Improve Your App By Looking at What Makes Apps Fail

We can all think of businesses who have succeed with their mobile apps and, unfortunately, we can all think of businesses who struggled with their mobile app.

Looking at mobile apps there are certain things that seem common to poor performing mobile apps, before you start your next mobile app development project make sure that you are not making these same mistakes. One of the most common mistakes with lower performing applications is a poor user experience. Think about how your users will feel when engaged with your application. Will it create delight? Frustration? In fact, a poor user experience can extend beyond a user simply not using an app, with 54% stating that a poor user experience would make them less likely to use other products from that business (Oracle).

Key to creating a great user experience is an effort to align your app with customer needs. It definitely needs to be easy to use and intuitive, but does your app do what customers expect it to do when the download it? Think about what you need in your app to retain your users. What will keep them coming back? Successful apps are tuned into their users’ needs.

It is important that you analyze the mobile journey taken by of your customers, from there you can determine which actions are most frequently performed. Then you can determine how to streamline the user experience to best meet the needs of your customers.

Another issue with apps that fail are they focus too much on selling the customer. Does your app off little or no value to the customer? Do you see it just as a tool to sell customers? Apps like this are bound to fail as customers will have little reason to use them. Once again, this goes back to focusing on the needs of your customer.

When budgeting for your project make sure that you plan a proper amount for user research and user experience design.  These items will make or break  your mobile app.

Additionally, you will want to make sure you plan on reviewing and updating your app. Improve the execution of processes within your app to improve the user experience. Carefully review the capabilities  your app  offers and and look for ways to elevate the the performance of those activities.

Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns (Flikr) http://bit.ly/1PcNxQ4