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Highlights:
- When it comes to app personalization developers need to create their apps in such a way where they fulfill the needs of their users without any human intervention from the user.
- There are two types of app personalization. Personalization is done inside the application and outside respectively.
- Some examples of good app personalization include apps like Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, and Twik.
- Personalization is a form of architecture as it involves organizing huge chunks of information in a feasible manner to best benefit the user.
- Any business that wants to leverage well on personalization needs to have good data scientists.
- Indus App Bazaar provides recommendations based on the user preferences and accordingly curates relevant content for the user.
We had a Clubhouse session where we discussed the need for personalized applications and apps that are acing the personalization game. Here is the summary.
What is personalization?
Let’s take a situation where you get into your car. You take a few minutes to adjust your seat according to your comfort. Then you adjust your steering wheel at the perfect height and set your perfect playlist to play and select your favorite song and also set the air conditioner at the temperature you want. Now, this is customization.
Personalization on the other hand would be when you enter your car, start it, and everything shifts automatically according to your comfort As if the car knows everything you want. It sets the seat and steering wheel automatically at your preferred height, then starts playing your favorite song and also judges the temperature in the car, and adjusts the air conditioner accordingly.
Similarly, when it comes to app personalization, developers need to create their apps in such a way where they fulfill the needs of their users without any human intervention from the user.
How relevant is app personalization today?
Customers today are gravitating towards brands that actually listen and pay attention to the users’ or consumers’ needs. According to a survey done by Accenture in 2018, 91% of consumers were more likely to buy or shop with brands that recognized and provided them with relevant offers and recommendations, which is personalization itself. Even app personalization can be compared on similar grounds. Developers who are leveraging personalization in their applications are seeing greater ROIs than the latter applications. According to Researchscape, 89% of U.S. marketers reported that personalization on their websites or apps resulted in an increase in revenue.
When it comes to app store personalization, there are two types:
Inside the application: which includes pop-ups, dialogue boxes, your search recommendations (which could be location-based or preference-based), and also not forgetting the special offers and promotions you see within your apps. For example, you see Zomato where you enter your location and you get a tailored list of restaurants around the area.
Outside the application: include the app’s push notifications, discounts, and offers available in the apps. HealthifyMe is a great app when it comes to push notifications. They have clearly tailored their push notifications to remind users to enter what they have had for lunch and also remind them to drink a glass of water. What is really interesting about HealthifyMe’s notifications, is that it pays close attention to whether you are clicking on those push notifications. If you are not, they reduce the frequency of these alerts, in order to not annoy the user.
Other apps that have aced app personalization
Instagram: has a really nice algorithm in its explore tab which suggests the user videos and photos based on the users’ likes and preferences, but also according to their search histories. For example, if you have searched for a particular actor, you wouldn’t see posts solely from the actor’s profile but also content from accounts that are fan bases for that particular actor or posts where that particular actor has been tagged or mentioned.
Facebook celebrates major milestones like birthdays and yearly anniversaries of the user and his/her friends by creating a compiled video featuring all their memories in the form of photos and videos in which both of them have been featured.
Spotify: has taken personalization to the next level. It creates playlists automatically including the user’s favorite songs while also asking the user which singers they like and providing suggestions based on that. It also keeps a close watch on your usage pattern and which songs you listen to on repeat. In 2020 Spotify released Spotify Wrapped which is another great example of app personalization. It provides a summary to the user about their time spent listening to songs on the app, their top songs/ genre, and lots more. Spotify has made it very accessible to share songs not just through links but creatively across social media platforms as well via Instagram stories.
Twik: A personalization platform that modifies content and user experience according to each visitor’s demographic and behavioral data. It allows the site owner to set objectives and serves users with a personalized funnel to help the site owner achieve his KPIs. Ori from Twik said, “ We help eCommerce businesses scale by modifying their users’ experience and also provide a lot of localization and personalization.”
Personalization is just another form of architecture
Personalization and architecture as a concept might be very different, but they have many similarities and work hand in hand. Let’s take the example of a house. We have different rooms for different functions. Each room has different cupboards and drawers for different purposes and also appliances suitable to function in that particular room. For example, a bedroom will have an air conditioner and a kitchen will have a fridge respectively. This shows how architecture and personalization fit hand in hand.
Sabu Francis, a real-world architect highlights the fact that new age developers are focusing more on the looks and feel of their applications and calling it personalization but the first problem of personalization that needs to be solved is the organization of information in a better way for the user to understand.
He explains that developers are keen on adding the latest features to their applications without finding a plausible way of organizing the information they already have in a better way for their users. Developers need to focus more on making their users feel at ease with all the information they are receiving.
Data Scientists – A core part of personalization
Ritu, another speaker from our session, said “ A lot of personalization data needs to be analyzed well by the data scientists as they are the ones who compile and organize the data. Any business who wants to leverage well on personalization needs to have good data scientists.” Sabu Francis added saying that many data scientists aren’t trained well in areas like statistics & probability management.
How does Indus App Bazaar incorporate personalization for its users?
Indus App Bazaar has also used personalization creatively to improve the choice and app discovery for its users. Deepanshu, our Senior Software Engineer said, “It gives you recommendations based on the user preferences and accordingly curates relevant content for the user.”
The content is not limited to text or static image ads but also a lot of rich media like videos and App Stories. While it makes sure that the right content reaches the right user, it also gives the user the opportunity to explore new apps that might interest them. The user can also refresh the home screen by swiping down in order to discover the rich-media of new apps.
Personalization is an ongoing process. It all comes down to listening to your users and making their user experience tailored according to their preferences as well as making it easier to consume relevant content.
To attend more of our future Clubhouse sessions, follow us on Clubhouse here: https://www.clubhouse.com/@indusos
