There are around 1.96 million Apple apps whereas Android apps are taking the fair share of around 2.46 million apps in its store. Believe it or not, the future belongs to more number of mobile applications. And the numbers are likely to grow if not quadruple but they are surely going to get double in the coming years.
It will not be wrong to say that 2020 will see a major shift from the World Wide Web to the easy-breezy mobile application. Seeing the numbers, demand for mobile application and remarkable growth in the app technologies, the mobile app development companies are making a way to offer nothing but the best user experience through mobile applications.
Seeing the trends, everyone from kids to grown-ups is getting hooked to mobile applications. Hence, the majority of well-established businesses along with newcomers startups are majorly investing in developing mobile applications not just for users but also for the business-related internal zone. Seeing such demands and competition in the market, the pressure of offering the best user experience is also getting challenging. Starting from research to testing and reaching to post-launch, everything is required to be done in a precise way.
Hence, here is the list of things you are required to follow or better say consider when designing or developing your mobile application
Things to consider for developing a mobile app
1. Do an in-depth research
Having a great app idea for mobile application is itself a victory but neglecting the market, customer demands and on-going trends will fail the overall app idea.
Every inch and corner of the mobile application requires in-depth market research. To this, a market analysis report can offer you useful insights about the current market trends and demands,
Make sure to check what is so special or what is the USP of the most popular applications currently ranking high in the app store. The practice will allow you to optimize your app from the very beginning.
2. Know your target audience
Though it comes under the pages of research study, because it is extremely important, it is sharing its own point.
Knowing and identifying your target audience is extremely important as they are the ultimate consumer of the application. The entire future of the application depends upon the consumers. Having an idea about the target audience can also help in the virality of the application.
3. Choosing the right platform
Just like an extra sprinkle of salt can spoil the whole meal, similarly not choosing the right platform for your mobile application can destroy its future.
No matter if you are entering the mobile app industry or is an old-hat business tycoon, trying your hand once at a time for two platforms can present various challenges. Hence, be a master of a single platform once and then move to other platforms. Choose iOS, Android or Windows, to experiment.
4. Count your budget
Developing a mobile application will require investment along with great knowledge and strategy.
Also, figuring out the budget is the only thing you are required to perform, allocating them for each stage of the app development is also essential. App development maintenance, updating, marketing, post-launch services, if you had chosen MVP(Minimum Viable Product), making necessary changes in the app is also mandatory that will incur additional investment, bug fixing etc are all important parts of the budget processing.
In addition to this, the budget of the application also relies upon the functionalities, features, complexity, UI of the app.
5. Offer something unique
The idea can pop up in any mind but the one which is actually revolutionizing and unique will become the winner. The concept is apt in the mobile app development industry.
You need to come up with a unique yet beneficial app idea to make your application stand tall in the prevailing competition. Until and unless it is unique or carrying something special in it while serving its necessary function, no one is going to download it.
Think for the out-of-the-box app idea while serving the most important task of the users by offering solutions to them. The practice of pressing the pulse of the users can make your application see great heights in no time.
6. Be easy and efficient
Away from the app idea, your business application is required to be smooth and efficient.
It will be of no use it the app is taking lots of time to load or for performing its core functions. If something like this happens, users will either abandon the app fully or will write negative responses about it. Develop your app in such that it does not consume a lot of memory space and processing power on a mobile device. Make your app smooth and absolutely efficient. Make it user-friendly, data-efficient, fill it with security portion.
7. User experience
As mentioned above, users are the ultimate consumer of any mobile application and not offering them excellent user experience can make them abandon the app in a few seconds. They will either uninstall the app or write negative reviews on the app store.
Thus, the user experience will decide the future of the mobile application, make sure to develop the app in such a way that it is serving its core function efficiently. Do not make it confusing or complicated, make it easy, efficient and if possible, you can also integrate chatbots in your mobile application to hold the retention rate.
8. Know your market strategy
Similar to research, mobile app marketing is the core part of the whole app development process.
Thus, once done with the mobile app development process, it is important to market the app in a more strategic and effective way. Before launching the app, create a buzz about it so that once it is in the market users can’t resist to use it. A correct marketing strategy can help you out in this.
Also, remember that different mobile application consists of a different set of targeted users. Thus, sticking to the one core marketing strategy will not work, one needs to try executing the different marketing strategies for different users.
9. Testing
No matter how fabulous the outcome of the app is, not testing it before the final app launch will make it risky.
Before users download the app, make sure the app is working smoothly without any issues, bugs or glitches.
10. Amazing UI
Having an app idea is not, converting it into reality is another thing.
Your application should leave a great impression in the mind of the users once they open the app. And to this, the right and apt user interface can help. Instead of making the UI fancy and full of colors, make it easy, light and smooth, follow the top and trending UI mobile app design for this purpose.
11. Compatibility
When designing your application, always remember that the same will show up differently on different devices, platforms, browsers.
Thus, recreate test scenarios with the real users that too in real-time, on real devices by using real platforms to figure out what works best while fixing the issues that do not work precisely. Also, by using the old, traditional testing mechanism to cover these aspects is not only expensive but also difficult.
Thus, one of the best ways to combat the issue of compatibility is to invest in crowd-sourced app testing. By getting real insights into how your app works will let you make smarter decisions for improving its overall app performance across various devices, browsers, and platforms.
12. Scalability issues
If your app idea is actually brilliant and is helping users around the globe, it is obvious that the number of users and data will automatically increase.
And breaking down of the app on a big day when your app is getting all the fame and popularity in the market, is a pure NO-NO. Hence, make sure that the mobile app developers incorporate such a design that will support a scalable system to handle a load of many users at a time.
13. Regular updates
Change is the essence of nature, the quote is very much applicable for mobile applications too.
After launching the app, if you think you are done with the mobile app development process, you are perhaps wrong. In fact, that is the stage where your work will start. After seeing its fair share in the market, invest in upgrading your app and also in the additional testing process.
Releasing updates are not enough, checking out if they are working fine and flawless on different OS versions is also important. Meantime, remember that easy to install or upgrade is the most preferred choice of the users, thus, do not play with it.
These were a few of the things which you should keep in mind when developing a mobile application. Always remember that your app idea is your seed of imagination, not nurturing it or watering it will rot it.
This means that having an app idea is justified as long as it is in the mind, the movement it starts taking the shape of the real identity, opting for considerable things before, during or after the app development phase is also necessary.
About The Author
Anita Sharma
Anita Sharma is a Master in English and European Literature currently works with many organizations as a freelance content writer. Apart from it, she has her own blogging website.
