Tata Neu UX: first impression

@tata_neu is a classic example of how good design does not always translate into a great user experience @TataNeuDigital.

My thoughts:

Firstly the good: Design, colors, fonts The first impression is good. Feels like an app by a 'tech startup', which is a good thing The dark theme with 'insta like' highlights does create a distinct identity

Then: Defaults, prefetched data

So Neu is an aggregation of not just Tata brands but also the data housed across these brands

I have been a Big Basket user and the app auto fetched this data for me as also my personal details. This is all basis a simple lookup.

Privacy advocates might voice concerns though: no consent (atleast explicitly) was taken to do this

As a user though, I really liked it

One small niggle: it doesn't indicate where/which app these details have been pulled from. That could have helped

Next: Offers.

It does look like there are some good offers from the ground running.

Eg. there are discounts on Taj Hotel stays for the coming week.

This is a nice hook to get the user to try out features/use cases

Finally: Loyalty, gamification baked.

This I believe could be the strongest play for this app.

There are coins, a card and tiers across various brands (which I wasn't aware of, despite being a customer) The naming of these could be better though

Now the bad: Integration, loading and transitions

This was bound to happen: when you try and integrate so many different brands and data sets, one does expect lags

But how much?

I mean navigating across every single screen shows up the loader (the Neu logo) and that too a blocking, fullscreen loader.

After a point it gets rather irritating There are ofcourse better ways to manage this

Next: Consistency

Each brand has a distinct identity and that means different logo styles, colors, fonts and even navigation styles.

Unfortunately trying to make all of them fit into one app, by simply 'porting' some elements has really not worked

This creates a very broken experience when navigating across use cases (ie brands).

Remember @PhonePe of old? Something like that.

Not good

Next: DB updates

This was a bit unexpected. I tried to update my address and set it to default. Did not work.

And yes, the Neu blocker-loader was there for company

Final verdict: I think credit to the Tata's for trying this There are definite upsides, both for customers and the company.

Also, the data behemoth that Neu will become will give it great valuation (won't be surprised if it gets listed in the future)

But, and there is a but...

Coming from one of the largest conglomerates in India and despite months of testing and building a big product team, the user experience is a disappointment I am hopeful and pretty sure the app will improve, as it must.

If you liked reading this review do share it, and hopefully, it will reach the right ppl