With users spending more and more of their time on mobile devices, it’s critical to get your mobile app just right. You’ve already designed and prototyped your app, now you’re in the process of coding it. You have your basic functionality in place, and your agile team of developers and designers are cranking out new MVPs every few weeks. Now you’re anxious to get your app into your users’ hands.
Hold on, though. Development is only one step in the process of producing a functional, successful app. If you’ve finished developing your mobile app and aren’t sure where to turn next, here are three steps you can take to bring it to the next level.
1. Get Analytics Set Up
Mobile analytics can help turn business questions into actionable projects based on real user data. That said, user behavior on apps is so different from the traditional web experience that it requires a very different way to approach analytics. To learn about your users and how they’re interacting with your app, you’re likely going to want to implement some form of event tracking.
Some analytics tools (like Flurry and Mixpanel) are specifically geared toward developers: These might emphasize features like reporting crashes and exceptions, real-time reporting, A/B tests, proactive alerts, Integrated Developer Environments, and API integration with bug tracking and task management tools.
Other tools (like Amplitude and Localytics) really emphasize the value for the marketing team. These tools place a greater emphasis on features like installation tracking, cohort analysis, measuring CLM, marketing automation, and mobile ad attribution. Here are a few of the most popular mobile analytics platforms on the market, as well as what sets them apart.
Tip: Remember: Data is only valuable if you can capture and measure it. Whatever analytics platform you go with, you’ll want qualified data engineers to implement your tracking and interpret the data once it rolls in.
2. Test Your App on Real Users
Most of us wouldn’t get in a car that’s never been road-tested before, but developers release apps all the time that haven’t been properly user-tested. The result? Avoidable bugs, lost users, unfavorable reviews, and more. Before you release your app into the wild, you might want to consider letting real-live users test it out.
There are lots of potential upsides to user testing: It catches bugs and flaws when they’re cheapest to fix and teaches you about how your users actually use your product. This can lead to higher engagement, greater retention, and reduced development and customer support costs.
That said, user testing is more complicated than just sending out a bunch of beta versions. You may want to consider engaging a user-testing expert to help design and conduct the right kind of user tests for your app.
Tip: User testing isn’t only helpful when you’re designing a new product. Many companies rely on regular user testing in order to better understand the behaviors and needs of their users, as well as to gut-check their assumptions. This kind of continual testing doesn’t just improve the current version of your app, it can help you identify unrealized user needs and potential use cases, making it invaluable from a product development standpoint.
3. Bring Your App to More Platforms
It can be a smart decision from a business and development perspective to focus on a single platform at first. Eventually, though, you’re probably going to want to make your app available to as many users as possible. What’s the best way to do that, though?
Getting the same app onto different platforms is a tricky balancing act between cost, complexity, and performance. Developing multiple native apps will ensure that your app runs as smoothly as possible while taking advantage of all the hardware and OS features available on different platforms. The downside? It’s very expensive both in terms of time and development costs.
Fortunately, there are a number of other options to get your app on more platforms while keeping your codebase manageable and your apps running smoothly. Cross-platform app development frameworks like Xamarin and Phonegap allow you to build your app in one language, with one source of code, that can be compiled into native code across multiple platforms as needed. While a cross-platform app will not perform as well as a native app, the advantage of a unified codebase across multiple platforms is worth it for many projects.
It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a new class of apps using next-gen components-oriented JavaScript frameworks (like React Native). While these apps are built in JavaScript, they render native views (no webview required). They can also achieve near-native performance with the same cross-platform benefits as traditional cross-platform and hybrid apps. Near-native performance is possible thanks to the components oriented nature of these new frameworks and performance optimizations like the virtual DOM.
Tip: While the core functionality of your app may be the same across platforms, don’t forget to make sure your app conforms to the design standards and conventions of each platform. Some design patterns that feel intuitive to an iOS user may seem awkward on Android, and vice versa. Also be sure you’re taking advantage of each platform’s specific capabilities. This is where a skilled UX designer or platform-specific mobile developer might come in handy.