The Home Page, The Traffic and The UX
Assume that you are a PM for the Home Page of an app that caters to multiple services. You can sum up your North Start in 2 lines.
- Ensure that all service icons/CTAs are properly placed with optimum visibility
- Ensure all deep links are working fine and none of the CTAs is breaking.
However, as simple as it may sound, ask any PM or UX designer of Home Page, and they’ll tell you designing the home screens for a popular app is one of the toughest jobs out there. Things get worse if your app is a popular one and gets millions of daily active users.
3 reasons why it’s tough.
1. A mobile screen is much smaller than a desktop.
Less space means less information. All you have got a small rectangular box, and you need to cater to different types of users with their unique needs.
2. On mobile, information is consumed in one direction.
There’s just one way to read. Top to bottom. Think about any mobile app you use. Whatsapp, Google etc., you navigate ONLY from top to bottom. Yes, Netflix introduced a horizontal scroll, but that is within the folds of the vertical scroll. The hit rates for horizontal scrolls are abysmal.
Unlike Desktop, you don't navigate Left to Right, Top to Bottom, or Diagonally. There’s a reason why Instagram’s reels are so ubiquitous.
3. Users interact with Mobile in a very different manner.
Users touch things on mobile. The screens are an extension of their thumbs. There is no mouse or trackpad. A mouse makes things equal. Moving a mouse from one screen to the other takes the same effort. But not with a thumb.
Keep your icon at thumb's reach if you really want a high CTR. This is why most apps have navigation at the bottom of the page. Not on the top. Easy to switch.
A PM’s life goes into getting this balance right. Prioritization is your biggest friend, as well as your biggest enemy.