UX Design Lead | UI Designer | UX Researcher | Interaction Designer
Visual Prototype | 12 weeks
Imagine that while using an app, you encounter a challenge or bug, but instead of worrying about it, you immediately send a direct in-app feedback to the developer for resolution? Unfortunately, this is usually not the case.
We often share feedback on our app experiences via third-party platforms such as the Play Store, and even social media. But, the most frustrating aspect is that the app developers sometimes don’t even see the feedback.
What if app developers could include a package in their app that allows them to receive direct feedback from their users directly through their app? This would create a positive experience for the users and the developer. Developers can now find out in minutes what problems app users are facing in real-time. And this is a win-win for everyone.
App developers do not receive clear feedback from people who use their apps, and app users do not have the opportunity to express the challenges they face while using these apps. This communication breakdown between the app developer and the app users makes it difficult to improve the overall user experience of the product.
Feedback Owl was created to help independent developers get direct feedback from users who download their app and further manage the feedback received in a way that can be acted upon.
We were fully aware of the complexity of our assignment when we received it so we started by setting our research goals.
We wanted to learn more about:
.png)
We chose to conduct our research using two methods: surveys and user interviews.
We sent out surveys to independent app developers to know if they seek feedback from people who use their apps. And if they don’t, why not? We also wanted to know if the loss in communication between independent app developers and their users was a prevalent issue they faced.
We had 37 respondents and the findings are shown below.
%201.png)
.png)
.png)
75.1 % of respondents are self-employed app developers or work with a small team.
App developers currently receive feedback from app users through the App Store, Google forms, Jira, or in-app feedback created by some custom code. But the process is tedious.
86.4 % of developers are enthusiastic about the prospect of using a platform that allows them direct access to customer feedback.
The survey's findings were useful in establishing an app developer's desire to receive feedback.
We required further information on other areas, such as their experiences with customer feedback platforms, issues they've had in the past when collecting customers’ feedback, and their ideal feedback collection platform, to name a few.
We spoke with app developers who have successfully launched products as well as those who are about to launch their first. Overall, their honest confessions were - they have no immediate access to customer feedback, they do not know of an app that can bridge the gap and they will readily welcome such a product.
Our discovery made us delighted because it presented us with an opportunity to create a better product. We know that customer feedback is crucial for guiding every developer in their task of satisfying their ever-increasing customer preferences; and so, once functioning, our product will improve developer and user relationships, and in turn, better the overall user experience.
Developers will no longer be entirely responsible for developing app concepts that the user wants; instead, they will collaborate with users to give them a good experience.
We had gotten information from the standpoint of the developers, how about their users? We interviewed 5 people who use apps regularly to find out how they communicate their frustrations while using apps to the developers.
We discovered users of apps do not care too much use third-party platforms to give their feedback. They would rather move on to use other apps hoping the problem sorts itself with the next version of the app.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Feedback Owl was created to help app developers receive direct feedback from the people who use their apps. To achieve this objective, Feedback Owl was developed with both the app developers and app users in mind. To explain how the product works, we have to discuss two distinct aspects, the Software Development Kit (SDK) and the mobile app.
The Feedback Owl Software Developer Kit (SDK) is a code package created by the Feedback Owl team for mobile app developers to add to their application code as a third-party dependency. The SDK currently supports mobile apps written in React Native(TypeScript) and iOS(Swift) code.
Once installed and properly configured by the app developer, users of the app would be able to interact with the Feedback widget provided by the SDK.
The app user would see this widget as shown above as a form to be filled in and be able to provide feedback to the app developer. This is the process by which a user would give direct feedback to the app developer.
This widget gathers all of the information a user needs to provide to the developer, including telemetry data such as the user's phone model, operating system version number, app version number, screen resolution, and so on. This data is then collated and organized in a way that is useful for the app developer to act on, through the accompanying Feedback Owl mobile app.
The Feedback Owl mobile app allows app developers to collect immediate feedback from users of their apps directly. While using feedback owl, the app creator can receive, organize, and address feedback. The process by which a developer would receive direct feedback from their app user is shown.
They also have the option of responding to the user who provided the feedback, effectively closing the feedback loop.
Developers need to be able to group feedback into tags as soon as they start getting it. The feedback can be managed in this way. When you put bug-related concerns under a "Bugs" tag, it's easy to see feedback on these at a glance and resolve them when you're ready.
.png)
Integrating an AI feature that will automatically scan the feedback and categorize it using the tags created.
Including a media function that allows users to share screenshots of problems they've encountered while using the app.
Working on this project taught me a lot and allowed me to collaborate with a fantastic group of people. I learned a lot about how app developers rely heavily on their customers to create outstanding products, which is relevant to what we do in the UX field. The customer is critical to the success of any product