Today mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily life. Whether it’s doing quick bank transfers, keeping in-touch with friends and family, or doing work on the go - people are increasingly relying on mobile apps for a variety of tasks. The significance of mobile apps cannot be understated, especially for businesses looking to engage and retain customers.
Statistics also underscore the critical role of user experience in mobile app success. A recent study from Google gives critical insight into just how daming negative experiences with mobile apps can be. Statistics show that users who have a bad experience with a mobile are 62% less likely to re-engage with that brand, than users who have a positive experience.
In a competitive market, having a well-designed and functional app is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Businesses must prioritise user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design to ensure their app not only meets but exceeds user expectations. A recently published Forbes article delves into the consequences of poor UX and non-intuitive functionality. The article cites Facebook's iOS app as an example, pointing out the difficulty users face when trying to delete posts. This unintuitive design choice creates unnecessary friction, leading to user frustration and, over time, resentment.
That is why investing in superior UX/UI design is crucial for businesses aiming to stay ahead! But the question remains what does good design look like? Below we delve into this further!
App Development Dos
Creating a successful mobile app requires a user-centric design, performance optimisation, and regular maintenance. Below, we have compiled a few ‘must-have’ app best practices, that will help you ensure your users are having great experience with your app!
User-Centric Design
Above anything else the success of an app relies on how well it connects with its target users. This is often referred to as User-centric design. This approach begins with gaining a deep understanding of the product's customers through research and ensuring that this knowledge is applied at every stage of product development.
Understanding your target audience's needs, preferences, and pain points is crucial. This can be achieved through making sure you are engaging in regular feedback loops, before, during and after the launch of your app - to ensure that your product is created and evolves in line with user expectations.
So what does this look like in actionable steps?
- Customer Research and Product Development: Utilising methods such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups can help gather insights about what users expect from your app. This information will help guide design and usability decisions from the outset.
- Intuitive Navigation and Clear Visuals: A well-designed app should be easy to navigate. Creating clear visuals and navigation which makes the app’s flow easy, and allows users to complete tasks without confusion, is paramount.
- Easy Accessibility: Creating an app which has great accessibility is a necessity in today’s app market. When designing your app, consider accessibility best practices.
Performance Optimisation
Performance optimisation is crucial for making sure that users have a great app experience. A sluggish, unreliable app, is a sure fire way to drive users away. Google’s statistics show that the probability of user bounce increases 32% when the page loading time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds. Therefore ensuring your app runs smoothly across various devices and network conditions is essential for retaining users!
So what does this look like in actionable steps?
- Speed: Create efficient clean code, which reduces load time, to ensure your app runs smoothly. Any delays can lead to frustration and app abandonment.
- Reliability: Using caching strategies to store frequently accessed data locally can help reduce the chances of crashes and errors. This will help ensure users trust your app and find it reliable.
- Efficiency: Making sure your app is efficient with help minimise data and battery usage. This is particularly important for users browsing via mobile data. One way to achieve this is to limit the number of network requests your app makes.
Regular Updates and Maintenance
It’s crucial to remember that an app's development doesn't stop at its launch. Regular updates and maintenance are crucial to address bugs, introduce new features, and adapt to evolving user needs as well as the ever evolving technological landscape.
So what does this look like in actionable steps?
- Addressing Bugs: Regular updates are important for helping fix bugs that could affect app performance and user satisfaction. Creating a regular update and release schedule can help with staying on top of the most critical issues.
- Introducing New Features: In today’s fast moving tech world, staying competitive means continuously enhancing your app with new features. However, it's crucial to make sure that these new updates align with your users needs, as well as wider industry trends.
- Adapting to Technological Advancements: Ensuring that you stay on top of the latest technological advancements, taking advantage of new hardware and software options is important. By allocating sufficient resources to continuous improvement of your app, you can make sure that your app remains relevant and functional.
App Development Don'ts
Creating a successful mobile app goes beyond knowing what to do; it's equally important to understand what not to do. Below we have broken down a few of the most common mistakes made by app developers and how you can avoid them!
Ignoring Platform Guidelines
Adhering to platform-specific guidelines is crucial. This is because ignoring them can lead to compatibility issues, poor user experience and even rejection from app stores.
Both iOS and Android have distinct design principles and technical requirements that must be followed to ensure app store acceptance and smooth functionality. For Apple this criteria decomposes safety, performance, business considerations, design, and legal compliance. Likewise, for Google apps assessment is based on content, monetisation, security, and additional factors.
So what does this look like in actionable steps?
- Follow Platform-Specific Design Principles: Both Apple and Google offer extensive guidelines about what apps, content, safety principles etc. they will accept within their app store. Looking at these guidelines prior to development and staying up to date with any chances in guidelines is crucial for avoiding non-compliance issues.
Overloading with Features
While it can be tempting to pack your app full of numerous features, which you believe will be useful - having too much clutter can lead to user confusion. What’s more, having a wide range of functionality without any specific ideas around user-flow can compromise performance.
That is why, a minimalist approach, focusing on core functionality, is often the best tactic during app development.
So what does this look like in actionable steps?
- Prioritise Core Features: When planning and building a new app, beginw with idenficying the most essential features of your app. Consider how each of these align with your user’s primary needs and the purpose of the app. Introduce additional features gradually based on user feedback and usage patterns.
- Focus on Simplicity: Keep the user interface clean and intuitive. Perhaps the most crucial part of this is ensuring that users can effortlessly navigate an app without feeling overwhelmed by unnecessary options.
Neglecting Security and Privacy
Above all else, its crucial to ensure that your user’s data is secure and their privacy is protected. Failing to implement robust security protocols, can expose user data to unauthorised access, cause data breaches and undermine user trust. In the long-term this can even damage your brand’s reputation.
So what does this look like in actionable steps?
- Implement Robust Security Protocols: Ensure that you are up to date with the latest security best-practices. This includes using data encryption, secure authentication mechanisms, and regular security audits to protect user data.
- Regular Security Updates: Continuously monitor and update your app's security measures to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities. For example, consider how the latest AI security threats might target your application and users.
Working with Deazy: Ensuring Smooth and Successful App Development
Perhaps the most effective way to ensure smooth and successful app development is partnering with experts who already have proven experience, developing successful apps. Working with a seasoned team can help you navigate the complexities of app development and ensure that you will avoid common pitfalls.
This is where development partners like Deazy come into play. Our extensive network of 7,000+ developers from over 85 teams, are ready to start working with you on your next add development project.
Deazy’s team exemplifies this expertise through their work on Orderbee, a successful order and pay app. Developed during the uncertain times of COVID-19, when the demand for contactless payment solutions was rapidly growing, Orderbee is a testament to Deazy's ability to deliver high-quality, functional, and user-friendly apps under challenging conditions.
You can read the full case study here!
By partnering with Deazy you can leverage the extensive knowledge of top-notch app developers, as well as our in-house delivery experts who help ensure smooth delivery of projects.
