Apps with love asking the right questions

Apps with love asking the right questions

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  European Service Network Galerie Ravenstein 4 INSIGHTS B-1000 Brussels - Belgium Phone: +32 (0)2 646 40 20 Issue #3 - 2012 Apps with love … asking the right questions This first stage of [the app] gold rush is what draws people in and creates headlines, but that surface gold soon dries up. This is when the hard work really begins, with people teaming up to dig through the basalt to reach ancient river beds – known as deep lead mining. It's a risky venture, you can find success as a small team but you need to invest plenty of time and effort before you know whether you're even digging in the right spot. (The Age, Melbourne, 22 August 2012) Metaphor for hard work Despite a number of new platforms out there making it possible for just about anybody to develop a mobile application (app) – with or without an IT background – the sector is starting to grow up and questions are being asked. With maturity comes responsibility. This is where serious developers and teams stand out from the wannabes. Professionals ask the right questions before embarking on a new app project. © ESN 2012
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  European Service Network Galerie Ravenstein 4 INSIGHTS B-1000 Brussels - Belgium Phone: +32 (0)2 646 40 20 The era of runaway successes like Angry Birds is not over, but they are definitely harder to secure. Most apps lose three-quarters of their audience after the first three months of use. “[That means] even in the unlikely event your product is chosen from among the daily App Store deluge, any ad or freemium revenue streams would dry up quickly,” comments Entrepreneur magazine in its August feature ‘Lesson in app building’. So what lessons do the app experts offer to would-be developers and designers? How to score a winning app The fewer registration steps the better; keep it simple and reduce reasons for people to get second thoughts about downloading “Feature creep” is a danger; just because you can add extra features doesn’t mean you should; think well ahead about how new users will first get hooked and perhaps save the additional features and ideas for future versions Get users to love your app by offering something no one else has; make sure the design is “flexible, customisable and intuitive” to help engender this love, suggest the experts “Sweat the small stuff” because if it improves design efficiency and functionality the results are better than buggy, clunky apps that turn people off If testing shows a problem, don’t publish and be damned; make important last- minute changes if deemed necessary Don’t expect your app to go viral, but bask in the tears of joy if it does … but not for too long because that three-month deadline is looming Have new features and other ideas in the pipeline to keep the buzz for your app going Encourage open innovation in your organisation or development team to incubate new ideas for apps Unsaturated apps The important thing in today’s busier app marketplace is to stand out in the crowd. The farting, shooting, mow-them-down apps with fleeting entertainment value for a market that mostly has very little disposable income to spend on freemium features is going to get even more competitive and tough. But the scope for “serious apps” designed to enrich or simplify daily life is still strong for app builders with fresh ideas and the tenacity and professionalism to bring them to market. The team at Entrepreneur offer some valuable advice on how to get an app, once built, on iTunes – by far the most popular platform for dissemination and sale of iPhone apps. First and perhaps pretty obviously they say you have to build it. But here they weigh up the pros and cons of in-house development versus “self-service platforms” which massively simplify the whole workflow, including drop-and-drag templates for development, loyalty programs, mobile ordering and in-app purchases and shopping carts. © ESN 2012
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  European Service Network Galerie Ravenstein 4 INSIGHTS B-1000 Brussels - Belgium Phone: +32 (0)2 646 40 20 These platforms also tend to make the App Store submission process a lot easier. Self- developed apps can go through several rounds of submission before they are accepted. That strings out the launch and stretches cost lines which can throw budgets into a tailspin. Not good for developers or their clients, in the case of third-party developments. To app or not to app? As a web development and communications agency, ESN would add a few nuggets of wisdom on when and whether app development is the right path for organisations that don’t have a critical mass of users/visitors. Apps are useful and make sense where sufficient awareness of the organisation, like a major media outlet, already exists. People are already primed to visit the websites of The Guardian newspaper or the BBC on a daily basis, so the step to a mobile app for keeping up with the latest news is not a big leap of faith for an established audience. A government agency or organisation with a lower profile would struggle to bridge this critical gap, even with the best app developed by the best teams. Ask yourself: Why would anyone download and install an app for that? ESN encourages its clients to think very carefully before going down the mobile apps path, and not to be swayed by the headlines and the buzz surrounding them. There is a limit to the number of apps a smart phone can elegantly manage and, on a human level, a limit to the number of mobile functions an average user is able or willing to ‘fall in love with’. Ask yourself: Will you create an app for Android and Windows Phone, or just for the iPhone? A separate app optimised for the iPad? In many cases, a state-of-the-art, cross-platform mobile browsing interface can offer clients greater value by making their content available to many more mobile users. Mobile site or responsive design, we advise on the most effective device-neutral and low-latency technical approach for specific content, ensuring that the mobile experience is a joy rather than a chore. When content and technology are fit-for-purpose and browsing is light and easy, a mobile-ready website goes beyond convenience … it becomes a rich and rewarding experience that users will return to, time and again. © ESN 2012