Let’s set the scene here.
You’re a business leader or manager with a great idea for a new mobile app – one that has the potential to take your company to the next level. It could either be an internal app designed to assist your staff or an external app that will help to improve your client or customer experience or expand your offering into a new space.
Understanding that apps are the way of the future, you take your idea to a mobile app developer, who then gets to work bringing your vision to life.
Once you receive the final product, you release it for the world to see. Unfortunately, however, not everything goes to plan, as your developer has failed to include several elements that are key to a great mobile app. Over the coming months, you continue to experience ongoing performance issues and customer frustration as you try to work through the problems and find a better solution.
This is a very real situation that happens to businesses all too often, because most only develop a mobile app once and find out too late.
How can these issues be avoided in mobile app development?
As they say: prevention is better than cure.
So, with this in mind, several feature considerations should be made prior to your app’s development to ensure that your app provides the best user experience for both your internal and external audience.
Each of these considerations can also save you a great deal of time and money when implemented effectively and at the right stage of development.
Unfortunately, while most mobile app developers have the skills required to put together a functioning final product, many don’t understand the importance of these elements in improving your app experience.
That’s why you need to be aware of these considerations so that you can raise them with your app developer next time you’ve got a great idea for a mobile app.
What are the 5 key features you must consider for your next app project?
1. Dynamic content pages
There are two ways to add content to your app. Your pages can either be hard-coded to appear the same way every time, or they can be populated dynamically, taking information from your Content Management System (CMS).
The benefit of dynamic content pages is that you do not have to ask your developer when you want to make simple changes to your content or push new content out, as you can easily do this yourself in your CMS – giving you much more control over your app.
2. The ability to function with no internet connection
Some apps need to be used in areas with little to no mobile service, such as rural or outback Australia. If the primary function of your app is to serve or collect information, then it’s important to ensure that it will work regardless of internet availability.
A great example of this is the PANSW Members Mobile App. Police officers regularly find themselves in areas without internet service, so it was important to ensure that they could still use the app whether they had a connection or not.
3. Analytics
The analytics required for mobile apps are quite different to those required for your website, and they must be considered at the very beginning of your app project.
Ask your team what metrics they need to see from the app to best understand usage statistics, such as the number of activations, password resets or ‘Submit’ button clicks, before passing this information on to your developer. This will allow you to better understand your audience and make more informed improvements in future updates.
4. App version update notification workflow
Often, when you release a new version of your app, the old version will no longer function properly. This means it’s important to have a notification workflow in place to let users know about the need to update their app.
This helps to maintain a great user experience throughout upgrade windows.
5. Developer troubleshooting workflow
Providing an in-app feature that allows users to directly notify developers of any issues makes it much quicker and easier to rectify any problems and maintain your app.
With the right privacy agreement in place, developers can also collect device and usage data from consenting users to better understand the issue and find a solution faster.
6. BONUS: Adequate device testing
Okay, so there are actually 6 key considerations to make!
Make sure that you allow enough time for app testing during development. With so many different devices on the market nowadays, you want to be sure that your app works as intended on each one. This can also help to streamline the process of submitting your mobile app to the Apple or Google App Stores.
Going over these 6 considerations with your mobile app developer next time you have an app idea will ensure that you can provide your audience with a great experience every time.
At DDSN, these 6 (and more) features come standard as part of our mobile app development
Yep, that’s right.
At DDSN, we are mobile app and web app developers ourselves and we firmly believe that all of these features are critical elements of a successful app - not simply optional extras. That’s why you’ll never have to ask us to include them in your app project.
So, if you’re a business leader or manager with an idea to create efficiencies for your customers or staff using a mobile app, DDSN can help you.
Based in Australia, DDSN has more than 25 years of experience developing high-quality, custom-made applications for large businesses and organisations across the country and more than 7 years in mobile app development. Using our own Acora CMS, we can build tailor-made and dynamic solutions to suit your unique needs.
So, if you’re looking for Mobile App Development Sydney, Mobile App Development Melbourne or anywhere across Australia, speak to us today.
Simply contact us to discuss your next custom app development project.
Based in Australia, DDSN has more than 25 years of experience developing high-quality, custom-made applications for large businesses and organisations across the country and more than 7 years in mobile app development . Using our own Acora CMS, we can build tailor-made and dynamic solutions to suit your unique needs.
So, if you’re looking for Mobile App Development Sydney, Mobile App Development Melbourne or anywhere across Australia, speak to us today.
Simply contact us to discuss your next custom app development project.