5 Ways To Ensure Your Mobile App Fails

In a market inundated with options, your app has to stand out in order to succeed! Flip that 180°c, we have highlighted 5 things that can inhibit an apps success. 

In 2021, the number of mobile app downloads worldwide was 230 billion. With over 2.22 million apps available on Apple App Store and 3.48 million on Google Play Store. These statistics notably highlight the competitive nature of the market and how many apps are readily available to users. 

Consumers have been hastening towards mobile apps seeking functionality and a positive user experience (UX). The average UK user remarkably spends 4.2 hours per day using apps on their smartphones. That is a 30% increase from the previous 2 years. This clearly shows the progression and continued popularity of mobile apps over the last few years. 

In a market inundated with options, your app has to stand out in order to succeed! Flip that 180°c, we have highlighted 5 things that can inhibit an apps success. 

1. Ignoring User Experience

Successful mobile apps have one thing in common: they benefit the users. A positive user experience (UX) is vital to fulfil user needs and is significantly important in mobile apps. 

UX plays a crucial role in the success or failure of any mobile app. If your app doesn’t appease a users demands, needs or expectations, they will likely delete the app and choose to download a competitors alternative. 

Even if the core features of the app present value to a customer, they will not continue to use your app if the experience is poor. Ill-defined functionality, prolonged loading times and tricky navigation all equate to a negative experience. 

What you don’t want to do is spend a substantial amount of time, money and resources convincing people to use your app, only for them to uninstall it shortly afterwards. Neglecting to keep the user at the forefront of your mind and disregarding UX is a quick route to ensuring a mobile app will fail.

2. Lack Of Planning

A sure fire way to waste time and money is going in gung ho without a plan. It’s like going food shopping whilst hungry and without a shopping list. Creating a mobile app is essentially the same principle (just a lot more money is at stake). 

It is paramount to strategically plan what you expect your app to accomplish. As well as how it will fit into to your target market. This will lessen or even eliminate the risk of developing an app which doesn’t quite take off or perform as well as you had initially hoped. A carefully devised plan will help you create budgets. It can help you decide on which functionalities are essential. In addition to helping you to decide which are unnecessary or can be potentially developed at a later stage. 

When all is said and done, if you don’t thoroughly plan your project you could end up throwing money at an app which doesn’t meet your expectations. Furthermore, you could end up with an app that doesn’t quite work properly and nothing left in the budget to right the wrongs. 

3. Not Taking Advice Onboard 

Anybody who says your app is no good, or it won’t work is not really someone you want to be working with. However, it is beneficial to challenge assumptions and ideas to ensure the best possible outcome. Most ideas can be taken and refined, suggestions and improvements can lead to an even better final product. 

A good example of this would be the tech giant Apple. Apple were on the brink of bankruptcy in 1997. But, by stepping out of their existing mindset and opting for  a different approach, they managed to pull a complete 180. In 2021 Apple was reported to be worth $3 trillion. There is no doubt that assumptions were challenged throughout the course of their evolution. 

Ultimately, no idea is intrinsically bad, especially in such a creative and far-reaching field such as technology and app creation. But, even the creme de la creme of ideas require refinement, advice and thorough testing. By failing to connect and not fully utilising the advice given to you from experts and users in your target audience, your project is less likely to live up to its full potential. 

4. Poor Research

Whatever your app attempts to do or the problem it aims to solve, research is important. From the very beginning, you need to analyse the market and get acquainted with existing competitors, before you start to make an app for your business. 

Long before development begins it’s essential to have a deep understanding of your product’s target audience. If your app is for internal business use then there will be less need for market research and a greater emphasis on internal demands. Not only is audience research necessary for developing an app that addresses a specific user need, but it also aids in the development of marketing campaigns that will attract users. A successful app launch strategy is firmly rooted in user research.

It is imperative to consideryour market. How many apps are already available in your market? Is the market congested? Are the current apps meeting user needs? Will your app meet user expectations? So on and so forth.

With over 2 million apps available, you’re bound to face some level of competition no matter how niche your app idea may be. Therefore, it is essential to research what apps are currently available within your niche and see what they offer to users. Or better still, what they don’t currently offer.

There are many other important elements to consider when researching your target users and overall market. Disregarding the importance of conducting this thorough research is a shortcut to ultimate failure for your app.

5. Inapt Testing 

Mobile app testing is essentially the process of running rigorous tests to ensure functionality and usability meet the requirements of the app before it is launched to users.

While it’s rare that an app will be launched without minor bugs, making sure you invest in QA before deployment can ensure there are no major issues. If an app isn’t tested suitably, its bound to be rife with bugs that impact the user experience and is prone to crash. A single crash is enough to stop users from ever using it again. In fact, some of the most common negative reviews on app stores are related to apps crashing. In today’s mobile app market, it doesn’t take long for users to pass judgment on the products they download. Users have incredibly high expectations for mobile app quality, functionality, and performance. 

Primarily, it is best to highlight and solve issues during the development phase and before the app is launched to users.

Closing Words 

The performance of an app depends on many factors that can range from competition to marketing budgets to sheer luck. But beyond these factors, poor research and poor process execution are common reasons why mobile apps fail when launched. Focusing efforts on market and audience research, following UI/UX best practices, and thorough quality assurance testing can be the difference between failure and success. 

The team have developed award-winning mobile applications on iOS and Android along side the likes of companies such as Lush, Honda and Marks & Spencer, and have produced educational-based iOS applications for multiple businesses. We also designed the user interface and developed the user experience for the iOS version of the award-winning NHSX application. We recognise that in this current digital age, mobile app technology is a constantly evolving. Therefore, we are there to advise on every step of the way. This is to ensure your project is on the path to success.

Do you have an idea that you would like to discuss? Then get in touch to see how we can help.