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5 Things to keep in mind while building a mobile app 1

5 Things to keep in mind while building a mobile app

The first smartphone was introduced 15 years ago, leading to the mobile app economy’s foundation. Since then, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of smartphone users and is continuing to grow manifold as per the numbers from Statista. It is thus not surprising that mobile apps have become the bedrock of businesses. If you are building a mobile app, you will be competing with hundreds of other apps on the market.

Here are the five most important things to remember during mobile app development.

1. Proper research

Your mobile app development efforts must be guided and based on solid market research. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel and pour in weeks and months of hard work into an app only to discover that an alternative app already exists that can do the things that your app can. Your app idea might not be as unique as you want it to be, so thorough market research is mandatory.

With millions of apps, chances are high that an app based on your idea already exists on Google Playstore or Apple App Store. It is vital to check out the competition to know what user features are available. The more research you put in, the easier it will be to find the gap between the solution and requirement. This will enable you to increase unique features in your app development project that will set your app apart from other apps.

 

2. Choose a platform based on skill set 

Understanding your target audience and the platform they use will decide the success of your app. Which platform does most of your target audience use – Android or iOS?

You will need an answer to this query before you jump into mobile app development. If you have a relatively proportional audience distribution between these platforms, pick one based on the skill sets of your team. If the engineering team predominantly has android developers, you are well placed to work on the android version of the app.

Determining the right platform for mobile app development is essential to large-scale adoption. If your target users are from western countries like the United States, the iOS app will be preferable as most of the US population uses iPhones. In comparison, Asia and Africa have a large number of Android users. If you are developing an app for an enterprise-size business, a multi-platform app development strategy will serve you well.

 

3. Focus on app performance and UX experience 

Performance is a crucial factor that creates brand value for your app. The users want the app to download, load and operate quickly. It must respond to user queries seamlessly. Animated elements in app development can keep the user experience high. For instance, using a progress bar to show task completion progress can help reduce the chances of users dropping the app by 50%.

If the task is complex and if the app takes a while to load pages, some best practices can help keep the users’ attention.

Use animations to acknowledge users’ actions. The animations give the users a sense of acknowledgement and are more likely to wait while the process is being executed. Something like this:

5 Things to keep in mind while building a mobile app 2

 

Motion animations for pages after refresh action: Whenever users refresh an app page, the moving symbols and elements inform the users that the action is underway and not stuck. Here is an example of how the Dribble app screen animates refresh action.

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For errors screens such as app crashes or bugs, notify the user with a communicative image, animation, or text. Here is an example:

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4. Scope for maintenance and updates

Building and publishing an app is just the beginning. You must keep updating your app’s features to stay afloat in the competition. App stores are biased towards the apps that are maintained and updated frequently. The mobile app development trends keep changing as technology advances. You have to keep updating your app for better performance and new features.

Create a scope for app updates in your project. It will ensure that you can introduce new features to keep users engaged.


5. Security measures

After performance and user experience, security is of importance in a mobile app. If your app handles sensitive user data such as social security, payment, biometrics, etc., it is essential to follow best security practices during app development.

Secure your app code with minification and obfuscation so it can’t be reverse-engineered. Data encryption is mandatory; never store any sensitive data in plain text. Be careful with the use of third-party libraries during mobile app development. The use of unsecured open source libraries is a potential security risk.


Conclusion

Mobile app development is more than just writing code to create a functioning application. Market research, audience study, best development practices, and continued maintenance are crucial aspects of app development.

Talent500 is a significant player in talent acquisition, helping clients build their remote mobile development teams. Join us and get ready to be part of global teams.

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Girish

Girish

Girish is Talent500’s architect for systems software. His experience in backend development has helped him convert visions of many a product into reality. From his days at BITS-Pilani, he has always dreamt about beating AplhaZero at chess.

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