According to a study conducted by Flurry Analytics, mobile device owners interact with mobile apps on an average of 2 hours 19 minutes per day. In comparison, the average person spends about 22 minutes a day on the mobile web. This is good news for companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, and WhatsApp as more than a billion people use their apps. However, this is bad news for startups, individuals, and SMBs trying to build a loyal user base. Statistics published by TechCrunch show that there are over one million mobile apps in marketplaces such as Google Play and the iTunes App Store. To taste success in this vast mobile app ecosystem, you need to fix a few things. Here are seven essential steps to build a successful mobile app:
Functionality
Your mobile app should function as envisaged in your development blueprint. This means that it must act accurately, consistently, and rapidly. In most cases, functionality problems stem from choices made at the development stage. For example, if you want to develop a native app, use a relevant platform-specific programming language (Java for Android or Objective-C for iOS). Also, build a mobile app that does one thing very well.
Value
There is no point in developing a mobile app that is of little value to the end-users. To build a useful app, start by carefully studying and researching the mobile app ecosystem, including the types of apps available, your target audience, as well as download statistics for your market. With this information, identify an under-served or completely neglected audience and build an app to address existing consumer problems/needs.
Design
Design can make or break the fate of an app. Remember, mobile devices have smaller screens than normal desktop PCs and laptops. This aspect alone reshapes the mobile design approach. For this reason, Joseph Labrecque, a senior interactive software engineer at the University of Denver, cautions app developers not to deviate from established design ideas. This is because consumers have come to expect certain app designs when using platform-specific mobile devices.
User Friendly
The app you’re building needs to be as user-friendly as possible, which means you’ll have to make serious choices when it comes to user interfaces (UI) elements such as buttons and sliders. The rule of thumb is to keep interface elements to a minimum. Still, if you’re building an e-commerce app, you should aim to provide end-users with a pleasant shopping experience by including large checkout buttons and infinite scroll capability to keep consumers from reloading or flipping pages. Without being allowed to view the products.
Performance
Mobile device users expect the apps they use to download content very quickly. According to data published by Kissmetrics, a delay of one second in response can reduce conversions by seven percent. The rule of thumb is to compress the content to avoid slow performance. It is advisable to keep links to a minimum. Avoid Flash when developing iOS mobile apps as it becomes problematic. If you want to build an app for both Android and iOS devices, do not cross-compile as you will end up with performance issues. Instead, build platform-specific apps.
Uniqueness
Do not develop a replica of an existing app as you may face the wrath of end-users or even face a lawsuit over copyright infringement. In fact, in 2012, Electronics Arts sued Zynga for plagiarizing the game mechanics and design of “The Sims Social”. In February 2014, Google and Apple cracked down on clones of “Flappy Bird”, an addictive game that topped the download charts in January. The so-called “Flappy Bird” knock-off never gained the same traction and popularity as the original game as mobile device users have become smart enough and can tell the difference between original and cloned apps.
Offline Capabilities
Most mobile app users usually get frustrated when they are unable to use the app due to a weak network signal. For this reason, it is wise to develop an app with offline capabilities (local storage of information). This is possible because both iOS and Android platforms come with a local database, for example, SQLite on Android, and allows local caching of pages.
In conclusion, Nielsen statistics show that smartphone owners in the United States have an average of 26 apps. To ensure that users download your app, you need to consider factors such as offline usage, exclusivity, functionality, design, price, usability, and content download speed during the development phase.
Why You Should Outsource Mobile App Development
I think it goes without saying, and I believe we don’t really need a support survey, that users around the world have turned to fashion from their digital devices like women. With compact mobile phones in the wider space, innovations drive mobile users towards a legal digital trend. On average, mobile users interact with their mobile screens for at least 2 hours a day. Out of this time, they spend about 30 minutes with mobile apps.
If more and more unique apps are coming to the mobile app store, it is because mobile app lovers are growing in leaps and bounds. Among all types of mobile apps, gaming, e-commerce, social networking, education, and lifestyle apps dominate the bulk of the app market.
However, with a market full of both hyped-up rumors and challenges, many marketers promote the belief that outsourcing the mobile app development process leads to technical mistakes, delays in app releases, miscommunication, and limited life of the final product. The cycle happens.
This kind of misconception can lead to many hasty decisions regarding mobile app development, which will ultimately give you a lot of pain. To dispel this myth, let’s review the top 6 reasons to outsource the mobile app development process.
Strong Focused Knowledge
Usually, the app development process involves several critical steps that require intense attention, much care, and precise knowledge. With each component screaming for the best digital strategy and use of modern resources, the process requires expert app developers who have vast experience in this field. You should outsource to a place that is a hub of outsourcing companies and has mastered the art of creating remarkable apps with high usability, life cycle, and excellent UI. They should have expertise in a particular style of mobile app and should have the best knowledge in industry affairs and the latest technologies.
The flexibility of the App Development Model
Having credible expertise in a particular area of the app development process allows companies to choose which part of the mobile app process they can outsource. For example, if an app development agency has credible experience in the QA section of app development, it becomes easier for companies to outsource the quality assurance part to get the best results and a product they know is of quality. will achieve the highest standard. Such a flexible model is possible only with outsourcing mobile app agencies.
Time-Saving Alternative
Time is precious to any business, and the app development process includes heavy components from building an app, enhancing features, using the right technology to working on its UI, deploying, and testing it. All this takes a good chunk of time before the product is ready to launch in the App Store. Outsourcing the app development process saves you all the tedious elements involved in building an app so that you can focus on its post-product marketing strategy and other essentials.
Ability to Explore the Ability
With information being the key to any business success, compiling different types of information works like a miracle in this business. The database collected by mobile app creators helps in taking any mobile app project towards its end result. What is a digital industry without highly valuable data during the development process? A programmer needs to be a meticulous researcher who prepares and uses the data as a robust resource to turn the conceptual idea into a substantial mobile app.
Financial Comfort and Affordability
It doesn’t come as a shock when a businessman insists on reducing development costs to keep his overall budget at an optimum level. Companies are really looking for alternatives that provide great mobile app solutions in return for an affordable investment. There’s nothing wrong with expecting low-cost solutions. Usually, the cost of app development stops at 6 digits which can be kept at a certain level only by outsourcing the entire project. By doing this, you generally don’t have to spend time and money building up the infrastructure, hiring an efficient team, and employing healthy resources. You can easily find app developers that cost you no more than 5 figures for the same expensive-looking project.
Full Range of Quality Service
If you collaborate well with an agency that provides a complete service suite of end-to-end app development services, you will enjoy the process hassle-free. From ideation, conceptualization, discovery, development, testing, deployment, and support, you’ll get the complete package so in the end you just have to wait for the best results that come your way. So what’s stopping you from outsourcing app development?