Do you believe that your idea will be widely popular in the mobile app store? Perhaps you have a product or service that would be perfect for a mobile application, or are you ready to create a cool new game that will immediately conquer
the AppStore and
Google Play Store ? The idea itself is not that important. It is much more important to approach the process of creating an application systematically and correctly develop your product.
Developing a mobile app is not easy, from design features and marketing to bug fixes and updates. Many novice developers often forget about the important aspects of creation beyond the actual writing of code. In this article, I've covered six common mistakes that can ruin your application if you don't avoid them and do everything you can to prevent them. When you take on a mobile application project, avoid these mistakes and you will be on the right track.
Mistake #1. Developing for too many platforms
Simultaneously developing a program for different platforms is the first serious test that programmers face and, I must admit, it is still not easy for me. The majority of the market share comes from Android and iOS. According to research by
Statistica , today there are more than 2.8 million applications on Google Play, and Apple is in second place with 2.2 million applications. Which would you prefer? Often developers try to write for these two main platforms at once, some even try to include the Microsoft Store in this list. The dilemma is not so simple: of course, ideally you would like to make your application available on every popular platform, and do it right away. However, from a development perspective, doing everything at the same time is often a big mistake.
Only if you have inexhaustible resources is simultaneous development for multiple platforms a good idea. This will just take away your precious time and money. But if you are a beginner programmer, moreover, working individually or with a small group, then most likely you are experiencing a shortage of both time and money. This will be especially noticeable if the application never becomes successful. Instead of simultaneous development, it is better to consciously approach the choice of the main platform. The solution should be based on the target audience of potential users. And a few months after a successful launch, you can master other platforms. By doing this, you will not only save time and money, but you will also be able to avoid major questions about your application at this initial stage.
Mistake #2. Creating bad interfaces and unnecessary features
Nothing can ruin an application faster than a bad interface. Remember, the idea of a good application is to make everything as simple and accessible as possible, while providing all possible functions. You have to take the time to design a great interface. If interface design is not your thing, hire a specialist to do it for you, of course, if your budget allows it. If money is not enough for this, then start with a more detailed study of interface design.
Books like this UI is Communication: How to Design Intuitive, User Centered Interfaces by Focusing on Effective Communication are a great place to start .
The application should not have “features for the sake of having features.” They must be useful. If you add extra features that don't provide any real benefit, you're simply cluttering the interface, which will invariably irritate users.
When creating an application, decide which features of the application will be key for users, and focus on their high-quality detailed development. All additional features (including sharing features), while important, are not the core features of your application. After a while, you can come back to them and include them in the application with updates.
| Focus on the features that are key to your audience, and combine them with an interface that is easy to use: it should be simple, but powerful enough to solve the problems for which the application is being created. Useful, powerful features combined with a simple and clear interface are the key to success. |
Mistake #3. Poor testing
So your application is ready. Time to upload it to the Play Market, right? No not like this! It is very important to spend some time testing after creating an application. This stage is needed to detect all sorts of nuances, unexpected errors that may pop up, and in order to tighten up the design as a whole. Unfortunately, many developers neglect this stage of the development process and do not do it properly. In most cases, the rush is due to the desire to release the application as quickly as possible. And some are simply not used to spending a lot of time on testing in principle. The end result of this acceleration of the testing stage is the discovery of a large number of bugs after the application has been launched.
Bugs may be part of the software, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do everything possible to prevent them. With the variety of smartphones on the market, it is important that your app is thoroughly tested on as many popular devices as possible.
During testing, use all available tools. I'm sure you have fellow developers and friends who would like to try out your product, so let them download the app and do so. Give them time so that they can use it calmly, as ordinary users would do, get feedback from them - listen to praise and criticism.
| The more problems you find at launch, the less people will want to download your app. Chances are that many active reviewers will download your product, and if it turns out to be full of bugs because you rushed the testing phase, then this will have a very negative impact on the reviews. And an application from an unknown author with bad reviews is not the best foundation for the future. |
Take your time with this step. Let testing take as long as necessary. Remember, quality is the most important thing, and it’s okay if your app comes out a month later than you expected.
Mistake #4. Ignoring financial calculations
I'm sure that you, as a developer, are primarily focused on the functionality of the application. Therefore, I put special emphasis on the following phrase: never forget about monetization, even in the first stages. I am sure that everyone would like to release a product that will bring profit in the future (or at least a good name so that future applications can be profitably sold). Why then do many developers miss such an important part of working on a mobile application? By incorporating a financial strategy into your app development plan, you can ensure a much more positive user experience for your product from the start, because undeveloped financial aspects end up negatively impacting the app experience. Without a clear monetization policy, the application may not meet your financial expectations, even if it gains popularity.
In the early stages of development, you should clearly define your financial policy. Will your application be paid? Will you have advertising? Do you plan to sell goods and services? Are you considering a freemium model? You should ask yourself all these questions before you release your app. Proper financial planning will be the key to the success of your product and a guarantee of a return on investment after its launch.
Mistake #5. Late Marketing
Lack of marketing is one of the most common mistakes among programmers. It is clear that you are not an advertising specialist, you are a developer. Many people believe that marketing should be launched when the application is already ready. This could be very far from the truth. While you don't have to start thinking about marketing strategies the first day you get started, it's worth thinking about long before your app's release date. The main idea is to generate interest in your product and create a target audience of future users. Then, by the time the application is released, you will already have people ready to download it.
It is quite difficult to understand when exactly it is worth starting to deal with this issue. There are many factors that need to be taken into account. Obviously, to advertise properly, you must have materials to display. These could be screenshots of an application or even a video. I believe that once you have an app project ready with a few working features, it's time to start marketing. As you add features and expand functionality, you can release new videos and take new demo screenshots to show how your app is evolving.
Mistake #6. Failure to troubleshoot errors
No matter how much time and effort you put into testing, users may (even more: definitely will) encounter bugs in your application. Bugs are an integral part of software, and users are accustomed to encountering them. However, you need to be prepared that fixing some bugs often gives rise to others, and sometimes new bugs appear like mushrooms after rain. Some errors can be corrected quickly, while others may take a lot of time. Users are tolerant of minor bugs, but serious bugs must be quickly fixed as quickly as possible.
Your work does not end with the release of the created application. Once a product is released into the market, you need to monitor reviews so that you can quickly respond to any problems that arise. It is advisable at the start to focus on the released product and monitor everything that happens to it. And even when you start working on another project a month later, you still need to keep your finger on the pulse.
Bugs need to be eliminated throughout the entire period of operation of the application, but here it is important to properly distribute your time - serious errors are eliminated first, minor ones can wait. The success of the application depends on your attention to this issue. Time management is extremely important - you should not push your new project into the background, and at the same time you should always have time to fix bugs in an already released product.
| If an error is found, solving it as soon as possible is your most important task. Once a solution is found, you need to release an update to get rid of it completely as soon as possible. |
Results
As more and more users switch to smartphones and tablets, the mobile application becomes, to some extent, a measure of the quality of the service provided. In addition, there are a lot of mobile applications, and you need to try very hard to get noticed. So, if you want to create an application, you need to do it very well. If you are going to do this somehow, then it is better not to start: the reputation of a bad developer producing a low-quality product is something that you definitely do not need. I don't think that following these tips will guarantee the success of the project, but if you ignore what they say, your application will most likely get lost among the rest and not become popular. If you avoid the mistakes listed above, you can be sure that you have given your project a good start. A serious attitude towards managing the entire development process will allow you to release a qualitatively good mobile application.
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