Building a Team of Remote Workers

Managing New Normals – Remote Workers

The year 2020 is going to go down in history. Firstly, there’s the worldwide pandemic that’s still raging on today. Secondly, on a more domestic front, 2020 was home to likely the most unorthodox election in the history of the United States. Therefore, it’s been a pretty hectic year all-in-all. However, it hasn’t been all bad. One result from this crazy and chaotic year was the rapid acceleration toward digital transformation and remote workers.

The wave of digital transformation has been forming for years. Over the last decade at least, more and more technology emerged in the business world. As these advancements came, they led the companies that operate ahead of the curve to already begin preparations for a digital age and the virtual customer. In 2020, however, this push into a digital era saw a massive acceleration – up to almost 6x the previous rate.

Virtual customers, however, aren’t the only result of the digital age. In addition to the large majority of consumers staying at home. Remote workers and remote staff have already become the new normal. Therefore, companies need to learn how to recruit, utilize, and best serve their remote workers.

Communication is Key

Communication is an integral aspect of every relationship. No matter the context. This is true across life partners, friends, and really any personal or professional relationship. Maintaining open lines of communication in business will lead you and your team to accomplishing tasks on time, on budget, and on scope.

Transitioning to a team of remote workers, doesn’t dampen the importance of clear and open communication between team members and team leaders alike. Luckily, there are countless communication solutions that your firm can employ in order to sustain the level of interaction necessary. There are enterprise level applications ranging from the likes of Slack to Monday.com; and even more traditional project management softwares like Basecamp or Asana. c

No matter which solution you choose to empower your remote workers; it’s integral that the remote workers are somewhat centralized still. For example, connecting a remote team through the same software so that everyone can stay updated and in communication on the project status.

Team Building with Remote Workers

Just because they’re remote workers, doesn’t mean that team-building goes out the window. In fact, with remote workers, and remote teams, it’s just as important to keep the general morale high. Finding ways to motivate your remote workers can be a little challenging. However, there are plenty of ways to keep your remote workers in high spirits, and even bring them slightly closer together.

With the vast majority of physical-event-spaces being shut down, companies might be out of ideas for ways to bring their remote staff together. However, a lot of the enterprise level software on the market includes some sort of incentive-system. This is a great way for you and your management team to continue rewarding strong performance throughout your staff. These incentive systems are also normally colleague-based, meaning that your cohort can also reward and recognize your strong performances.

Finally, if you’re searching for a team-building activity that everyone can join in on remotely; Dungeons and Dragons, believe it or not, is a great way to get your remote team together outside of working hours for a little team-bonding.

For more information on remote working, or navigating these troubling times, visit NS804 today, and get in touch with an expert mobile app developer ready to bring your dreams into reality.

The Ultimate Guide To Creating an MVP for Your Startup

The Ultimate MVP Guide

Put up or shut up. Put your money where your mouth is. Actions speak louder than words. These phrases have earned their place in history by speaking to a commonality in all of us: the desire for cold hard evidence. Because seeing is believing, right? Therefore, these little quips and phrases point towards the importance of business tools like prototypes, product proof-of-concept, or an MVP.

Prototypes, a proof-of-concept, and an MVP are all tools companies use in a variety of ways. Two of the main functions of these tools include investor recruitment and target market feedback. Plus, developing these tools and making use of them will lead to further insights that will help inform the rest of the product development lifecycle.

Understanding MVPs

No, we aren’t talking about Patrick Mahomes possibly leading the Chiefs to a second straight superbowl, for the first time in the history of the NFL. No, in mobile app development, an MVP stands for the minimum viable product. In other words, this is the bare-bones product that your developers build as a sort of shell-demonstration. This demonstrates the core functionality of the application. However, the MVP is still very much a predecessor to the application’s full-blown vision.

Although, that doesn’t always stop the MVP from being utilized. See there’s a whole niche market of app-development where the bells and whistles are just that: bells and whistles. The end-user isn’t so much interested in the seamless UX or the brilliant design; but rather the solution that the application provides. This is often the case when it comes to business-oriented-applications, or industry-specific applications.

In these environments, the end-user may be an early-adopter or a professional simply looking for a solution to their problem, if your MVP contains that solution – the extra functions and features that get added might just be icing on the cake.

While an MVP may sound very similar to a prototype, and they are in many ways, there are a few key differences between the two. The biggest and most obvious difference between an MVP and a prototype is the form it takes. An MVP is always going to be a lightweight version of the application.

A prototype, on the other hand, can come in a whole variety of shapes, sizes, and forms. The most basic prototypes, in fact, are simple sketches. The form your prototype takes will largely depend on a variety of factors. Aspects like your industry-expertise, technical ability, and access to resources.

The Development

While it may seem like one of the first steps in mobile app development, there’s actually quite a bit of work to be done before your firm can tackle the MVP. The very first step in mobile app development is identifying a problem and a potential solution. This is by far the most critical question that needs to be answered at the onset of a mobile app development project.

Without a firm-wide understanding of the problem that’s being addressed and the solution that’s being developed, a whole onslaught of issues will arise. These issues range from miscommunication, to inefficient processes, and misaligned development activities. In other words, one developer might be working on a user-interface that is completely incompatible with the overall solution that’s being developed. Therefore, time, energy, and resources were all wasted, which could have been avoided entirely with stronger communication channels.

Once your firm has identified the problem they’d like to solve, and how they’d like to solve it; then they can advance to the next step of the development process. The next phase in mobile app development, or MVP development is determining the core-features that need to be built into the application. The core features that are selected largely influence both the MVP and the design of the finished application.

This is important to note. The MVP, as mentioned above, is a tool your mobile app firm develops for a wide variety of reasons. Two of the main reasons for MVP development is end-user and target-market feedback, as well as investor recruitment. These are two of the most crucial phases in the entire mobile app development lifecycle.

Feedback and Investor Recruitment

As the age-old-adage goes, “money makes the world go round.” And as sad as that is to acknowledge at times, the practical utility of liquid assets is undeniable. Developing an MVP takes time, money, labor, and resources. Once your firm develops the MVP, however, there’s plenty of opportunity for your team to leverage the MVP into additional investments.

On top of leveraging an MVP into additional funding for your firm, or the specific project; an MVP also gives your company a way to conduct market focus-groups. This allows you to garner real end-user feedback on the solution provided and the overall direction of the application. These insights can be used to further inform your team on the features and trends most impactful to the target market, and how to finish the development process.

When garnering user-feedback or running focus-groups, there are a few important things to keep in mind. Keeping these elements in mind can help your team maximize the value that these activities in the development process yield. For example, when running a focus group with an MVP, your team should consider including a basic version of the UX. This will help the focus-group. It helps them understand the flow of the application, how the app presents information to the user, and more.

Running focus groups and testing the MVP in a variety of demographics is a best-practice by all considerations. This practice is important because it will help you and your team avoid common pitfalls in app development. One of the most common traps that mobile app developers often fall into is known as the ‘assumption trap’. This is the ‘trap’ that mobile app developers fall into when they believe they already know what the end-consumer wants.

Avoiding The Trap

Conducting a series of focus groups across a variety of demographics, therefore, is extremely valuable and provides incredible insight into consumer behavior, and consumer wants.

The end-consumer, especially today, has more power than ever before. Between the era of information and technology providing more widespread access to information, and the emergence of a very competitive marketplace, the consumer truly is king. Therefore, taking the time to understand the issues that are most significant to your target-market will benefit you greatly. Let the consumers and customers tell you what they want, then deliver. Otherwise, you may very well be putting the cart before the horse.

Final Thoughts on MVP Development

The mobile app market is booming. Ever since earlier this year when the pandemic was first beginning to rage and the first set of lockdown orders were issued, mobile app usership has boomed. Between March and April of this year, millions of first-time app users were downloading applications, log-times were skyrocketing, and the shift toward the digital age was officially underway.

In such a crowded market, it’s important to stand out, deliver on consumer wants, and offer new and unique solutions. Developing an MVP will help you and your firm do all of this and more. From investor-recruitment, to real-time consumer feedback, developing an MVP is a necessity.

For more information on MVPs, or anything related to mobile app development, visit NS804 today, and get in touch with an expert mobile app developer ready to turn your idea into a reality.

What You Can Learn From a Competitive Analysis

The Advantages of Conducting a Competitive Analysis

Imagine for a moment that everyone lives in a vacuum. Then, if we’re all living in vacuums, any problems or obstacles that arose would be entirely our own to address. Subsequently, in each vacuum then, we would see a variety of solutions that evolved to address the same issues from vacuum to vacuum. However, we don’t live in vacuums that are entirely separate from one another. Because of this, the very popular phrase, “don’t reinvent the wheel” still exists today. Simply put, it doesn’t do any good to spend time, energy, and resources developing an entirely redundant value. In the context of mobile app development this means conducting a comprehensive competitive analysis.

There are many benefits that developers reap from conducting a thorough competitive analysis. The competitive analysis is a process in the mobile app development workflow that helps the development team gain an understanding of the current marketplace. There are many factors to consider when conducting this analysis.

What To Look For During a CA

A competitive analysis begins internally. The mobile app developers must come to a value-proposition for their application-in-development before a proper analysis can begin. Defining the value proposition of the application prior to the market analysis is vital. Without the value-proposition clearly defined, the developers won’t have a lot of the information needed to properly move forward with the analysis.

Once the value proposition is defined, the developers will have a sense of where in the mobile market their competition lies. Once you’ve identified the competition, your team can begin drawing lines of differentiation between your application and that of your competitors. This is important. It’s important because it heavily influences your marketing strategies. If your team don’t understand what makes your application different, the end-user won’t either.

Other Competitive Analysis Tactics

Understanding the value-proposition and the differentiators between your application and the competition is just the beginning. There are an endless amount of insights that can be drawn from conducting a thorough and comprehensive competitive analysis. In addition to the insights found regarding factors of differentiation, the market analysis also provides deep insight into consumer behaviors.

Through the process of the market analysis trends will begin to emerge. These trends will apply to a variety of application elements. Ranging from user-experience, to the most trendy color-schemes, paying attention during the competitive analysis will result in mountains of useful data.

One aspect to which developers should pay specific attention is the user experience. The user experience is one of the most significant and impactful factors of any mobile app. With as much competition as exists within the market, and how many variations on a single solution is available to the end-user, consumers are becoming much more likely to delete an app and switch to a competitor after a single negative experience.

A Final Thought

There are endless insights to be drawn from a thorough competitive analysis, and this article only scratches the surface. For more information on competitive analysis, or anything related to mobile app development, visit NS804 today.

The Secrets Of Successful Appreneurs

If you’re an aspiring appreneur, you’ve probably pondered on what it takes to launch successful apps. And if you’re an experienced developer with several releases under your belt, then you understand what it takes to succeed in such a competitive market. The process is fairly involved with many steps that you need to take to release a compelling app. Below, we reveal several valuable tips to make your upcoming app release truly special.

1. What Makes An Appreneur Different

While the business world does change, it usually transforms at a gradual pace. It’s common for many CEOs and entrepreneurs to play it safe, favoring stability instead of taking bold steps. However, the emergence of the appreneur has changed the game by being a disruptive and innovative force.

Today’s forward-thinking entrepreneurs have embraced current trends in mobile app development, allowing them to enhance business processes. And they no longer wait around for someone else to provide solutions. Instead, they seize the opportunity to design and create powerful apps that solve existing problems efficiently and smartly.

2. Know The Current Trends In Mobile App Development

The mobile app market is in constant flux, so take the time to investigate it further. For example, there was a period when native app development was the norm, but hybrid development has become more common in recent years.

In 2020, we’re witnessing the gradual adoption of 5G technology and foldable devices. But existing technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), chatbots, digital wallets, instant apps, on-demand apps, predictive analytics, and wearable devices have been trending upwards. If you’re planning on releasing your app in the immediate future, make sure to take advantage of these trends.

3. Finding Inspiration From App Stores

It’s seldom easy coming up with new app ideas that show potential. You may even start feeling burnt out as you peruse all your sticky notes and diagrams on the drawing board. Truth be told, that killer idea won’t always come from the isolated environment of your office, even if you’re consulting with talented individuals. Thus, it’s a good idea to regularly browse both the App Store and Google Play to find out which apps are setting the world on fire.

4. Understanding What Users Truly Want

Every competent appreneur places the user at the forefront of their mobile app development endeavors. One of the most important things you can do is understand what your users truly want. Regularly conduct user reviews and surveys, asking your users what their expectations, experiences, and frustrations are about your solutions and those from rivals. 

Furthermore, conduct behavioral research focusing on users’ emotions, feelings, barriers, and motivators. Collect and analyze this data, and design your app in a way that fits your users’ psychological profiles.

5. Remember The KISS Method

Let’s face the facts; developing apps is hard work. That’s why smart developers apply the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. It’s a process of simplifying the design of applications by reducing code complexity and the number of interconnected parts. There are many benefits to this, such as easier collaboration among older and newer team members, a more straightforward debugging and testing process, and it’s just easier to add new functionality and implement changes. 

6. Come Up With Innovative Ideas Quickly

The app marketplace is always evolving, which means that developers need to come up with innovative ideas quickly. Appreneurs never stay still and are continuously brainstorming new ideas for their upcoming apps. 

So how do you come up with these valuable ideas in record time? Firstly, you should be asking if current apps are solving business or day-to-day problems effectively. Secondly, keep your ear to the ground by regularly perusing app stores, mobile app and tech blogs, and social media sites. Thirdly, build small prototypes regularly, and show these to team members and ask them for feedback or to iterate further on the more promising ideas.

7. Master App Store Optimization (ASO)

You’ve worked hard on your app and don’t want it to languish in obscurity upon release. An effective way to boost its visibility on digital storefronts is by mastering App Store Optimization (ASO). By successfully implementing ASO, you’ll be able to drive installs organically and gradually increase your app’s store rank. 

But what does ASO involve? There are several things that you’ll need to do, such as using keywords in your app’s title and description, categorizing your app correctly, inserting all relevant screenshots and other assets, and localizing your content. Furthermore, you can research how your competitors are implementing ASO and make the necessary adjustments to improve your app’s rank.

8. Look At Appreneur System Reviews 

Everyone learns differently. Some folks need to read books, while others prefer to view videos or purchase courseware to internalize those valuable app development skills. Several notable appreneurs have developed their own methodologies and systems to help you find success in the app stores. Read appreneur system reviews online to find out which method works for you. Amazon, LinkedIn, and dedicated mobile app development sites are all excellent resources.

9. Start Marketing Pre-Launch

Even if you find the marketing process intimidating, we recommend that you don’t leave it until the last minute. Start your marketing endeavors as early as possible, and follow a carefully planned and robust strategy.

Define your target audience by building buyer personas that serve as a representation of your customer base. These buyer personas will contain demographic and psychographic data of your potential customers. Then, reach out to influencers that your target audience follows. You’ll need to contact these influencers on their preferred social media channels and run incentivized campaigns. Furthermore, foment a community on social media and engage with them regularly, and gradually ramp up interest in your upcoming app. 

Don’t forget to build a landing page and drive traffic to this page via advertising, email campaigns, influencer marketing, and social media. Your landing page should feature videos and screenshots of your mobile app and provide visitors a brief description of its key features. Moreover, make it easy for visitors to join your mailing list via a secure signup form.

10. Work With A Trusted Developer

Developing high-quality apps is a team effort. That’s why you need to work with a developer that you can trust. The right partner will be able to meet expectations, stay within budget and time constraints, and deliver your app according to spec for either Android, iOS, or both. 

Unfortunately, It’s often difficult finding a reliable partner via Google, as many fly-by-night and inexperienced developers turn up on searches. We recommend using authoritative sites such as Clutch and The Manifest to track down leading developers such as NS804.

Final Thoughts

Appreneurs have risen in prominence in recent years due to the growing popularity of mobile apps. Current trends in mobile app development have enhanced and streamlined the creation of applications, which has further bolstered the market. Therefore, many opportunities abound for resourceful appreneurs that want to disrupt the marketplace moving forward. Contact us today to find out how NS804 can turn your unique ideas into engaging apps.

You’re Ready to Develop a Mobile App. Now What?

As a forward-thinking business leader, you may have considered developing a mobile app. You could also be one of those visionaries that have a well-defined end goal in mind and planning on creating an app, which will allow you to achieve certain milestones and improve vital business processes.

However, you might not be up to speed with the latest trends in mobile app design or mobile app development in general. So what do you do now? Well, you’ve come to the right place, as we understand how intimidating it can be to forge ahead with app development. Below, we provide several handy tips that will put you on the right track.

1. Recap the basics of research, target market, and solutions

Before developing a mobile app, you’ll need to do your homework. You may already have brainstormed a couple of ideas, which you believe will result in a compelling app. But you won’t know for sure without doing market research and understanding your target audience. 

Prepare a Product Market Fit (PMF) checklist and utilize App Store Optimization (ASO) to research digital marketplaces. Find out what types of apps are succeeding and what kind of users are downloading these. Learn as much as possible about these users, such as their age, gender, education, income, location, and occupation. Furthermore, determine if these apps are effectively solving problems or if there’s room in the marketplace for an improved or more innovative solution.

2. Determine which type of app will work best for your goals

It’s important to figure out early what platforms your app should target. Perhaps you need to take advantage of the Metal API for its low-level 3D rendering capabilities. In that case, you should develop a native app that specifically utilizes Apple’s unique hardware and APIs for the best results.

Nowadays, mobile app development frameworks and tools make it easy to publish on multiple platforms, such as Android, iOS, and the web. With only a single codebase, it’s possible to target all platforms that your target audience use. While this hybrid solution is more cost-effective than developing native apps, there’s usually a performance penalty. 

Finally, you can develop a web application that runs on any platform connected to the internet. It’s also possible to make your web app conform to the latest trends in mobile app design, making it look and feel almost as good as a native or hybrid app. But do keep in mind that web apps are usually more limited in scope.

3. Determine monetization points & carve out project budgets

The cost of developing a mobile app varies wildly. We recommend you use a mobile application cost calculator while taking into account several factors. These should include the duration of development, back-end development, front-end development, marketing, number of target platforms, UI & UX design, and any additional app features. To ensure profitability, you’ll need to consider how you’ll monetize your app. Will you integrate In-App Purchases (IAP), mobile ads, or a combination of both? 

4. Marketing for pre-launch enthusiasm

The success of your app largely depends on your marketing efforts. Press relations (PR), media outreach, and a user acquisition strategy are all equally important. Ideally, you want to build a buzz before launch, which can be achieved through content marketing, leveraging BETA testing and focus groups, and holding an exciting launch party.

5. Security & Optimization efforts

Developing a mobile app is an involved process due to the best practices that every competent developer should follow. These practices include locking down the security of an app by encrypting its data, employing high-level authentication, inserting tamper detection, using authorized APIs, utilizing the principle of least privilege, and writing secure code. It’s also vital to test the app regularly and optimize it so that it performs adequately on various devices.  

6. Partners & Support

It’s always a good idea to find the right partners when embarking on mobile app development. Partners, such as NS804, can help develop, market, and support your app throughout its lifecycle. The right partner will help craft your Call to Action (CTA), which will drive the downloads you need while not straying from the latest trends in mobile app design.

In Conclusion

Mobile app development doesn’t have to be intimidating if you understand the process and partner with the right developer. With years of experience in delivering amazing results for our clients, NS804 can turn your app ideas into reality.

Implementing Push Notifications That Users Won’t Hate

Creating Useful Push Notifications

Purpose is one of the most important elements in any decision making process. This is true no matter the industry. Whether designing buildings, or designing mobile apps, a clear justification behind every decision is integral to a cohesive design. Furthermore, the same theory applies to communication. In fact, purpose in communication is even more crucial. Therefore, it’s vital that your mobile app development team carefully considers their application of push notifications.

A push notification is an automated message that applications send users when those apps aren’t open. Push technology powers an applications ability to deliver push notifications. Push technology is simply a communication initiated by the system or central-server, contrary to pull/get communications.

Understanding how to craft impactful push notifications that users welcome is critical to a variety of other success-driving factors relating to your application. There are many reasons that users prefer to turn push notifications off. Likewise, however, there are many reasons you can provide users to keep your specific mobile applications notifications on. In doing so, the user base remains more well informed, among other things. Additionally, having a user base that enables your push notifications drives a variety of other significant factors that benefit your mobile application.

Common Push Pitfalls

As mentioned above, there are a flurry of reasons that users might choose to disable notifications immediately after downloading an application. In order to help your team design and craft push notifications that users leave enabled, it’s valuable to learn from the mistakes of others that have walked the road before you. In that vein, the following are some of the common pitfalls regarding push notifications.

Too Many Too Frequently

The first mistake that novice mobile app designers are quick to fall into might seem pretty obvious to anyone who has actually owned a smartphone. However, it’s understandable – new designers often are excited to share their hard work with their new and loyal users. Yet, it can quickly become too many.

Flooding your user base with push notification after notification becomes overwhelming, and actually lowers the impact of each individual push notification delivered. This is important to note because it goes back to the point at the top of the article about purpose. In communication, and specifically your notifications, there needs to be a clear purpose behind the message. Going beyond that, there needs to be a purpose behind sending the message to your entire user base.

Having a clear purpose behind both the message and the delivery will speak volumes to your user base. It shows you respect their time, and that you only want to give them the updates that are most significant. This, however, can also be a bit tricky because “the significant updates” might vary from user to user.

The other issue with over-notifying your user base, beside dampening the impact of the more important push notifications, is that you can overflood their notification center. In other words, users might lose notifications from other applications that are more important to them in the midst of all the push notifications being sent from one source. This is a critical error and enrages users, quickly leading them to disable all notifications from your app. Or worse, delete it all together.

User Control

In the same vein as above; it’s critical to empower your users to have detailed control over the push notifications they do and don’t receive. This results in a series of positive results for the mobile app user, and the developer.

For instance, the more control a user has over the push notifications, the more customized the experience feels. Therefore, the user experience is already enhanced, just by allowing users to control the types of notifications that are sent to their device. A better user experience, in turn, leads to a higher chance the user will leave a review, continue their app-usership, and even spend on in-app purchases.

In addition to boosting the individual user-experience, this is also a great tool for mobile app developers. Allowing user-control over the notification settings limits the amount of users that disable your push notifications completely. Retaining some percentage of push-notifications enabled is a win, when the alternate is disabling notifications completely.

The lesson here is to give users as much control as possible over the push notifications they receive or don’t receive from your application.

Under Utilizing Push Notifications

The last pitfall we’re going to discuss is the under utilization of push notifications. While the above points have been cautionary tales about limiting the notifications you send your users, this is about optimizing the utility of the notifications sent. In other words, after creating a notification strategy that includes impactful, purposed messaging, developers can take their strategy even further.

Developers can start tying notifications into other user-based-actions on the application. For instance, a well-crafted and well-timed notification can result in the user logging an entire unplanned session. This is often the case when it comes to gamer-heavy user demographics. This demographic is specifically prone to log an unplanned session based on their investment into the games they play. The more invested the player, the more likely a significant push notification motivates them to play unexpectedly.

This isn’t exclusive to the gamer demographic, however. Every category of application can benefit from developing a strong notification strategy. Another good example are news and information-based applications. These applications might be set to deliver breaking industry headlines, headlines from user-chosen categories, or even headlines from geo-targeting. Regardless of the specific notification-settings, an intriguing headline that’s specifically relevant to the users interest could spark an unexpected reading-session, sharing of the article, and other various user-application-interactions, all of which passively boost your applications ratings.

Using Push Notifications To Garner Mobile App User Reviews

Another important element to a strong notification strategy is leveraging your push notifications into user reviews. This is a crucial element to tie into your notification strategy as it can completely revitalize your app-store ratings and user review scores. An application with a large user base but only a handful of reviews might have a high percentage of inactive users or users with disabled notifications entirely.

Directly tying back to the section above on under utilizing push notifications, there is a time and a place to use those notifications to your applications advantage. In other words, it’s on the developers shoulders to find opportunities within the notification strategy to prompt user feedback. This can be accomplished through a variety of methods. The most common, and most helpful, however, is through a store-app review.

Optimizing your notification strategy means creating impactful and purposed messaging that speaks to the user. It means delivering timely and significant notifications without needlessly flooding the users device. It means putting the user experience first.

Wrapping Up

Successful applications need push notifications for a variety of reasons. However, it’s crucial that these notifications are crafted to be purposeful and significant, otherwise users will opt out of push notifications entirely.

For more information on costs or anything else related to your notification strategy, or mobile app development help, visit NS804. NS804 is the premier mobile app developer of the everyday person. NS804 delivers mobile app development services and expertise to anyone with an excellent idea.

Can You Get Professional Results With App Design Templates?

Making apps is a costly endeavor, causing developers to seek ways to make their production processes more efficient. And given the increased competition, it seems challenging to stick to the planned mobile app budget. After all, users desire more features and slicker design, whereas innovative competitors push the envelope even further. While it’s tempting to cut corners to stay on budget, this move would be detrimental to the success of your app.

Keep in mind that there’s no need to reskin existing apps or source low-quality assets to bring costs down. Users have become seasoned in spotting asset flips, reskinned apps, and generic GUI icons sourced from the web. Fortunately, there are ways to make impressive-looking apps without resorting to these questionable methods. A custom app developed by an experienced developer, such as NS804, will provide the best results.

An alternative way to make your app look professional is by utilizing app design templates, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

1. Why You May Want To Use App Design Templates

Every developer wants to reduce their time to market (TTM) significantly. That’s why many teams use existing frameworks instead of building everything from scratch. Furthermore, most experienced developers are capable of crafting unique apps instead of cookie-cutter apps using these frameworks. Since they no longer have to worry about boilerplate code, they can now focus on creating compelling apps that excite users.

However, you can go beyond frameworks to reduce cost and time to develop your upcoming app. After bouncing some app design ideas with the relevant team members, it’s time to consider using customizable or pre-made templates for your project.

We recommend that you stay away from cheap templates, as they’ll make your app look dated, low-effort, or unpolished. Many talented designers work on custom templates and ensure that they meet the criteria set out by platform holders such as Apple and Google. Do keep in mind that a North American designer may set you back between $ 45-250 per hour depending on experience and project complexity.

Your project’s requirements will largely determine whether you’ll opt for a custom solution or templates. But if you don’t want to skimp on quality, then nothing holds up to a custom-designed app.

2. Are Custom-Made Apps Really That Different?

Well, that depends if these custom-made apps have enough unique elements to make them stand out. And since the attention span of users is less than 8 seconds, developers should get their ideas across quickly. Furthermore, most successful apps always strive to provide users the instant gratification that they crave. But to make these types of apps, it’s vital to understand the entire process.

It all begins with a rock-solid idea that has been conceived after planning your app on paper. Team members should be encouraged to share their app design ideas, which should include ‘must-have’ and ‘nice-to-have’ features. Then, you should create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that’s a stripped-down version of the final product. Moreover, you can create a prototype that lacks all the bells and whistles but showcases basic functionality.

Once you have a functioning app up and running, you’ll want to focus on its visual elements. The work you put into your User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) will go a long way in differentiating your app. If you’re fortunate enough to have talented designers on your team, then they can create stunning icons, menus, and screens. Also, they can alter existing templates and recompose them so that they seem custom-made.

If you don’t have designers on hand or aren’t confident in making a compelling app, then we recommend hiring an experienced developer. NS804 can help to make all your ideas come to life while also assisting in other key areas. Don’t forget to do market research before launching. By knowing what users want, you can add those unique features that differentiate your app from the competition.

Lastly, you should always study user feedback and make changes, whenever necessary, to keep them engaged. Several good ways to gain user insight is through interviews and surveys. Then, update your app regularly and ensure that you’re delivering the changes and features that they want.

3. The Right Template Is Already Professional

App builders have become commonplace in recent years. They make it easy to build apps for small businesses and other organizations using drag-and-drop wizards and templates. However, they’re not always the ideal solution, especially in light of Apple’s 2017 ban on low-quality templates. Ensure that all your cool app design ideas don’t go to waste by meeting the requirements set forth by the platform holders.

Apart from not being spammy, your app’s built-in features and UX design should serve specific businesses or needs. If you’ve sourced high-quality templates that scale perfectly to different screen sizes, then you’re on the right track. But it’s also necessary to consider the use cases of various templates as well. For example, it’s never a good idea to use a template meant for restaurant apps when you’re making a fitness studio app.

Users and platform holders prefer a clean and uncluttered look for the current generation of apps. Not only does this enhance usability, but it’s also more aesthetically pleasing. The good news is that it’s reasonably easy to find pre-made templates that comply with this minimalist design language. Moreover, it’s possible for any experienced designer to alter these templates to better fit your app and UX design.

4. Use Templates To Get App Design Ideas

Coming up with the latest great idea for your upcoming app may seem difficult. Fortunately, there are several handy tools to help you draw up and visualize your app in record time. Microsoft’s Web and Mobile Wireframe Templates make it possible to design your next app with a few mouse clicks. These templates are generic so that it’s easy to implement changes without much guesswork.

A few of the starter templates include Company Wireframe Diagram, E-Commerce Wireframe Diagram, List Wireframe Diagram, Media Wireframe Diagram, User Profile Wireframe Diagram, Wireframe – Mobile App, and Wireframe – Website. These will help you get started quickly, as they cover the most common use cases for mobile and web apps.

One of the tool’s most useful features is its ability to display templates on different web browsers and devices. Without a doubt, this allows you and your team to conceive app ideas while having a clear picture of what they’ll look like on the target platform. Even if you can’t come up with ideas at first, manipulating these templates will help you get your creative juices flowing.  

Final Thoughts

App design templates can help reduce the cost and time it takes to produce apps. But these must be professionally made templates that will look good on various devices and display sizes. Furthermore, they must comply with the requirements set out by platform holders to avoid bans. With our many years of experience in app development, NS804 can help you achieve professional results for your next mobile app.