Bringing different pieces together for a successful Mobile application

Did you know that, on an average, a person has more than 80 apps installed in their phones?

Given this outreach, modern day businesses want to take advantage of the user behaviour. Today a person is more comfortable with having one app for a particular use-case rather than many. For eg: I will be likely to use PhonePe/Gpay only for transacting to other people or merchants, Swiggy for my grocery needs, Amazon for shopping, etc. and might not prefer using one app that has all.?

So as a business that has an application use-case, you would need to solve for that pain point of the end-user that allows him/her to stick to your app as they look for a solution to that pain-point. If you have a well-established business with a huge budget for an app then you can easily hire an app agency and get started with your app. However, if you are a startup on a budget, you might want to tread carefully here.

Mobile app development requires more than just funds. Of course, the cost factor is there but the quality of the app also determines its success. So let’s try understanding how can be look at making a USEFUL application:?

When any user has their first encounter with an app, they notice the UI of the app, features of the app and the performance of the app. These things are obvious and it is followed by the regularity of updates and bug fixes.

So what are some differentiating factors for a mobile app that also contribute to the success of an app.

Always keeping the end-user in mind:

Mobile app development is like a journey that has many phases and many stages. The way your app looks and operates is crucial to making the user feel valued and successful during this journey. This is especially true with free apps because there is a high churn rate. If your app doesn’t look and perform as well as a rival app, the user won’t bother to learn more about what it can do.

Winning apps keep in mind that, in most cases, the end-user is operating from a mobile device with a small touchscreen. As a result, the UI should be unobtrusive, mitigating design elements that don’t add a use or function to the app. If it doesn’t add value, it should probably be eliminated.

?

When the app is user-centric, it gets more active users, more engagement and more audience. User feedback is a great way to gather information about what your users need. Most successful apps use this feedback to improve their apps, making it more likeable by the users.

Core proposition (USP) should be strong

The Unique Selling Point of a successful app is always strong. What makes the app unique is what makes it successful. See, success factors examples include, UrbanClap. It started providing home services like beauty salon services, repairs, etc. on their app. This was very different from any other business model.

Similarly, today's user thinks of apps like In-shorts for seeking news feeds in whatever brief time they have before their office, during the breaks or while travelling. So don’t focus on promoting multiple features at the same time and instead direct your energy on the Core element. That core feature should solve a unique problem.?

Fast Loading Time and High Performance

If your app takes too long to load, it will automatically be avoided by users. Winning apps should take less than five seconds to load. However, more complex apps like Facebook sometimes take a bit longer to load—these apps require large amounts of data to start up. For Facebook, users usually stick around because they see ongoing activity when they start the app. If this is the case for your app, consider taking the user to a “loading” screen, which informs them that the loading process is on. This way you will be able to keep your user engagement high.

Winning apps are also high-performing and consistent. Apps that constantly freeze are disregarded by users.

Talking about successful factors for mobile app, there is a misconception that the more features an app has, the more it will be likeable. But having more features also means that your business incurs more app development cost and more complications in the app.

?

4. Cross-platform support

Apps supporting multiple platforms are always appreciated. Building native apps may be costly for a startup but that’s when cross-platform comes into the picture. Cross-platform not only saves cost but also saves effort that goes into building the same app twice. Cross-platform development frameworks include angular native framework. This framework allows developers to build success apps that give native feelings while saving high cost.

?

5. Secure the app

Time and again we have said that the security of the app is crucial. Secure apps have loyal users and gather an audience faster. There are many practices to make a hack-proof app and most successful app development companies are using them to provide a secure solution to users. Success factors examples include E-commerce apps and any other app that involves in-app payments would need a secure payment gateway.

?

6. Offline functionality

Having offline functionality is very trendy in the successful factors app development world. People are demanding the offline mode for apps since connectivity issues prevail at times. Of course, there are success factors apps that cannot do without a network connection but they still can support offline features with the help of background downloading. There had been complaints about some e-commerce apps that didn’t show anything without a network connection. This will annoy the users since they at least should be able to browse through already loaded pages.

8. ‘Supportive’ Customer support services

Recently we have seen users complain about the customer support system a lot. Users should be clear on the usage of different sections in the app (that’s where self-help training videos, Coach-marks, etc come into the picture). Besides they should be comfortable in sharing their issues and challenges with the backend team through the support section. That’s where elements quick support chats, voice-notes come into the picture. As PMs, you can use different frontend analytics tools to understand where user drops or app breaks. Examples of softwares to detect app crashes are platforms like Sentry and for detecting User behaviour on different real-estates within the app- one can use Google analytics, Mix panel, etc

?

9. Push notifications

Push notifications are one of the success factors for mobile apps with a simple to send theme than the emails and are less likely to wind up in someone’s spam folder. Push notifications can be text, graphic, or a blend of both to send the users content that they might be keen on. Important and customised push messages are better than unwanted or spontaneous messages since they are meant exclusively for the particular client and liable to bear some significance to them.

While building success factors apps and designing users’ satisfaction with innovative, friendly, simple apps to fulfil the requirements and needs of the end users. Taking development of personalised experiences and key success factors for mobile application into account helps to keep the mobile app experience relevant and ensure users continue coming back.

This is my take on a successful mobile application that keeps the end-user come to it to cater to their pain-point. If you have more ideas around this, I would be looking forward to connect and learn from your experience. Please DM so that we can take the discussion forward.