There is a huge increase in the amount of traffic going onto mobile devices. People all over the world are upgrading their mobile phones and finding out that they are now much better than their old models. The screens are larger and clearer, the internal chips are faster and their design has been improved so much that the new generation of mobile phones are very easy to use, both when surfing the web and when using mobile apps.
There are so much better that people are using their mobile phone when they would previously have used a table or a desktop. Consumers are now happily pressing the Buy Button on their mobile phone so often that it is they are accounting for more and more of retail expenditure.
All this means that there are more eyes on mobile phones for longer periods and that leads to more mobile app downloads and more use of those mobile apps. This all leads to a fantastic opportunity for anyone who wants to get into mobile app development because the amount of expenditure on mobile ads has also increased dramatically, too.
So, what makes a great mobile apps?
- Be Functional
It sounds crazy, but the most important thing is that your mobile app does the thing that it is supposed to do and do it easily. It is far, far better to have a simple app that works perfectly rather than one that promises a range of benefits and the fails to deliver on some or all of them.
Remember the old adage - Keep It Simple.
- Offer Real Value
Again, your mobile app does not have to be life changing or overly amazing. It just needs to make it worthwhile for the user to download and use. That’s it. Some of my apps are very simple, such as a calculator that is set up for a specific purpose, like how long it will take to repay a loan. You can do something very straightforward so long as satisfies a real need.
- User Friendly Design
Make sure that you use font that is easy to read, nice big buttons, colours that don’t clash (you can find plenty of colour palettes online) and nothing too cramped. Do not not try to squeeze too much into a single screen. Navigation buttons should be clear and make sure they are on every page - we’ve all downloaded apps that let you go into a screen but with no way to exit!
- Be Unique
You will see plenty of clones on the app stores. Copying an existing app is unlikely to endear you to anyone and who wants to be sued for plagiarism, anyway? Instead, look for inspiration on the app stores and see what you can find that you can improve upon or create in a better way, if you are struggling for ideas.
- Test, Test, Test
Get your app free of all bugs. No, I’m not saying that you should develop the perfect app before you release it. Far from it, you should get your imperfect app out to market as soon as possible and issue updated, improved versions over time. What I am saying is that whatever you have ready should work and not have any annoying glitches.
This should not be problem if you have kept things straightforward in the first place, but it is easy to overlook things like too many ads, pages that have too much content and take ages to load, menus with typos and so on. Get your mobile app onto a real device, if at all possible, and go through each screen. It’s boring but I can attest to finding many mistakes by doing so.
I could on and on but I hope that the above steps will help you to create a mobile app that you can be proud of and that offers a great experience to your users.
And that great user experience is the real key to mobile app success, whether you are an app developer building a portfolio of mobile apps for yourself, or if you are a business building a mobile app for your firm.
Good luck with your mobile app development.