Building a mobile app for a business is not something that can be done on a whim.
A poorly designed app could end up frustrating your customer and become unsafe for them and/or for you. All of this could end up damaging your brand irreparably.
And you will have lost tons of money in the process through development, so you can’t afford to make too many errors.
Here are a few things you should consider before building your business’s app.
4 Factors To Look For Before Building Business’s Mobile App
1. Your Goal
The first thing you have to assess is what exactly you want to do with the app. Your app should, at the very least, add to the customer experience and allow them to perform whatever action they usually make through your other platforms more conveniently.
One thing you shouldn’t do is build an app that will pretty much be a miniature version of your website. You could easily build a more responsive site instead or have a web app. Building a mobile app would be a waste of time here and your clients may not see the advantage of it, so don’t make that mistake.
2. Target Audience
You also need to gather as much information as you can on your customers before you start building the app. This will allow you to build a better interface and maximize the user experience.
If you attract a lot of seniors, for instance, you may want to give them more options to customize the size and weight of the fonts. If you’re making an app for children, then you may want to make it more animated and colorful than your average app.
There are also marked differences between sites made primarily for men and those made primarily for women. So, do your research and see which style would be the best for your main customer base.
3. Budget and Minimally Viable Product
You also have to think about your budget and what would be considered to be a minimally viable product. These are the core features that you need for your app to have achieved its main purpose.
It’s better to start with something small that you can get onto the market fast and start adding features afterward. Not only will it keep costs low, but new features make an app more interesting, and your decisions could be informed by the feedback you get from users, allowing you to constantly refine the user experience.
4. The API Approach
One thing many people don’t think about that should be central is the approach you’re going to take with the API’s design and how you plan to monetize it. You could take an API-first approach, a code-first approach, or a design-first approach.
These approaches have pros and cons, but it is generally better to use the API-first approach. This would allow you to create an API that you can use with a wide variety of applications and integrate easily with your website’s functionalities while also ensuring that you have a solid plan for generating revenue from your API. Some API-based billing systems include stripe-metered billing, usage-based billing, software usage tracking, and offering premium features for a fee. If you want to learn more about this API First design, Kong HQ has a useful article that you can check out.
All of these things will have to be covered before you even think about starting your mobile app project. This will allow you to build an app that will add value to your business and hopefully make things easier both for you and your clients.
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