The market for mobile applications is large, so every new application falls into a highly competitive environment. It is important to note that today people are increasingly spending an impressive amount of time on various mobile applications on their smartphone than on sites. The average smartphone user has an average of 20-30 applications on the device, but the number of frequently used ones fluctuates around 3.
In order for competition not to reduce the success of your application to zero, you need to understand what makes the product the most attractive to the user.
The simplest and most logical answer to the question: What is needed to create a successful application? - The application must meet the needs of the end user. But in fact, the path to complete user satisfaction is a full journey, not just one step.
Here are 15 key components to help make your mobile app a success.
Solve the problem
Each successful product solves a specific problem of the user. When choosing a concept, it is important to make sure that it takes into account the main disadvantages and advantages of your competitors, complemented by a unique idea.
Thus, it is not enough for you to have only one idea. It is necessary to conceptually understand and concretize its main goals that you want to solve using a mobile application.
To build the correct concept, as for any business as a whole, it is necessary to conduct a full-fledged study not only of competitors, but also to get acquainted with the “pain” of your potential user, which will help to clearly identify the problems and their solutions.
Focus on the core function
As a rule, the best applications have the basic functionality and are supplemented by a number of side microservices that carry different functions, from holding the user in the application to an additional source of monetization.
If in the first version of the application you focus completely on the main functionality, then it will be easier for you to deliver its distinctive uniqueness and significance to the end user than applications with a mass of functions without a causal connection can do this.
Bring real value to your life
A new product should bring real value to the life of the user. Most smartphone users do not have enough time, so the application should quickly and conveniently solve a specific problem.
Value can be expressed in convenience, usefulness, entertainment and a number of other areas.
Immediately, we note that before creating a mobile application, you need to make sure of its value by conducting a marketing research, which will certainly allow you to protect yourself from unnecessary expenses and refine the concept.
Simplicity is the highest level of art
A mobile application is a tool that is primarily aimed at quickly solving and optimizing the user's daily tasks. To do this, it must have a logical interface with predefined user behavior scenarios. Do not force the user to think once again about which button he needs to click in order to get the result.
If you are at a loss in understanding the “user experience”, then answer these questions:
- Are you making life easier for your user?
- Are application behaviors intuitive?
- Can I use the application without any guidance?
- Will all provided functions be used?
- Do features make an application simpler or more complex?
Design for iOS and Android
Immediately we want to focus on the key mistake of some mobile startups. It consists in neglecting users of one of the mobile operating systems, for example, the application is created only for iOS, which leads to a great risk of missing the target user.
If you do not have enough budgets and are running out of time, then develop a cross-platform solution (link to the article)
Offline Functionality
We understand that mobile Internet is accessible and unlimited today, but nevertheless there are situations when the Internet simply does not catch, so it would be nice to provide a functional mobile application that will work without an Internet connection.
High performance
You must completely eliminate possible “brakes” in your mobile application. Even such trifles as “freezing” in the process of scrolling the screen due to the fact that the content does not have time to draw, can forever turn the user away from you.
Application testing
Before launching the application, conduct its closed, or maybe open, beta test on real users. This will allow you to identify shortcomings both in the operation of the functional and in its convenient use.
Free to download
As statistics show, the user is ready to make purchases inside the application, but, more often than not, he is not ready to spend money on his purchase. Make it free to download.
Plan your marketing strategy
Some owners of mobile applications have the feeling that their concept is so good that they can do without marketing and magically get into the top marketplaces.
This is the greatest misconception, so plan your marketing activities carefully and remember that 75% of the total budget of the application is the budget for its promotion.
Personalization
If your application will be used by different categories of people, for example, Russian-speaking and English-speaking, then try to personalize it as much as possible for a specific user. This will increase loyalty to your product.
User interaction
To attract users to interact with the application, they often use, for example, push notifications. But if you do not have a clear plan on how to attract the user's attention, then there is a chance that he will delete it.
Provide feedback channels
When using this or that service, users often need to contact the customer care service. Such communication channels should be as simple and convenient as possible, and most importantly, not based solely on the answers of bots.
Track application analytics
Studying analytics will allow you to understand the actual application usage scenarios and optimize it for the real needs of the user.
Create regular updates
The regularity of updates shows that you are constantly working on its optimization for the specific needs of users.
