Design

Refining Your App Concept: 5 Tips to Improve Your Existing App Idea

Ideation is always the starting point. If you do not have a clear understanding of your audience or a clear idea of what your app’s purpose is, you’re doomed to fail. Many apps never get off the ground because the creators did not do enough research. But this article comes in handy with five quick ideas to truly refine your app concept into a unique app that stands apart from the rest.

Many apps never get off the ground because the creators did not do enough research.

1. Discover Your Untapped Market

If you’re passionate about a specific hobby and have not found any related apps, that might be a great space to fill.

Discover how big your market is. There are many successful apps in the market. Use free tools like Google trends or Google Keywords. They help measure the interest level in your niche.

Remember, the more niche it is, the small your potential customer base will be. By broadening your idea, your app dramatically expands its potential customer base, making it a more viable app concept.

2. Beta Testing Your App

This is where the app development really gets exciting. Collect up to 1,000 beta testers that roughly match up to your target demographics and sit them down in front of your app demo. Let them play around and get a feel for it. Then ask some key questions:

  • Do you like it? Why or why not?
  • What would you add, take-away, and change?
  • Would you pay for it? Why or why not?
  • How would you feel about ads within the app?
  • Would you tell your friend about it?

TestFlight is the service that many developers are turning to first for help in distributing their apps to testers. Register yourself, upload your app to the site and construct your team of beta testers.

3. Hosted Mobile App Frameworks.

These platforms enable developers to create native apps using a framework and/or native SDKs and then connect that app to a cloud that hosts content and provides services, including:

  • Feeds,
  • Media streaming,
  • Real-time image and media format optimization, and
  • Analytics.

If you’re developing an app with a game-like, heavily touch-oriented design, you should consider native SDK approach.

4. Define your Differentiator

What can your app do that makes it better than the rest? The more features you add, the more streamlined and intuitive your interface design needs to be, especially on a small mobile screen.

Look at official Twitter app. Twitter’s developer continues to add dozens of new features with every release, while spending much time simplifying the UI design so that additional features never interfere with enjoying the app’s core Twitter functionality.

Use Twitter to build the best apps. Twitter’s premise is simple with four features:

  • Asymmetrical relationships
  • Follow and update using SMS
  • Trends and Search
  • Open API.

Remember: Each new feature you implement serves to further empower the user without diminishing the app’s usability.

5. Target Multiple Devices

Unless your app needs an iOS system feature that’s exclusive to a specific device, it’s in your best interest to make your application available to as many users and devices as possible. It’s simple sales logic, really. A larger target audience equals a larger number of potential customers.

For simple apps, use Napa. You can use Visual Studio for complex apps. You can easily port apps created in Napa to Visual Studio for further enhancement.

You covered a lot of ground in this article. You need to refine your app concept to ensure your users are staying with you. The longer they stay and the more they use your app, the more valuable they will be to you.

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