers in the future so as to gain a positive reputation and more loyal customers. And how do you do that? You listen to their feedback.” Even if you may have let down a user who encountered a poor experience, if you prove that you listened to their feedback and made the necessary improvements, you may just earn back their support.

Benefits of Reviews

After reading through reviews, you are able to develop POV statements:**[User . . . (descriptive)] needs [need . . . (verb)] because [insight. . . (compelling)]**

When a user leaves a review, good, bad, or suggestive, they are voicing their opinion to you as the designer, and those who choose to listen. This information provides you with a golden opportunity to target the pain points within your product and improve the overall user experience. Author Ruchi Goel states, “How will you address the grievances of those who will just leave you silently. How will you solve the problem when you actually don’t know what the problem is… The first step to get closer to your customers is asking for feedback from them… This will fetch you answers for the most haunting questions which remain unanswered since long ago.”

One of the benefits of app store reviews is that often, users have such a positive or negative experience that they feel a need to share their stories. It is most times unprompted, though some apps provide an incentive to leave a review. However, some users choose to write a review because they personally feel the need to do so.

It is also possible to look at your competitor’s reviews. If you are able to identify common issues with their product and provide their customers with a more optimal experience while completing the same tasks, you may just increase your following and improve the competitiveness of your product.

Looking Ahead

Have you considered looking through app store reviews? You never know what insights you may find. Enough searching just may land you with a leg up on your competitors. Search hard, find commonalities, and make the necessary improvements. It can improve your users’ experiences.