My First Mobile App – Planning for a Great First Impression

Mobile apps have become essential for any business, but there are more ways to design them incorrectly than the way you want them to work. While people have come to rely on apps for nearly everything, they are quick to determine when an app simply isn’t living up to what they either expect or need. With so much competition out there, your app needs to have obvious benefits to your customers and be easy to use.

Apps take a considerable amount of time to develop, so you want to make the most out of your investment the first time. Many apps actually fail before they even begin because they were not properly planned.

This article will help you through the most important considerations to improve the likelihood of success with your app.

First Impressions – 7 Seconds to Impress

Studies show that most people spend less than 10 seconds (the official number is 7 seconds) before deciding whether or not they will use an app. That seems like an impossibly short period of time. However, consider that is probably about as long as it takes you to figure out if something is user-friendly enough for you to dedicate time to learning how to use an app.

When you make your first app, you should remember that you only have 7 seconds to convince your customers that it will make it easier for them. The first screen needs to give customers quick access to everything they may want to access. This should be part of the reasoning behind many of the decisions you make about the app during each stage of development.

To help you, you should begin the project by considering the following.

• Determine your target audience and keep in mind what they will want from using the app.
• Research the competition to see what they have to offer. You won’t want your app to be identical to your competitions' apps, but you do want to see what users may be accustomed to with a similar app. Take the time to read the ratings on the app, too, since that will provide insight into what your competition would like to have done differently.
• Consider what would make your app stand out over that of the competition. This could be something you already offer that your competitors don’t and that is easily made accessible from the app, or you could add new features.
• Think about what users want from the app so that you can meet their needs.

You will need to revisit these considerations several times during the development process so that the focus remains on the user and a great first impression.

Know Your Audience

You need to understand your target audience before you release the app. A lot of this will come from feedback you already get about your products and services. Since the app is going to make these available from a mobile device, you want to know what kind of user experience your customers expect. This can be done through surveys, or by going over the current feedback on your website.

The app is really an extension of your existing business. If your current customers are primarily from a single generation or mindset, you want the app to reflect that so that your customers can find what they need quickly. For example, there is a large difference between catering to customers in the financial sector who probably use technology often and catering to older retirees who likely use tech sparingly.

An important part of knowing your audience is knowing what they expect from an app. If all they want is to be able to get a quick overview of their account or information, you don’t want to have a convoluted app that overwhelms them with a bunch of other information.

Research and Surveys over Assumptions and Suppositions

It is easy to develop an app based on what you want; it is something else entirely to develop an app for your customers. Getting lost in assumptions about what your users want based on a limited point of view or data set is what causes so many apps to fail.

While it is important to know what your competitors offer, you don’t want to offer exactly the same thing. This is another assumption that will likely lead to a failed app. If you just do the same thing, there isn’t any real value to the app. You are also already behind your competitors, which sends a signal that your app will always lag behind the competition.

Take the time to conduct surveys and research what people like about similar apps. This can help you to avoid developing an app based on incorrect assumptions and provide what people actually want in the app. You will also get ideas from users about functionality that may not currently exist. This will make you stand out from your competition and give you a distinct advantage.

Getting accustomed to using feedback from the beginning will help you later as well. When you release updates and patches, you and the development team will already be accustomed to taking that feedback and translating it into app improvements.  

Where to Go from Here

Understanding your target audience is one of the most important things you can do before you even start designing your app. Once development is in progress, you need to continue to consider the audience’s perspective and needs instead of making assumptions. That is actually more difficult because we tend to think that we are already on that path.

It’s similar to checking a map when you are on a long road trip. You don’t look at the map just once. You check it often every day to make sure you are heading in the right direction. Even if you have a GPS that tells you when to turn and where, most of us still look to see what is coming up over the next few hours. You need to have a similar mindset when developing an app that will make a great first impression, then will continue to impress after those first 7 seconds.