In the fast-moving era of smartphones, mobile apps are the most convenient way for conventional businesses and startups to connect with customers. All you require for effective growth in business is a mobile app with a good unique idea, UI/UX design, and easy-to-navigate for a profitable business.
Apps like Zomato, Ola, Goibibo, and Bigbasket have drastically changed the business perspective in their respective industry. The on-demand startups have quickly pushed the boundaries of convenience and turned the customer’s basic inconvenience into great companies.
So, developing a mobile app is a process that entails more than just visual design and interface layout. There’s still more. In order to capture the target users’ attention, the app has to offer incredible value to your customer. You have to truly understand your audience and their needs that need to be met.
Likewise, the app developer needs to create an adequate app development flow to avert snags. To meet that requirement, you will have to look at the helpful tactics and use them in the workflow.
What does developing an app mean?
Developing an app is a time-consuming and expensive project. On top of that, there are numerous mobile apps out there, and to stand out, your app needs to focus on developing a solid USP and its promotional strategy.
More than anything breaking into the app market demands an in-depth insight into consumer behavior and comprehensive planning. It’s a tough turf, but having a presence on mobile devices has become necessary for most businesses.
As per an emarketer study, US adults, on average, intend to spend more than 4 hours with mobile internet, with 88% of that time on mobile apps.
What is a Mobile App Development?
The process employed to develop software for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices is called mobile app development. The process includes writing code to create the app and designing the app.
Mobile app development is identical to other software development, including web apps; however, the significant difference between app development and standard software development is mobile apps’ ability to use native features on a device.
For instance, mobile apps can leverage mobile features like Bluetooth, GPS, a camera, a microphone, and other pre-built functions into a mobile phone.
Android and Apple apps dominate the international market for mobile apps. So whilst it’s possible to create apps for other platforms, most apps target only these two markets.
It’s worth noting that there are several different app development frameworks to choose from. Such as React Native, Flutter, and Xamarin that are the most recommended Mobile App Frameworks in the development industry. So you will have a lot of options to consider as per your requirement and your developer’s familiarity with the platform.
Creating a mobile app too quickly will not deliver results without investing enough thought into the process. Hence, a solid strategy must be conceived to deliver a true ROI, as mobility is nothing more than a tool for any facet of the industry. What you do with that tool determines its success.
Create a Mobile App Development Strategy
When a company decides to dive into developing a mobile app, it’s understandable that it would want to turn things around quickly. Diving in and getting an app developed and deployed at lightning speed may seem cost-effective. Yet, in reality, the best way to approach mobile app development is to craft a strategy carefully.
Planning strategically what your mobile app will do and how it will fit into your company’s overall business plan is much more cost-effective. It reduces and sometimes eliminates the risk of developing an app that never quite catches on or performs as expected. An app designed with a clear strategy will bring real ROI. This emphasizes the importance of a solid strategy for mobile app development.
Implementing app development tactics
There are numerous tactics that can help transform the app development process. Those written below are only a few, but they can already affect the app development workflow. The differences may not be evident initially, but as you continue enforcing them, you will find that the app development team’s performance has improved.
Below are the seven tactics that can assist in improving the effectiveness of your app development.
1. Align Business Objectives With The App
As you start the app development process, consider the following questions:
- Who are you creating this mobile app for?
- What else do you aim to achieve with the app?
- Which features need to be included in the app?
- How can you make your app different from your rivals’?
- Which platform is appropriate for app development?
You can only align your app development with your business objectives if you have the answers to the questions above. App development software will make the development aspect easy.
However, you will have to answer these essential questions before going to the drawing board. Those answers will become your guidelines as you design and build the app to focus in a linear direction and work faster on your app.
- Pay Attention To User Experience
User experience (UX) contains all aspects of a user’s interaction with a brand, including its products and services. The most satisfactory user experience is only achievable when it can meet the needs of the targeted users.
Refined user experience is key to retaining engaged members of the target audience. Without it, you may only have your apps installed without active, engaging users.
According to a report published by Statista as of June 2019, the global app abandonment rate is around 25%. It means that individuals stopped using the app after using it merely once.
In the second half of 2018, Statista reported that 43% of global app users were still interacting with apps a month after downloading them. About 29% of app users remained engaged for three months, which meant the retention rate is 71%.
Your app’s higher retention rate can be expected only if you provide the best user experience to the users’. Resolving issues of the app users’ should be the priority for a satisfactory user experience, and it allows the users to trust you better. It can be achieved by providing better interactive elements on the mobile app.
- Shift Focus: From App Downloads To Engagement
User engagement is equally vital as user experience. Keeping users engaged is knowing what they need and meeting those needs.
This can be addressed during the mobile app design phase – by adding features and tools in demand among end-users. When potential customers test your application, you can figure out which area of your app they are likely to use the most, which can be enhanced.
To increase engagement with the user, you can improve your features if you know how users interact with your app and other relevant things. In this way, you can control issues from exploding to the point that they negatively affect its rating and reputation. Additionally, other analytics data can help, such as crash reporting, device model or type, mobile OS, and other areas for further improvement.
- Incorporate relevant third-party solutions
When users do something on the website, they expect to find the same results of that action on the mobile app as well and vice versa. This can be achieved by incorporating back-end systems and suitable third-party platforms.
An API-first methodology can help because it offers adaptability. This allows the users to simplify the flow of information between your app and other crucial apps.
On the other hand, by making the information flow smooth for the users, another massive problem can also be unloaded from the app developers’ shoulders: information stockpiling and frameworks of record recovery.
- Boost security with cloud technologies
As per Breach Level Index, more than 14 billion data records have been stolen or lost from 2013 to the present. However, about 4% were secure breaches, which mean the illegally accessed data is worthless.
Though the users are concerned about their privacy and data security, they are not strictly interested in the details. That’s why the burden comes on the app developers to make sure that customers’ records do not get revealed through the platform.
At this juncture, leveraging the cloud in mobile app development can assist you in surmounting many security challenges.
You can resolve these issues with robust authentication solutions and mechanisms like SSL via cloud services and encryption. After ensuring that, you can ensure that your users’ data is secured.
- Set policies for monitoring and governance
Regardless of how much you have ensured that bugs are eradicated, or the chances of them occuring are reduced, problems may arise with your app. That’s why policies must be put down on paper before app monitoring, and governance are in place. These can be configured even if it is being used for app development software for beginners. You can resolve them before they wreak havoc with your app as soon as issues arise.
Besides, you may also want to consider drafting and highlighting policies for migration and scaling. There may come a juncture when your existing system or infrastructure would be adequate. When that day arises, with migration and scaling guidelines, you will be capable of completing the required IT development process without any problem.
- Consider rapid development
When you adopt the rapid development approach, you can focus on building an app that furnishes an incredible experience for the users. Rapid application development focuses predominantly on being adaptive; however, it can still be integrated with your plan. This will mean you can lay out new features for your app and also leave some space for adaptability. This way, you can convince your customer to keep on using your app.
By adapting to rapid development, you will be able to solve problems flexibly that may or may not arise during the process. It will allow you not to overhaul the entire foundation you have fanned out. Furthermore, faster updates can roll out later to improve your app’s functionalities, bugs, and overall user experience.
Bonus. Reuse, Recycle
The world has started experiencing the wrath of global warming and other calamities recently, so companies capable of taking the initiative must put efforts into reducing waste and recycling as much as possible.
In this case, the best possible way to start making a difference is with code. One of the best practices and most important mobile app development methods is hybrid or cross-platform mobile app development.
As the Windows phone has gone extinct, you only have to choose between Android and Apple. We have to perform our homework ahead of time if you want anyone to even access your services via their mobile phones. However, let’s assume that if all goes well, you will probably have to build iOS and Android apps.
This sounds costly, but when you can leverage these techniques like hybrid and cross-platform development, then about 90 percent of your code can overlap. And if you can build your API first, then you will be able to develop your website and your apps on a shared codebase.
It allows for less workload for the app developers to reach their true potential — instead of rewriting the same code all over again while making it a more stable codebase. And if anything goes wrong, then you will be able to spot it easily when you have less code.
Conclusion
While developing an app, focus on one key feature, mainly to avoid the confusion of your target audience. Since you have planned well in advance, select the best ideas and implement those. Make sure that the app turns out to offer a one-stop solution to all your users, and eradicates or reduces the chances of any bugs or crashes.
Highlight your app’s USP and promote it on all possible platforms. To promote the app, better try to release video teasers, social media posts, and recordings. Don’t forget to create pre and post-launch buzz to promote it among people. Likewise, make sure to create a buzz before you launch the app.
If you miss the points mentioned above, you may lose many potential clients for your app. Try to follow the points to ensure the success of your app.
Eric Watson is a content writer @ GoodFirms – a rating agency that offers a level playing field to all software development and mobile app development companies. He has a Master’s degree in Journalism and is an avid non-fiction reader.