Every business strives to be successful and sustainable. Success is not a destination but an ongoing state, especially in the business market where businesses are always competing to outrank each other. For this reason, entrepreneurs, marketers, strategists, etc. keep exploring new ideas that can help them survive the disrupting market. Mobile applications were also just a technology trend until researchers and tech enthusiasts proved that these are here to stay. The last few decades have witnessed the exceptional growth of mobile solutions and even today, businesses are building the most life-transforming mobile solutions constantly. Entrepreneurs are launching mobile business models for their new as well as traditional business models. Having said that, not every business is able to procure the desired results.
Mobile app development isn’t as simple as it may sound. Most of the entrepreneurs rush into it without adequate planning and preparation. As a result, their newly launched venture transforms into a complete fiasco, leaving them disheartened and in huge debts and losses. In this blog, instead of explaining what all you should do, we have listed the most common mistakes that businesses commit while developing their mobile solution.
There are more than 4 million mobile applications on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. How can you be sure that your application will stand out and offer the desired results? That’s right, you cannot and nobody can, for that matter.
But you can be careful about what not to do when developing a mobile solution, right!
Developing an application that is not needed.
When you first got the idea of your dream application, maybe you were too enthusiastic to think about its performance in the real world with real customers. Launching a mobile solution that your target audience does not require is the most terrible yet the most common mistake that businesses commit.
Mobile app development is a premium and time-consuming investment. If you put all your money and time on an idea that will not perform, your business is going to face a critical financial crisis.
You must define the objectives clearly and analyze if the application will be able to fulfill those. Applications that resolve the pain areas of the target audience have more chances of success. However, success can also depend upon other several factors. There is also a possibility of testing an initial version of your application without developing the final application with full functionality. It is called MVP development and your business can get a lot of benefit from it.
Relying on superficial Google research and not doing actual research.
Now, it is understood that research is important to establish pointers about why you need to develop your mobile application. Considering all businesses and industries have distinct business models and workflows, their objectives and processes are also different. And you must adhere to a lot many factors before finally putting up your money at stake.
Doing your research on Google can help you find the best deals for e-commerce products or find a great nearby restaurant. However, if you create your company product based on Google research, it is doomed to fail. Different surveys, studies, researches, and analysis should be carried out to understand the market of your business, interests and preferences of your target audience, competitors and their business models, and your unique selling proposition.
Thinking that you can get a mobile solution for 100 bucks or maybe 200. That’s unrealistic!
You must understand that technology is not a commodity that you can try out at stores for different rates and try on. There are skilled people around the world who spend hours and hours developing applications that make peoples’ lives easier. There is so much that goes into assembling a complete mobile solution and you cannot set an unrealistic budget for it.
Developing a mobile application is no less than art where designers, developers, marketers, analysts, testers, etc. all come together to put up a masterpiece that functions seamlessly as per your expectations. When setting a budget, consider the number of people, the number of days or hours, features of the application, and the complexity of the application. If you choose more advanced technology, the prices vary accordingly. Again, research will also help you set a more realistic budget.
When you start looking for a team to work on your mobile application, you will receive quotes from different mobile development companies and freelancers. You will be inclined towards low-cost quotes but you must carry out background checks to make an informed decision. Cheaper rates will not guarantee a quality product and in the end, you will be left with a dysfunctional mobile application. Therefore, double-check everything before making your choice and set realistic expectations for yourself and the team.
Vaguely communicating about your requirements and expectations.
When explaining your requirements, you should be very specific about each feature and the functionality of the application. Be sure to document your requirements clearly, preferably in the form of a checklist, that can be referred to by you and your development team.
Visuals help in explaining the idea and flow of the application comprehensively. Therefore, you can use mockups, flowcharts, sketches, and diagrams of each app screen to help the designers and developers understand precisely. Additionally, you can add notes to those visuals that explain each and every element to and how it is connected to the other one. This will help in understanding navigation and the functions of all buttons.
With such a vivid explanation of your app idea, the team will be able to build an application as per your expectations. Moreover, they could also share a realistic budget because they will be aware of their time and efforts in advance instead of discovering some hidden expectations along the way.
Having a never-ending feature-list. Oh no!
This is a complete no-no. When you sit to write down the list of features of your application, have a separate section wherein you describe the core functionality and features. Launching a full-fledged application in the first go is never a smart move. Go with the most basic version of your application. Keep improving and upgrading as per the performance, and then release new versions.
When you add more features than required, first, you increase the cost and time of mobile app development. Second, your potential customers might feel overwhelmed because of so many features that they are not even ready to use.
Ignoring the cross-platform strategy. It is not a battle between iOS and Android anymore.
Restricting your mobile solution to one mobile platform for your mobile application will affect your business drastically in today’s market where users are willing to try different operating systems. Using cross-platform mobile application development tools, developers can easily build applications for both Android and iOS platforms simultaneously.
Recently invented hybrid languages are robust and powerful that allow developers to develop mobile applications using a single source code. Building cross-platform applications can save a lot of time and money while achieving the same results as native applications.
Having said that, cross-platform apps do have their own drawbacks that you must be aware of before making the decision. This is a great option for businesses with a limited budget and those who plan to launch just a test version. However, it can cause performance issues in some advanced functionality applications. So, you must decide as per your application’s functionality.
Not balancing the UI with the UX
Having an application that appeals to the eyes of the customer but offers a poor user experience is not a good application. You must focus on UI and UX equally so that your customers can have a memorable user experience while using your application.
Great user experience results in increased engagement rate, improved customer retention, and higher user acquisition rate. The design should not be complex and you must use familiarity in design to introduce features that people do not require to learn from scratch.
Your application must add value to your customers’ lives and offer it seamlessly through smooth user experience and intuitive design. This strategy will help your business create loyal customers because today, the customers value businesses that pay attention to offering unmatched user experience.
Keeping the marketing strategy for the end
Entrepreneurs normally think that they will focus on marketing once their product or application is fully developed. I wish I could tell them all that they are wasting their time. You need to focus on your app’s marketing strategy as soon as your application goes into development.
A plan of action must be ready with you that helps you reach out to your potential customers. If you do not want your app to be lost in the sea of apps on app stores, then sit with your marketing team and formulate an intelligent strategy.
Understand your target audience, select your marketing channels, optimize app pages, create social pages, collaborate with influencers to create hype, and do everything to get your product in front of the eyes of your target audience.
Lastly, ignoring this blog post would be your last mistake! Just kidding!
About Author
Shikha Taman
Shikha Taman is the founder & CEO of SynergyWorks Solutions. With over 12 years of experience in the industry. She has extensive knowledge of software engineering, project management, client management, and business strategy. She strives to ensure all the products developed are always up-to-date with materializing technologies to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.