With the rapid pace of advancements in the mobile industry, the interest for businesses to use this platform is increasing at an excitingly high rate. Due to the ease of accessibility of smartphones for the masses, many businesses believe that their mobile platform presence is a business necessity more than a choice. Hence, it is essential to understand the common best practices and mistakes of mobile app development to ensure your app development process is flawless.
Basics of Mobile App Development
Mobile application development is expected to close an annual revenue of $693 billion in 2021. This sheds some light on the scale of the growth of mobile applications. Mobile App Development is a discrete process that can be summarized in the following steps:
- Strategy: Designing the goals of your application.
- Planning: Identify your application requirements and plan your structure to manage the development procedure.
- Design: Develop a compelling and sticky application design to increase user retention and increase the ratio of recurring users.
- App Development: Develop the backend of your application and a supporting frontend user interface to link the user actions with the implementation of your application. The most common practice for app development is to follow the agile development process.
Although the basic process of mobile app development is extremely simple, there are some dos and don’ts of mobile app development that require the attention of application developers for a decrease in the failure of the majority of applications.
While this can be true in some cases, the application’s features should primarily be based on user experience to ensure it’s a hit in the target audience. The mobile app developers in Ireland should keep this in mind while developing the application.
Do’s and Don’ts of Mobile App Development
Here’s a list of must-learn do’s and don’ts for mobile developers to ensure their applications are a user favorite from the word go.
User Experience Should Be Your Priority
Mobile developers are often under the impression that a variety of different and extra features will help them in retaining a greater audience. While this can be true in some cases, the application’s features should primarily be based on user experience to ensure it’s a hit in the target audience.
Optimize Your Application for Performance
Performance is something that affects all kinds of users. Despite the different kinds of operating systems, optimization of an application holds great importance in attracting new and retaining recurring users. This is why it is recommended to channel your focus towards application performance improvement to increase the user satisfaction.
Never Compromise on Your Security
Due to the increased possibility of losing a cell phone, security acts as a key feature for the users to protect their data. Compromising your application security can lead to a bad reputation which will eventually lead to low user retention and a decreased number of new users.
Never Break the Natural Flow of an Application
User stickiness is primarily dependent on the fluidity and natural flow of an application on the different pages. Therefore, developers should value this detail to enhance their UX.
Despite the recent growth rate of mobile app development, the technology is still evolving and understanding the usage patterns of users. This is why iOS and Android app developers are constantly working on optimizing the user experiences to provide the best services to their users. Moreover, the optimization of user experience brings long-term positive effects for an application on the App Stores to attract new users into joining the community.
Common Mobile App Development Mistakes
Mobile App Development is a densely-populated division of the modern tech era. However, there are a few common mistakes that can be considered as the basic reasons for the failure of the majority of the failed applications.
Lack of Understanding of User-Scope
User Research holds key importance in the field of mobile development. Failure in understanding your target audience and relying on assumptions can lead to rejection from your primary users.
Budget Mismanagement
The process of deciding an application’s budget requires foresightedness to acknowledge both the apparent and overhead costs of the development procedure. Despite the scale of the project, mismanaging a budget can hurt the development or growth of an application. This occurs when the manager was unaware of any unforeseen costs that emerged during the process.
Excessive Features and Functions That Complicate the Application
Design study strictly dictates that users still value simplicity. Yes, the inclusion of excessive features can be beneficial for the users, but the probability of the application becoming a lot more complicated and frustrating for the user is higher.
Mobile App Development has been around for quite a while and people are still learning the user behaviors to aptly make changes in their development styles. To achieve user satisfaction, the key responsibility of the developers is to understand the target audience’s usage scope and religiously follow the scope without any major structural overhauls to avoid the risk of failure.
