Optimizing For An App: What Do Companies Do?
With so many people accessing services through their smartphones, it only makes sense that more companies start to look into developing apps for their customers to use. However, this is not as simple a task as you might first envision. Companies need to make some clever choices when trying to optimize for an app.
iOS vs Android
One of the biggest hurdles that must be overcome when optimizing for an app is realizing that you actually need to develop two. iOS and Android are two very different operating systems, and so you need to make two apps to accommodate for the differences between them.
Of course, a company can always choose to develop an app for just one of the operating systems. In doing so, they run the risk of alienating a vast part of their target audience. It is always worth bearing in mind where your main demographic is. In the West, the iPhone is the most popular phone by far. In many Asian markets, the iPhone is growing in popularity but one tends to see Android phones coming out on top – and even sharing most of the global market.
If a company wants to be able to appeal to as many as possible, it will have to develop apps for both operating systems. It is the best way to ensure that they are reaching as many customers as possible – and the apps might even appear to be completely identical to the average user!
App Exclusives
When companies launch an app, they obviously want to move traffic off their site or another platform and to the app that they have spent so much time and money developing. One way in which they can do this is with app-exclusive content.
For example, if you play poker online and decided to use the app software for an igaming platform like GGPoker (ggpoker.com) you could discover games and deals that you might not get if you were directly on the website via a browser. Small extras like this encourage traffic where the company wants to see traffic numbers increase the most.
Simplicity
A great reason to build an app is often for its simplicity of it. It should be easy to download but even easier to use. Many people will delete an app if they think that it is too difficult to use. Any company creating an app needs to ensure that it is simple to use from the very moment that someone opens it for the first time.
The other crucial thing that companies need to be aware of when optimizing their apps is load time. Some apps need to be connected to the internet to function, so they might come with a slightly longer load time as they download and update. However, once actually on the app itself, there should not be that much of a load time between pages.
This is a self-contained service you are offering your customers. Whether it is just an extension of your content or a platform with in-app payments, you need to make sure that it runs as smoothly as possible. If a transaction or a page takes too long to go through, there is always the chance that people will begin to wonder what else is out there.
Optimizing and creating an app is not the easiest of tasks. Any company that wishes to do so will have to ensure that they are appealing to the needs of their target audience as they attempt to create an app of the highest quality. This should never be just an afterthought, but a full and proper project that is developed to be the best it can possibly be for the benefit of the customer.
This article has been published in accordance with Socialnomics’ disclosure policy.
