This article is to figure out the relation between creativity and mobile app development. Also, to find whether it is possible to have a successful mobile app without being creative.
Do you know? 90% of startups fail in the first three years of founding. This failure rate seems to be close across all the industries.
The number one reason startups fail is misreading market demand— 42% of the total cases –CBInsights.
What would you do to make sure that you are not one of these?
If you closely think, the biggest reason a startup fails is that the product does not have a market. Either it does not solve a real problem for customers, or too many products out there.
According to Statista, in 2014, worldwide mobile app revenue amounted to was over 97 billion U.S. dollars, which has been projected to increase to more than 935 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Most of the amount is contributed by paid downloads and in-app purchases.
What does this mean? – The 10% successful apps have increased the industry revenue by ten times in 10 years. We can conclude two things from the story so far:
- Mobile apps are a lucrative domain.
- The most common reason why startups fail is there was no need for the app.
How to find a creative Idea for mobile apps?
Finding a good problem to solve could be a lot harder than people think. It comes with a lot of observation, thinking, putting oneself in customer shoes, and building it well and multiple times. Here are some simple tips: –
- Build Mental Muscles – Search for the best ten mobile apps in your industry. It is not to copy great ideas; this is to understand how they solve problems. Learn the flow, UI, UX, and how they are solving the issues.
- Think about a problem you want to solve, something you care about. Make sure you understand more about the problem than the solutions already there in the market
- If it has not been solved before, talk to your friends, colleagues, and customer. Get their insight to understand whether they appreciate your solution or not.
- Stay updated with new advancements, technology, and trends. You need to be aware of the industry and technology impacting it.
What factors to consider while planning a mobile app?
Whether you are creating an app from scratch or you already have an existing app. You can consider multiple aspects like improving the performance, speed optimization, making it secure, adding new features, simplifying the user experience, implementing user feedback, and app modernization through technological innovations.
Here are some of the creative ideas you can think of:-
Performance
You can’t go wrong here. Especially if you are in a competing market with many other players, considering application performance as the differentiator can create wonders. Though the functionality can remain the same, you are set for success if you work on efficiency and ease of use.
For example, Zoom, a video conferencing app, had many established competitors like Skype, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangout. However, Zoom became the market leader by focusing on ease of access, keeping the latency below 150 milliseconds, low data usage, device identification capability, cloud-based infrastructure, and cheapest price structure.
Today Zoom owns almost 49% of the global market share with nearly 400 million meetings per day. The success of zoom can be attributed to understanding customer complaints, improving connectivity issues, reducing video and audio lags, and simplifying the installation process.
Innovation
There are so many customer problems that are yet to be solved. If you have a fresh new novel idea that will either solve an existing customer problem or save them time, money, effort, or help them connect, communicate, or engage better with the world. The road to success is bright for you.
For a long time, finding a suitable means of commutation for various purposes was a big challenge. This problem gets multifold when you are in a new city or country where you are unaware of the location, language, and rates. Uber saw this challenge and created an intuitive ride-sharing application. The advantages for customers were that they could easily book a reliable cab, know the price they need to pay and get service anytime and anywhere. It also solved the problems for cab drivers by providing a consistent source of booking, thus earning. Rest is history; you already know the Uber success story.
Technological Advancement
There was nothing wrong with Kodeq and Nokia. They were the finest businesses in photography and mobile phone manufacturing. What they missed was seeing the technological advancement in the industry. They missed the approaching revolution of digital photography and smartphones, and the rest is known to all.
Though these are not the best examples to take concerning mobile apps, the point I am trying to make is that it is essential to have a constant watch on technology advancement and consumer behavior. If you have the right pulse at the right time of the approaching disruption, you can ride the wave and can go long ahead.
For this, keep a tab on cloud-based development, wearable devices, big data, IoT, mobile banking, mobile gaming, application security, artificial intelligence, drones, geofencing, virtual reality, biometrics, etc.
Think of how you can leverage these technologies to get a competitive edge. One good example is Pokémon Go, which used augmented reality in mobile gaming and is still a category leader.
Emerging Industries
John Ratcliff got a bitcoin as a gift in the year 2012. He researched about bitcoin and decided to invest another $15,000 for 150 bitcoins. Today, the cost of one bitcoin is $40,075. John’s understanding of the emerging industry helped him build a fortune of 6 million dollars in less than ten years.
COVID-19 has disrupted many traditional businesses and has turned many into emerging industries like remote healthcare, wearables, virtual fitness, eLearning, 3D printing, industrial automation, robotics, online grocery, conversational AI, contactless finance cybersecurity, virtual events, cloud kitchens, etc.
Being creative about a line of business around a product, idea, or technology, which is in its early stages of development, could be your goldmine.
Relevance
In 2021, more than 250 billion applications were downloaded worldwide, with a retention rate of 32%. The low retention rate shows that the apps are not fulfilling the desires of the end-users. So the primary success metric is the app’s relevance for the users and your mindset of constant improvements and learning.
How to have a successful mobile app?
Now you have an excellent idea, and you have considered the factors which will establish your success road map. What’s next – be like Apple.
You know, Apple was hardly first in anything, but Apple was the best many things. Customers like the best, visually and inexperience as well.
First Impressions Count
The first impression counts, be it a date, buying a car, or going for lunch. Users will notice the design even before they download the app. A beautiful creative design is the first step, and this will affect everything.
Excellent User Experience
User experience is how your app interacts with its users and how it feels from the user’s perspective. How users react to your mobile app should amount to your top concerns. It is about making the application easy to use, frustration-free, and executing the requested action.
Less is More
Users want everything clean, clear, and easy simple. So, here is the key, create intuitive mobile apps which are easy to navigate and explore. For inspiration, look at Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp. What do you see in common?
Take Care of Screen Size
Phones today come in a lot of sizes and resolutions. So it would be best if you considered the most used devices and how people hold them. Adjust navigation as per screen sizes. Remember, you only get a thumbs up if your app is comfortable to users thumbs.
To Conclude
A mobile app is like a good burger, where the meat patty is the problem you solve, and the bun is the app you solve it through, and you know how good it is only when the customer loves it. You must add some cheese and some spicy seasoning. Most of the time, finding the meat patty is where the game lies.
The world is going mobile, and for having a successful app, you need to invest a lot in creative thinking and hard work. Your app must solve a customer problem and provide a quality user experience. If you are not Apple, there is no rest for you. Research and Work, Period. You don’t need to listen to jingle bells right now.
Often people get stuck not in the ideation phase but at the execution phase. It is always good to involve an expert mobile app development company in the execution phase, as a lot of design and development sense comes through experience.
Remember, your mobile app should empower your customers.
