Let me begin with the harsh truth! Not every app developed and published on app stores does succeed. The worst is that many are rolled back even before their first or second anniversary. There are only a handful of apps that succeed and get the attention of users who download them and keep in their devices for a long time.
There are certain things to be taken account of to assure the success of an app and certain issues to be avoided to avoid the failure. Take these issues as mistakes, and in this post, we are going to bring them all into the light so that you too can avoid failure for your app.
Here is the list of 15 Mistakes to avoid while developing a mobile app
- Beginning the development with unclear needs
You should not hastily launch mobile app development, not even when competitors are doing well with their apps. You will never know what exactly a competitor’s aim was when it initiated its app development.
A business interested in launching a mobile app should first understand all its needs. Of course, this will require enough brainstorming, but once a business does that it will avoid a chance of failing.
- Associating with an inexperienced / unprofessional mobile app development company
Failure may be caused by partnering with an inexperienced or unprofessional mobile app development company, which is showing all its interest in getting the project from you but not showing enough things proving its expertise. Avoid partnering with this sort of company because they are really empty inside. They have an eye on your money and, believe it or not, they will deliver nothing but hopelessness. Do not hire them and avoid another chance of being failed.
- Underestimating the project cost
This is one big mistake that many startups do and then struggle. If you have been given an inaccurate app estimate or you fail to properly estimate your budget, things will start going in opposite directions. An app development without proper budget planning will fail. Do not make such a costly mistake because you will spend your entire fund and achieve nothing.
- Not considering about developing an MVP
In anything we do, haste makes waste. Hasting in launching an app can also turn out to be a disaster. The solution is you enter the market with an MVP and, then improve the product and add more features in subsequent versions.
You can launch an MVP with core features in a short span of time and start taking advantages of availed opportunities, but if you wait for a full-featured app being developed or enter the market with an app having lots of bugs and errors left behind in hurry, then you are surely going to do a big mistake.
- Building the app with poor user interface
What users see in your app at first is its user interface. Many businesses fail at paying proper attention to the UI portion of an app development and then see failure. Because users have tons of other choices, they will not hesitate in ditching an app having bad UI even if it offers the best of the features.
In simple words, good UI holds users and keeps the app-retention rate high. This is what app owners want, don’t they?
- Adding too many features
A man cannot be the jack of all trades, and neither does an app. An app cannot do everything happens in a business. A single app cannot serve all stakeholders, like customers, partners, different departments, and different executives. It cannot have too many features. If a business tries to add too many features to its app, it’s certainly making a big mistake.
- Launch the app for many mobile platforms initially
When launching an app, it’s recommended you keep it limited to a single platform to avoid extra burden related to designing, development, and deployment. Also, the more platforms you target for your app, the more your app budget will increase. To avoid this, first choose the best platform and then start developing your app for that. Once the app is developed for a platform and start receiving attention of users then you should add other platform-versions.
As of now, we have two most popular mobile platforms, namely Android and iOS. They both have captured 99% of the whole global smartphone market.
- Not performing proper testing
Testing is the most vital step you will take in your mobile app development. Often time, the approach applied is based on the given constraints. For example, if the app is targeted to a million users, then testing should be performed for 1.5 million users. This will avoid any app-crashing that may be caused when the app suddenly gets heavy user-traffic.
- Not considering the feedback for users
Another mistake is to not consider the feedback of users and make changes accordingly. Not all users downloading your app will feel satisfied with it. Some users may have an issue with the design while others may complain about a functionality or feature.
They will let you know there issues with your app through their feedback. It’s now your responsibility to consider the feedback and do make changes in your app, but don’t make the mistake of avoiding the feedback of users.
- Not planning the launch of the app
There are nearly 2.8 million apps on the Google Play store for Android and 2.2 million apps on the App Store for iPhone and iPad devices. Do you think your app is going to easily make its mark in such a heavy crowd? Well, it won’t unless you inform users with a proper marketing plan. Launching an app without a proper plan will make it difficult for users to have a clue that your app is available on the app store.
- Considering the app as an extension of your website
Apps and websites are two different things. If you want your website to be available in the form of an app then you do not really need it. With a number of in-device features, apps can do such things that a website can hardly do. So, do not develop an app as an extension of a website because people are really not looking for it.
- Not Considering the target audience
The audience can be segmented in a number of groups. A group can be focused on the age while other can be on the gender. There may separate audiences from urban and rural areas. There may be separate audiences for their separate likings. Not considering them will also be a mistake.
- Not rolling out updates on-time
Updates help in doing lots of improvements. It is recommended that developers timely push updates having fixes for errors and glitches. Do not avoid updates as they may drive users losing their trust in your product. Users also inform about issues and write reviews. Developers need to fix the app for these issues and push changes in the form of updates.
- Forcing users to reveal too much personal details
App asking to share too much of personal details do also imply a negative impact. Don’t ask more than enough permissions or being tempted by the users data that you really do not need.
- Rough onboarding
App onboarding helps a business facilitate a positive user experience, creates the best first impression for a high retention rate. It quickly engages users and delivers a positive user-experience. Many businesses just do not think about the app onboarding and then meet failure.
Author Bio. : Sofia Coppol is a digital marketing expert in Rapidsoft Technologies which is a leading IT consulting company providing full range it services including, IoT application development, ERP software development, AI App Development, and big data app development solutions. Sharing is caring!
