Improving App Store rating

App StoreiOS

Jul 3

Here at X2 Mobile we are building mobile apps for an educational company ofering a Single Sign-On solution.

These apps (iOS and Android) are used by K-12 students both in classroom and at home.

Even though most students are finding the apps useful, we had a problem with the App Store and Play Store rating.

We did some research on how kids use mobile devices. Also the UX Design for Children (Ages 3-12) research report from Nielsen Norman Group has been very helpful.

Even though kids use a given technology, they don’t necessarily understand it technically. Like most adults who don’t understand how a microwave oven works, kids do not feel they need to understand the underlying mechanisms of mobile apps and devices before using it.

Kids do not distinguish among various suppliers of the user experience. Hardware manufacturers, software designers, Internet service providers, and content distributors are all inseparable in their perception. When one factor falls short — it reduces the entire experience. Often, bad experiences are attributed to the wrong factor.

Here are some of the reasons kids don't like the Single Sign-On mobile apps:

- You should add a thing were you can gind famuos people of every cuontry
- my gpa is low and im sad
- Put games
- I believe it gives the teachers an excuse not to teach, just have a computer do it for them (excluding google classroom, that is needed)
- Delete XtraMath I hate it

This kind of generalization will hurt the rating on App Store. Most mobile app users (both kids and adults) when they don't like an app, they are inclined in giving that app a 1 star rating. They sometimes also leave a comment, but rarely that comment is a constructive feedback. Most of them are like:

- eh
- Plz ban reflex! This is what I think of reflex :middle_finger::skin-tone-2:so plz ban reflex math
- Booooo

In order to catch the kids’ complaints like ‘I hate school’ and spare the App Store rating, we created a mechanism to help us get the bad feedback outside App Store and keep the good one on App Store.

Based on a trigger that lets us know the user has experienced the app for a while and we are not interupting him from any current task, we ask if they find the app useful.

If they do, we then politely ask for a review on App Store.