How to establish a mobile-first research strategy and run mobile testing

If you’re like most people, your smartphone is the go-to if you want to try a new product, website, or app. Mobile usage dominates how users engage with digital products, making it critical to understand those experiences as they happen, in real-world contexts.

Many product teams are shifting to mobile-first research strategies: to uncover how users navigate features, run into friction, and form habits on mobile devices.

Read on to start crafting your research strategy that centers on-the-go user experiences.

A mobile-first research strategy isn’t just about prettier user interfaces, it’s about building better products. It puts mobile users at the center of your entire product development strategy, including research, design, and development. And with 58.7% of users turning to their smartphones, mobile has never mattered more.

To optimize your mobile user experiences, you need testing and strategy. Mobile testing reveals whether a digital product functions on a phone, while mobile strategy is about building the product specifically for mobile devices, from the very start.

When design and development teams work from a mobile-first research strategy their decisions are grounded in real user behavior—rather than guesswork. Early alignment reduces the risk of usability issues appearing later on, saving time and preventing reworks.

The size of the mobile device and its hardware (such as smaller screens) fundamentally change user behavior on mobile vs. desktop.

Mobile users:

Desktop users:

These fundamental differences mean mobile users also have different expectations when using your product. Since they aim to complete actions quickly, common friction points for mobile versions are:

Whereas friction points on desktop versions might include:

Of course, you need to offer a user-friendly experience for both mobile and desktop users. But keep in mind that a ‘minor’ inconvenience for a desktop user (such as a slightly smaller button) can frustrate a mobile user to the point of quitting the mobile app altogether.

Help make your UX research process for small screens just as effective as it is for larger screens by keeping these principles for mobile-first research in mind.

Product discovery research is the initial exploratory phase during product development. The main focus during this phase is to understand the users’ needs, problems, and expectations within the context of the service you’ll offer.

Adopting a mobile-first approach to this phase means asking:

Your usability tests and remote mobile user research should mirror how people actually use their phones.

Mobile usability tests can mimic these real-world behaviors by:

Mobile-native testing tools are designed to specifically capture how users interact with your product on mobile. These tools offer features like mobile screen recordings and can capture gestures such as scrolls, swipes, punches, and taps.

Using mobile testing tools adds another dimension to your usability testing. Instead of relying on participants to tell you where they’re struggling, you can see their reactions and movements, giving you actionable mobile user data to share with your team.

Not all mobile users have the same habits or priorities when interacting with a digital product.

For example, Android users tend to prioritize higher levels of customization and flexibility, and tolerate more variety within the UX. On the other hand, iOS users prefer a seamless, streamlined, and integrated experience that’s easy to navigate.

During your UX research, include users from each platform your product will be available on, and test each operating system people will use. Then, note the differences between them for your design and development team.

To help you prepare for smooth mobile product development, we’ve created a mobile-first research strategy checklist—the perfect companion for running your first mobile-focused test with Maze.

A mobile-first research plan takes mobile users into consideration at every step. It’s similar to a normal research sprint—the main difference being your focus.

Gathering unique insights about mobile users will help your design and development team build a product for these users.

Similar to a standard research strategy, a mobile research plan involves determining your research goals and hypotheses, research questions, and a timeline for your entire project within the context of building a mobile-first solution.

For example, let’s say you’re building a digital, mobile-first product that lets users find and secure active deals at local retail spots. It’s called ‘DealFind’.

Standard questions like “How do users onboard?” become: “What barriers do mobile users face during onboarding while shopping at the store?”

And a standard research objective like “Uncover what navigability problems users have while interacting with our newest GPS feature” becomes: “What navigability problems will users have while using the GPS feature while walking, or even driving?”

You have your mobile research plan, now you need testers.

Recruiting the right research participants for your mobile-first product is crucial to gain accurate and actionable insights.

Tools like Maze Panel help with this step, giving you access to over 3 million pre-vetted testers.

For this phase, a simple but effective set of screening questions is your best friend.

Let’s say you’ve identified a few potential testers for DealFind. Before recruiting, you ask:

How often do you use apps that help you locate deals on mobile?
Where do you typically use these apps: A) At home, B) On your commute, C) While shopping
Do you use iOS or Android when using products like DealFind?

Andres Kleverlaan, from the Product Research and Design team at Rinkel, emphasizes the importance of considering your different user personas when recruiting for mobile. Just because they’ll be using your app, doesn’t mean they have the same expectations:

“Ask different people to interact with it, from different age groups and technological literacy. What’s logical for a tech-native Gen Z, might not be logical for a Gen X that usually works with their hands.”

This will ensure you’re testing participants who actually use the product, within the right context.

You’re finally ready to test your wireframe, product, or new feature with mobile users.

Opt for mobile research methods such as native mobile testing. This method lets you set tasks for users, record screens, analyze gestures, and observe user flows. It tells you exactly how potential mobile users interact with your product.

Mobile user behavior is fast and frequent, so the tasks you set need to reflect that.

Keep the tasks lightweight and context-specific. Instead of “Find and successfully use the ‘locate sales’ feature,” assign a task like “Find a sale and reserve the item while waiting in line at the store.”

Analyze your mobile-first test results by focusing on the usability metrics that reveal mobile user friction points.

Standard metrics like task completion are still important, but to get the full picture of the mobile user experience, take note of mobile-specific metrics like:

Consider organizing your insights into categories specific to mobile friction. Examples include:

Break down your insights by platforms and different devices, too—such as iOS vs. Android and tablet vs. mobile phone—and note any differences between them.

Your insights are helpful as long as your team implements them throughout the entire mobile product development and UX design process.

To ensure your mobile-first research results inform the final product, create bite-sized, digestible UX research reports with your key findings, tailored to specific stakeholders.

Include:

Keep in mind that many of the solutions you request will fall upon designers and developers to implement. Establish feedback loops and timelines for implementation, and leave communication channels open. That way, you can supply your teams with continuous user feedback, helping them inform their decisions.

A mobile-first strategy is only viable when you use the right tools.

Maze is a leading user research platform with a comprehensive suite of user testing methods—including mobile testing, of course—to ensure your design is ready for mobile users everywhere.

Maze Mobile Testing makes getting insights for mobile users easier and faster than ever. Maze helps you run studies directly on participants’ mobile devices, so you can capture full-screen recordings, study user behavior heatmaps, observe mobile user flows in real time, and get rich quantitative mobile research metrics.

Mobile-first design and research isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore—it’s a must-have. The number of people using their mobile devices to access digital products has been growing for years, and it’s only increasing.

Don’t wait before users are rage-tapping, save our mobile-first checklist, and start optimizing your product for mobile users now.