Best Practices for Successful Mobile Application Development

• February 02 2024

Mobile app development, a booming industry reaching $935 billion this year, is creating powerful tools for reaching customers. But building apps for such a diverse range of devices, from phones to smartwatches, can be tricky.

In 2022, 255 billion new apps were downloaded. In 2023, there were 8.93 million apps worldwide, with 3.553 million on Google Play and 1.642 million on the Apple App Store. In 2024, an average of 1,656 new apps were released on Google Play per day.

The challenge lies in utilizing all the cool features of modern smartphones, like GPS and cameras, while ensuring smooth performance on less powerful hardware compared to web applications. In this competitive market, top developers must master this balancing act to create successful apps.

Admiral.media reports that 99.5% of consumer apps do not succeed, and CIO notes that approximately 80% of mobile apps are left unused after their initial usage.

According to information from LinkedIn, only 1 in every 100 consumer apps achieves success, while 14 out of every 100 business apps find success. Additional statistics on mobile app failure include 25% of users abandoning an app after their first interaction, and 95% of nearly 6,500 leading mobile apps failing in at least one of the seven OWASP MASVS categories. Furthermore, roughly 80% to 90% of mobile applications in app stores are utilized only once, and about 30% of app users abandon the mobile application following a negative customer service experience.

Why Mobile Apps Fail?

1. Lack of Market and User Research

   1. Building an app no one needs:Failing to understand user needs and market trends leads to irrelevant or uncompetitive apps.
   2. Targeting the wrong audience: Misidentifying the ideal user demographic results in features and design that don't resonate.
   3. Ignoring existing competition: Underestimating competitors or failing to differentiate can lead to lost users and market share.

2. Poor User Experience (UX)

   1. Unintuitive interface: Complex navigation, unclear workflows, and confusing layouts cause frustration and abandonment.
   2. Bugs and performance issues: Crashes, slow loading times, and glitches detract from the user experience and damage trust.
   3. Ignoring accessibility: Neglecting visual, auditory, and motor accessibility needs excludes a significant portion of potential users.

3. Monetization Failure

   1. Unsuitable monetization strategy: Relying on ineffective or frustrating tactics like intrusive ads or hidden fees alienates users.
   2. Overlooking in-app purchases: Implementing poorly balanced or unfair in-app purchases can backfire and discourage spending.
   3. Lack of revenue diversification: Relying solely on one monetization stream leaves the app vulnerable to market changes and user preferences.

4. Technical Issues

   1. Compatibility problems: Failing to cater to different device specifications and operating systems can limit user base and accessibility.
   2. Security vulnerabilities: Data breaches, privacy concerns, and lack of security measures erode user trust and damage reputation.
   3. Poor backend infrastructure: Inadequate server capacity, scalability issues, and unreliable performance can negatively impact user experience.

5. Marketing and Promotion Deficiencies

   1. Lack of awareness: Failing to reach the target audience through appropriate marketing channels leaves the app undiscovered.
   2. Ineffective messaging: Unclear or unappealing messaging fails to communicate the app's value proposition and attract users.
   3. Neglecting user engagement: Failing to engage users post-installation, address feedback, and build a community can lead to churn and declining usage.

6. Inadequate Development and Management

   1. Underestimating development costs and timelines: Running out of resources or missing deadlines can derail the project and compromise quality.
   2. Poor team communication and collaboration: Lack of coordination and communication between developers, designers, and stakeholders can lead to errors and inefficiency.
   3. Inability to adapt: Failing to respond to changing user needs, market trends, and technological advancements can render the app obsolete.

Preventing Mobile App Failure: Do’s and Dont’s

By conducting thorough market and user research, prioritizing UX, implementing a sustainable monetization strategy, addressing technical issues, and investing in effective marketing and development, you can significantly increase your app's chances of success. Remember, it's an iterative process, and constantly learning from user feedback and adapting to market changes is crucial for long-term success.

DO’s

1. Define Your Objectives:

   Clearly articulate the aims and objectives for your custom application. Specify the business challenges you aim to address, the tasks or processes the application should streamline or automate, and the benefits it should deliver to your organization.

2. Identify Requirements:

   Enumerate the features and functionalities required in the application. Gather input from diverse stakeholders, including employees, customers, and suppliers, to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the requirements.

3. Establish A Budget:

   Determine the investment you are willing to allocate to the development of your custom application, covering development, testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance costs.

4. Create Documentation:

   Highlight the indispensable nature of documentation. Emphasize its role as a dependable communication model, knowledge transfer base, project management tool, and quality control. Stress the need for documentation for audits, compliance, future development, and dispute resolution in application development.

5. Monitor and Maintain the Application:

   Consistently oversee the application's performance, security, and user feedback. Keep the application up-to-date with the latest security patches and feature enhancements, providing continual support to users.

6. Design the User Experience (UX):

   Concentrate on crafting a user-friendly application with an intuitive interface and user-friendly features. Ensure that both employees and customers can effortlessly navigate and utilize the application.

7. Develop and Test the Application:

   Follow best practices in developing the application and subject it to rigorous testing to identify and rectify bugs, performance issues, or security vulnerabilities. Engage stakeholders in the testing process to collect feedback and guarantee that the application aligns with their requirements. Prioritize efficient code and proper resource management to guarantee smooth application operation.

8. Feedback:

   Highlight the critical role of feedback in comprehending user experience, facilitating Agile development, ensuring quality assurance, determining market placement, guiding feature prioritization, supporting risk mitigation, and fostering learning and growth.

Dont’s

1. Make Goals Unclear

   Avoid dedicating time to developing features or components that are readily available in existing libraries or frameworks. Instead, utilize established tools to save time and effort.

2. Expend Without Restraint

   Refrain from initiating development without a thorough understanding of the client's needs and expectations. Skipping this crucial step may result in a product that falls short of meeting its requirements, leading to the squandering of time and resources.

3. Take Casual Notes

   Failure to prioritize proper documentation can pose challenges for others tasked with maintaining or updating the application in the future. Ensure comprehensive documentation of your code, processes, and API usage to maintain the application's understandability and manageability.

4. Disregard Security Measures

   Neglecting security best practices can expose your application and its users to potential threats. Regularly conduct security audits, safeguard user data, and adhere to established security guidelines.

5. Rely on Instinct

   Concentrating solely on functionality without considering the user experience can result in a challenging-to-use application. Guarantee that your application is intuitive, easy to navigate, and visually appealing.

6. Overlook Trials and Optimization

   Fail to pay attention to trials and optimization in the development process. Highlight the significance of continuous testing, as it not only reduces project costs by enabling immediate bug fixes but also facilitates continuous integration and deployment. This approach improves user experience, boosts developers' confidence, ensures software compliance with relevant regulations, and maintains security standards.

By following these practices, you can increase the likelihood of developing an app that not only meets but exceeds the defined requirements, leading to a successful and satisfying outcome for both developers and users.

Related: Achieving High-Quality Software Development through Quality Assurance: A Comprehensive Guide

How to make sure that app development happens according to the requirement?

Here are essential steps to ensure app development aligns with requirements:

1. Define Clear and Comprehensive Requirements

   1. Gather input from stakeholders: Involve all relevant parties (business owners, end users, designers, developers) to ensure a shared understanding of goals and needs.
   2. Create detailed documentation: Use a requirements document or user stories to outline features, functionalities, user flows, design expectations, performance benchmarks, and constraints.
   3. Prioritize requirements: Establish a clear hierarchy of importance to guide development efforts and manage scope.

2. Choose a Development Methodology that Facilitates Collaboration and Testing

   1. Consider Agile methodologies: These approaches emphasize iterative development, frequent feedback, and continuous improvement, allowing for adjustments as needed.
   2. Incorporate testing throughout the process: Implement unit testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing, and performance testing to catch issues early and ensure quality.

3. Establish Effective Communication and Collaboration

   1. Maintain open communication channels: Foster regular discussions between developers, designers, and stakeholders to address questions, clarify requirements, and track progress.
   2. Use project management tools: Employ tools for task management, communication, issue tracking, and documentation to keep everyone aligned and informed.
   3. Hold regular meetings: Schedule meetings for demos, feedback sessions, and status updates to ensure transparency and collaboration.

4. Utilize Tools for Requirements Management and Traceability

   1. Employ requirements management tools: These tools help organize, track, and prioritize requirements, ensuring they are addressed during development.
   2. Establish traceability: Link requirements to specific code components and test cases to verify implementation and facilitate maintenance.

5. Conduct Thorough Testing and Quality Assurance

   1. Develop a comprehensive testing plan: Cover functional testing, usability testing, performance testing, security testing, and compatibility testing.
   2. Involve users in testing: Gather feedback from potential users to identify usability issues and ensure the app meets their needs.
   3. Fix defects promptly: Address identified issues to maintain quality and prevent further problems.

6. Embrace Change Management

   1. Expect requirements to evolve: Acknowledge that requirements may change due to user feedback, market trends, or technological advancements.
   2. Implement a change management process: Establish a process for evaluating, approving, and implementing changes without disrupting development or compromising quality.
   3. Document changes: Keep requirements documentation up-to-date to reflect changes and maintain clarity for all stakeholders.

7. Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

   1. Involve actual users in testing: Ensure the app meets their expectations and delivers a positive user experience.
   2. Gather feedback and iterate: Use UAT results to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments before final release.

How to choose a platform and tech stack

Before we choose the right technology for mobile app development, we need to establish the platform. Should you build for iOS or Android or maybe both?

1. What is your target audience?

   It is important because Android wins the popular vote in the UK and Germany as well as most European countries, whereas the market of the US and Japan prefers iPhones. There is also a correlation between the OS and user purchasing behavior. It turns out that iPhone users on average spend more money on their applications as they are ready to purchase them as well as to buy extra features. Unlike iOS users, Android users usually prefer to not pay fees and mostly choose free applications. However, if you want to reach both markets, you should build a cross-platform solution.

2. What features do you need?

   You might think that the easiest way is to build mobile applications that run on both iOS and Android. But the number of features that can be implemented cross-platform are limited. Consider your functional features and choose a platform that allows you to add them to your application. It is also important to remember that native applications usually run smoother and show better performance.

3. Which devices would you like to support?

   Keep in mind that Android supports nearly 100 devices whereas iOS with its phones and tablets - only 9. Your mobile app development strategy should consider this factor when choosing the platform to build. Another viable factor is the market share: iOS holds 26% whereas Android - 72%.

4. Level of moderation

   The Apple store entry barrier is much stricter than Google Play. iOS apps have a list of guidelines they need to comply with in order to be accepted into the Apple store. The quality and performance of the application needs to be quite high, otherwise it will be rejected. On the other hand, Android guidelines are just suggestions, and a lot of Android apps fail to perform at a good level. Depending on the platform of your choice, now you can start thinking about the right tech stack for your mobile app development.

How to choose the right tech partner for mobile app development

Choosing the right mobile app development company is crucial for the success of your app. Here are some key factors to consider:

1. Qualifications and Experience

   1. Look for IT companies with experience in developing apps for your target platform (iOS, Android, etc.).
   2. Check their portfolio and success stories. Do they have experience with projects similar to yours?
   3. Ask about their team's qualifications and expertise. Do they have developers with the necessary skills for your project?

2. References and Reviews

   1. Ask the company for references from previous clients.
   2. Check online reviews and ratings on platforms like Clutch, GoodFirms, or Better Business Bureau.
   3. Pay attention to what previous clients say about the company's communication, quality of work, and adherence to deadlines.

3. Cost and Transparency

   1. Get quotes from several companies and compare them carefully. Be wary of companies with significantly lower or higher than average prices.
   2. Ensure the company is transparent about their pricing structure and billing practices. Ask about potential hidden fees or charges.

4. Communication and Client Focus

   1. Choose a company that is responsive and easy to communicate with.
   2. Look for a company that takes the time to understand your needs and is committed to collaborating with you throughout the development process.
   3. Ask about their communication protocols and preferred methods of staying in touch.

5. Technology and Methodology

   1. Understand the development methodologies the company uses (e.g., Agile, Waterfall) and ensure it aligns with your preferences.
   2. Ask about the technologies they use and whether they have experience with the specific tech stack you need for your app.

6. Scalability and Security

   1. Choose a company that can handle the potential growth of your app in the future.
   2. Make sure the company prioritizes security and has measures in place to protect your data and intellectual property.

1. Additional Tips

   1. Start with a clear vision: Know what you want your app to achieve and who your target audience is before reaching out to developers.
   2. Prepare an RFP (Request for Proposal): This document outlines your project requirements and helps companies provide accurate quotes.
   3. Don't choose solely based on price: The cheapest option might not be the best in the long run.
   4. Trust your gut: Consider the overall feeling you get from the company representatives and your initial interactions.
   

Choosing the right mobile app development company takes time and effort. By carefully considering these factors, you can increase your chances of finding a partner who will help you develop a successful and impactful app.

Should You Commence the App Development Process?

While the various stages of mobile application development may seem like a challenging ascent, it is undoubtedly an endeavor worth considering for your business. Whether the purpose is internal use or consumer-focused, the expertise of KPi-Tech’s team is ready to assist. With extensive experience in developing solutions that address corporate challenges and provide cutting-edge experiences for end-users, KPi-Tech is well-equipped to support your mobile initiative. If you are contemplating the next steps in mobile app development, feel free to get in touch. Our team is eager to respond promptly and address any inquiries you may have.