Mobile App Growth

Coronavirus is undoubtedly changing our lives in many ways. One of its biggest side effects is its large-scale disruption to business and consumer behavior. However, if you are a company that delivers a service using the web, a digital solution, or an application, now may be the time for you to invest in and improve your application.

Recently, there has been rapid growth in many digital spaces, from applications, to social networks, to streaming video and telemedicine. For instance, Instacart, Walmart and Shipt have seen surges of 218%, 160% and 124% respectively for their mobile applications. Work-from-home applications like Zoom are also seeing massive demand and growth. Similarly, Microsoft Teams saw a 500 percent increase in meetings, calls and conference usage in China, since the end of January. There is also a growing need for 5G technology, which will potentially impact telehealth as well as teleconferencing.

5 Considerations for Mobile Apps

We previously wrote about the top 25 considerations for a mobile application. While all of these tips are still applicable, here are some highlights that are especially important to focus on during this challenging time.

TIP #1: SIMPLIFY AND STAY FOCUSED

Our number one “Do This” tip. Provide only the navigation, controls and resources the user must have to complete their task. Cutting out all other nonessentials allows users to focus, and quick, accurate task completion is the foundation of user delight.

TIP #2: OPTIMIZE CORE EXPERIENCES

You can’t make everything perfect, especially in early releases, so it is essential to get the key parts of the app to work. Typically, 80% of users spend 80% of their time in a few places, doing a few things. Spend the most time developing the areas where users spend most of their time.

TIP #3: THINK ABOUT INTERACTIONS

Effective interactions help to guide users and set context. An efficient mobile interaction system should be simple and clear to use, so that it can operate without problems.

TIP #4: MAKE NAVIGATION INTUITIVE

With less screen real estate than a desktop application, mobile app users need to easily access key information and controls. Present what users need, and tuck other items in global navigations that are accessible on demand.

TIP #5: RESPONSIVE OR ADAPTIVE

Do as much as possible with modular responsive panels. Behavior should be implemented via style-sheet properties before adding adaptive capabilities, as adaptive gets complicated very quickly.

For all 25 tips, see our post here.

Get the Help You Need

A simple mobile interaction system can be challenging to create. It requires hard work, concentration and lots of practice before receiving sufficient results. If you need help building a mobile application or moving to mobile, especially if your team is resource constrained during coronavirus, contact us: