How Today’s Manufacturers Are Leveraging Mobile Apps

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The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 has transformed the otherwise legacy, archaic manufacturing environment. Today, mobile app development in manufacturing is making things easier, especially with the uptake of mobile technologies and faster internet infiltration rates.

The fact that consumers, markets, and supply chains are all connected using digital networks means that mobile apps will continue to be a priority in the manufacturing sector. Today, more than ever, the manufacturing sector is experiencing the benefits of mobile apps in driving productivity and optimization. In addition, mobile apps have reduced operating costs, improved efficiency, and enabled better field service.

Indeed, compared to other sectors, enterprise mobility is gradually becoming a top priority for manufacturing leaders. Regardless of the huge potential of Industry 4.0 to transform the traditional manufacturing set-up, few organizations are upscaling their efforts towards tech adoption.

Below we discuss how today’s manufacturing leaders are using mobile apps:

1. Integration with CRM software

Integrating your customer relationship management software with a mobile app helps you mobilize your interaction and communication with clients. This integration makes it possible to communicate with customers on the go. Communication is a major advantage since many manufacturing facilities and shop floors are large, and they require bikes and golf carts to navigate. Mobile apps promise new solutions and fresh capabilities in integrating with CRM software for streamlined communication.

2. Order fulfillment through real-time inventory

For time immemorial, manufacturers and shop floor workers have used hand-held devices to manage inventory. But today, tablet and smartphone technology let users, especially manufacturing leaders, use a single device to manage inventory, perform order fulfillment, send emails and attend virtual meetings.

The use of a single device for multiple tasks helps save on hardware and software costs. The real-time inventory and order fulfillment mobile app lets your procurement teams perform their tasks while automatically updating the database. In addition, it allows for order tracking capabilities and website updates.

3. Energy efficiency

One of the uses for low-code manufacturing is monitoring. In manufacturing, energy usage is a critical expenditure that affects time, resources, and throughput. Leveraging mobile apps is mostly used by manufacturers who are concerned with their energy consumption. These companies use these apps for the following purposes:

  • Monitoring regular energy consumption
  • Monitoring energy utilization
  • Plant, asset, and line analysis
  • Data collection and meter inspection

So, mobile apps are helping manufacturing leaders monitor their utilities.

4. Quality management

Industry 4.0 has ushered in exciting developments in manufacturing and beyond. For instance, low-code QMS apps manage quality in production floors. Low-code platforms and applications have unique flexibility. Low-code platforms help to incorporate tasks that are required to remain compliant with the changing laws.

In addition, QMS low-code applications can be integrated into content management systems. This integration helps track workflows and find documents for internal inspections and external audits. Thus, mobile apps are changing the face of manufacturing by helping manufacturing leaders track down their workflows and identify documentation for internal audits.

5. Production monitoring and management

Imagine you can program your manufacturing line or plant using a remotely located tablet or computer. With Industry 4.0, that’s possible. Manufacturing leaders must work with trusted partners to design automated workflows. New developments in machine metrics have shaped production shop floors, helping organizations leverage programmed instructions to control complex machine parts.

For instance, in computer numerical control CNC, programmed instructions run machine parts using the MTConnect language protocol. On the same note, mobile apps are being used to monitor manufacturing shop floors.

Indeed, if you’re meeting with a client to review and approve a manufacturing project, you can enter your product(s) specs and print-ready documentation and files on your device. Once you key in, the system beams the entered data to your IoT-enabled manufacturing equipment. By keying in this data, the manufacturing project can even be completed before you arrive at the manufacturing headquarters.

6. Real-time machine monitoring

Your manufacturing facility performance and productivity can be affected by a slight downtime. Therefore, your technicians must be quickly alerted when a piece of machinery or equipment goes down. In addition, mobile apps give you the ability to optimize the sensors you’ve installed as part of your IoT interface. By installing sensors and collecting insight and feedback using mobile apps, you can identify machines that require maintenance and repairs.

7. Increasing visibility

One way to increase the productivity of your shop floor workers is to obtain accurate information about their day-to-day activities. GPS technology enables manufacturing leaders to find employees and workers wherever they’re on the shop floor. Most importantly, you can ensure whether safety personnel are available in the manufacturing environment. The GPS technology further provides a detailed and accurate account of your inventory, enabling you to track product usage.

8. Equipment inspection

Ensuring that all your machines are inspected and checked is a sure-fire way of avoiding costly repairs and damages. It has become an issue that most manufacturers are investing in predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance essentially uses condition-monitoring tools and sensors to observe and report on the nature and structure of a piece of equipment during its operation. Equipment inspection is becoming a reality with advanced monitoring tools that provide real-time reporting.

9. Employee productivity

Mobile apps make it easier for manufacturing shop floor leaders to monitor employee behavior and make modifications as needed. By using an app, you can track all employee movements and behavior and evaluate whether the employee’s conduct conforms to the company’s policy. Managers have remote, real-time access to everything, which is beneficial for occupational safety during plant emergencies. These statistics provide insight into how much time was spent on a single task and how many jobs were closed.

10. Resource utilization

By using mobile apps, managers can see everything going in and around the plant. Manufacturers have real-time access to sitting and moving inventory. This means that they can evaluate resource utilization and therefore make informed ordering decisions. In addition, better insight improves resource utilization. Managers can reconcile product orders and supplies and resource consumption or utilization.

11. Decision-making

Mobile apps offer faster, real-time access to accurate and reliable data. Faster access to verified information means that decisions can be made faster to improve the overall manufacturing process. And because mobile apps are easy and faster to use, they can improve the decision-making process. It’s important to note that utilizing customized mobile apps for manufacturing requires an initial investment. However, you must look at the long-term return on investment. Mobile apps foster efficiency and productivity, leading to creativity, innovation, and faster turnovers.

12. Automation

Automation streamlines workflows, especially in contemporary manufacturing environments. Automation software provides time and cost savings, eliminating human errors and improving overall productivity. Automation is becoming a critical element of the modern supply chain. Indeed, manufacturers are using low-code technology to automate process workflows and improve overall productivity gains.

The growth of modern manufacturing platforms has been facilitated by the rise of IoT technology like smart devices and interconnected networks. This automatically means more data streams in contemporary workplaces courtesy of interconnected IoTs. And to effectively tap into this data, low-code is being used to channel data and automate workflows to a central data repository. The repository is an enterprise resource planning system to perform data analysis and obtain actionable insights.

NS808 – Propelling Manufacturing Towards Digital Transformation

Manufacturers are endorsing digital transformation. For instance, 80% of manufacturers said they were ready to invest in new technology to improve their productivity gains. In addition, 91% of manufacturing leaders believe that data from people and machines will reduce costs and improve decision-making. And finally, 20% of manufacturers don’t share data either internally or externally, creating siloed manufacturing floors. Manufacturers must optimize mobile apps to streamline workflows and improve efficiency and productivity.

Contact NS804 to leverage mobile apps on your manufacturing shop floor.

What Makes a Good UI Design

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The user experience is the most common front-end, interactive feature in any app, website, or dashboard. The user interface supports all human-computer interactions.

The user interface provides a navigational platform to control software. Think of a user interface as an application programming interface that links users and a computing system, the back-end.

Although a user interface can take many forms, it accomplishes two fundamental purposes:

  • conveying information from users to machines
  • conveying data from machines to users.

The most important features of a great user interface design are:

1. Simplicity

Simplicity is the centerpiece of any navigation. Easy navigation depends on a highly simplistic user interface. So, the user interface design must be succinct: it must communicate the most with the least. The designer must ensure less navigation and fewer mouse clicks to accomplish any app or website task. It’s important to add new features only if they’re essential and bring substantial value to the application.

2. Consistency

Your user interface must deliver consistent browsing and search results. Consistency achieves stability and eliminates ambiguity and information chaos. Designers should apply size, typeface, and style conventions to screen components to improve readability and learning.

3. Intuitiveness

Intuitiveness is the most important detail of a great UI design. Intuitiveness means that users can easily learn your interface and quickly pick it up. Intuitiveness implies the ability to get accustomed to your app’s interface, element spacing, and overall layout. Intuitiveness means something that can be understood easily and applied with ease.

4. Familiarity

Familiarity is a critical feature of a great UI design. While many designers aim to create intuitive designs, few stop to ask themselves what does an intuitive design mean? Well, intuitiveness means making things understandable and easy to remember. Creating a great user interface concerns familiarity. Designers must aim to create apps that deliver personalized user experiences. Aiming for familiarity will reinforce your app design.

5. Responsiveness

A great user experience must be responsive to users’ needs. Today, most website visits come from mobile endpoints, which is surprising given that it’s convenient to leverage an Android or an iPhone. You encourage users to visit your website frequently and stay longer by having a mobile-responsive interface. Responsiveness is about reducing the latency time and offering a rewarding experience.

6. Clarity

Clarity is an important element in the user interface design process. Clarity signifies that you know what you’re doing and that the interface or platform your users leverage is trustworthy. Achieving clarity in user interface design involves consistency, truth, and simplicity in your messaging. If you aim for consistency, it’ll be simple for users. In addition, if you eliminate ambiguity and incorporate only relevant elements, your interface will be rewarding.

7. Attractiveness

Attraction is about aesthetic appeal. Attraction concerns making elements and layout appealing for prospective and existing users. Attractiveness aims to make the site enjoyable and thrilling to navigate. You can make your site or app efficient, simple, easy to use, and concise – but it will only do well by making it attractive. Your clients or prospective users will not only use a stirring interface; they will look forward to using it once again.

Contact NS804 to achieve a great UI design.

4 Things You Can Learn About Your Clients From Their App Use

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Every savvy appreneur should monitor app use to gauge whether an application meets your desired goals and expectations. And that’s easy to do due to the many excellent analytics and monitoring tools available today. Of course, users and various governing bodies, such as the EU, have expressed concern about how companies handle user data and privacy.

As someone that releases or plans to release apps, it’s your job to ensure that you comply with all regulations applicable to the target territory. But the good news is that you don’t need to harvest an extraordinary amount of data to gain a clear picture of app use. After all, you primarily care about your app’s performance and whether users easily complete tasks available to them. 

You don’t want to know users’ home addresses or pet names unless that’s necessary for the functionality of your app. But even for such cases, you’ll need to gain user consent via a mobile opt-in option. Ultimately, you want to operate under an ethical and legal framework that fosters trust with all your users.

We also understand that it’s not always clear what you must look for when monitoring app use. So, we’ve compiled this handy list to help you laser focus on the key indicators that will reveal more about your clients and users.

1. Does Your App Use Data Reveal A Distracted User Base?

Unfortunately, in our information-rich world, attention spans have declined significantly. Digital and social media have played a significant role in reducing attention spans, and so has a constantly online way of life.

But what does this mean for your upcoming app project? Your app should have an easy-to-understand and easy-to-navigate user interface (UI). And keep it simple by making it easy for users to complete tasks quickly. Once you launch your app and monitor app usage, you should achieve favorable results by keeping users engaged.

If that’s not happening, you may have added features and UI elements that cause confusion or distraction. Users will often leave an app and even delete it altogether if they don’t understand how to use it or are not presented with the most crucial information as early as possible.

You’ll also want to know whether your app’s response times lag longer than usual. Therefore, you should monitor all response and system feedback times. If these exceed 50ms for response times and 400ms for web-based system feedback, you need to patch up your app immediately, as most users won’t put up with any application that seems slow and clunky or hinders productivity.

2. Where Are Your Clients Spending Most Of Their Time? 

It’s essential to track the time users spend on your app. And not only that, but you should also track how much time they spend on each page of your app.

For example, you may have created a food delivery app that promises users a one-click checkout experience. Now, users are excited about the prospect of quickly and conveniently ordering their food, so they flock to your app. But then, you notice that few users are completing orders timeously, and many abandon products in their virtual carts.

So you decide to check your analytics to determine what’s causing the bottleneck. You start by analyzing how much time users spend on the homepage of your app and right through to the checkout page. And the data reveals that users quickly find the products they want. Also, they don’t experience any noticeable problems when adding products to their carts. 

Everything seems good so far, but then you get to the data regarding your checkout page. Surprisingly, users spend three times longer on the checkout page than on the rest of your app. And this is not good because it negates the whole purpose of your app, which is to provide a hassle-free checkout.

However, you still don’t have enough information, so you decide to drill down to a more granular view of your data. And doing so reveals information that you didn’t expect, which shows that users spend an excessive amount of time filling in their payment information. Thus, you decide to improve the payment form and enhance its format by refreshing its credit card and other payment method icons.

3. Are Your Users Cheating And Ruining The Experience For Everyone?

If you’re a mobile game developer or creating a competitive and interactive app, you should care whether users cheat. Yes, you heard correctly; users will act in bad faith and cheat in mobile games. And that’s especially true for games that offer money prizes, gems, and in-app purchases. Furthermore, Android games are particularly vulnerable to cheating and game modification apps, such as Creehack, Game Killer, and SB Game Hacker APK, to name a few.

And while it’s common practice to hack and modify PC games, we should bear in mind that the PC is a fairly open platform. On top of that, some PC game developers encourage mods and even provide their own modification tools. And the reason they do this is that it helps extend the longevity of their games, as users will create and share additional content that’s mostly free. 

But even on the PC, hacking a game for the purpose of cheating is unacceptable, causing developers and publishers to ban users that attempt such an action. Therefore, mobile game developers should never take cheaters lightly, as they can cause monetary loss and reputational damage.

You should implement a pattern detection system that analyzes users’ device memory and storage for any cheat apps. Also, some popular cheat apps attach their debugger to a process, so make sure that you’re scanning for these. And if you’re creating a multiplayer game using the Unity engine, then use Guardsquare’s DexGuard and iXGuard to harden the security of your Android and iOS games.

4. Do Your Users Face Too Many Choices? 

The best apps often have a simple UI and are designed to serve a singular purpose. Therefore, you never want to create an app that tries to do too many things. Or it does one thing well but presents users with a plethora of features and options.

Ideally, your app should focus on a singular purpose and its features pared down to the bare minimum. And that’s because users struggle to navigate apps that offer them too many options. They may feel anxious when facing too many options, many of which may be unnecessary or be too complex. 

Furthermore, when users face too many choices, they’re forced to spend more time thinking before coming to a decision. But if they have less choice, users feel less burdened to engage in a complex decision-making process. And navigating the app feels like a more fluid and natural experience, especially if they can complete the most crucial tasks in a short amount of time.

And if users use your app to complete a complex task, then break it down into several smaller and manageable tasks. Always offer an enjoyable and straightforward user experience, as many users may not have the required technical skills.

The Bottom Line 

As we’ve seen, app use can reveal much about your clients, provided you’re using the correct monitoring and detection systems. And this information provides you with greater insight into what you’re doing right or wrong with your apps. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you create phenomenal apps that will amaze even the most demanding users!

Ecommerce and Apps: Should You Consider It?

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A critical facet for any e-commerce business is a well-designed and optimized online store. Nevertheless, despite the emergence of mobile applications in modern-day digital retail, most retailers still wonder whether they need to adopt a mobile app to accompany their online stores.

Google published research showing that 56% of smartphone users were highly involved in online retail. According to Google, 58% of smartphone users check prices, monitor trends, view customer responses, and evaluate client feedback. Most smartphone users were also involved in product and review comparisons and even buying products.

Further statistics revealed that 66% of smartphone users made online purchases once a week. For most smartphone users, online purchases were made by phone as opposed to desktop devices. The prevalence of mobile apps is driven by the accelerated adoption of smartphone devices, alongside higher internet penetration rates.

Therefore, although retailers are wondering whether to uptake mobile apps to complement their digital retail efforts, it’s important to remember that users first view products on their smartphone devices before making purchases on desktop PCs. Most importantly, with the emergence of highly optimized apps, making online purchases via apps is becoming more streamlined, making mobile apps the go-to option in the e-commerce marketplace.

So, here are the top reasons you should consider e-commerce and mobile apps.

1. Loyal audiences

One of the greatest benefits of an app is the ability to build loyalty with the targeted audience. 67% of online buyers prefer apps offered by their brands and companies according to data by Adobe. These statistics clearly show the impact of digital platforms in reinforcing customer and brand relationships. But how do you encourage your targeted audience to download and install your app? Well, focus more on the user interface and user experience and offer better discounts and more attractive deals.

2. Faster buying process

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have longer queues that point to a slow check-out process. Traditional check-out processes in brick-and-mortar stores are responsible for higher customer service costs, delayed check-out processes, and may inhibit customer retention. Luckily, the emergence of mobile apps has simplified the purchase and check-out process. Ecommerce mobile apps come with a payment gateway functionality that allows app users to purchase products and services from authorized vendors. That ultimately facilitates a faster buying and a timely check-out process.

3. Product listing

Product listing is a critical aspect of any e-commerce process. A product listing is what the customer sees when they search for a product online. For sellers, product categorization is one of the greatest benefits of e-commerce. Sellers can use categories to streamline the ordering and purchase process, allowing fewer errors in procurement and supply chain processes. One advantage of e-commerce is that customers can add products, product categories, product descriptions, images, pricing, and delivery date. Product categorization allows vendors to inform customers more about the product, allowing buyers to know what retailers have.

Product listing best practices:

The following are the tips and tricks of product listing and categorization:

  • Maintain image dimensions
  • Use a high-quality image resolution
  • Provide multiple viewing angles for your products
  • Use lipsticks when displaying or showing multiple product views
  • Consider UX-design and UI-design that facilitate a 360-degree product view.

Customizing your product listings makes them appealing and attractive, enhancing your chances of online retail success.

4. Improved marketing communication

Marketing is principally about communicating and educating prospective clients. Marketing outreach targets educating users and prospective customers about the benefits and drawbacks of products or services, including the drawbacks of competitor products. Mobile apps and eCommerce platforms act as central communication platforms, providing insight and knowledge to customer and client groups.

An e-commerce mobile application provides a communication channel for different stakeholders, including clients, prospective customers, and brands. This communication acts as an avenue for brand positioning and marketing excellence. So, complementing a mobile app with an intuitive online store helps deliver superior marking and outreach.

5. Efficiency

The intuitiveness, user-friendliness, and accessibility of mobile apps render them ideal for many customers. Today, online shoppers are leveraging mobile apps to streamline their purchase and procurement processes. And even though you might incur a substantial sum developing a solid app, be assured that it will generate incomparable value within a short period. A well-designed app with superior functionality has unmatched potential for long-term value. Apps’ overall functionality delivers superior performance, enabling businesses to be more agile and efficient in their routine business processes.

6. Reduced response time

Vendors and customers want a rapid, time-to-value service. A mobile app is smooth and streamlines the purchase process, saving time and money in routine check-out processes. The response time for mobile apps is considerably less than for web platforms or websites that retrieve data quickly. So, e-commerce stores with mobile apps are well-positioned to serve customers faster than online stores without complementary apps.

7. Personalization

E-commerce platforms and mobile apps have many opportunities for personalization. That’s because retailers can understand and use customer shopping patterns to build more personalized retail experiences. If personalization is well-planned and combined with push notifications, it can deliver superior marketing campaigns that touch the hearts of shoppers. E-commerce platforms and mobile apps provide retailers with countless opportunities for shoppers to connect with brands. Customer connection is reinforced through a solid personalization approach, providing retailers with fresh opportunities to revamp their revenues.

8. Multiple payment options

The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution has transformed the online shopping experience. The emergence of IoT, artificial intelligence, data analytics, big data, and blockchain has helped transform the digital marketplace. Nowadays, with digitally secured cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, Binance, or XRP coin, you can access limitless retailers. Cryptocurrency provides shoppers with numerous payment getaways, streamlining the online shopping experiences for millions, if not billions of online customers.

9. Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management is an evolving field of marketing. Customer relationship management is concerned primarily with building lasting relationships with customers by understanding their changing needs and responding accordingly to these shifting priorities. Long ago, brands and organizations approached customer relationship management by obtaining written feedback and evaluating based on demand shifts.

However, nowadays, mobile apps have overhauled the entire CRM practice, with advances in chatbots and online communication portals that collect information and feedback at-a-go. E-commerce platforms first ushered in a new, innovative way for customers and brands to interact and share problems. Mobile apps reinforce this relationship, allowing brands to mine insightful, statistical shopping trends. Consumer insight drives better customer relationships, especially regarding customer inquiries, refunds, and payment errors.

10. Competitive positioning

The Covid-19 pandemic signaled the start of a new dawn. The announcement of the Covid-19 outbreak was accompanied by stringent social distancing measures, an effort to prevent the spread of a global virus. Unfortunately, new social distancing measures discouraged conventional physical meet-ups as shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and public transport systems set measures to curtail physical contact.

These developments affected traditional shopping avenues and disrupted the office workplace. Businesses suffered blows due to shrinking purchases, and supply chains sustained bruises due to the collapse of the global market. Luckily, mobile apps defied the anecdotal narrative of an economic decline and beat the odds to become an alternative solution for retailers. Adopting mobile apps and e-commerce solutions provides a competitive advantage, allowing enterprises to respond to changing customer preferences.

Reach Us Today!

Therefore, as enterprises wade off this pandemic, it’s only wise to adopt with time by accelerating app adoption. For enterprises recovering from the pandemic, mobile apps offer an innovative way to ignite touches with prospective customers. There’s no doubt that mobile apps give a competitive positioning to enterprises adjusting to the post-covid digital marketplace.

Contact NS804 to optimize mobile apps and e-commerce solutions.

How To Grow Brand Awareness with An App

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Business leaders often want to find effective ways to increase brand awareness. You’re likely one of those business leaders looking at how technology can positively impact your brand. And since we live in an era with so many options, technology-wise, it may seem incredibly daunting to make the right choice. 

Now, you may be wondering if apps can help grow brand awareness. And the short answer is a resounding yes, especially if you’re thinking of mobile apps instead of desktop or web apps. However, haphazardly releasing a mobile app for your brand will likely yield negative results. Instead, it’s best to follow these handy tips to make your app development endeavors worthwhile.

1. Increase Brand Awareness With A Quality Native App

Sadly, the mobile app stores have too many cheaply done, low-effort, and redundant apps. Users will often download apps that pique their interests, try them out, and eventually delete them. And what’s worse, most of these apps won’t get downloaded again in the future.

Obviously, as someone that wants to grow brand awareness, you don’t want such an outcome. So, how do you go about developing a mobile app that will do your brand justice?

Start by creating a native app that will run smoothly on Android and iOS. And while it costs more to develop a native app versus a hybrid app, your users will appreciate the better performance your app will deliver. Another benefit of releasing a native app is it will have a native UI that corresponds with the target platform’s guidelines and specifications.

2. Focus On UI Design And Usability

Your app must have an attractive and easy-to-navigate UI, as you want it to appeal to users while not frustrating them. After all, an ugly and unintuitive UI makes it harder for users to navigate the app. And this is usually a tell-tale sign of a low-quality app, which will reflect poorly on your brand.

Then, ensure that the design language of your app is on-brand. So use color schemes, graphic design, images, fonts, logos, and patterns associated with your brand for your UI. Ultimately, you want users already familiar with your brand to ‘feel right at home’ once they run your app.

Also, you want users to quickly associate your app with your brand by having a cohesive design language. The cohesion must be so strong that when you release other apps, users will instantly make the connection by simply looking at a screenshot of your app on social media or in the app store.

3. Grow Brand Awareness And Increase Retention With Push Notifications

Push notifications are a powerful tool that every savvy brand should utilize. Users love having announcements and content delivered that’s tailor-made for them.

For example, you’ve created a food delivery app meant to serve customers of your pizza brand. But to engage these customers, you offer them discounts on pizzas they’ve bought before based on their prior purchase history. And to keep them hooked, you provide them with pizza eating and making tips and run contests at a regular cadence. 

The beauty of push notifications is that they’re relatively easy, cheap, and quick to set up. And if users know that they’ll be receiving discounts and handy tips via upcoming push notifications, they’re more likely to engage with your app and keep it installed on their smartphones.

In Conclusion

Increasing brand awareness can and should go hand-in-hand with creating quality native apps, implementing UI design with usability in mind, and using push notifications. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you develop phenomenal apps that will help grow your brand!

The 5 Features a Business Needs in App

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All businesses will need apps in the near future, whether you’re a fast-food vendor or a fast fashion store. Small businesses are already using apps to communicate to customers. Big boy brands are leveraging mobile apps for brand positioning purposes.

So, mobile apps are adopted differently by businesses depending on the scope and the size of their business operations.

The adoption of mobile phones alongside high internet penetration rates dictates new developments in smartphone usage. Already, mobile apps are ushering new frontiers in web experiences by offering chatting, browsing, and payment services.

Mobile apps are transforming legacy communication patterns by providing digital avenues for communication. A classic example is the chat apps: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, Line, Skype, and WeChat.

Research shows that mobile applications could generate up to $930 billion in revenues in 2023 alone. Already, shocking estimates show the power of mobile apps, reinforcing the talk of why it’s critical to get started with mobile apps. For instance, users spent over 3 trillion hours on mobile apps in 2021 alone.

The ever-changing face of mobile applications and the desirability of mobile apps to young demographics make it a target for tech-savvy enterprises. Most importantly, young developers are embracing application programming as a new frontier of mobile usability.

While apps are crucial in transforming legacy enterprises and shaping customer experiences, it’s critical to identify particular features that make apps desirable.

Important features a business needs in an app:

1. Usability

Usability is a critical consideration in any app development exercise. That means that developers must approach any mobile app development process with usability in mind. The app must be creative, simple, and easy to navigate. Most importantly, the app must focus on robustness and intuitiveness by incorporating the things people see in apps.

2. User-friendliness

Always aim for a user-friendly app design that’s simple to navigate and highly responsive. Navigation and responsiveness are the cornerstones of any successful app design work. Therefore, ensure that your business app is user-friendly and responds well to the evolving user needs.

Some tricks to make your app user-friendly include:

  • Focus on your target audience
  • Offer superior design
  • Prioritize user security
  • Optimize graphic and font size
  • Make wise use of push notification
  • Aim for intuitiveness

A user-friendly app is highly adopted and has higher retention rates.

3. Chat and call-back

Your business app must incorporate chat and call-back options. Business communication is forever changing, making mobile apps the go-to platform for business communications. Alongside emails, chatbots, and web portals, mobile apps offer a unique avenue for users, mostly clientele groups, to communicate and interact with brands.

4. Intuitive user interface

All apps must incorporate an intuitive interface, and proprietary, discretionary privacy. Users must own their information and privacy for apps to make meaningful sense to prospective users. The fact that enterprises are accelerating their app adoption efforts means that enterprises must find new ways to retain customers. One of these ways is by offering discretionary privacy solutions, including the possibility for privacy notifications in mobile apps.

5. Payment gateway

Payment gateway integration is a no-brainer for any business app. As a business owner, you are involved in the “money” business. That means that your services and products are sold or leased out to customers, making payment gateway integration altogether important. Therefore, a payment gateway is a critical feature of your business app.

NS804 – Aiming for Excellence!

Other vital tips for business apps include:

  • User experience is your ultimate objective
  • Always aim to deliver a superior typography
  • Aim for smooth edges, soft app elements, and creative color
  • The logo is the centerpiece of your brand positioning. Keep it first.
  • Remember to keep users updated. Users must not feel lost.
  • Be accommodative in scope. Let your app encompass many features and functionalities.
  • Aim for an interactive design. You can do this by testing, fixing, and testing once again.

At NS804, we guide businesses in mobile app development.

Contact NS804 to get started on your business app development journey.

 

7 Steps to Prepare for a Successful App Launch

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In 2021 alone, consumers downloaded a total of 200 billion apps. The rising trajectory of mobile app adoption reveals immense interest among consumers for new exciting apps. However, this doesn’t mean you can create an app in weeks, relax and hope for revenues. Launching an app requires an understanding of market trends and a lot of effort.

Below we go through the different phrases of successful app launch.

1. Define Goals and KPIs

After defining a market proposition and building an app that fulfills a specific need, now it’s time to launch your new product. Start by defining clear goals and key performance indicators KPIs for your application.

It’s easier to identify your app’s strengths with sufficient information about your market and buyer persona. And with specific metrics in place, you can determine if your app’s launch is a success, or you can conduct productive usability testing to eliminate any obstacles before your app gets to the end-user.

2. Prototype Testing

It’s crucial to test your app right away. It’s a great solution to have a QA engineer review your app from inception to completion and evaluate it throughout and before it’s launched. And when the prototype is ready, you should submit it to your sampled representatives for honest review and feedback about usability and functionality.

3. Build Buzz

The next step is to build a landing page and collect emails. A simple one-pager landing page with an email field is adequate. Collect emails and ask for subscriptions. It’s advisable to compile a list of early adopters and engage them before launching.

4. Make Specific Plans

After going through any possibilities, gathering relevant information, building and testing your app, now it’s time to determine the app’s launch date. Your target audience must know exactly when to expect the finished product. This step presents an excellent time to build a marketing plan that covers your distribution channels, the timeline, and the message you’ll convey.

5. Beta Release

Create a contained release to show how the actual product will act in the real world without risking the app’s performance. This research must be specific and must confirm that every functionality is intact. You can leverage these actionable insights to get closer to the launch date. These insights provide you with the meaningful feedback you need for a successful launch.

6. Select Launch Platform

You should select stores that your app will be available on based on your choice of technology or development. Go through the approval process and set the launch date. Each mobile app store has requirements, rules, and policies when publishing your app. Carefully review all the details and prepare your app for publishing by complying with the set requirements. A crucial part of this preparation involves creating a description and high-quality videos and screenshots to showcase. If you adhere to the guidelines given in each store, you will encounter no problems publishing your app right away.

7. Launch Date

Although the launch date is the most exciting part of the app development process, it should come easy with all the steps you’ve done before. Make use of all the materials you’ve used along the way and make a push through the available channels. Whether you’ve opted for PR articles or social media influencers, the goal is to make the “call-to-action” for download as visible as possible.

  • Post-Launch Tracking. After the launch date, keep tracking performance to get an idea of how the launch was and if it met your key performance indicators KPIs.
  • React on feedback. The feedback and insights you obtain from your audience are only valuable if you act on them. Try fixing bugs, testing performance updates, and implementing new functionalities that your users recommend.

Contact NS804 for mobile app development (and launching) solutions.