Tips for Successful Mobile App Development

Making a transition to mobile apps development is not just a matter of adjusting to a much tinier display screen. If you want to get your software noticed on the Apple App Store, Windows phone Market, Android play stor, or other site where consumers and businesses look for mobile apps, you should keep these tips in mind.

Tips for Successful Mobile App Development

3 Tips for Beginning Mobile App Developers
App stores have drastically changed the traditional view of how to market software. User ratings and reviews can steer a mobile application in a completely different direction than the developer originally intended. The community has never had so much direct control of the development process of proprietary software. Here are some tips for developers starting in the alien environment of app development.

Start with a minimum viable product.

Your approach must be release early and often. Releasing a minimum viable product allows you to assess demand while minimizing time spent coding. “Some of the best apps in the marketplace do very simple, singular tasks. Before you make an entire complex suite, spend a weekend sprinting to do one thing very well,” says Daniel OLeary, vice president, Global Solutions at LincWare LLC, publisher of LincDoc Mobile.

Your hard part is deciding when the app has re ached the viable stage. Reliability and Functionality are not the only prerequisites. Releasing an app with an ugly, clumsy UI may kill it in the ratings. It is important to launch with a clean UI that you can build upon. Major changes to the UI after initial release can frustrate users. Many apps get negative reviews and ratings because of unfavorable changes, despite the fact that the users are otherwise pleased with the product.

Many complex apps release a free or reduced price beta. Users willing to try beta versions are often more tolerant of minor bugs, especially if they are reassured that the known bugs will be fixed in a timely manner. Changes to price are also more easily accepted. Beta testers feel like they get something of value as a reward for helping you test. That creates a more loyal user base.

Early feedback is important

Feedback helps you determine if there is a demand for your app, a s well as what users expect from the app. Users dont hesitate to say what they want. They may ask you to add features you never intended to add. Dont be afraid to allow the users to steer the app in a different direction. Over-attachment to an idea may cause you to miss the market entirely.

“Ask for ratings and reviews,” says Hwee-Boon Yar, an independent software developer with MotionObj. “Play with price, with advertising and marketing to maintain your ranking.” Make users feel like they have a more active role in development, Yar suggests. This leads to app improvements and satisfied customers.

Tailor advertising toward your target user. Apps aimed toward businesspeople may appear less professional if they have flashy advertisements. Business users may be willing to spend more for an ad-free version. Casual users and consumers tend to be hesitant to spend any money on an app. Keep any competing apps in mind when making pricing an d advertising decisions.

Recently, there has been some backlash toward location aware advertising. Some privacy-conscious users refuse to install apps that use GPS location when the app has no obvious use for it. Unfortunately for these users, apps whose core features use GPS could get away with location-aware ads without the users’ knowledge.

Promotion is a big part of success in app development.

“Most new developers tend to think they should only concentrate their efforts on making a good app, and let the App Store take care of the sales,” says Renan Lobo, an iPhone developer for Arphix Games, publisher of Mini Wars and Star Wings. “They could not be more wrong. In fact, a commitment to an integrated marketing plan is not only helpful, but crucial to increase your visibility in the marketplace.”

“Launch with a big bang. If you are going to put any effort and money into marketing and advertising, focus that for day one,” agrees Yar. High rankings early on can get a lot of attention from outside sources like technology news sites. New apps are practically buried under a mountain of more established apps in the market. If potential users aren’t searching specifically for your new app, they are unlikely to stumble across it without outside help.

3 Tips for Conquering the mobile App Development Process

No app developer wants his business project to fail, but certainly, the majority of projects do just that. While success or failure is difficult to predict, businesses should put the right steps in place to mitigate potential for project failure.
Read on for Johnston’s ideas on conquering the app development process and minimizing project failure rates.

Aim for Simplicity

When communicating an app idea and its desired features, project managers should start with the big picture first, advises Johnston.
When building assembly furniture â€" such as that from IKEA, for example â€" it helps to have the complete picture of the furniture on the front of the product’s box, Johnston explained, as the black-and-white instructions are quite confusing without context.
In an app development project, the big picture provides developers with a gauge for context. While small details â€" such as image sizes, menu title names, colors and so on â€" are important, they should be communicated in context of the bigger picture.
It’s rather common, though, for developers to experience a parsed-out flood of emails of minute details before the solution (i.e. what the app is meant to do) has even been communicated by a project leader.
“You need to sort out the details, and simplicity helps you find the context to sort out those details,” says Johnston. “Details without clear context will crea te unnecessary complexity … and unnecessary details also multiply complexity.”

Consider Complexity

“Process needs to solve the problem of complexity. More importantly, though, process needs to help us cope with complexity, because it exists in everything we do, whether it’s whittling a piece of wood or developing a large enterprise application,” says Johnston.
As an app gets closer to being finished and the final product becomes clearer, simplicity starts to shine through. Suddenly, everyone can see the idea in action. “Now that they can see that picture,” Johnston says, “[the project manager] can take [the developers] simplicity and use it against [him], saying, ‘I just want to one more simple thing.”
What a project manager sees as simple, though, may not always be an easy fix or addition. “The reduction in complexity makes a simple problem look like it’s going to be a simple chan ge, but really it can sometimes result in a huge change needed.”
“The underlying complexity of an idea exists regardless of our acknowledgement of it,” says Johnston.
Acting as if complexity doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away. Therefore, potential areas for complexity should be discussed fully. Johnston says, “Exploring potential complexity allows us to predict the magnitude of changes to an idea. Nothing is 100% predictable, but that exploration gets lost on a lot of projects, because complexity is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.”

Communicate with Clarity

Communicating needs and expectations with designers and developers can be a difficult task for project managers and “idea people” who are not well-versed in technical areas. As a result, sometimes the biggest faux pas in app development is the lack of clarity when communicating ideas to developers.
Dur ing kickoff meetings, Johnston explained, project managers and clients often want to press developers to fork over details on the timeline and costs. The important piece of detail that they should be conveying, though, is what the idea is and what they want the developer to create in order to solve the business problem.
The project manager should have a clear idea of the solution in mind, so that he or she can clearly communicate it to the developer. “If you don’t have a clear picture of the solution, you are not qualified to communicate it,” says Johnston.

3 Tips for Small Business Owners

To help you maximize your mobile potential, I asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs what to expect during the app development process, what features are best for your business, and the pitfalls to avoid.

1- Create Special Promotions

One way to get more sales is by creating an in-app system that rewards people who use the app well and often.
Offer them special deals, discounts, and such. This will help increase loyalty and engagement while also boosting your sales.

Deals and Directions

Have a location-based discount feature â€" customer has to check in at your location via your app to unlock special pricing.
Oh, and have a “directions” feature so that they can get to your location no matter where they are. “One touch call” and “share it with friends” features also help them connect to you.

Does It Solve a Problem?

Make sure when you create an app that it somehow solves a problem and serves a niche.
People like to use apps that serve a purpose whether it’s information driven, makes them laugh, helps with productivity, etc. When creating an app, think about what you would want out of the app if you were the customer.