Lesson 8 of 10 lessons from building a user-friendly corona-app
The design process of the Dutch corona-app (CoronaMelder) was as user centered as it gets. During the project we did more than 25 tests with over 200 users. I had the honor to be part of the team. Together with my colleagues, I was responsible for collecting user insights and creating a simple, user-friendly app. One that everybody in the Netherlands can use.
Over the past months we have learned a lot and it would be a waste not to share our insights with the world. I hope other teams working on corona-apps can profit from them. I’m quite sure some of these lessons are universal and could apply to other (healthcare) apps as well.
If you’re working on corona-apps or (healthcare) apps in general, this article is for you.
I’ve summarized our most important lessons and give a few concrete tips for each insight. Enjoy the read!
Lesson #8: It doesn’t hurt to ask to share the app
We were a bit reluctant to ask people to share the app, because it felt pushy.
When we tested this request in the onboarding stage of the app we noticed many people didn’t mind. There were three groups:
- Those who wouldn’t share
- Those who would share immediately
- Those who wouldn’t share right away, because they wanted to try the app first. But this group indicated they might share it later. The question triggered them to consider the option to share.
People who chose not to share weren’t bothered by the request at all.
During the regional launch (the testing period) we clearly communicated that the app was only supported by healthcare authorities in a few Dutch regions. We also stressed that it did not work nationally yet. Also, we had not yet launched any media campaign. But in just two weeks, even before the official launch of the app, CoronaMelder was downloaded bij over 1 million users: 6% of the Dutch population. That’s extraordinary! At the time of writing (2½ weeks after launch), the download count is 3.6 million users: 21% of the entire Dutch population.
“I would ask my friends if they’re interested. And when they are, I would send them the app. I would first send a message like ‘I found a nice app, I can forward it to you if you’re interested.”
We believe many of those downloads were driven by people sharing the app with people close to them. There’s a lot of evidence available supporting ‘social proof’ is a strong driver for wanting to use/install something yourself. When people you know use the app, and tell you they do, you’re more likely to download it yourself.
“I wouldn’t install the app (…). But when 5 friends have it, and tell me ‘I like it’, I might try it.”
Many of the people who shared the app would not have done that if we did not ask them to.
Read more
The article could have easily been called ‘148 lessons for people building corona-apps’. This is one of 10 lessons I selected and summarised. All our research findings are available on our public GitHub.
Through this process we developed a profound understanding of what works, and what doesn’t. Any questions? Want to learn from our mistakes, successes and experiences?
Get in touch! :)
The other lessons
- Lesson #1: Help people understand when they’ll receive a notification. Avoid visual references to maps and radars
- Lesson #2: Focus on the intended effect, instead of on the technical details
- Lesson #3: Privacy and (perceived) usefulness are key
- Lesson #4: Don’t give people the option to skip an explanation before asking for permissions
- Lesson #5: Any notification sent by the app will freak people out
- Lesson #6: The more details you give about a moment of contact, the more likely people are to take warnings seriously
- Lesson #7: The devil is in the details, small differences in text will have a huge impact
- Lesson #8: It doesn’t hurt to ask to share the app
- Lesson #9: Take into account the entire ecosystem: app-users are not your only users
- Lesson #10: Test early, test often
