Mobile Customer Experience Enhancements

🚀 Improving App Performance with Caching Recently, I focused on enhancing the performance of an application I’m working on. The app typically took 3-4 seconds to load, as it needed data immediately upon opening. To reduce this load time, I implemented caching, and I’d love to share the approach I used. Caching Requirements: 1️⃣ Data should be available as soon as the app opens. 2️⃣ The data isn’t frequently updated (minimal write operations). 3️⃣ It’s okay to show previous data until new data is fetched (not sensitive data). After some research, I found the Cache First - Network Second caching strategy to be a perfect fit for this use case. As Zsolt Bertalan explains: “For Cache First - Network Second, we go to the cache first, emit it, then we always do a network request, and if there is new data, we save and emit it.” (Reference: https://lnkd.in/g_XEqm7U) Technical Details: The app is built using Flutter, and I used the BLoC state management library. To implement caching, I leveraged Hydrated BLoC, which is specifically designed for caching BLoC states. This library made the process seamless. By managing the storage and retrieval of states from local storage, it allowed data to be cached and instantly available when the app reopened. As soon as a new state is emitted, it gets saved locally. Results: The app now loads significantly faster, providing a smoother user experience. Thanks for reading! I’m always learning and excited to share my journey. Let me know your thoughts or if you have other caching strategies to recommend. Until next time! 🙌 #Flutter #Caching #PerformanceOptimization #Bloc #HydratedBloc

🔍 Designing Better Autocomplete UX. How to help users improve search queries and get to better results, faster ↓ 🚫 Autocomplete is often too slow, too busy and too salesy. 🤔 Users often perceive autocomplete as ads, and ignore it. ✅ Boost relevance with suggested filters, presets, categories. ✅ Good autocomplete guides to better results, not keywords. ✅ Best autocomplete helps skip search results pages entirely. ✅ Support keyboard and looping through options (↑↓, Enter). 🤔 Some people always look at keyboard when typing. 🤔 They will never realize there is an autocomplete. ✅ Use a chevron/search icon to hint at autocomplete. ✅ Start showing frequent or past suggestions on focus. ✅ Scope your default suggestions to selected category. 🤔 40–50% of mobile screen is covered by keyboard. ✅ Show 4–8 suggestions on mobile, 8–10 on desktop. ✅ Optimal search box width: >40ch mobile, >60ch desktop. ✅ Show relevant details (price, current status, updates). ✅ Show the number of matches for each suggestion. ✅ Cluster suggestions and present them separately. ✅ Highlight not matches, but differences in suggestions. ✅ Use type-ahead suggestions to build search queries. 🚫 Avoid showing multiple search boxes on the same page. 🚫 Avoid tiny scrollable areas for autocomplete options. Often autocomplete is considered to be just a faster alternative for typing. But it also reassures users, fixes errors and prevents 0-results pages. In fact, in testing, users are often very faithful to suggestions: some won’t submit a search query if it’s not a match that shows up in autocomplete. However, good autocomplete can do much more than just showing keywords. Based on the category in which a user is, suggest popular or relevant filters, sub-categories or presets that might help users skip irrelevant search results pages altogether. Autocomplete is largely ignored by users, and for good reasons. It is a useful feature, but only when it’s actually used. Your only chance is to boost relevance by including helpful details within suggestions. Add the number of matches per suggestion, and you might have something valuable in front of you. ✤ Useful resources Enriched Site-Search Suggestions: Rarely Used, by Kate Kaplan, NN/g https://lnkd.in/eNnx63bJ Site Search Suggestions, by Kate Moran, NN/g https://lnkd.in/eWND4rs4 Design Patterns For Autocomplete UX, by Edward Scott https://lnkd.in/evSAtmF9 Building An Accessible Autocomplete, by Adam Silver https://lnkd.in/e7jf-xea Streamlining Checkout Experience (Case Study), by DKO https://lnkd.in/eTBdhurV Better Autocomplete UX, by Vitaly Friedman https://lnkd.in/eqZq5zAr ✤ Autocomplete in Design Systems Goldman Sachs: https://lnkd.in/e6cT3pSR Gov.uk: https://lnkd.in/e6iZkrE5 Gusto: https://lnkd.in/eYdiFyFT Shopify: https://lnkd.in/emzswrsA Spark: https://lnkd.in/eDC9KxTW ✤ Interface Design Patterns Filters: https://lnkd.in/e9QRdqsq Search: https://lnkd.in/e2v7E2uq Sorting: https://lnkd.in/eT_RWrmT #ux #design

Time to take brand activations on the road? Last summer, Pleasing hit LA’s beaches with its SPF 4 Life roadshow. The brand headed out to its audience in Malibu, Venice, and Santa Monica with a branded truck, ice lollies, and exclusive merch. Touring activations used to be the move. Then social media made single-location pop-ups go viral, and roadshows faded, especially in the UK. Here’s why mobile activations can be a big win for your brand; 🚚 Forgotten Cities - Many brand communities outside major cities lack in-person experiences. Reaching these overlooked areas can boost loyalty. 🚚 Touring Billboard – Your branded vehicle is seen by thousands daily on the road, turning it into a mobile billboard that constantly reaches new audiences. 🚚 Reusable Assets – Reusing a major asset across multiple locations cuts down on the need for bespoke creations, streamlining your campaign budget. 🚚 Flexibility – Festivals to campuses to high streets, a vehicle allows you to move and set up wherever needed, with smaller crews and quick transitions.   🚚 Creative Experience – Endless creative possibilities to engage and immerse your audience, just like a static campaign, but on the move. So what’s the answer, static or roaming? I don’t think brands have to choose. With the right creative and experiential strategy, both can work. Pleasing nailed it last year, with three months of activity in Chicago and weekends spent on the road in LA. Is it time for more brands to head out on the open road?

We increased Conversion Rate by 88% Wanna know how? We exposed Search on Mobile (instead of hiding it behind a search icon). How did we know to test this? During our comprehensive CRO Insights Service, we analysed heatmaps and session recordings, along with Shopify and GA4 data to understand user behaviour. And we uncovered two key insights: 1. Mobile sessions were higher than desktop 2. Users who engaged with the search bar showed a strong intent to purchaseBased on this, we hypothesised that making the search bar more accessible on mobile, we would create a smoother user experience, leading to higher conversion rates. Then we A/B tested it.And the results: ✅ 126% increase in search trigger clicks ✅ 23% increase in engagement with 'Looking for any of these' ✅ 109% increase in Average Purchase Revenue per User ✅ 30% increase in Add to Cart per sessionAnd of course, 88% increase in Conversion Rate.

Our App Was Crawling at Snail Speed… Until I Made This One Mistake 🚀 A few months ago, I checked our Lighthouse scores—30s. That’s like running an F1 race on a bicycle. 🏎️➡️🚲 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭? We did everything right—modern stack, top framework, best practices. Yet, our app was sluggish. ❌ AI-powered search engines ignored us. ❌ Users kept waiting. ❌ Something was off. So, we did what every dev does—optimize. 🔧 Cut dependencies 🔧 Shrunk bundles 🔧 Tweaked configs We went from 30s to 70s. Better, but still not great. Then, I made a 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞. A glorious, game-changing mistake. One deploy, I accidentally removed JavaScript. And guess what? Lighthouse: 91. 😳 Sure, nothing worked. No buttons, no interactivity. But it proved our app could be fast. 💡 The lesson? Stop making JavaScript do everything. 𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭: ✅ JavaScript only where needed ✅ No unnecessary hydration ✅ No bloated client-side rendering 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭? 🚀 From 30s to consistent 90+ scores 🚀 Faster load times 🚀 Better search engine visibility Sometimes, the problem isn’t a lack of optimization—it’s an excess of complexity. Not every app needs a heavy framework. Not every UI should be hydrated. If you’re struggling with performance, ask yourself: ❓ Do I really need this much JavaScript? ❓ Can I pre-render more? ❓ What happens if I strip everything back to basics? You might be surprised by what you find. 👀

When Marketplaces Evolve from “Global Hubs” to “Local Ecosystems,” You’ve Entered 2025’s Real Game-Changer Yes, marketplaces are old news. But what is NEW is their morph into hyper-local, category-driven, end-to-end ecosystems — and that’s something most global frameworks don’t cover. 1. UNIQLO’s “Touchpoint” Store: Precision O2O in Action - Novena concept store boosts same-day pick-up to ~50% of daily transactions by blending condensed footprint with courier-ready integration ⁠ — not global volume, but local experience design. - It’s not just click-and-collect, it’s store layout reengineered for omnichannel efficiency. 2. Decathlon ’s Quiet Omnichannel Surge - In-aisle kiosks with live inventory + AI recommendations cut “no results” rates from 5% to 1.8% — while conversions jumped 50%. - Partnerships with micro-influencers now drive 7% of total sales, while content-rich mobile search before store visits accounts for 20–25% of high-ticket buys. 3. AI + Zero-Code Build: Micro-Marketplaces on Steroids - Imagine launching a farm‑to‑table grocer or niche skincare bazaar in DAYS — powered by AI product sorting, zero-code integrations, micro-fulfilment and local influencer flywheels. - These don’t seek scale in global reach — they win by category trust, local nuance, and experiential depth. What This Means for the Full Consumer Journey - Search ➝ Social ➝ Store is now seamless: product found via mobile, touch‑and‑feel in-store, bought with post‑purchase care. - Trust isn’t global — it’s hyper-local. Consumers skip big platforms when local credibility is up (staff, advice, community). - The new battlefront is who owns the scan-to-pickup-to-care pathway — AI recommendations, in-store kiosks, live chat with experts, pick-up logistics, influencer validation, follow-up CRM. Here’s the real test: - Will you build mini retail ecosystems (think micronodes, smart fulfillment, category curated by AI)? - Or stay a tenant on global platforms — letting them own your consumer's trust path? Your move: - Have you tested a small-format, O2O-optimized store that boosts conversion in busy precincts? - Built micro-marketplace integration on social + AI, then tied it into CRM for post-purchase journeys? - Seen category-specific micro-marketplaces leap ahead of big players by owning the offline pipeline? Disclaimer: Based on publicly available data (SimilarWeb, Google Path to Purchase, UNIQLO/Decathlon case studies, DataReportal). For thought leadership only. All brand names are trademarks of their owners. Ready to discuss? 👉 Comment: 1️ What tiny-marketplace or small-format store has silently outperformed global giants in your city? 2️ What category can you dominate by owning the full scan-to-care loop? #Omnichannel #MarketplaceEvolution #MicroRetail #AIinCommerce #LocalEcosystems   https://lnkd.in/e4vKji3c

𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽'𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝟳𝟯%. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁? 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵.... Most developers optimize the wrong things. They minify JavaScript. Compress images. Add a CDN. And wonder why their app still feels slow. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴: Your browser follows a specific sequence to render a page. Miss one step and EVERYTHING GONE!! 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: 𝟭- 𝗛𝗧𝗠𝗟 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 → The browser reads your HTML top to bottom. But here's the catch: when it hits a script tag, everything stops. Your beautiful HTML just sits there, waiting. 𝟮- 𝗖𝗦𝗦𝗢𝗠 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 → CSS blocks rendering. Yes, ALL of it. That massive stylesheet you loaded? The browser won't show a single pixel until it's fully parsed. This is why CSS in the head matters. 𝟯- 𝗥𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 → Browser combines DOM and CSSOM. Only the visible elements make it here. That display: none element? Not even calculated yet. 𝟰- 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗼𝘂𝘁 (𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄) → Browser calculates exact positions and sizes. Change one margin? Recalculate everything. This is expensive. 𝟱- 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁 → Finally, pixels on screen. But trigger layout again? Back to step 4. 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿. • Async scripts ≠ faster paint • Optimized images ≠ unblocked render • Smaller bundles ≠ no CSS blocking Understand the Critical Rendering Path!! 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗹𝗲:  • Inline critical CSS  • Deferred non-critical styles  • Async/defer scripts  • Removed render-blocking resources 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: load time 4.2s → 1.1s 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗨𝗜 | 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 | 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗲𝗿 You don’t get hired for knowing tools. You get hired for the depth you can explain under pressure. If you want to build skills that can’t be replaced, learn how the browser, JavaScript, and React actually works. Link in comments 👇

Stop guessing why your app is slow. Open DevTools and measure. Open the Performance tab, hit Record, and use your app: click, scroll, navigate, interact. Then stop the recording and inspect the timeline. You're looking for: - Long tasks (over 50ms) - Reflows and repaints - Scripts blocking the main thread These are the red flags. If you’re blocking rendering or constantly forcing layout recalculations, your app’s going to feel janky. Next, dive into the Flame Graph. Wide bars = expensive functions. These are your hotspots. Refactor them. Avoid blocking the UI. Break them into smaller, async chunks where you can. If it’s heavy and synchronous, it’s a problem. DOM reads and writes? Batch them. Reading layout properties like offsetWidth forces the browser to recalculate layout. Writing right after that (e.g., changing styles) forces it again. That’s a double reflow, and it adds up fast. To fix it group reads first, then writes.Trigger one reflow, not two. Memory usage matters too. If you haven’t taken a Heap Snapshot, you have no idea what’s lingering in memory. Detached DOM nodes, closures, abandoned observers, they all pile up over time. Leaks don’t crash your app, they slowly choke it. Long JavaScript tasks freeze the UI. If you're blocking the main thread for more than 50ms, you're locking out user interaction. Break those tasks apart: - Use setTimeout, requestIdleCallback, or Web Workers - Prioritize responsiveness over raw throughput Don’t load everything up front. If your initial bundle includes every image, every script, every component—you're forcing the browser to choke before it can render anything useful. To fix it - Lazy-load non-critical assets - Use <link rel="preload"> for essentials like fonts - Defer anything not needed for first paint DevTools isn’t optional, it’s a daily tool. You don't fix performance by guessing. You fix it by measuring.

💡How to Design a Good Search UI (in 4 steps) A well-designed search benefits user experience, especially for products with a lot of content or complex navigation. Here is a step-by-step process you can follow to design a great search: 1️⃣ Understand user behavior  ✔ Does your product need a search functionality in the first place (analyze your information architecture to figure out that https://lnkd.in/dyuRZYZK)  ✔ If you have search functionality in your product, learn how often people use it (but lack of use may be due to the front-end search design) ✔ Conduct user research to identify common search queries & patterns (i.e., popular words that people use in their search queries) ✔ Analyze existing search data such as system logs to understand user intentions (what people search for on your website/in your app)  2️⃣ Search box design ✔ Place the search box in a prominent location (top right of the page for left-to-right languages) ✔ Don't change the location of the search box on different pages. ✔ Ensure the search box is large enough to accommodate typical queries (a rule of thumb is to have a 27-character text input; it would accommodate 90% of queries) ✔ If you have enough space, use an input field with a call to action "Search" for the search box. ✔ If you don't have space, use a universally recognized icon magnifying glass to indicate search functionality. ✔ Ensure the search functionality is fully responsive and usable on mobile devices. 3️⃣ Minimize user typing effort ✔ Implement autocomplete to suggest queries as the user types. ✔ Provide auto-suggestions as quickly as possible, such as after the third character is entered. ✔ Present up to 7 items in a list of suggestions (and without a scroll bar) ✔ Correct misspellings to guide users toward fruitful search paths ✔ Don't erase users' queries after they hit the "Search" button. (keep the original text visible in the search input field) ✔ Keep recent user search queries (show past queries to the user the next time they interact with a search box) 4️⃣ Search result presentation ✔ Ensure the search algorithm prioritizes results based on relevance. ✔ Include relevant information in search results (i.e., title, description, thumbnail) to help users make informed decisions. ✔ Design for "no results" scenario (suggesting alternative queries or actions instead of showing a dead-end page "No results") 📖Guides: ✔ The ultimate guide to search UX (by Yuyan Duan) https://lnkd.in/dJ77nuRs ✔ Best practices for search results https://lnkd.in/dgnHUgvH 🖼 by Dmitry Lauretsky #ui #userinterface #productdesign #userexperience #uxdesign #uxdesigner #search

22% of searches return zero results. For every failed search, 80% of potential customers disappear forever. That means one in five of your customer searches delivers nothing. Google's own research shows 85% of searches don't return what users are looking for. And when this happens, another 80% of those frustrated searchers will abandon your site entirely. Yet, search optimization remains one of the most overlooked conversion opportunities. Our work with enterprise clients reveals three key improvements that can dramatically increase revenue: 1️⃣ Add auto-suggestions that anticipate what customers are typing. 2️⃣ Implement spelling correction to catch typos, especially on mobile devices. 3️⃣ Always return results, even for misspelled or unusual searches. One client saw a 15% increase in page views after improving their search algorithm to return product results without requiring exact matches. Another experienced a 4.5% uplift in mobile conversion rate after implementing typo correction. These aren't complex AI innovations. They're fundamental optimizations most companies miss. If you're not actively testing and improving your site search, you're leaving substantial revenue on the table. Is your site search driving away potential customers? Implement just these 3 key improvements and your conversion rates will thank you.