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Have you thought about building a mobile app? Do you want to create something special that will be used by millions of people every day? Or do you want to create a niche mobile app that can be used only in some special moments?
Either way, the market for mobile apps is growing and growing nowadays. People are always on their way to work, school, a party or a conference. While some of them have a tiny laptop to carry with them, most of them do not.
People are spending three hours a day on their phone. A consistent decrease was noticed when looking at the time people spend on their laptop and the answer is incredible. People spend 39 minutes on their laptop every day. What a decrease!
Well, if you are thinking about designing a mobile app, you should ask yourself some questions before. There are a lot of mobile apps nowadays, so you must find the unique characteristics of yours. What should you take into consideration before starting to work on a mobile app?
Table of Contents
Why Should People Use My App?
Well, this is one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself before building a mobile app. Being a market that thrives with lots and lots of apps, yours need to be unique and different from the others.
And to build a successful mobile app, it needs to be used daily or at least weekly. Ask yourself why should people use your app and the answers can become future directions of developing.
Why Do I Need An App?
Well, the question is not only about you but about the other people. What new things and features will this app brings? Why do I want to build an app? Is it because everyone has designed one? Or is it because I want to bring something new and refreshing on the market?
Either way, you should take into consideration that there are a lot of mobile apps. If you want to create something, try doing something new. Maybe you have a brilliant idea for a domain that is not so present in the world of mobile apps.
Innovate and create something unique and something that will be constantly used.
What Are the Business Objectives?
Such a thought-provoking question. You may have ideas on how to start and what you want to do, but have you set your objectives?
You create an app, but what are its objectives? Set yourself some milestones to reach and think about what you want people to use your app for.
Who Are the Target Users?
Let’s say you started developing your app. You have the objectives, the business plan and the first steps of your developing process. But, who will use your app? Who you build it for?
The answers to these questions will help you design the best user interface and also organize the app features. When you will answer this question, you will see that different target groups are attracted to different features.
So, you need to decide which is your target group and plan for developing your app accordingly.
What Is Your Budget for Design and Development?
We need to also talk about money. Whether if you are developing it by yourself or you ask for help, you need to think about the budget. You need to make a development plan and highlight the key features the app needs to have.
You need to analyze the time you need to invest in building the core of the app. And you also should think about the time used for designing a user interface experience that is appealing and attractive. So, how much money are you willing to invest in this app?
How Does Success Look After Each Milestone?
Well, this might be a bit too philosophical question for some. But, in order to achieve your goal, you need to make a plan. Let’s put it this way: you should set small milestones to achieve in your way to success.
These small milestones represent the road to your final goal. But, smaller steps are required, so you should think about how you want your app to look after each milestone. To attain success, you need perseverance and small steps.
How Will People Find My App After It Is Released?
Of course, you need to ask yourself questions about every domain: development, design, finance or marketing. Maybe the process of development is more intuitive, but what do you do with your app when it is ready to use? How will you promote it? How will the other people find out about it?
Taking these into consideration, you will also need to include in your business plan a marketing section. Thinking about promotions and social media can also give you ideas about the app and its development, but also about PR and app branding.
Which Is the Monetisation Strategy?
You may want to offer your app for free and there is nothing wrong with that. But, how are you going to make money out of it? You will invest money, you will invest time and resources. So, it will be great if you would make money out of it.
But, the trick is that you do not have to make users the ones who need to pay. Depending on the goal of your app, you can think about ways of monetizing it. One would be to publish ads.
Even though ads are annoying for most of the people, they can promote great apps or opportunities. So, the ones that want to promote their products will pay for ads. And maybe you can do the same to promote your app.
Who Are Your Competitors?
When striving to create something new on the market, you also need to check the market. Maybe there are similar services or apps. Or maybe someone has already designed your idea. All this research will help you build better your plans and ideas.
And if you have any competitors, start looking into them. Test their products and see what things you like and which not. Of course, you cannot copy their app. But, this process can help you decide which features are more important than others and which to include or not.
What Can Go Wrong?
Usually, when you ask yourself this question, an avalanche of bad things happen. But, consider this exercise to be the key for your app. It is important to assess the risks and to be aware of all the bad things that can happen. Well, you might say that this is easy.
Everyone thinks about what can go wrong but few people think about solutions to their problems. Well, a trick will be to make a “Kill the Project” session. All you have to do is to think about how can all go wrong.
The great part of this exercise is finding solutions for every problem you have identified. Like this, whenever something does not go according to plans, you also have a solution prepared.
What Happens After the App Launch?
Well, this is maybe one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself. You might have a plan for all the pre-launch period, but what will you do after that? Is this the final and only version of your app? Will you make more than one release?
Will you add new features and try new technologies? Well, this is up to you. It is easy to plan all the details of the process but you also need a plan for the after-launch period. Maybe a lot of your plans depend on the success of the app, but having some guidelines will surely help.
So, What Should You Think About When Designing a New Mobile App?
If you made your choice and you will start working on your mobile app, consider asking yourself some questions right at the beginning of the project.
First of all, you need to know why should people use your app. What does it bring new on the market? Why and when should people use it? Asking yourself these questions will help you build the greatest app and design.
Second of all, you need to think about more details than you have imagined. Think about marketing and how can people find your app. Think about monetizing your work and finding options for making money with the help of ad promotions. Think about the user experience you want to offer. There are a lot of details to take into consideration when beginning such a big project, but nothing is impossible.
Set yourself some goals and then break them into small milestones. For all the moments when you think about what can go wrong, think about also about solutions to potential problems. Make a plan and keep following it.
Success comes with perseverance, commitment, and dedication. It is easy to come up with ideas, but it is harder to put them into practice. Always study the market and your direct and indirect competitors because innovation is the key.
