10 App Design & Development Tips For User Retention
No one wants their app to be forgotten by the users. But Apple’s App Store has more than 2.2 million apps currently running. When the developers design and build the app in the right way, these apps draw good money. In December last year, the App Store posted a purchase of $3 billion. The New Year’s day in 2017 marked the App Store’s busiest day ever due to the new release of Super Mario Run. this app made a history by getting 40 million downloads in 4 days that too right after its launch.
Here are 10 best practices that the developers can follow:
1. Always be ready to hurry
Make sure before you make your app live, you have tested the back-end infrastructure so that it supports the expected traffic on your app. Is your app able to handle thousands of users at the same time? What if millions of users arrive? It would be more frustrating to see your favourite app getting crashed constantly.
If you have tried playing Pokemon GO when the game just launched, an app crashing issue occurred. Although, Google and Niantic have been quiet about their initial user expectations, as Google’s cloud Platform Blog shared that the real traffic outpaced their primary estimates by 50 times. The crashing of this app took away the further increased users, if only the app developers were prepared, the traffic could have been bigger in amount.
2. Use a CMS
On the iOS apps, the awkward review process can slow or stop the planned updates. Even if you have to change any image you would need Apple’s permission/approval to change the new version of the app. A content management system shall be used to deal with this, as it would be familiar to the developers. With the help of CMS, multiple app developers can participate in the content. They can fix the bugs as well as can add new features to the app then. The changes take place right away and the modifications need no approval from any review board.
3. Track everything
One cannot assess how successful an app would be unless one knows what the user is doing with the app. What do users like the most in your app? What features are they using the most? How much time do they spend on your app each day? When you know the answers to all these questions during the app launch, you will be able to enhance the user experience.
4. Crush the bugs
Any product can never be perfect. Even if you thoroughly test your app against any bugs, users will still face issues in your app. Nugs do arise, but the problem comes when your team doesn’t have a plan to quickly address the users’ problems. An app development team should always keep plans in mind about the issues that may appear after the app launch.
5. Get featured
Did you notice, that the App store always features a few outstanding apps every week? To improve the number of downloads, the best way is to be featured in the App Store or Google’s Play store. But, both the app stores have some rigid setup requirements where a strong user experience is essential. Apple store and Google play store decides which apps have to be highlighted on the top, every week. You can find these concerned people and explain to them how your app is worthy of being on the top. You can reach back to these people when you have released an update for your app.
6. Be updated with the updates
The world of mobile moves faster than we think. So are the devices, operating systems, and programming languages, which change accordingly with time. The app you build may support the current operating system or version of your phone, but it might crash with the next version. Just like you do to your car, you should keep a check on your app regularly. Otherwise, it will become difficult to fix the problems that keep arising with time steadily.
The mobile world moves quickly. Devices, operating systems, and programming languages change constantly. Your app may work fine with a particular device or operating system but then find its performance deteriorates with the next version. Apple and Google typically release updates for the developers first, to make sure there is a smooth functioning of the apps.
7. Automate
Launching an app and uploading it on the Play store or App store involves a lot of steps. To speed up this process, Fastlane is one such tool that simplifies this process by automating the steps. It just takes some time to set up. Also, consider your app development team. If the app needs periodic updates, then all the team members should be able to understand the process. On the contrary, if there is just one person who knows the process completely, will be troubling, in case he/she leaves the company and forgets the credentials.
8. Synchronize the developers and designers
It’s not that an app is dependent only on the developers whole and sole. You can bring the designers into action when things get crazy in the last stages of an app development. There are tools like Xcode and Android Studio, which help the designers to tweak animations and swap images or even polish the layouts through it.
9. Make it look attractive
To get a good user experience of an app, it is important to use animations, gestures, and images. Do not put off the animations or gestures while you can still call the designers to have their idea input. These visuals are important to grab the attention of the users.
10. Consider connectivity
It is not necessary that every user has a data connectivity all the time, even while they travel. You can build your app with features that do not require data or can even work without a signal.
Does your app work without any data connection or Wi-Fi? What about the users who reside in rural areas with poor signal strengths? What if the users want to sync their offline data with your app? Making an app is like promising the user to provide a great user experience, no matter what environment they live in.
Designing and developing an app takes a lot of background preparation, you need to pay attention to its details and audience awareness too. To stand away from the crowd, your app should look attractive as well as it should be functional in every condition.
