The retention rates of mobile app users significantly range between Android and iOS platforms. With Android apps, it’s only 2.6% after 30 days from installation, while the corresponding figure for iOS apps is 43%, according to Statista. Does this mean iOS apps have better quality? Probably yes. Does this mean your mobile app won’t make it to the 2.6% of those retaining Android users? No. The result you achieve by developing a customized mobile application is entirely in your hands. If you come to the mobile app development process with a detailed plan of action, you have every chance to make it a successful investment into your business.
The two largest app stores, Google Play and App Store, comprise an estimated 5.7 million applications, yet only some of them beat the download records and get popular though there are hundreds of applications featuring similar functionality. What’s their secret? That’s simple:
- they take into account the needs of their target audience;
- they have the exact features their users need;
- they provide a positive user experience across devices.
What Mistakes Should You Avoid in the Mobile App Development Process?
Before you get down to the actual development of the app, there’s still a lot of work to do to ensure the final product is customized, reflects your brand identity, and is user-oriented. Companies that have gone through all the mobile app development process steps have the most chance to succeed with their new application being launched to the market.
To ensure your application meets your customers’ expectations while satisfying your business needs, you should avoid some most common mistakes.
Ignoring the Needs of the Target Audience
The actual app development is not the thing you should start with. Before that, you should have a clear vision of a person who will download and enjoy using it. If you don’t specify your target audience, there’s no point in spending money on the app that will be lost among millions of others in the App Store or Google Play.
Create a portrait of your customer. You need to understand what their interest is to be able to create an app that will satisfy their needs and meet their expectations. A detailed roadmap, along with identified business objectives and customers to target, is the first thing to take care of before getting down to the development process.
Skipping Market and Competitors’ Research
Some companies just mock the existing apps trying to enter the market ASAP. And this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make at this point. Remember that your business is unique, and you and your closest competitors may have different marketing goals, selling offers, and target audiences.
By researching all these, you get a clear picture of what features should be in your app and which are ineffective. Also, you’ll clarify the preferences of your potential customers and predict their in-app behavior. What does this give you? The opportunity of creating a customized app that will reach the target and guarantee the ultimate user experience.
Limited Budget
For some business owners developing a mobile app seems simple and fast, which automatically implies cheap. However, such an attitude cannot be further from the truth. To create a quality customized application, you’ll need a team of professionals who will embrace every process, including business analysis, app design, project management, and so much more.
Also, you shouldn’t expect to get a quality product within a week or two. It may take one to several months to implement your ideas and vision of the app into a product that will thrive in the market. Besides, to make your app stand out, it should be on the edge of mobile technology, which is never a cheap thing to do.
Of course, you can opt for less expendable options, but then you shouldn’t expect your app to become a success.
Starting the Work on App with no Vision of the Final Product
It’s essential to have a clear vision of how your app should look like and what features it should have before you dive into the development process. By changing features and setting unrealistic expectations towards the app, you risk facing a complete failure while wasting your finances, time, and human resources.
Abundance of Features
Following the principle “the more – the better” doesn’t work for mobile applications. Excess of unneeded features will clutter the app, making it more expensive and more time-consuming to develop. You should concentrate on features serving the primary purposes of your application.
By blindly following your competitors’ approaches to creating their apps, you risk losing your identity and missing the goals you’ve set for yourself at the initial stages of working on the app.
Missing out on the Idea of Creating Cross-Platform Apps
Missing out on a cross-platform strategy from your plans for mobile app development is another typical mistake you should avoid.
Creating a digital product for a single platform when there is every possibility to develop a cross-platform app sharing the same source code is a huge waste of resources. Once your app is launched, you’ll get the opportunity to customize them to the demands of users while ensuring the updates use the potential of the platform to the max.
UI/UX Fails to Meet Customer’s Expectations
With mobile apps, this goes super-fast. The user downloads the app, opens it, sees poor design, has trouble navigating UI, and that’s it. They just delete the app and will never come back for it again. The first impression is essential here. User interface and user experience are the two essentials you should concentrate on to make this app work for your target audience.
Skipping the App Testing Phase
Continuing with the first impression of the user, we have to say any major and even minor bugs will be annoying for a person utilizing the app. If these top up with the slow work of the app, forget it. This user won’t give it another chance.
No Marketing Strategy
Even the best apps fail if your marketing strategy does nothing to promote them and ensure customer retention. Staying on the learning curve and adopting new solutions to your app promotion will do their task. But ignoring those is a way to nowhere.
Summing up
The mobile app development process requires a complex approach. It’s essential to go through every step to ensure the product you invest in is worth the effort.
Interesting Related Article: “How To Make a Custom Mobile Applications for Your Business“