The mobile app market is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. There are roughly 1.85 million apps available to consumers, allowing them to complete a range of tasks from paying bills to watching videos.
With the sheer volume of apps on the market comes a lot of competition; to stand out from the competition, it’s helpful for developers to follow a guide on how to identify your target audience’s pain points and figure out how to provide them with solutions.
- Be a problem solver
There are three scenarios in the provider-consumer interaction process: initial contact; booking or purchasing from you; getting involved in your business. To develop an effective app, you need to consider what your users’ experience has been throughout the process above and how they will benefit from your product.
For example, many transportation companies build apps so their customers can check times and ticket details, without the need of internet connectivity. Giving customers the opportunity to retrieve necessary information quickly so they can focus on other aspects of their day.
- Add value
According to Digital Authority Partners, value and problem solving go hand in hand. It can come in the form of saving customers time or making their needs more cost-effective. Having high customer engagement is the key to providing value.
For instance, it can be frustrating to wait for hours on the customer service helpline, so making it easy for users to contact a help desk can increase your app’s efficiency and overall experience. One way to do this is to build a chat feature in the app, allowing customers to have their questions answered in real-time.
Secondly, integrating features to ensure a user can seamlessly complete tasks is another way to receive positive feedback. If your app can allow them to make a purchase or pay an invoice in a few clicks, users will definitely continue using your services and will likely even refer you.
- Defining your goals
Developing an app is an exciting venture, however, moving forward without specific goals can result in a waste of resources.
Once you have done all the necessary research for your app, mobile app developers recommend that you map out all the different ways your app can reach those goals. Ask yourself what kind of problems your app will fix and which features should be integrated for maximum effectiveness.
While it might be tempting to include numerous features, prioritizing those that will specifically help your goals move forward is the key to staying within your budget and timeline. Keep in mind that customer satisfaction and high engagement should be any developer’s primary focus, and narrowing down your goals will help increase both.
- Wireframing
Wireframing isn’t necessarily technical, but it sets the stage for how you want your app and its features to look. There are many online tools available to help developers of all levels sketch their app and storyboard in a way that gives them a clear idea of the final product’s aesthetics and functionality.
Successful wireframing involves creating a roadmap to visualize the connections between the app’s features and navigation process.
To sketch an impactful wireframe that truly represents your brand, it’s important to define the backend of your app and continuously look for opportunities to incorporate your brand through different features and elements.
- Work on the backend of your app and start testing
Once your wireframe has been finalized, it’s time to start the backend planning and testing phases. It might be tempting to test when the final product has been built, but getting user feedback while building the backend of your app is critical. It gives you the opportunity to find out which elements are working well as well as identify any flaws which could negatively impact user experience.
Developers always test their apps with users outside of their development team; this is because outside users have a more objective view and can give constructive feedback on the app’s overall functionality. UX and UI are useful skills to implement at this stage to correct any flaws found in your app’s testing.
It’s important to test your app again in different scenarios right before launching because it gives you the opportunity to identify and fix any last-minute glitches which could impact your app’s performance.
