7 things to know about app development

The smartphone is essentially a digital Swiss army knife, enabling people to do so many things. And mobile apps are the “blades” and “tools”. Millions of apps are already available today, and the numbers keep growing.

Your business may be in the process of developing an app right now, which is good. It’s an excellent way to keep pace and cash in on a growing trend. But since you’re still in that process, it helps to know these seven tips for better mobile app development.

1. Program “Native” Apps

There are many fraudsters out there claiming that what they have are “apps”, but in truth are just launchers for mobile sites. If this is the case, then it’s no better than using your phone’s built-in web browser to browse the site. In short, an “app” that’s just a launcher for a mobile site is a complete waste of resources. It also tells people that the developer has no idea of the proper methods of application development.

Instead, develop what’s known as a “native” mobile app – one that works offline for most functions, while only requiring internet access to access data from the servers. Take the Twitter app, for example. When you’re offline, you can still read recent tweets, and you can even compose your own tweets. But you can’t get new tweets or send out the tweet you just composed. That’s the hallmark of a native app – it can still work offline, albeit in a limited way.

With this setup, the app can work even in areas with weak or spotty internet connections. And this is the idea because when people are mobile, internet connections are not always consistent.

2. Mind The Ads

Advertising within an app is indeed a good way to keep it free. But too much of anything is a bad thing. Therefore, a good rule to follow in mobile app development is to never let ads interrupt the user when he’s doing something important. Intrusive adverts are among the most annoying things that people complain about many apps. So if you are to put advertising within your apps, keep them within reasonable boundaries.

3. It’s Not Just About The UI, but the UX

UI means user interface, while UX is user experience. Certainly, good UI is important, but that isn’t everything in application development. The UI and everything else a user interacts with is called the frontend. Equally important is what the user doesn’t see, which is known as the backend. This includes online payment portals, file servers, account management, cyber security features, booking modules, and other such components. Both the frontend and the backend contribute to a good user experience, and UX is often the better quality used to describe how well an app was developed. If the UI is great, but many backend components fail, a very bad UX is the result. Mobile app developers should always aim for good UX.

4. Push Moderately

Push notifications are a staple in mobile apps. They usually remind the user to perform certain actions, important or otherwise. The latter is where it becomes problematic – if the notification informs the user of something not important to him, it becomes annoying. For this reason, many apps give users the choice to disable certain notifications or to disable them entirely. Part of good application development is letting the user decide what’s important to them, and the notifications area is usually where this decision is made.

5. Watch Those Permissions

This usually is visible to Android users, where the Google Play Store gives the user what an app needs access to before letting the user download the app. In iOS, it’s a lot more subtle, but users can see that as well in the Settings. Users are very cautious about permissions because they don’t want apps to steal personal data behind their backs. So if your app doesn’t require them, don’t ask for permissions to location, call logs, SMS messages, camera, microphone, and other unnecessary things. Remember that users are wary of downloading apps with dodgy permissions. If you want their trust, this part is very important.

6. Listen to Feedback

Users usually leave reviews in the App Store / Play Store for others to see. More often than not, you’ll find things they don’t like about your app. Constructive or not, this feedback is actually a goldmine to improve your application development. If you take a good look at those comments, most likely there are valid concerns raised, such as a laggy UI, slow login process, payments not being processed properly, lack of confirmation of user actions, and other such things. These things are important to the user, and therefore you must take action. Fix the problem, or find a way around it that will not inconvenience the user. Then push out an update for your app once done. The users will thank you for it later on.

7. Develop for both iOS and Android

Last, but certainly not the least, you have to consider both types of users. Not everyone has an iPhone, but not everyone has an Android phone either. Staying exclusive to one mobile OS severely limits your user base. A good principle of mobile app development is making your apps available to both types of users. That way, you are truly democratizing your apps, allowing anyone to use them regardless of the kind of phone they have.

Now that you have these application development best practices in mind, it’s time to start creating. If you need a few more hands to help you out, Activate Design would be glad to do so. Get in touch with us to know more about how we can help.