How Apple can increase the rate of OS update installations?
Does the notification below look familiar? That “Not Now” button is looking mighty attractive, isn’t it? Humans are notorious procrastinators. If our needs are not absolutely URGENT, we tend to put them off as long as possible. However, in the case of installing updates onto our computers, this procrastination poses problems for both users and Apple.
Keeping your operating system up-to-date is important for both users and Apple. Doing so helps keep our devices secure from cyber criminals as well as enhances the user experience of operating your computer. These factors help to reduce stress and maximize enjoyment using Apple products, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases and referrals. The faster users update their OS, the better for everybody.
While security is not the most glamours topic, it is incredibly important to address. Cyber criminals love to use security flaws and software vulnerabilities to attack your device, gain control over your computer and even steal your identity. The updates we love to skip are intended to fix these weaknesses, keep your devices secure and keep hackers out.
Aside from security, updates add new features and improve existing ones. From the moment an app is released, developers are constantly looking to add new and improved features to make the user experience that much better. Your software may become unstable, cause crashing and lower your computer’s performance — less speed. These cases are very frustrating which users then associate to the Apple brand. At the end of the day, security and user experience is sacrificed due to user procrastination. But as users, as much as we know not to eat raw cookie dough, we also already know all of this, don’t we. Yet we continue to prolong installing these updates. Why?
Interview Insights
To figure out why users don’t feel more urgency with updating their operating systems and other software updates, I interviewed them directly. What I found to be the primary cause of install abandonment were these key issues:
∙ They don’t feel the pains of keeping their current versions for a very long time (it typically takes a while for an older OS to show front-end symptoms of its age such as crashing and slower speeds).
∙ They’re busy when the notification appears and don’t want to restart their device while in the middle of something.
∙ They simply don’t feel like it. They don’t want to read or do anything that distracts them from achieving their current objective.
Among the interviews, it was apparent that not feeling the pains of keeping their current versions was the biggest addressable factor contributing to update installation abandonment. Users view updates as vitamins rather than painkillers. While the notification does summarize what changes are included in the update, they don’t dive into the details right then and there. Because of this, users don’t really know the benefits being offered. This lack of awareness creates two options for the user: to research the benefits, or click “Not Now”. While busy browsing through cat videos, which seems like the more attractive choice?
Here is the fundamental flaw with the current notification’s design. By nature, research is something that is done very intentionally. It is a relatively heavy investment that we are typically only willing to do when relieving a pain, not so much when taking a vitamin. Update notifications come to users. Users do not generally seek them out. Because of this relationship, users are not in problem solving mode. They are not inclined to drop what they’re doing and start reading about new updates and why they should be installed (research). Friction is introduced all within the first second of seeing the notification, creating a bad first impression. From here, users are already subconsciously frustrated and don’t want to deal with the interruption.
Because of this, communicating the benefits to the user in the most frictionless way possible is critical and is the topic of this article. Users don’t take the time to investigate solutions for problems they aren’t even aware they have.
Proposed Solution
What if Apple embedded a video that essentially advertises the new update within the notification? The notification is the first touchpoint users have with respect to updating their operating system. Most users are not making it past this point of the funnel as it is here where they decide to skip the installation. Therefore, it is the notification that needs to be refined to mitigate installation abandonment. Video content only requires the user to click once, then sit back and have everything explained to them. They don’t want to research, cross reference or dissect and with video content, they don’t have to. I believe this will significantly reduce friction, better communicate the value being offered and could result in a dramatically positive effect in installation rates.
Summary:
∙ OS updates reinforce security and enhance the user experience. Both of which reduce frustrations and maximize enjoyment while using the product, leading to more money in Apple’s pocket. The more often users are staying up-to-date with the latest OS, the better for both users and Apple.
∙ The current notification design introduces friction to the user, dissuading them from learning about the update’s benefits causing them to click “Not Now” repeatedly.
∙ By embedding video into the notification, we reduce the amount of work required for users to understand the update’s value to a single click. This friction mitigation will hopefully increase update installation rates significantly considering the size of the user base.