Elements of Mobile Development that Can Make or Break User Experience

Mobile Developement

Mobile development combines both the usual concerns of software development plus additional concerns coming from the confines of mobile phones. Failure to address either set of development concerns can result in a botched mobile app that provides users with a mediocre or even terrible user experience.

Here are some elements that need to be considered during the development process for mobile apps:

Cross-Platform Compatibility

Mobile apps need to be usable no matter the make or model of the phone that is being used to run them. Each make or model that is being excluded results in the diminishing of the mobile app’s potential user base. However, this is an element that needs to be balanced against the need for specialization. In some cases, the end product might be better if it is developed to take advantage of special features available on certain platforms, rather than making a poor attempt to be remain accessible to all platforms.

Ease of Use

A degree of standardization in the mobile development process is needed to ensure the app’s ease of use. Potential users pick up expectations about how to use apps through their usage of their mobile phones, something that should be kept in mind during the development process. Failure to conform to their expectations is going to cause confusion and needless frustration.

Reliable Performance

Similar to other software, finished mobile apps need to undergo extensive testing in order to find programming errors, unexpected flaws in their design, and to collect valuable testimonies from the actual people who make up their intended user bases. Software developers can then use this collected information to improve their creations. Successful mobile apps are apps that can be depended upon under all circumstances and across all mobile phones that might be used to access them. Little alienates users more than a mobile app that is crammed full of bugs and poor design choices.

Speed and Simplicity

No matter the advancements made in recent times, mobile phones remain miniscule compared to other computing devices used to run apps. Indeed, small size is a large part of the point of using mobile phones intead of other computing devices. However, small size also places a limitation on the number of things that can be displayed on the screen before issues begin to come up. Avoid verbiage, use a legible size and font, and get rid of clutter. Simplicity is a virtue when it comes to app development, particularly when it comes to developing for the mobile environment.

Usefulness and Usability

Above all, mobile apps must be useful in their intended purpose while remaining usable. Avoid giving the app more and more features because an app that tries to do everything, and appeal to everyone, is an app that ends up being inferior in all respects and appealing to no one. Similarly, streamline the app so that using it is intuitive, so that there is nothing getting in the way of the user.

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