7 Tips for developing a successful mobile app

Do you know that sales of smartphones and tablets are three times higher than for PCs? The future world will be mobile, and every software product aiming to secure a place under the sun should have a mobile app. More to say, this app should be built with several key principles in mind:

• Double Click to Editthe app must be either entertaining or useful (preferably both),
• the app must ensure the same user experience on any device
• the app must be free to use, with voluntary in-app monetization.

Below we will list 7 tips for developing a successful mobile app. While some are quite common, several can be a useful surprise!

Double ClSurely, your mobile app can be very useful and entertaining, however it will definitely face some competition.There are more than 3 million apps available in total on Google Play and iOS App Store. Explore the existing apps, collect the user opinions and reviews, write down the most often mentioned issues and problems. Such practice will help you avoid competitors’ mistakes and deliver exactly the features the customers expect.ick to Edit

The app will be used if it helps solve a certain pain of a user. Therefore, mobile app developers must understand their customers. How often and for how long will the customers use the app? Will they advocate it to their friends and family (regardless of the referral program)? Exploring the preferences and behavior of customer personas – some imaginary users of your mobile app – helps extrapolate the trends and usage patterns of target audience and adjust the product accordingly.User scenarios represent the order of personas’ interactions with an app. These scenarios are like pure gold for UI design. Experience charts depict the choices each persona made on each stage of interaction, providing understanding of what emotions and consequences surround each action. This is a solid ground for building a great and positive UX.

Modern users live in the era of information overload. They can effectively concentrate on a task for 8-10 seconds, not more. This means any action within your mobile app should be completed in the quickest and easiest way possible. For example, beginning the chat with a support representative must take no more 3 taps from the main app page and to the customer support request. If your app provides such UX, the users will love using it and will recommend it to other prospects.

Devices are multiple and resources available to the app during usage cannot be counted. Any number of apps can be installed on the device, any number of them might run at the moment and any of them might demand all the resources available any second. Thus said, the mobile app should ideally use as little resources as possible.

Launching on several platforms at once and adding all related features, including cross-platform interactions is not going to end well, trust us. Just release the app able to do what it should do on one platform and add the other ones later on. Follow iOS mobile app development guides or Android mobile apps development instructions will help you better understand the platform chosen and tailor your app to excel on it before expanding to other platforms.

Choose the least digitally ready person in your surrounding (a grandpa or an uncle who never used a smartphone?) and ask them to use some function of the app. If they can do it without asking for help – your app is intuitive enough. If not… well… you have a long way ahead of you.

No app is perfect from the very beginning and many improvements are added over time. Trying to add all possible features at once to your MVP just prolongs the development and lowers the chances of success. Your app should not be able to deliver GPS coordinates along with latest news and the weather forecast. It should just make what it was intended to do — solve the user’s certain pain, and do it fast and easy. This will help your mobile app hit the top of the lists. Any number of features can be added in later releases.

This list is by no means full, yet it contains the main principles of developing a great mobile app, the principles we at Quantic Apps follow ourselves. Would you like to add or replace some point? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!