We as a Mobile application development company most of the time face the question from our prospect as how Mobisoft helps to build a successful mobile application rather than just developing app. Hundreds of thousands of apps are there on apple store and android market.
Very few application really become SUCCESSFUL that really benefit application users or application developers in terms of revenues. Through this blog I want to summaries some of the things that should help prospects to strategize development of application ideas. Any application development company can convert your ideas into reality but taking that application to millions of users for download and keeping them live and engaged on application for longer period of time is really important to make it SUCCESSFUL.
Deciding the application scope & application idea
When you decide the scope of the application and functional requirements, don’t try to build too many features in first shot and delay deliveries. You should identify the key features of app that should be present in the first release of app instead of having exhaustive list of features. Most of the time it happens that we try to incorporate every other feature present in other similar apps and loose speciality of our app. Too much information on app may confuse the user. Your app will get tons of bad reviews and that can affect app sale and prevent users from downloading your future apps too.
What can make your app idea special ?
Following are some of the things that can interest mobile app users:
- Time based information:
Applications like Facebook, tweeter interest people because those apps provide realtime information about your friends, family, followers , role models and what they are doing, which restaurants are visiting etc that keep users engaged and create addition among them. People are more interested in updating themselves for what is recently happening or happened or going to happen in their social circles.
- Location based information:
Mobile app users are interested in getting information on the move ex. checking the deals, restaurants, attractions on the go if they are traveling.
- Information that changes frequently :
It should not happen that you have put some important information on application and same information stays there for long with no update. To keep app users engaged on app you have to keep updating the information.
- Excite consumers :
You can use apps to increase excitement and involvement with mobile users. When consumers become excited and involved, they’re more likely to share their experiences with friends and family through email, social networking, and other communication channels that could be your score card on leadership board of small puzzle game or a greeting card prepared by you for your loved one.
- Utility apps that make life easier :
Sometime small utility apps which make everyone’s life easy and get successful because those utilities might be part of everyone’s life and millions of download of such app having low price gives high returns in terms of revenues.
Selection of developer
Following are some of the things one should check while selection of developer for the application development:
- Check the applications that developer has worked so far and has developer already worked on similar app that you are developing
- References from past customers
- Check the demo of applications from portfolio that you might be interested in
- Availability of support team during development and after development of application – Communication skills
- Development processes and QA processes
- Delivery Time lines
- After sales service
- Cost
Design
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Usability of the application and visually appealing User Interface
While designing mobile application we have to consider the small space available on the screen and design the UI such that it looks visually appealing and easy to navigate. Do not make the design complex to make it customized. Sometime we try to create custom design to make it better which put users in confusion on how to use the app. So it is good to keep standard navigation provided by mobile operating system.
Always prefer to put the thought of designs in wire-framing or application workflow first and then actual designing of screen. Also getting the usability testing done from set of users before moving from design phase to development phase is important to tackle user interface problem before actual implementation.
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Rich Media experience for engaging users
Use different rich medias like photos, videos or interactive contents in the application to keep the users on app engaged. Also it is easier and better way to convey the message or create brand through high quality photos, videos and audios.
Development:
- Decide minimal viable solution:
Identify the minimal functionalities those are important in the first release of the application that will help you to enter in market quickly and refine the app by keeping regular upgrade path.
- Plan for multiple releases or upgrade in advance so that users will keep checking on the updates and additional features you are planning to give periodically.
- Scalability and Architecture & maintainability:
Your application should go in the hands of good software architect for development. A good architect only can visualize how the application is scalable when millions of users login to the application at same time and how to design the architecture of the system so that system can be adopted for multiple platforms or while adding new features to application. There are different parameters like using or configuring scalable server configuration, designing of reusable components while development or using software patterns that helps to ease the code management during maintenance.
- Maintain the quality :
You should not compromise on the quality of the application. Having issues or facing application crashes in the app is real turn off for users. Users will never turn back to you application if they face such problems.
- Performance of Application:
Application response time should be minimum. Show progress bar or progress indicators wherever necessary in the application or keep time consuming task in background in running asynchronous so that user will not get stuck at some point in the application.
- Availability on multiple platform(iOS, android and windows):
Plan to develop the application on multiple platform based on the statistics of device users in the target domain that will help more number of users get attracted on application.
Business aspects & Post release steps
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Monetization of application:
It is really important to decide the pricing of application. You have to keep the pricing such that the app will be affordable to most of the consumers and still you can earn from the application by charging users in different monetization techniques like in-app purchase or subscription model by keeping application free. It will be totally depend on the type of application and information that your application offers. If you are offering some services in bundles then it is always preferable to keep the price low or free and provide in-app purchase on accessing the information bundle. If your application provides information that is time based or content based which changes over time then you can keep application free and subscription model for accessing the contents. Consumers always look at the price tag and if the application is costly then they may have second thought on downloading the app. You can also consider advertising platform like Admob or AdWhirl or AdMarvel through which application developer can earn revenues.
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Promotion and Paid advertising:
You might have to reach out to press or bloggers for posting the information about your application or present your application in the mobile apps conferences in front of targeted clients and post paid advertisements on relevant banners. Apple store or Google play help application in listing the application on new release section of market but that does not help much to reach out to the relevant audiences so investing on the advertisements or posting the application on other external markets is really important for that you might have to hire some PR firm who will help you in doing so. Developing good marketing videos for the application could be one more good option to attract mobile app users.
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Understand customer behavior pattern:
You cannot simply wait for the revenue to increase by putting the app on mobile application market, you have to understand the behavior of users who are downloading and using different features of the application. We should integrate some analytics tools like Google Analytics or Flurry analytics that will help us to understand which features of app users are more interested or what are the locations of users, how many times specific features are accessed by users by looking at the graphs from analytics.These analytics helps us to plan for the next phases of application and priority features that we can improvise and keeping users engaged.
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Tracking of the customer feedback and reviews:
Mostly all the mobile app markets have customer review section associated with it which help app developers to understand the good or bad features or aspects of the application. Application developer has to come up with updates in the application in terms of fixes or new features in next versions after looking at reviews from the customers.
Positive app reviews on the application not just help in making the app successful but they build the credibility and reputation of your organization for future app releases.