When it comes to the success of any mobile app, two things play the most important roles. They are the user interface and overall user experience. So whether you are creating a mobile design for a mobile device, a mobile app or the operating system of a mobile phone, it is important to pay attention to both the user experience and user interface.
Recent history has shown that top mobile app development companies in Saudi Arabia pay utmost attention to these two factors at the mobile design of all their apps. In fact, this often goes as far as hiring a provider of mobile app design services. Thus, taking a cue from these experiences, here are what you should consider in your mobile design as they are critical to the acceptability of your app.
Simplicity
The simpler your app is the better. Why would anyone want to receive a lecture on how to use a mobile app when there are several alternatives? When any user finds your app difficult to understand, he will rather delete it and move on to an alternative one.
Make your app intuitive and very easy to understand by even a kid. Don’t jam-pack it with functions and features that are not relevant to the purpose of the app. More functions lead to higher complexity. It is better to use easy to understand icons.
When a user issues a command by pressing a button, your app should show an indication that it has received the message and work on it. If not, a user may re-issue the command several times and this can make your app hang.
When a user navigates to a page that is not yet available or under construction, instead of seeing just a blank screen, there should be an explanation on what happened and how to navigate away from there.
Fast loading time
An ideal app should take a maximum of 20 seconds to load. A loading time of 21 to about 25 seconds is still manageable but anything above that is not acceptable. So you should work on that. It is quite understandable that the RAM capacity and CPU also play a role here.
It should be small
People keep tabs on their storage space now. They are very careful with what fills up their space. So a large app will be a big turn off. Instead of installing the app, they will rather look for a smaller alternative. You also need to understand that the size of an app is very close to the amount of mobile data it will consume during download.
You can only get away with a large app if your app is very useful and does not have a smaller alternative. However, it will be temporary as an alternative can emerge any moment.
Let it work offline
Depending on the purpose of the app, it is better if it can work offline. Some apps cannot work offline for their purpose. For instance, mobile apps of retail stores cannot work offline. Mobile apps of banks cannot work offline. But a lot of game apps work offline. Users only switch to online mode either to upgrade or to make in-app purchases. So, if your app cannot work offline to fulfill its purpose, you can skip this. But if it can, do make it work offline. You could even give users option to use it either in offline or in online modes.
Make it free
There are too many free apps around for any user to pay for any app. Yes, most apps are developed for financial purposes. A normal user doesn’t care about the resources you dissipate in the app. Why should a user pay a dime for your app when there are countless alternatives? There are other ways to earn from your app. When the app hits a certain number of users, advertising agencies will locate you for placements of their ad banners. Then, you can smile to the bank.
Another trick is to offer some items that will make the user experience even better. Users will be more willing to pay for that. This is why almost all games have in-app purchases and players gladly buy the items.
Low requirements
The aim of every app developer is to get millions of people to use their mobile app. In fact, that is the best yardstick to assess the success of every app. The higher the requirement of your app, the more the people you have cut off. Don’t be surprised that some people are still using an Android 3.0 Jellybean device. If the requirement of your app is Android 5.0 and above, it means you have cut down people using Android 4.4.2 or below. These people will definitely run into several million.
Take game apps, for instance, you will find out that the most downloaded games are the ones with low requirements. That is just the way it works.
Make it multi-lingual
Are you expecting users from different parts of the world? If that is your plan, your app has to be multilingual. After downloading, each user will choose the language he or she wants and that language version is installed. Most successful apps are the ones that support multiple languages. The idea is to make your app useful to as many people as possible.
Your app should save battery
Your app should be able to conserve battery energy. The world is moving towards energy efficiency. Any mobile app that drains battery power scares users off. Because people use a lot of apps on their device, it might take a little time before a user figures out the particular app that drains power. Once he is able to do that, the app will be deleted for an alternative.
Integration with social media is a must
You need to integrate your app with popular social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. This is necessary for two reasons. It will enable your customers to be able to sign in with their social media account which is usually faster than having to enter their passwords.
It also makes it easy for them to share your posts with their friends. Once the integration is done, a share button will appear on top or beside any of your posts with which they can share them. The more your customers share your posts the higher your popularity and credibility will soar.
In conclusion, once you ensure that your app meets all the requirements outlined above, it will stand you out of competition easily. If you take a sample of highly successful apps, you will find out that most of them have these features.
Kenneth Evans is Analyst and Content Marketer at Hyperlink InfoSystem reviews - top app development companies. As a Content marketer, He has been contributing to various blogging platforms and mobile app development company.
