An App is more than just a piece of software. It’s an experience that goes well beyond the features it offers. After all, you can have the best software in the world, but it doesn’t matter if no one knows about it or if it isn’t easy to access or use. While there are plenty of things you should keep in mind before creating your app, you must focus on what makes an app competitive and how to create the best on-the-go experience for your users.
1. Content
Every app needs some content to succeed. It’s one of the main components that helps your app stand out. Content can be anything from blogs, videos, podcasts, articles, images, or more. Your content strategy will determine what is going to be the most important content your app has. It will also determine how your users will interact with your content.
2. Good User Experience (UX)
A competitive mobile app is designed to be intuitive. To keep the users interested in your app, you must keep improving the user experience. New features, improvements in usability, and new functionalities can keep users coming back to your app. The best way to do this is to create a user interface that allows users to explore the app’s features easily. As a developer, you can enroll in a coding bootcamp to learn how to make a compatible and user-friendly app. If you can make your app easy to use, more people will use it, which will naturally lead to more downloads.
3. Visual Design and Performance
There’s no denying that visuals are important when it comes to apps. And it’s practically impossible to make a great app without good visuals. Visuals and some design fundamentals can greatly impact your app; keeping your design as minimalistic as possible is best. From the way your app’s navigation is designed to its overall visuals, simplicity is key. This is especially true when you’re developing an app for users who aren’t technology experts.
Apps must be fast and reliable. No one likes to spend time on an app that takes more than 5 to 10 seconds to load. There are several reasons your app’s speed might be an issue, including the complexity of the app’s features and the way they’re implemented. Hence heavy and complex apps usually take more time to load than simple apps. For example, apps like Facebook take more time. However, they have other versions, such as FaceBook Lite or Instagram Lite, which are the simpler version of these apps but with high performance.
4. In-App Purchasing
Of course, once people access your app, you’ll want to try to get them to continue using it. That might mean offering an in-app purchase, offering coupons, or just getting them to download your app again. To make purchases easy, you can introduce various methods, for example, Apple Pay, PayPal, and Credit Card transactions.
5. Analytics
These days, no app is truly successful if it doesn’t have some measurable success. That’s why you need to include analytics in your competitive app. It will allow you to track how users use your app, what pages they visit, and how long they spend in that particular part of your app. From there, you can adjust your app’s design, navigation, and content according to the users’ requirements.
6. Functionality
A competitive mobile app should have added functionality over typical apps of yesteryear. You can do this by integrating third-party apps or by creating your features. You can also increase your application’s reach by integrating other social media apps. While your app will compete with other apps in the marketplace, the functionality should also help differentiate your app from competitors.
7. Helpful notifications and alerts
Good apps don’t just provide convenient functionality, but they also let users know when something is happening in the real world, like a flight delay or a reservation being made. This valuable information can keep your users informed and make them feel like they have a say in the outcome.
8. Data Synchronization
Apps exist in the real world. Hence, they need data from the real world. If your app is designed to sync data between third-party apps, users can easily import, export, and download data between all of their apps. Data synchronization can also create a centralized hub where users can store all their data.
9. Key Differentiator
The final key feature to building a competitive mobile app is to have a key differentiator. The key differentiator for your app should be a benefit that sets you apart from your competitors. For example, let’s say you’re starting a mobile grocery app. You can look at other grocery delivery apps and see what makes them unique. Once you find one or two features that set your product apart from your competitors, you can make it the key differentiator of your app.
Wrapping Up
The best mobile apps are also among the most competitive. That’s because the best apps focus on the user experience. After all, a great app is more than just a bunch of features thrown together. Instead, it’s an experience that goes well beyond the functionality it offers. That means incorporating design fundamentals like minimalism, clarity, and consistency. That way, your app will be easy to understand and use by anyone who downloads it.
