The document outlines the "7 Deadly Sins of Mobile Apps" which are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. Each sin is described in terms of how it negatively impacts the user experience. Suggested remedies are provided to help designers, developers and testers avoid committing these sins. The overall message is that mobile apps should fulfill user needs, work reliably across different devices and conditions, and provide a positive experience.

1. Jonathan Kohl
jonathan@kohl.ca
www.kohl.ca
@jonathan_kohl
The 7 Deadly Sins
of Mobile Apps
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2. 2
Author:
❯ Consultant, author, speaker in the mobile industry
❯ Product Manager: web, mobile, wearables, IoT
About Jonathan
Contributing Author: Coming (in progress):

3. Commit These Sins And…
❯ Your customers will have a poor mobile
experience
They won’t be happy with your app
❯ You will lose money due to poor customer
service
Customers will go to competitors who support
them better
❯ Your brand and image will suffer
Mobile failures are high profile: stores, social
media, word of mouth
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4. Deletable Offences
Don’t give
people
reasons to
delete your
app.

5. 5
Which App Would You Buy?

6. Rantable Offences
Social Media: #fail
❯ If your app fails people, they will unleash
their fury on social media
❯ It can be very difficult to restore your brand
after bad publicity
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7. 1
Sin 1: Lust
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8. Lust Symptoms
App leaves you feeling unfulfilled and
wanting more.
❯ It doesn’t work after installing – it crashes
❯ It doesn’t do what it claims it can do
❯ The app is missing important features or
information
❯ Wrong location – app doesn’t know
where you really are
❯ Poor design - the app feels flat and
boring
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9. Lust Remedies
❯ Designers: map needs and requirements to
solving a real problem people have
❯ Developers: use mobile technology and
features
Don’t just create a mobile version of an existing
web app or site
❯ Testers: test for reliability and verify utility
Research marketing and sales claims and make
sure the app delivers
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10. 2
Sin 2: Gluttony
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11. Gluttony Symptoms
App uses far too many device
resources.
❯Doesn’t fit well on smaller screens
❯Your device slows down and heats up
App uses up as much memory as possible.
Whenever conditions aren’t ideal, the app
freezes up.
❯Your battery goes dead quickly
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12. Gluttony Remedies
❯ Designers: research technical limitations of
devices, be careful with data requirements
❯ Developers: optimize resource usage
during development
Just because you can use all the cores doesn’t
mean you should!
❯ Testers: try out scenarios with combined
activities to find weak points
Use the app while on the move, and while doing
other things
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13. 3
Sin 3: Greed
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14. Greed Symptoms
App uses as much of your network
resources as possible.
❯ App is slow and unreliable on wireless
networks
They aren’t as fast and dependable as wired
❯ App crashes when you change
networks or when conditions aren’t ideal
❯ App causes a data overage and costs
you $$
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15. Greed Remedies
❯ Designers: design with wireless tech in
mind, assume weak or lost connections,
limit data where possible
❯ Developers: use distributed computing
approaches and error handling, assume
slow connections, latency and dropped
packets
❯ Testers: test transitions between network
types, and connection loss: wifi, cellular,
dead spots, etc.
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16. 4
Sin 4: Sloth
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17. Sloth Symptoms
The app takes too long to do anything
useful.
❯It is slow to launch and slow to
respond to gestures and inputs
❯It gets in the way of problem solving,
particularly in high stress situations
❯It causes you to feel frustrated. This
app is wasting precious time
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18. Sloth Remedies
❯ Designers: design with limited power and
resources in mind, don’t get carried away
with feature overload
❯ Developers: monitor and optimize
performance during development – watch
for memory leaks, too much processing,
chatty network connections
❯ Testers: performance test; use real devices,
particularly older devices on slower
networks
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19. 5
Sin 5: Wrath
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20. Wrath Symptoms
App doesn’t play well with others.
❯Application settings override
device defaults and causes
unexpected behavior
❯Overrides other app settings,
causing them to malfunction
❯App demands focus, no matter
what else you are doing
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21. Wrath Remedies
❯ Designers: research device defaults and
custom settings, and problems that can
occur when they conflict
❯ Developers: be careful with custom
settings and be aware of other apps
and services running on devices
❯ Testers: try different user scenarios
integrating other app actions, change
device settings and operations
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22. 6
Sin 6: Envy
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23. Envy Symptoms
The app is a copycat. Users would
prefer to use existing apps instead.
❯It is too similar to other apps, and gets
rejected from application stores
❯After researching and installing the
app, it is too similar to others I already
use, so I delete it
❯I can’t find your app in a sea of
similar apps, so I go to a competitor
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24. Envy Remedies
❯ Designers: understand users and market
and design with differentiation in mind
❯ Developers: be creative with mobile
development features to provide a
unique user experience
❯ Testers: research apps in the
marketplace and provide early
feedback to designers and test the
requirements:
“What problem does this solve that others
don’t?”
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25. 7
Sin 7: Pride
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26. Pride Symptoms
The app is difficult to use and
expects users to adapt to it.
❯People get frustrated while trying to
complete simple tasks
❯The app requires too many inputs
and gestures to get anything done
❯People are subjected to pain – eye
strain, sore fingers
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27. Pride Remedies
❯ Designers: use empathic design – take the
user, their context and emotions into account
Ensure requirements and solutions are people focused
❯ Developers: follow framework development
guidelines and UX practices
Don’t get carried away with special behavior and
settings, and don’t ignore user experience
❯ Testers: test user experiences using human-
interface guidelines, and use real-world
scenarios and tests
Report any awkward workflows or painful areas
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28. Keep personal data private and
secure:
❯ Designers: design solutions to prevent
privacy breaches
❯ Developers: use secure protocols and
storage tools
❯ Testers: ensure data is private, use
pen testing and any security tools
you can leverage
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Don’t Tempt Others

29. Repent of Your Sins!
Alternatively:
❯ Exploit human weaknesses in
your app to create positive
experiences.
❯ Give users what they want and
need.
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30. ©2016 Kohl Concepts Inc.
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Jonathan Kohl
jonathan@kohl.ca
www.kohl.ca
@jonathan_kohl