Mobile app development has grown exponentially in terms of jobs and revenues. According to a 2013 report, there are roughly 600,000+ App Economy jobs within the 28 members of the European Union, 60% of which are mobile app developers.
Even with all this hype, there’s a chance for even expert developers to make big mistakes along the development cycle. This sometimes could endanger the mobile product or even the brand itself.
Developers, software businesses and app companies are all engrossed in one way or the other in a constant acquiring process that makes them create eye-catchy and fast-selling mobile apps that will somehow produce good results. But beware, there are some common traps in the development process that developers commonly try to avoid.
Before you become an expert in mobile development, you should know about these pitfalls. Not only that, but you should also know about UI alternatives that best suit your thinking style and at the same time keep the user engaged.
App development is a lucrative career. Top apps, once popular, can generate huge income for their developers, but before you make money, you need to put lots of hours into creation that great app. Considering this, it’s not uncommon for you to hit big with your first app, especially if you avoid the simple mistakes that jeopardize many new app developers’ success.
Keep distance from pitfalls like the ones presented here while designing your native Apple or Android app and you are guaranteed to make an app that users fall in love and keep using its features.
Not thinking of a good flow for your app
Get a well-planned simplistic user flow before you start designing the app. Even simple apps like standard ones need a definite workflow in place to have a smooth and sensible navigational structure.
Another distinguishing feature is to have functional screens much closer to the top rather than hidden beneath multiple levels of navigation elements. Hopping the flow-map and jumping to more mundane designing tasks without a plan is the fastest way to create a tangled flow that leaves the users confused.
Building on multiple platforms
In October 2012, Google announced that Google Play had around 700.000 apps which matched the same number of apps in Apple App store. So app development is a very tough market to sell.
Keep off from increasing your engineering costs and concentrate on building for a single platform. This makes sure you get your minimum viable product (MVP) out in the app store as soon as possible.
Why you should avoid this pitfall? Once you develop an app on both platforms and need to make any changes to design and/or functionality, then you simultaneously have to make changes at both the places. This adds more development time and cost.
Finalize your app on Android and have a couple of iterations before applying it on iOS (or vice versa).
Don’t ask users to register before offering value
Forcing users to register before they have tested your app is one of the big blunders many new developers make. Ask yourself the question while designing the UI of your app: If it was a web application that you were designing would you force the user to register?
Before a user registers for your app and gives his credentials, he must have a benefit of using your app. Your app must display some value and prompt user engagement, so registration is a natural process and not that is obliged.
The bottom line is clear. Your app must be first felt by the user who acknowledges its values and later decides to register himself automatically.
Treating user onboarding lightly
Under-estimating user skills, knowledge and behavior is one of the least favored mistake of any developer. Onboarding also called “organizational socialization” is one of the toughest part of the UX design. This is one of the significant steps in designing the user experience.
That is why it’s important to constantly watch out for feedback. Use app analytics to answer your problems. What makes your users like your app? What makes them delete it?
Some developers have big ideas but less heart to accept defeat. Just recording a few sessions of user experience testing can destroy this ego. The feedback from this kind of analysis will make them think that “Whew! It never occurred to me”. Be firm, learn to take criticism, change and see your customer satisfaction grow leaps and bounds.
By viewing app analytics, one can analyze touch heat-maps and real user recordings. This will show the friction points in the user onboarding experience.
Not considering user experience the most important aspect of your design
UX comes to the forefront in the development cycle. Many developers try to replicate the web service onto the mobile application, which is wrong. It’s important to rethink your entire workflow strategy of the user and interactions on smartphones.
Plus to this, though it’s important to launch an app with a standard set of features, don’t jump to speedy developement and release a whacky app. Most mobile reviewers are harsh and will leave a 1-star rating if you fall into this trap.
Amidst these 1.5+ million apps, the user expectation is high. The smartphone app experience needs to be self discoverable and be productive. The mobile app user will easily give your app away if he finds the user experience unintuitive.
Not having design consistency
Try not to mince different words for the same functionality.
When apps use different words or buttons for the same functions, or when they use the same commands for unlike actions in various parts of the application the usability suffers. The user gets disoriented and confused. Maintaining an intuitive order in user navigation makes things simple and clear.
A user easily becomes disinterested if he finds confusion in your app navigation. A curious mobile user might be tempted to untangle the threads, but many common users will simply delete the app.
Use popular icons and place buttons where users expect. If an action is tough to explain with a commonly seen icon, use a text button.
Putting too many features in your app
An over-enthusiast junior developer would like to pack many features into his initial app. As a developer, knowing the user is the first thing! What is the target?
If you can think of particular features that you should build for your target audience, what would they be? Concentrate on that. You can add some more features later.
Some of the popular apps like WhatsApp are built around the mantra of “less is more”. Many times, your app would be like Microsoft Word with lot of features not used in day to day routine. This can often become a hurdle in the success of your app if it’s taking too much memory and resources.
If you have a desktop parent of an app, tailoring some of the features wouldn’t hurt. The concrete ideology behind app development is to make interactions simpler. Cut down on the functionality of your app to the main tasks. Most of the times, users don’t see the cut from the desktop version to mobile friendly version.
Using intro animations
Performance issues are also a big lesson in your app development.
Some quirky animations may be nice, but it’s important not to overdo them. Technically speaking, most of the intro animations start only after the app is loaded. So this will delay the user from accessing the app. If you are going to introduce such animations, make them fast, responsive and appealing.
Don’t do your own beta testing
Acceptance testing and usability testing is part of the product development cycle. Trying to do your own beta testing will not bring in the out of the box mind.
Consider opening your app to a select audience like experienced designers group, and update the interface before releasing the app to the public. Put a simple ad for a quality control group, which is a cheap and easy way of getting feedback. Target community students who are willing to participate in a small beta test and play around with the app for a few bucks.
Making the hit area smaller than it should be
The important fact to remember in user experience is that most user’s index fingers are 1.6 to 2cm wide. So taking this into your design consideration is a smart UX move. Otherwise, your users may tap into several buttons or open up unwanted features, which will irritate the customer. Place sufficiently sized buttons and space, so that users can tap when necessary.
Not keeping the user informed about what’s happening
Making it difficult to guess for the user to what is happening is not a good user experience.
A progress indicator or small animations are better examples in a mobile app world. This can indicate to the user that something is coming up and will keep them engaged.
Not using enough white space
Let your app breath like any living thing on this planet. It means that your design and design elements need some white space in between. It’s the space between your text, image and design elements that makes your creative work communicate and tell a story or shout a clear message.
This is just like cramming all features on the same screen. If necessary, go for another screen or button. Give the room it deserves, such that your hard work can be seen clearly and understood in your app interface.
Conclusion
The common unifying element to all these elements of design is that the best designs are carefully considered. It comes down to plan, design and moving critically in your design methods. Knowing mistakes made by others can immensely help in your development cycle. Obtaining feedback about user experience through mobile app analytics can give your valuable insights into various pitfalls.
Really think what your users are trying to achieve and laser focus on a single set of features. Don’t jump the planning time, don’t cut corners, and don’t skip usability testing to achieve instant fame.
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