Top 5 Considerations for Mobile App Development

With the widespread technology evolution and digitalization, mobile apps have become crucial for consumers and businesses alike. Moreover, the explosive growth in mobile adoption has put enormous pressure on IT leaders. Be it retail, banking, FMCG or healthcare, all kinds of businesses are striving to develop an app to take advantage of the surging demand.

This pragmatic shift is a result of increasing smartphone penetration and changing consumer behavior. Whether it is to get a flight ticket, medical appointment, or car insurance, consumers now research and make purchase decision online.  However, not every business is able to ‘make a mark’ in the flooded app market.

According to a Google research with Ipsos MediaCT, 2015.

 Tweet: 25% of installed apps on a user’s phone are never used and 23% of those apps get abandoned after the first use.

This shows that mobile app adoption among targeted users is a big concern.

While 90% of the user’s time on the phone is spent in apps – Why isn’t your app getting noticed?

Web analytics cities common reasons for app abandonment, in most cases, poor app quality, user experience, performance are to be blamed.

There are cases where companies are selling similar kind of products that are backed with equally lucrative offers, yet customers use the app of one and abandon the other. There are a lot of deciding factors when this happens such as – app reviews, user experience, usability or performance, interface design etc.

Creating high-quality mobile applications is not simple, given the fact that users expect the app to have high quality, reliability, security, and accessibility through their smartphones whether they are iOS, Android or Windows.

With growing popularity of the mobile applications, IT leaders are carefully evaluating various strategic aspects that are crucial for mobile application development. Technology companies providing iOS App Development Services or Android App Development Services are sought after by businesses to create high performing apps with a remarkable user experience. 

Top 5 Considerations for Mobile App Development

1. Seamless User Experience and Design

Time is the utmost limited resource with everyone nowadays. Hence it is vital to ensure your app’s first impression is impactful and addictive. Owing to this goal, it is observed that most of the app development service providers aim to minimize UI design to present the user with only what they need to know.

Usually, all apps are very specific to the targeted users and their problems which differentiate them from others. Therefore, a mobile apps experience and interface should significantly relate to the targeted user. This is where the buyer persona and buyers journey play a very important role.

A mobile app design strategy constitutes of a User Interface (UI) & User Experience (UX) design. UI usually compliments the UX and refers to the design and the way in which it interacts with the user. Whereas, UX details how the customer journey/experience would be like while interacting with the app. Both the elements are crucial and help a user decide whether a user would stay or sway away.

Though being customer centric is the key, your app should not miss on achieving business objectives for generating revenues, traffic, and increasing brand reputation. Ensure your app has real value and seamless process flows for sign ups, in-app purchases, minimum clicks, and personalization to improve overall mobile app user experience.

2. Mobile App Performance

A lot of effort and resources get invested in making a great mobile app design, however, if the mobile app performance is poor – it all will go in vain. According to a survey by Akamai, 47% of consumers want the web pages to load in two seconds or less.

Imagine you are making a reservation at a hotel and the app slows down too often, in no time you would jump to another app even if its design is not that appealing.

While running campaigns, it is common for your app to face performance issues. Mobile app development has to be done keeping in mind the future scalability requirements. Some ways that developers suggest to enhance the performance of apps are using cache images, compressing images, creating offline modes and loading data as needed.

3. App Interactivity and Engagement

People usually use apps for a specific purpose, and in many cases, once that goal is achieved they abandon due to its high battery or space consumption. To get these users back on board, and use the app repeatedly you have to prove its value and utility.

Mobile ads are a great way to remind the users of your app. Ads will yield positive results if it is deep linked with the app and takes the user to the most relevant page for him. For instance – If you are looking for Men’s sports shoes for running purpose for an upcoming marathon, the app should take you to the relevant page that has the required information.

Push notifications can also be used to send specific reminders and incentives. However, it is important to tailor the message as per the user. Also, feedbacks are great in order to engage with users and help in improving the overall mobile app experience.

4. Mobile App Testing

Right after the release of your app, the app reviews determine whether your app rises or sinks into oblivion. And if you want the best shot at reviews, you cannot ignore app testing. There are numerous testing processes an app has to undergo to work as intended across all devices and networks. A mobile app should be rigorously tested for performance, security, stress, battery consumption, etc.

Most of the developers still assume that testing begins after the completion of development. However, testing should start as soon as the development has reached a logical stage. This helps in identifying issues at an early stage before they become too costly to fix. Here are some recommended Mobile App Testing Best Practices suggested by an expert.

5. App Discovery

While most of us believe that the only way to discover an app is through the app store, that’s not true. 1 out of every 4 users discover an app through a mobile search as per Google. For instance – If you want to book a flight ticket instantly and want to compare the flight rates with different airlines, you might just end up using Google Search instead of searching for an app on the app store. Therefore, it is important to ensure your app is discoverable, including search. Search Ads on Google Play can be leveraged by developers to drive awareness of the apps.

Furthermore, deep links and app links can be used for App Store Optimization. These tools help apps to communicate with each other by unlocking the content for indexation and enable Google Search to return relevant mobile app results.However, to drive higher app installs and engagement, you’ve first got to understand your app user.

Users are increasingly becoming addicted to mobile apps that simplify their work and daily activities. It is a great opportunity for businesses to maximize their profitability. While most businesses understand the importance of a strong mobile presence; determining which aspect of mobile one should focus on isn’t always easy. What you need is a mobile app development service provider who has a proven expertise to bring your app visions to life.