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Five Great App Development Tips and Five Not So Great App Developer Blunders

Thursday, April 24, 2014

We’ve all been there. We rock along with our heads down pounding out a great idea, working on a specific job, and dealing with a number of issues all at the same time. And sometimes we don’t always sit back and consider the little (and not so little) details.

In app development and for app publishers, it’s easy to get caught up in the big picture and not take care of the basic things that can have a big impact on the success or failure of an app.

We were reminded of this as we read a couple of articles Cassidy Smith had recently written on the Startapp website. These articles, 5 Ways to Improve Your Latest App and the article User Retention: 5 Mistakes to Avoid, show that its not the earth shattering stuff that can make or break an app, it is the attention to the details affecting the end user that can truly make the difference.

Here is a brief outline of the 5 good tips and 5 developer blunders she pointed out in the articles. Of course, these are just highlights with our brief take, you need to read the full articles for yourself and get her detailed advice.

The Good

Read Reviews: If it’s good or bad, listen and improve and make your app better.

Continuous Improvement: Your app is finally perfect, er nope, keep making it better and keep users engaged.

Test Repeatedly: You’ve read the reviews, you’ve made improvements, now test, test, test.

Gather User Data: Don’t be a loser, know your user!

Keep Listening: Keep at it, review, improve, test, gather data, and do it again and again.

The Bad

Load time: If it takes too long, say so long to your user.

Registration: Let them play before you sign them up.

Long Input Forms: What else is there to say, blah!

Over-Designing: Sleek, clean and simple is in, bulky and bloated – out!

No Over-Tapping: Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap – ugh where was I going again?