How to Develop a Successful Mobile App

There are various ways for a business to establish its online presence. A functional website, pages on various social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram, or a Mobile App, are the ideal ways to communicate and engage with prospects and customers. But a Mobile app deserves a special mention. Any organizations wondering about the necessity to build its own mobile app should consider the following facts:

• ‘More’ people have access to a mobile rather than a desktop or laptop computer

• ‘More’ users prefer to install an app rather than browse a company’s website on their mobile

• A mobile app offers ‘more’ benefits than a mobile website, as it can make use of various device features such as location, camera, contact list, etc. apart from additional UI and Design options.

So, if you wish to get ‘more’ success from your online initiative, building a mobile app is the ideal thing to do. However, developing an app for the sake of it wouldn’t help.

If an app doesn’t meet the expectations of the users, they would simply uninstall it. With the number of competing apps available for free, no amount of persuasion may help to get the irate users to reinstall the app even if they’ve had a bad experience at the first go. Hence, it is important to ensure the features of your apps are compatible with the basic requirements of your target audience.

The ideal strategy is to focus on UX. Finding the right balance between information collection and presenting it a way that the readers find it useful can help create a lasting impression through continual use. A smart UX strategy that can captivate the viewers and bring more businesses should be at the core, which can make the app a financial success. Discussed below are some of the tips that can help.

Customization

The ideal criterion for designing a mobile App’s functionality and features would be to base them on the expectations and requirements of the end users. Also, it must be noted that providing a user with different options to customize the app can be an interesting idea. Customization usually deals with the ability to change the features based on user’s preferences. It can either be explicit or implicit.

The ability to change explicit features such as the color, font or textures, or the arrangement of information based on priority by toggling the menu items or tabs, is the basic example of allowing the users to customize explicitly.

Similarly, offering the customers the option to remove an ad that starts automatically or allowing them to choose the actions that they wish to perform offline, can offer implicit customization.

The idea is to put the users in charge of the app’s environment that can create a sense of emotional affinity or ease-of-use in them. The designers should visualize the most common ways the app would be used by the users and offer enough options that enhance the experience.

If an app’s design prioritizes the business goals more than the users’ requirements, it may not be appreciated. For instance, an app that forces the viewers to sign up at the very beginning without allowing them even to view the offerings could risk being promptly abandoned.

On the other hand, an app that satisfies all the requirements and objectives of the users before prompting them to sign up has much higher chance of being a success.

Personalization

When planning a mobile app, which is essentially a promotional and engagement tool, it is important to treat the end users not as trends but as individuals with unique personalities.

The app should also be able to record the individual’s behavior as well as the distinctive preferences, interests, and tastes. Based on these observations, it should be able to adjust its interactive features to become even more engaging. The focus should be on offering personalized and high-quality content, which needs to be regularly updated.

The ability to change the messaging and the tone based on the real-time activity of a user adds to the personalized experience. Subsequently, users should be presented with content that relates to where they’ve been in your app. That can help them in taking the desired actions with minimum ease.

By doing so, the app can deliver the level of personalization that can cater to the specific needs of every individual, thereby achieving its primary objective of ensuring better engagement and carefully targeted promotion.

Optimization

Every aspect of the app needs to undergo continuous testing and optimization. Some the primary features of consequence include the content, subject lines, layouts, and visuals. Experimentation with the flow that contributes to the nurturing order has to be optimized continuously to ensure better score and ratings.

The frequency of your messaging and its timing are critical, and so are the in-app- navigation features. Experimenting and testing the engagement features against each other is the ideal means to find out the best possible combination. For instance, deciding on the type of guidance that seems more efficient in onboarding new users would require you to choose between a feature-carousel and a video tutorial. Continuous testing and optimization are the only way to realize the app’s full business potential.

Thus, by focusing on the app’s core functionality and engagement features that drive revenue, you can steer your mobile app in the right direction.