How to do mobile development the right way is an ongoing question for many businesses and entrepreneurs. Allowing your clients or customers to reach your business through a mobile phone is more important than you think.
According to a research by a global tech care company Asurion, Americans check their phone up to 90 times a day! That means they check it once every 10 minutes! This fact is not that big of a shock, since it’s not hard to be noticed in everyday life.
Back in 2016, mobile phone usage overtook desktops for the first time. Mobile phone usage has been steadily growing ever since then. With all this data, it’s not hard to conclude that mobile phones are a rather important communication channel between businesses and their customers.
There are many benefits of mobile app development that almost any business can take advantage of. But, it’s important to note it’s not enough just to own an app in order to become more relevant. You need to understand several things before developing an app that is well-suited for your business. Because if it’s not, it’s just going to be another waste of resource and you’ll end up with an app that nobody really wants to use.
Because people check their phones every 10 minutes on average, that means that they will most probably see your app on their screens many times a day! If your app’s icon is your logo, this can help you develop visual recognition. But, if your app is useless, impractical, or not enough aesthetically pleasing, people will surely get rid of it in order to clear space for other apps. This is why it’s important to develop an app that your clients will feel an actual need to use. Not just install, use a couple of times and then delete. Here are 5 tips on how to do mobile development the right way!
Know your customer's needs
Understanding the dynamic between your customers and your business is probably the most crucial aspect. This is especially true when it comes to developing an online presentation of a business. In order to do this, ask yourself questions like “Why do my clients like my business?”,” Why do they keep coming back to it?”,” Why should they come back to it more often?”, “How can I encourage them to spend more money?”, “What do they want from my business?”, etc. Analyzing the market and its potential can help you come up with a more useful idea around which you can develop your app. Know your target group and know their demands.
You can learn a lot by your target group from other businesses they like. These businesses might or might not be your competitors. You can still get inspired by them and they can help you come closer to your customers. If you want to know how to do mobile development the right way, you need to know your business well first.
Work on the idea first
Of course, the basic idea behind the app should be well structured before dive into developing waters. Make sure to thoroughly think through your business strategy and how can a mobile app support your business in the best way possible. The most important thing is to know what do you want to achieve with an app! Is it boosting revenue, publicity, customer outreach, building brand recognition? Or maybe all of the above, more or less.
This heavily depends on which kind of business you own. If you own a restaurant, would you like to bring more people to the actual physical restaurant or would you like to popularise orders for house delivery? Or maybe you just want an app for your workers only in order to create a local digital network? This can improve and speed up communication between waiters and cooks. There are many different ways an app can support and accompany your business. Think outside the box, be creative. Look at your competitors and what they have done. See how could you improve the already existing ideas, before starting with a brand new concept.
Catch up with the latest trends
In order to develop an app that people will intuitively want to use, make sure to research some ongoing trends. This is a necessary step to understand for an entrepreneur before starting the process of mobile app development. If you want to go for something extraordinary, game apps, augmented reality (AR) and on-demand apps are the hot topic in the world of mobile apps right now.
Have your clients play a simple video game that is built around your business’ brand is more beneficial than you’d think. People love the combination of fun and practicality. If you offer them something valuable after playing the game or reaching a certain amount of points, you’ll trigger their sense of accomplishment. This valuable offer could be a discount or an entry to a giveaway. Video game applications bring user interactivity to another level. And interactivity is something that helps people learn and remember the best.
Augmented reality (AR) apps are becoming popular not only because they are fun to use. They are also very practical. This is especially true for online shopping and industries such as the furniture industry.
Quality development
Low-quality development can ruin the greatest idea. Developing an app with the latest technology and with profesionally designed UI and UX is truly important for an app if you want its users to take it seriously. If the app is too slow to load, people will quickly give up. Or if it’s hard or confusing to use, it will slow down the whole process. In this situation, customers might bore you with unnecessary questions or bad reviews on the application store. Nobody likes apps that are too big in size and take too much space. This means that your app needs to be properly developed and optimized. If your app is slow or unresponsive, it is probably going to end up in the dump irrespective of how useful it actually is.
We will also point out once again the importance of UI and UX. It might put off people from downloading your app if your app does not look professional, or is not well presented on the store. It’s important to visually connect your business, your app, and your physical store (or a restaurant) through the same visual identity. If your logo is in purple color and people associate your business with purple, designing your application to be predominantly blue is not the best idea.
The design of your app and the way it functions must make sense. It’s sometimes hard to have a sense and deep understanding of this, especially if you never worked with apps before. This is why it’s important to talk with experienced developers of your future app even during the process of idea development.
Updates and maintenance
After your app is available online, development is still not over. If people see that your app has not updated in a while, they might think it's not functional anymore. And it probably won't be, if it’s not taken proper care of. It might be technically functional, but businesses and customers’ needs change over time.
In order to ensure proper development and proper app maintenance, you need a trustworthy and reliable development company. Addria is a software development company with years of experience in mobile app development. Our ambitious and dedicated team of developers is more than ready to help you out on developing your future app. We hope you got some answers on how to do mobile development the right way. If you need any help related to application development or you need some consulting around the idea of your app, our contact page is just one click away!
