Eight Kick-ass Techniques for Building Awesome Mobile Apps

The advent and prevalence of mobile devices have compelled entrepreneurs to come up with the customized mobile apps. As a result, the mobile app development domain is thriving, and the developers strive for managing the demand-supply gap while maintaining the quality of enterprise apps.

Today, building engaging and interactive apps that can assist business persons to stay ahead of the curve becomes increasingly difficult. To facilitate you developers in addressing this challenge, here we give ten best practices for making customized mobile apps:

1.     Consider your audience first

Okay. Ask yourself the following questions first:

•         What is your goal behind developing a mobile app?
•         Which type of audience are you going to target with an app?

When you consider these questions before kick-starting your project, chances are plenty that you will end up making a highly customized and user-friendly business app. Just talk about your app idea with prospective users and just don’t stop listening. How about setting up an inbuilt feedback mechanism in the app that allows you to integrate every necessary feature? You can also opt for involving the end users in app development process.

2.     Check the app stores

You also require brainstorming of your app idea as it is fairly possible that someone might have already implemented. It’s better to check the leading app stores Google Play and iTunes before and during the app development process because if something similar to your app has come in the app stores, you need to think about adding more innovative and interactive features to stand your app alone.

3.     Create storyboard

A vital aspect of the software design process is storyboarding. Just lay out the complete functionality of your app on paper. This would help you resolve the problem from scratch. You can plan out all the aspects of design and development including plug-in integration using the storyboard.

4.     Keep it simple

The KISS principle applies to the app development also. Though you are developing a business app, make it certain that your app is easy to understand for the end users. Give descriptions and additional instructions whenever is necessary for proper understanding. And yes, don’t rely too much on images or graphics because the overuse of graphics may prevent your end users from finding the purpose of your application. Instead, you can use clear instructions.

Your counterargument may be: graphics and animations are necessary to add a ‘wow’ factor to an app. But, here is a catch: more graphics and animations would lead your app to load slowly that eventually results in poor user experience.

If you need to use graphics, go for vector graphics whenever possible because such graphics have smaller file size.

5.     Take care of size

Sizes of icons and buttons matter a lot as you have limited space for everything in the mobile interface. You need to consider both number of buttons and size of the human fingertip while integrating buttons/icons. Small buttons can cause trouble for the users as they may select the wrong button. Also, if there is no enough space between the buttons, it may lead to faulty operations.

6.     Create core application

Just take the most important features for creating a core application experience. You can give your end users an option to purchase additional functionality while avoiding any overload on the core part of your app. Any extra functionality can be created and integrated readily through plug-ins.

7.     Care for consistency

In the current era where various smartphone models are available, you need to take care of a consistent app performance across both iOS and Android operating systems. If you tried to customize the user experience for each device, you would end up in a mess and annoyance of your users. Remember: Performance of your app holds the key to success.

8.     Test your app

Now we’re coming to an end of app building process. Though you’ve checked your app at every step, you cannot skip the testing of a finished product. Both manual and automated testing of your app for appearance and performance can give you a clear picture, and you can fix the problems.  It is better to let different users test your app to get proper feedback. Make sure your app is reliable before deploying it to the app store. You can also take the help of software like PreviewIT.

Conclusion

Well, that’s it for now! Remember, your app’s performance matters the most even if your app has an attractive interface and a lot of features. All these tips can help you develop a futuristic, enterprise-grade mobile app.

Is something missing in this list? Feel free to write your opinions and tips regarding this blog below. Your constructive ideas are always welcome!