Many businesses have mobile apps at the top of their to-do lists. With over a million apps on the market, developing a quick app is fairly easy to do. The difficult part is creating an app that is valuable. This article will go through a few planning tips to help you create a more successful mobile app.
The Idea Itself
If you plan on releasing your mobile app to the world, you need to have a reason for people to use it. Apple has something called an “App Definition Statement”. This is a summary describing the app’s main purpose and target audience. If you can’t summarize your app, your idea may be too complicated.
The next step is to figure out who your audience is and what their goals are. Your app should help these users reach some kind of goal. If it can, it’s more likely your mobile app will be used on a daily basis.
Research Competition
Researching your competition is important. It allows you to see what kind of market there is for your mobile app. Start out by browsing various app stores and search for mobile apps similar to your idea. This not only lets you see what kind of market there is, it will also give you ideas on design and features. After that, begin reading the reviews of each app. Figure out why those apps are doing good or bad and make note of it. Build your mobile app around the good, while fixing the bad. Even though your mobile app idea exists, it can easily beat the competition by giving users what they want.
Key Features
Since mobile apps can be created with any type of feature, getting carried away can be easy. Start by writing down every feature you’d want your app to have, no matter how big or small the task may be. After that, go through the list of features you’ve written down and choose a select few to actually build your mobile app with. Don’t worry though, you can always implement those other features in later releases. Cutting your features down to a select few can keep development costs down, while speeding up the development process.
These are just a few tips that go into planning a mobile app. While the design of the app is just as important, having a solid idea is the first step. Focus on the experience and you’ll be that much closer to a successful app.