Key Mistakes to Avoid in Mobile App Development

When a mobile app is successful in everything that it sets out to do, it is rarely because of one big “make or break” decision. Mobile apps are a collection of small ideas that all add up into a stronger, more cohesive whole. The reverse is also true – when a mobile app is ineffective, it usually comes down to several small mistakes that, when added together, result in a lack of vision regarding functionality, experience or oftentimes both. This is why it’s always important to think about the key mistakes to avoid in mobile app development – knowing which path not to take is just as mission-critical as a well-laid plan in the first place.

Forgetting Your Users

A mobile app can be 100% successful in everything that it sets out to do, but if nobody expressly needed it to do those things in the first place, you’re still looking at something that provides little value to your target market. As a result, one of the biggest mistakes that you can make begins early in the process: forgetting your end-users. At all stages of the process you need to be asking yourself who will eventually be using your app, how they’ll be using it and what they’re really looking for.

Develop personas for these end users to give you a target to try to hit. Keep the design as straightforward as possible, always with an eye on the user experience. Most importantly, establish a conversation between your development team and those users to find out exactly what they’re looking for so that you put yourself in a better position to actually give it to them.

Trying to Service All (OS) Masters at the Same Time

As of 2016, the two most competitive spaces in the world of mobile app development are Apple’s iOS operating system and Android. Each have hundreds of millions of worldwide users between them, which can make it very enticing to try to build one app that services both groups of people immediately.

Just how big of a mistake this will likely turn out to be cannot be overstated enough. Pick your platform, design the perfect app for that environment and THEN worry about porting it over to another space. Failure to do so not only takes what should be a straightforward process and increases the difficulty by approximately 200%, but it also poses challenges when it comes to the actual growing pains of custom app development. If you’re dealing with a problem, you’re suddenly dealing with two – one on the iOS version and one on the Android version. Focusing on one platform allows you to get a high quality product out to one core group of users with no distraction, which then allows you to devote your full attention to servicing the needs of your second base afterwards.

Forgetting that Analytics Are Your Friend

So much effort goes into the actual design process for a mobile app that it can be easy to forget about something that ultimately has little to do with this portion of your day: analytics. This feeds back into the larger idea of never forgetting your end users, as analytics can provide you with a huge amount of valuable information that you can use to make actionable design, content and even UX/UI decisions moving forward. Look at your daily active users, your retention rate, your engagement rates and more. Are these numbers lower than they should be? Figuring out why will help you build a better app as quickly as possible.

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