It is said that most apps are destined to fail. In a recent study it was proved that lest than 0.01 percent of apps will be successful financially through to 2018. It is even with this that people are determined to make it in the world of apps. People are eager to come up with that next idea that have people talking about how it takes up too much of their time and go to sleep with or wake up to.
In order to help make your app stand out from the masses there are some simple steps to follow.
Understand your place
It’s important to understand where your app will fit in in the competitive landscape of the app world before you even think of your own app. Think about what it will do differently to competing apps and take note of what you like about them and what you don’t.
Take the time to chat to other developers in your space to discover their challenges and inspiration. It takes understanding who your competitors really are in order to distinguish your own brilliant idea.
Using one hand or two
When designing, it’s imperative to know the concept of use for your product. The app could be used on-the-go or leisurely and it is important to know which direction yours is heading. Is it more likely to be used while lining up at the service station or when you’re lazing around house? This will help you to determine whether the app should be one-handed or two-handed.
Leisure apps such as reading, social networking or games include complex interactions, various buttons and can afford to be two-handed. Messaging or weather apps for example, are on-the-go apps that need to be fast and simple and are one-handed.
With the increasing size of phones it can be advised to stick to tab bar navigation like Instagram. On the go apps should consider smartwatch as their second platform while leisure apps should consider the tablet as their second platform. This is important in order to achieve cross-platform consistency later on so it pays to keep this in the back of your mind.
http://www.cygnismedia.com/blog/how-to-design-mobile-app/
Design Carefully
Carry around a sketch book to ensure you jot down your ideas and look for inspiration wherever you go. As a rule of thumb, for every six designs you make there will be one that you use. Try to keep things simple at first and design slowly. Begin by making greyscale wireframes then add bits of colour and add fonts.
Perform the “Intuition Test”
The most successful apps are the ones that are intuitive. Give your app to people to test drive and watch them try to apply their existing knowledge of skills to your game and feed on what you are trying to get them to do. Take notes as they play and revise in accordance with your findings. Walk yourself through the various scenarios, what they do if one thing happens, or what they do when they do something else. Continue this repeatedly in order to make appropriate enhancements to your app.
Leave the app, then return
Start by giving your app to friends, family and friends of friends – as many as you can. Send out surveys and track with analytics software. Then, step away from the app and leave it for a couple of weeks. When you come back to it check out the data such as views, clicks and time etc.
It is now when you revise the designs based on this data. After these steps you may find that by now you have an app that is what you were aiming for – intuitive and addictive!
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