With change as the only constant, one has to keep evolving and improving. In the mobile app development space, things are moving with lightning speed, especially ever since the COVID-19 happened.
Researchers believe that the pandemic pushed the mobility space 5 years ahead in its growth as we saw some really innovative mobile app ideas the past year from tracking COVID-19 symptoms to Zoom, to education apps leveraging AR technology.
While every industry took the blow of the pandemic, the process of doing started to change for the better. What seemed to be working stopped making sense as the world went work-from-home.
During the introspective time, some best practices emerged in the mobile app development that helped companies meet the supply with the demand.
Here are the best practices we at Appther adhere to for delivering the best mobility solutions for your business.
Top best practices for mobile app development
Best practices are the agile processes that change with the requirements of the time. These are the tried and tested practices that organizations adhere to for a smooth and functional workplace and process.
All organizations mold these best practices in a way that works for them, but the basics remain the same.
Prioritizing research
No matter how much the times change, research is always the first step on the ladder to a successful solution. It contains market research, competitive analysis, and current trends.
All this helps tap into the insight for what is the best past for us to take for your business app. Our decisions are based on what we find in our research to make your product the best of not just itself, but the best version of the product in the market. Period.
Choosing the right framework
It is crucial to consider every option at our disposal for our clients’ mobility solutions. While there are a plethora of frameworks available for app development, every solution and business is different; thus, we have to consider which will work best.
In some solutions, React Native is the best option if our clients want to try cross-platform app development as the budget is limited, and going native will put a lot of strain on their pocket. Other options such as PWAs or Flutter app development also depend on the business type, ability of scalability, and the size of the organization.
Keeping all the considerations in perspective, we choose the best option and the most relevant and effective tech-stack to go with it.
Clutter-free UI for amazing UX
Do you know what is the key to a great user experience you want to achieve with your app, it is an intuitive user interface.
It is easier said than done. Most mobile apps focus heavily on coming up with innovative features as USPs for their apps that they often compromise the UI. The result? All the efforts go down the drain since the users do not find the app worth using with a mediocre UI.
An app should have a UI that is neither too simple nor too overwhelming. It should be intuitive and at the same time simple to navigate. In order to give the best UI, sometimes companies overdo and end up with a cluttered UI, which is even worse.
So, use all the UI elements sparingly and in good taste. Keep all the necessary features in the forefront in a simple and clean way.
Promote iterative process for designing
Since mobile app development is a process that requires going back and forth with features and changes, having an iterative design process only makes sense. A process where all the components of a mobile app development come together, i.e., development, design, and Q/A testing.
More specifically, such a process is critical for cross-platform or hybrid app development, since they require changes for two different operating systems. While following the iterative process, it is advised to use the tech-stack which works for all OS for the major part for cross-platform development.
Personalization
One of the key trends in almost every consumer-related industry is personalization, so how can mobile apps stay behind. If anything, they are leading in this game. Unlike websites, mobile apps offer a great deal of personalizations to the users and lots of opportunities to organizations to extend this approach to other areas of mobile apps.
For instance, you can personalize your services for every user based on their preferences. Take Netflix and Spotify as examples.
Analytics
There is no point in creating an app if you cannot or don’t plan to gauge how it is performing and how users interact with it. Therefore, having an analytics feature is a must-have for apps.
Due to its indispensable role, it has become a best practice for mobile app development for businesses. Under analytics, you assess the success of your app, how users interact with it, and in what frequency by evaluating some key performance metrics (KPIs).
Once you understand how users use your app, if they don’t use it or not, and other user behavior information, you can take those insights to improve.
Some KPIs to analyze are user engagement, adoption influence (number of downloads, current active users, new users, and fluctuations in these numbers), customer retention, and encouragement.
Security
You should never skip on this crucial best practice or keep it on the sidelines while developing your app.
As opposed to a website, a mobile app potentially gathers more personal data of users, such as location, camera, shares the memory space, email, and mobile number. All this sensitive information is the responsibility of the business to keep it safe and away from prying eyes.
To make your app secure, you can leverage Blockchain as do many mobile apps in the market. Additionally, you can add two-step verification, over-the-air data encryption like Whatsapp for safe data transfer, and of course, an on-device password. There are a lot many ways you can explore to make your platform secure for users.
Application usability testing
Last but not the least, usability testing is a crucial part of the app development process. From testing prototypes, MVPs to beta testing your mobile app, it is crucial to make sure that the end product is in sync with all the devices for it to perform remarkably. For instance, usability testing helps a lot with the fragmentation in Android devices.
Extra Read: How Mobile Applications Can Boost Your Business Sales & Revenues?
