In app development, intent refers to the goal or purpose behind a user’s action — what they want to achieve when interacting with your app.
Why It Matters
Why Founders Should Care About This Term:
- Helps create user journeys that match real user goals, improving satisfaction.
- Drives better UX decisions by focusing on outcomes, not just features.
- Enables smarter personalization and targeted marketing.
Use This Term When...
- Designing user flows and app navigation.
- Creating personas and customer journeys.
- Building AI or chatbot experiences that need to understand user inputs.
- Prioritizing features based on user motivations.
- Conducting usability testing or behavior analysis.
Real-World Example
In one of our projects, we mapped out key user intents like ‘browse property’ or ‘track savings’ to simplify navigation. This helped reduce bounce rates and guided users toward completing their financial goals.
Founder Insight
Most apps fail not because they lack features, but because they ignore what users intend to do. Always ask: “What is the user trying to accomplish — and how fast can we help them do it?”
Key Metrics / Concepts
- Task Completion Rate – Measures whether users achieve their intent.
- Funnel Drop-Offs – Help identify where user intent is not being met.
- Intent Mapping – Visualisation of primary and secondary user goals.
Tools & Technologies
- Hotjar / FullStory – To observe user behavior and infer intent.
- Google Analytics – Use goals and events to track intent-based actions.
- Dialogflow / Rasa – For detecting and handling user intent in chatbots or voice apps.
What’s Next / Future Trends
With AI and machine learning, apps are getting better at predicting user intent in real time — enabling proactive suggestions, dynamic UI changes, and context-aware experiences.
Related Terms
- Personas – Help define user intent by understanding goals and behaviors.
- User Interviews – A method to uncover true intent.
- Hypothesis Statement – Often based on assumptions about user intent.
- Contextual Awareness – Supports better intent detection.
- Chatbots – Must accurately interpret user intent to respond usefully.
Helpful Videos / Articles / Pages
Call to Action
Still unsure how user intent impacts your app’s success? Book a discovery call with our UX strategists — we’ll help you align design with real user goals.