“Learn from the mistakes of others.”

Eleanor Roosevelt.

That’s how we grow, build and succeed. Personally and Professionally. The competition in the domain of mobile app development is tremendous. Some mobile applications work and some fail and some stay in the market for whatsoever reason. 

As a mobile development company, with our experience, we have listed some red flags to avoid when you develop your mobile application.

Here at 10 mistakes to avoid in Mobile Application Development-

1. Not targeting the Target Audience

Having solid ideas for a mobile app is great. But who is it for? 

This is the most important factor yet one can easily overlook it. Begin by creating a business plan and later a road-map to decide the target audience. 

Not determining your target audience or defining the incorrect target audience is one of the biggest mistakes companies can make while developing a mobile app.

You don’t want to sell milk to vegans! Do you?

2. User Expectations

The reason you are developing the mobile application is for the end-users, right? So, having a smooth UI should be your top priority. 

Not only user interface attracts new customers but it also helps maintain the existing ones.

Below mentioned are some of the factors that can make the end-user uninstall the app immediately.

• Bad design
• Slow load time
• Crashes
• Difficult navigation
• Lengthy registration

3.  Development Cost

Mobile Application Development is not cheap. And it doesn’t always guarantee a fixed return. 

While delivering a product, there are lots of finances the entrepreneurs have to deal with. So don’t just dive right into the process, take some time to plan your mobile app development budget.

Having a fixed cost model ensures you spend strictly according to your budget.

4. The MVP Model

Launching a full-featured app in the market does not promise success. And the failure can be a heavy blow to your enterprise. On the other hand, Minimum Viable Product or MVP can reap huge benefits.

With the help of MVP, you can launch your app with minimum features and gauge its likability. Once you know you have hit bull’s eye, slowly and steadily keep updating the app with additional features.

5. Developing for Multiple Platforms

Although this is highly debatable, if it’s a startup, we recommend focusing and developing the app for one platform. Another important factor to consider is researching the most used platform by your target customers.

Google Play Store has the highest number of apps followed by the Apple Store, Windows Store, Amazon App store, & BlackBerry World.

6. Overflowing the App with Features

Your Mantra here should be- “Less is More”

The great sins of software development are loading an app with too many features. It’s intriguing to add a whole bunch of customer-facing features to address the needs of everybody. But too many choices have always left humans overwhelmed. This leads to an increase in the loading time and also makes the app run slow.

Pursue the features that add value to the app and are in demand by the users. This makes the mobile app meaningful.

7. Large Mobile Apps

Mobiles phones come with limited storage space, generally (1 GB to 8 GB of internal storage) and if you have a large app, it will be the first one to be ignored in the store or to be uninstalled. Customers want an app that utilizes the least space in their phones.

To lighten your app, take note of below points-

• Compress the JPEG & PNG files
• PNG image optimization using Crunch
• Discard unused resources
• Cut resource use from libraries
• Reuse resources

8. Unattractive User Interface

User Interface is the face value on which the customers consider that the app is worth downloading. No matter how great the app idea and features are, a bad UI will make your efforts go in vain.

Refer to the following when designing your App’s UI-

• Lay importance on the prototype
• Prioritize the core objectives (feature) of the application
• Avoid Animations that can’t be skipped or take much time to load.
• Design the best information architecture- Navigation should be clear and concise.
• Focus on Gestural UI- Tap, Pinch Scroll

9. Testing

Ready to launch the app? Before answering the question with a YES, please test run it.

You’re welcome.

Avoid the haste and check whether the app is flawless in performing basic functions such as downloading and overall work-ability. The competition in the app development field is so intense, that even a teeny mistake can get your app out of your end-users phone. Ensure the app is compatible with all types of devices, shouldn’t crash and should be bug-free.

10. Follow up on Feedback

Always consider feedback as a valuable resource to improve and thrive on. Collect the user feedback data and act on it.

Customer feedback is one of the key factors in driving customer satisfaction and business development. The two way communication will help you as a developer understand the need of your customers in a better way.

The next time you plan updates, make it a point to include the changes received via feedback.

To sum it up, not only these mistakes are inane but also they seep in easily. We hope you will act on these and build super mobile apps for your product and services. Also keep in mind, hiring & communicating your ideas thoroughly with the right Mobile app development company is equally important. 

Keep Hustling.

More Power to you.