3 Common Mobile App Development Mistakes You Should Avoid

Mobile App Development Mistake #1: Not knowing what user really want

Launching an app might look easy yet a profitable idea to you, but in reality, there is a lot developing a successful app asks for. When it comes to mobile apps the principle of ‘build it and they will come’ doesn’t apply. 

If you want your target audience to download and use your app, it is imperative that you provide them with all the functionality that they will need in the app. It is essential for you to know what are the pain points of your target user base that your app can solve.

Many businesses just copy the apps that are trending. Simply creating duplicate apps to leverage the common trend won’t be suffice. If you want to scoop your share out of the common trend, you can choose elements from other apps, but use them in your app in a way that they make your app unique.

You can identify what the user needs in the following categories:

App Features

App features are the biggest selling point of a mobile app. Features like personalised notification, reminders, and ease of payment make the user journey flawless. Whilst undertaking custom mobile application development, companies need to include the most popular features that are in high demand.. 

Features that once were marketed as advanced features are now considered as the basic features for apps. The expectation of users in terms of app features is evolving and companies need to take it into account that out-of-date features can be catastrophic for mobile apps. This means that people who download the app and don’t like the app because of the lack of features, may put negative reviews or spread negative word-of-mouth about the application.

Before you jump on custom mobile app development, it is important that you create a list of features that are offered in similar apps to yours. Based on your app’s uniqueness, there might also be a need for some unique features, so don’t forget to prioritise them in your product requirement document. 

Services

People download apps for specific purposes. Some of these purposes are to chat to someone, shop online, track fitness or make payments. Undoubtedly, the sole purpose of the app will be to generate revenue or bring business for your company, but you cannot forget about the end user’s needs. 

What often occurs is that the development company or your in-house team does not have a clear understanding about the how and why the services in your app are needed to cater to the users. In such situations you should describe your app idea in detail to them so that the developing aligns with the purpose of the app.

Before you roll out your app development process, you should reexamine your market niche, and determine the pain points of your customers within your niche. You need to make sure that your app relieves your customers from those pain points. This is to make sure that your app exists to solve real issues rather than being just another app in the app store.

User Expectations

This mistake is made more often while planning and developing a mobile app. It is often forgotten that ever since the mobile apps were introduced into the digital world, their capabilities have only been evolving. As a result, the users have been used to certain quality and standards for mobile apps.

Because of this, the user expectation becomes extremely high because the app stores are filled with hundreds of mobile apps similar to yours, and the user can switch to another app at any given time. Thus, if you are launching a new app, you should have this clear idea about your target user’s expectations. The companies should also keep in consideration that the expectations are ever-changing and will evolve with time, therefore the mobile app should be ready for the change.

Mobile App Development Mistake #2: Incompetent technology utilisation Poor Back-End Infrastructure

You might have come across some very terrible apps that crash every few seconds and are full of glitches, so much so, that they don’t seem to be getting anything done. These glitches can sometimes cause total non-functioning of certain features, or even result in the app not starting at all.

Even your loyal customers have a limit to the amount of glitches and crashes that they will tolerate.. New users will just abandon your app. When trying their first mobile app, many companies release apps with poorly executed back-end that aren’t sufficient to handle the basic functionality of the app. Releasing such apps does nothing but annoy your loyal customers. Forget about building your customer base, you’ll lose your existing customers if you launch an app with a poor back-end. 

Companies launch such apps when they are in a rush to get their app out ASAP or when they don’t pay much attention to the back-end. It’s true that skipping some steps will get their app rolled out quickly, but the consequence of this approach is that the app is less likely to serve the purpose. Thus, it is essential to invest adequate time and resources to make the app worth downloading for the users.