Today, millions of mobile apps are available on various online platforms, including Apple Store and Google Play store. All of these apps offer different features under different genres. For example, Apple Music, Spotify, and Google Play Music are all music apps but offer distinct features. So, to stand out in this competitive market, it's essential to build an app with a whole new concept and features.

Mobile app development is a very lengthy and complicated process, including long codes. A single mistake in writing these codes can lead you to rework on your progress. Therefore to accomplish mobile app development faster and productively, it is good to divide the development process into smaller steps. Moreover, an app should be promising and easy to use, to stand out amongst the competitors. In this post, we'll be discussing some practices that need to be employed in mobile app development for a successful application.

#1 Choose a target group

 We develop mobile apps to fulfill a particular need. Without proper knowledge of this need and a concept, we can not move further to developing a mobile app. The first step towards finding the concept for your mobile app is identifying the target audience or group. Look for a group of people, and the difficulties they face, their requirements on which you can work.

Once found, try to analyze their needs in-depth and what they want in an app. Choosing a target group based on their needs will help you identify the features that your app should contain.

#2 In-depth research

Once you've found a motive or idea behind your mobile app development, you should look at competitors in the market. Look for mobile apps already present in the market meeting the same demand for the same target group as yours. Try to find and identify the drawbacks and loopholes in the app. Work on eliminating those drawbacks plus adding unique features to your app. This will ensure that your app will be useful, stands out among the competitors, and is not merely a copy of an app already present in the market.

It would be best if you tried to build something unique. If an app with the same concept as yours is present in the market, you should try to add, develop such features in your app that stand out and will fulfill the same purpose and needs of your target market in a much better way.

#3 Choosing the type of Mobile App

Based on the budget, you should decide the type of mobile app you want to develop; hybrid, native, or web-based. Native apps are user friendly and provide an excellent user experience but are platform-specific; this means that apps developed for one platform can not be used in another platform. This problem arises because native apps are made for specific devices and are written in a platform-specific language, i.e., for iOS in Swift and play store or android phones in Java. Thus for developers looking for a broad audience will have to develop these apps separately, which becomes very expensive.

In contrast to native apps, hybrid apps are not platform-specific and offer multi-platform distribution. It is comparatively less cheap and similar to native apps can use the device's native features like camera, GPS, etc. Further, Web apps are not apps but a website that looks and functions like an app. These apps are not downloadable and do not have access to the device's native features. Web apps are cheaper and easily updatable, but a significant drawback is that they require a constant internet connection and are slower. Depending on the budget and speed of operation needed, you can choose from any three app types.

#4 Usability

Usability is a feature of mobile apps that depicts its ease of use. Better usability leads users to accomplish their objectives with great satisfaction quickly. Many features help in improving usability, such as navigation, readability, operating speed, etc. You should add navigation or tutorials to your app to help users learn the app easily and quickly.

There should be directions on the screen showing users what to select or tap. The app should have a provision to turn-off and turn-on navigation or tutorial easily. Using this provision, the user can turn-off navigation when he doesn't want it anymore. Moreover, the app should be easily readable, and the fonts should be adjustable. Your app should have a lower response time. All of these parameters help control your usability. Better usability guarantees the success of your mobile application by providing an excellent user experience.

#5 Security should be prioritized

Usually, mobile applications need a variety of permissions and information from the user. For using mobile apps in most cases, the user has to accept permissions that the app asks, such as permission to notify, use contact list, access to location and camera, etc. Today most of the apps include in-app purchases and require subscriptions for which the user has to enter his bank details. Users need to enter their personal information, including name, age, DOB, and payment information like credit card or debit card details. This information is sensitive and needs protection from cyber attacks.

Therefore security should be made a priority from the very beginning of the mobile app development. A secure and trustworthy system helps build a long-lasting relationship with the user. Therefore security features like two-step authentication, protection against malware, and more should be integrated into the app.

#6 Multi-testing

Testing mobile apps are essential and a must to ensure that they function well and meet the optimum standards. The biggest mistake that many amateur developers have been doing is testing the app at the end of development. This is not a good practice as if any errors are found in the end; you have to search the whole code to look for the loophole, which is a very inefficient and complicated task.

It is advisable to test your progress at every step to ensure that your progress is in the right direction and eliminate the need to look back at long codes to search for the error.

Wrapping up

Thousands of apps get added to platforms like Google play store every month, and each of these apps offers distinct services and features. Developers looking to build a new app should conduct in-depth research before starting developing the actual app. The app should be built on a unique idea that makes the app stand-out among the competing similar kinds of apps. Moreover, the app should be easily accessible to its user. Better usability and security helps build trust and a good user experience that is key to the success of the mobile app. Following the above practices will ensure the success and effectiveness of your app.

Author Bio

Shaun Williams is a content writer with Goodfirms, a research platform for Cloud Computing, Ecommerce companies, Translation services companies, among many others. I enjoy communicating ideas and knowledge creatively and also ensure that the readers never suffer from boredom while reading my posts.