4 Features for Mobile App Success
Having a brilliant idea doesn’t guarantee success in this competitive digital space. The majority of apps fail not because of a bad idea but because of usability issues. Factors such as luck, competition, and budget may dictate the outcome whereas lack of important features, poor design, support, and performance cannot be excused. A successful application is that that fulfills important needs of the end-user and is portable.
Mobile app development has gone increasingly competitive and there are many companies that offer cost-effective mobile app development services with high functionality features.
Signs of Successful App
- User-Centric
- Strong USP
- Focuses on one core feature
- Intuitive User Interface
- Timely Updates and Maintenance
- Post Launch Support
Applications that are powered with offline functionality and offer personalized experience have set the benchmark for many app development companies to emulate. Let’s highlight 4 important features that are quintessential to every mobile app success.
1. Performance
The performance of a mobile application directly affects its ratings, conversions, number of downloads and retention rates. Close to 50 percent of poor reviews are based on performance issues. Factors such as a server, network, mobile devices, and programming account for the performance of an app, but still, a user may come across poor experience with the app.
According to the survey by Dimensional Research, more than 90% of the mobile users asserted that app performance is important for them. Application performance monitoring (APM) is the management and monitoring of availability and performance of software applications. It helps diagnose and detect performance problems so that they can maintain a certain level of service. APM monitors two types of performance metrics:
Metrics that measure the performance experienced by users like average load times.
Calculates computational resources that the application utilizes for the load.
The performance of a mobile app can be enhanced through compressing/resizing images, caching images, reusing data templates reducing HTTP requests and by using loading validations. Preloading/prefetching data is also recommended so that the user doesn’t have to wait when the data is needed.
2. Security
Not many applications are designed with the idea of supporting compliance requirements or protection. App users are valuable assets for businesses. They are the endpoint for customer interaction and are quite vulnerable to a wide array of threats. The risk varies from financial fraud to exposure of personally identifiable information (PII). Corporate intellectual property has also been compromised by discontented employees and determined bad actors. Securing data and apps is crucial to prevent financial loss, brand damage and penalties from the government. Traditional cybersecurity approach that secures the network perimeter and focuses on attacks with web app firewalls and anti-virus is simply not good enough and don’t provide the necessary protection.
Lack of multi-factor authentication also welcomes cybercriminals to exploit an app to their advantage. Two of the possible three factors are used in multifactor authentication and does not rely on the user’s password alone. The additional layer could be a question that a user can easily answer, biometric authentication or a text message confirmation.
Reverse engineering means compromised security and is one of the major concerns for mobile app developers. An understanding of the application’s code logic could be obtained through unprotected reverse engineered apps. API’s are exposed that make way for frequent back-office attacks. Applications that are compromised with malware can withhold sensitive user information and login credentials.
To protect apps is to make an application code extremely difficult so that it can’t be reversed engineered. Use white-box cryptography to protect and encrypt vital communication data and keys. Protect an app through a configurable guard network methodology so that the code is obscured and hardens the app. By taking advantage of the information available in the running software runtime application self-protection (RASP) uses runtime instrumentation to block and detect computer attacks. RASP monitors software inputs and blocks attack threats simultaneously protecting the runtime environment from tampering and unwanted changes.
3. Application Support
An application needs to evolve constantly to outperform its competition. Just like any product, staying updated with the latest features is important to drive business conversions. Adding functionalities by maintaining the interface is a sign of healthy relations with the end-users and helps maintain a strong bond. Ignoring app maintenance and updates can derail the speed of growth and most importantly a business runs the risk of losing its existing customer base. Application support services include app store deployment, training programs, responding to customer queries, timely resolution, and system integration. Reviews play a crucial role and give an insight into what customers want. Mobile app maintenance addresses problems that the customer expects to be resolved in a quick time.
These are the services that are a must for an application’s success in the market.
Upgrade services: Operational support, App interface enhancement, performance optimization, data model migration, major/minor bug fixes.Monitoring: Server app crash, auto backup, security, user and app analytics.
Reviews on third-party integration, OS update, performance monitoring payment gateway integration, source code repository.
4. User Experience
A user-friendly interface speaks for itself. An intuitive UX design is the outcome of robust wireframing, user testing, prototyping, and comprehensive user research. Hours are spent on redesigning an app that meets the end-user expectations. An interface that comes out alive with simple yet intuitive design and fulfills customer’s needs has more chances to drive conversion rate. A simple user interface is more complex to make.
A design that becomes automatic in the hands of the users is the first sign of having a successful application. It has become vital to make apps that interact with users and allow smooth functioning.
Procuring feedback in the initial and rolling phase is important for a UX designer who then can fill the gaps to improve the product. With overall aesthetics, UX designers have started to focus on personalization. The need for personalized user experience is on the rise that delivers content relevant to the likes of a specific user. It’s important to ask the right questions that help understand a designer how UX experience can satisfy the user’s need to meet the desired objectives.
Wrapping Up
An extensive onboarding or registration process should stay clear away from applications and has to be hassle-free. Third-party integration login options such as Google or Social media login is now widely recognized and accepted by the users. A seamless onboarding should include illustrations and quality images so that it can effortlessly reach out to first time audience. Users are quite reluctant to give out their personal information and will not trust an app that forces them to do so.
Powering an app with offline features helps gain loyalty from users if the app is trustworthy in the areas where the poor connection is normal. These apps require little loading time and are power savers. Offline featured apps are the slowly gathering pace and allow users a flexible mobile experience when the connection is not working, is slow or flickering. In circumstances where the user is in the middle of completing an action (for e.g. during payment processing) and the network connection drops, without prior notifications or reminders, the app loses its credibility.
Converting a good app idea into a reality seems easy on the surface but requires tremendous effort from the team to adequately utilize time, research and resources. In the end, it’s the number and quality of features that makes or breaks an app in the marketplace and the core ones should be highly prioritized during the development process.
