Today people are shifting from PCs to portable devices like smartphone, tablets, and smart watches. This shift in trend has made businesses to embrace mobile platforms to guarantee all great business benefits like better exposure, improved marketing, and increased revenues. However, as beneficial as these apps may be, many developers make mistakes that make all efforts invested in developing mobile application worthless.
There are many goofs that app developers make – but let’s narrow the focus to the 7 most disastrous. Avoid these mistakes to craft a killer app and be much better than all your competitors in App Stores.
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Poor App Performance
As per reports, 44% users delete the app if it doesn’t perform as per expectations. Apart from uninstalling, these users may even leave negative reviews on the application stores which can destroy your app’s reputation. This clearly shows that ‘performance matters’!
Check if your app suffers from any (or worst – ‘all’) of these problems:
- Crashes all the time
- Uses too much device memory
- Drains user’s battery at the speed of light
- Slow responsiveness
- Has a fat finger problem
If it does, your app is showing signs of poor performance.
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Annoying Users with Push Notifications to Rate the App
Positive reviews on app stores lead to increased trust towards the app by potential users. This is one of the main reasons why app developers want users to rate their apps. But that doesn’t mean you pester your app users with push notifications to rate your app. App users will get irritated if they are forced to disengage from their task and rate the app. This strategy may backfire and may even drive them to negatively review your app.
The requests to rate the app should come at the right time, for example, after few days of installing and using your app or when the user has successfully completed the task on your app and is closing your app.
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No or Lack of Research About Target Audience
It’s easy to overlook your target market when you’re rushing to get your app ready to go live in App Stores. However, there are millions of apps in app stores and f your app is not appealing to your target audience, they will simply uninstall your app and look for a better option in app stores.
This makes it vital for you to first carefully research about your prospects and then use your this research as a foundation in the app design and development process. For instance, if you are targeting youngsters, consider youthful color schemes and imagery. As for an older target market, focus on larger font sizes and simplifying the UX to help with faster navigation.
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Asking for Personal Details
Put yourself in your app user’s shoe. Would you be comfortable sharing your personal information with others?
People in general, are wary of sharing their personal details with others. Reports prove the same – Of 15,000 mobile consumers surveyed in 15 countries, roughly 72% of respondents said they were unhappy about sharing their personal information when using an app.
Forcing users to share their personal details makes them abandon the app!
So, ask only for what you need – don’t collect access personal data. Also, make sure you follow App Store’s policies for collecting personal details of app users.
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Not developing for different platforms
This is a complete no-no.
If your target customer base is using a variety of mobile platforms, it is ‘must’ for you to develop the app for multiple platforms. If you fail to do so, you run the risk of severely limiting your prospects.
However, this does not mean you should develop app for each and every platform – iOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry. Make platform related decision after carefully considering various factors like development costs, app’s target market, monetization model, and technical features.
When designing for different platforms, follow the conventions of the respective platforms.
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Don’t copy an Existing Popular App
A request that mobile app developers frequently come across - “I want an app that looks and works like popular app X”.
There is no harm in checking out your competitors’ apps and even in getting an idea of what to do and what not from the existing apps, but simply copying popular apps is a sure-fire way to kill your app. There are high chances that your copycat app will get rejected by Google Play, iOS App Store and Windows Phone Store.
Your app ‘must’ have its own USP; be it in design, features, functionalities or UX.
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Going Live without Testing
So, finally, you have crafted an app that is developed for various platforms offering its own unique element. But before your app can be launched in the market, you need to beta test your app by a small group of trusted people other than app developers and people who meet with your target audience’s preferences.
Feedback from all these people will give you better insights about the scope for improvement in your app. Testing plays a significant role in the success of your app.
Ensure you develop a comprehensive mobile app testing strategy that encompasses all the elements of your app.
Takeaways:
Mobile industry is growing with a revolutionary pace. Once your app is launched, it will compete with 2 million other apps in App Stores. Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the fittest” rings true in this growing app economy. If you get your app developed wrong, you can lose thousands of dollars that could otherwise have been easily made from a well-crafted app. By avoiding the above mentioned 7 deadly pitfalls, you will be able to boost the retention rate of your app thereby ensuring its success in App Stores.
