Explanation of how to make a successful APP

Note: Based on my rich application development and design practices and a large number of excellent application examples, it summarizes and refines a series of related principles from product concepts, design, development to marketing, and guides mobile developers to create a successful and profitable application. I hope this article will bring you some insights and help.

Address: http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/11/07/succeed-with-your-app/

Most applications fail. This cruel reality has shattered a lot of fantasies that success in Apple store is like getting rich in the Gold Rush: All you need is luck.

The idea of luck is dangerous. It is like an anesthetic used to relieve the pain of failure. It is a good thing to feel pain, so that you can see the problem. If my application fails, I will find the cause of the failure. Rather than blaming those factors beyond your control, why don't you look at what companies like tap and Tapbots have done to make them succeed again and again.

Although it is almost impossible to adopt a set of defect-free models, working in this direction will significantly increase your chances of success. These ideas take the iOS platform as an example, but many rules also apply to other platforms.

 

1. product concept

Any successful application must be based on a solid product concept, because the concept determines the final potential of the product. If you suddenly see a flash in your bath, you need to resist the impulse to turn it into a product immediately. A few preliminary research work can help you save a lot of trouble in the next work.

Search for Blank points

Phill Ryu continuously tracks successful applications in a record, including Clear, The Heist, and Classics. The secret to verifying his product concept is quite simple: finding gaps. There are a lot of gaps in App Store in terms of product quality, user experience, and concept innovation. These gaps are great opportunities to fill. Let's look at several examples:

Clear: in thousands of to-do applications, Clear fills gaps in the interaction mode and user interface of similar products. Entering a field full of competition does not seem to be a smart approach, but the larger the market, the more opportunities it provides. The key is whether you can propose new solutions.

Tweetbot: Twitter acquired Tweetie and adopted a free policy to impress the public. Tweetbot fills the gap among Twitter users with more powerful functions.

ITranslate Voice: the emergence of Siri fascinated the world, but also brought opportunities for applications such as iTranslate Voice. Such applications operate like Sire but provide different functions. The birth of each new technology will bring new opportunities and gaps.

Of course, it is unlikely to easily find a mature field and enter it. However, there are still many opportunities and gaps, especially in design. Find the blank space you are interested in and fill it.

 

Income problems

Most applications do not make money. If the product revenue is very important to you, you 'd better understand which types of applications can make money and which ones cannot. Based on the "Double App Store Theory" of Marco Arment, I divide applications into four categories, three of which can make money, and the other can not.

Applications can be divided into different types based on users' average profits and downloads.

 

　　Popular products

• High value and low price.
• It is attractive to the vast majority of people. The target users are impulsive consumers who browse the rankings and Recommendation Lists.
• Promote product release through large-scale marketing activities.
• If hundreds of downloads cannot produce significant benefits, more downloads are required.

Case: Clear ($3) and iTranslate ($1)

 

　　High-quality niche products

• Low value and high price.
• Positioned in niche markets.
• The user finds out the product through detailed research and is willing to purchase the product at a high price to improve the quality of life.
• The huge profits produced by a single user make the traditional method of obtaining customers more feasible.

Case: OmniFocus (USD 10) and Proloquo2Go (USD 190)

 

　　High-quality public products

• High value, high profits for a single user.
• It is only suitable for new teams that have startup funds and need to make huge profits.
• Small but high quality.

Case: TomTom GPS ($50), Pandora ($3.99 for monthly subscription), and free applications that generate huge average profits through built-in addictive additional equipment or points.

 

　　Most Failed Products

• Low-value, low profits for individual users.
• Even if such an application has gained popularity, its limited attractiveness and low price also impede product success in the true sense.

Developers read the inspirational stories of applications that make up a millionaire and pay attention to the number of mobile devices sold every day, then, they made an optimistic estimate of the number of APP products they downloaded in an extremely small number. They believe that as long as they are favored by a small number of users in the market, they will be able to sell their applications at a price of $0.99 and create a bright future and wealth.

Things are far from that simple. They realized the cruelty of reality only when they found that the app was launched six times on the first day, and most of them came from their friends and family. The concept of this application may satisfy their own niche needs, but it is difficult for a product that is too niche to succeed.

Your product may also belong to this type. Do not underestimate this issue.

　　Developing an app that can make money is not easy.As David Barnard suggested in App Cubby, the sustainable revenue model in the future depends on the real free model, that is, by bringing enough downloads for free, then, we constantly seek innovative ways to help users discover the significance of purchasing more applications. This model has not been verified in non-game applications, but this unknown also gives the whole industry more excitement.

 

Make value statement

I mean to write something. Write down the core concepts of your product, and then define your application and its target market in one sentence. Apple's internal applications all adopt this approach, and you also need this.

For example:

Grades helps students understand the credits they need to earn next semester.

If you cannot clearly understand the basic value of your product concept in one sentence, this product is too complicated. Mobile apps need to focus on a task and do their best, because it is necessary for your target users to have a strong desire to use the application at a simple glance.

After defining the core value of a product, check whether each feature is in conflict with it, and then remove the non-conforming parts.

 

2. Design

Design is an extremely important part of Apple culture. It is not accidental that Apple's applications have consistently maintained a good design. Whether an application can be successful plays a crucial role in design.

 

Don't let me think

Similar to websites, mobile apps can be discarded at any time. If an application cannot display its features and usage immediately after it is opened, the user will not be reluctant to uninstall the application. The title of Steve Krug conveys exactly what designers want: Don't let me think. A good interface should be as easy to understand as a door handle.

 

Back to nature

Every cool feature inevitably increases the complexity of the application. Remove the product and present the essence of elements on the screen or even on each screen. A good design is to say no to the concept, rather than simply taking care of it,

 

The left-side to-do applications are filled with various "cool" functions that affect the core experience. The Clear on the right challenges every design point and only presents the last remaining essence.

 

　　 Considerations for UI specifications

Based on the daily experience of operating systems and basic applications, users have specific expectations for the behavior of interface elements on the device. Pay attention to the interface design specifications (iOS man-machine interface design specifications and Android user interface design specifications) and be sure to understand these design specifications before breaking the general rules.

 

To pursue a unique design, the grade input interface on the left ignores the most basic navigation elements. Similar interfaces in my Grades application are customized based on iOS interface design specifications.

 

Think like humans

The user's mind has its own cognitive model for the way the world runs. Design Based on users' cognitive thoughts on things, rather than being limited by your database or programming technology.

 

In the figure on the left, the scanning interface of the original Redlaser version requires users to click the photograph after aligning the bar code they are interested in to obtain information. Then, the application becomes more easy to use after they optimize and improve the bar code scanning according to the actual situation. Close, click it to complete.

 

Don't let me do things

Users are lazy. They don't want to read the instruction and hate typing. The best application should minimize the number of operations that the user needs to perform.

 

Triplt on the left is a good application, but its homepage does not provide enough motivation to encourage user registration. If an application can work without account logon, You can first understand the application and register it later. You can also provide an attractive guiding process like TuneWiki in the picture on the right to attract users to complete registration.

 

Test availability

Do not be scared by words such as eye scans and focus groups. Just do what you want to do! The vast majority of basic availability problems can be discovered only by giving potential users a look at the product interface. Ask some questions, such as "what do you think this application can do? How do you complete these tasks ?, Then observe their response. Perform tests in advance, review the entire design scheme at all times, and improve the design process.

 

Emotional

Weightbox start interface sliding panel animation effect, humorous text in Everyday, Clear completed items after satisfying form sorting effect... Although these small details are not practical, they can lead to strong user feedback. These applications present their own "personality characteristics ". You can like it or hate it, but you are sure you will remember it and are more willing to share it with others.

Now, availability alone is not enough. The best applications focus on the details that can be more pleasant.

 

　　Visual Effects

Beautiful applications can be sold better, used more happily, and make users feel that they are worth the money. "Beautiful" not only exists in the rich gradient, texture and shadow, simple, elegant, readable and tasteful layout also makes people feel beautiful. When using the "quasi-materialized" visual style, it should be used only in the enhancement experience, rather than interfering with the interface.

 

53. The ipad app Paper designed by the company

 

Sound Effects

Sound effects are a subtle and powerful tool in the composition of the user interface. Make some attempts to see the improvement of the sound effect on the application.

 

The effects of various sound effects in Tapbots are as expected for mechanical control.

 

Touch magic

Apple's engineers will constantly polish their products until they are perfect. That's why the bounce and rolling effects of the first iPhone were "as smooth as butter ". If the object in the interface cannot respond immediately to the touch, you will feel that you are using a computer instead of actually manipulating the object.

 

All images and objects in Ourchoice can be directly manipulated with fingers.

Touch gestures can provide strong associations between interfaces and users. However, improper use, such as hard to discover or grasp, can also lead to a frustrating experience. Try new interactions until every interaction, gradient, and metaphor are easy to understand and intuitive.

 

Human feelings in the text

Users generally do not like descriptive text, error messages, and notifications. Why don't I try some humorous or even a bit clever texts. Users will like this unexpected pleasure.

 

In the latest application Language I developed, a witty error message not only slows down downloading errors, but also people may even talk about this experience on twitter.

 

Outstanding Animation

Whether it is the movement of interaction elements on the interface or the switching between interfaces, the animation effect can reflect the personality of the product and provide users with continuous and smooth use of the product experience.

 

When you open Weightbot for the first time, you can experience the pleasure of automatically unlocking the animation.

 

Do not ignore icons

Icons are the first impression most users have on your application. It also occupies valuable and limited screen space for users. Excellent icons are usually concise but impressive, and they do not stand out from the crowd. Icons in large sizes tend to look pretty, but they should be sufficiently recognizable Even if scaled down in the app folder on the screen.

 

The Clear icon on the left uses a bright color and a simple shape. The icon on the right has a strong conflict between colors and shapes, and is not recognizable or attractive.

 

3. Development and Programming

The selection of technical solutions will affect the user experience of the application, and affect the final success of the application.

Localized Development

The concept of "one-time development and multiple deployment" is not suitable for small and medium-sized applications. From the very beginning, this idea has been over-optimized. Different operating systems have different UI specifications and modes. In addition to the game interface, this multi-platform sharing method will ultimately result in the failure of a good user experience for each platform.

Over the past few years, Facebook has been trying to develop based on html5. Recently, when they switched to iOS-based localization development, their app performance improved by 200%, and the average user score also increased from 2 stars to 4 stars.

Of course, the best case is to develop and optimize each platform at a time. Applications such as Zipcar have successfully adopted this method. However, Zipcar is an exception for this method. There are some reasons for this:

1) during one development, the concept of multiple deployments severely limits the design of applications. This method kills innovative designs, and removes some specific design details to satisfy the most basic solution suitable for the entire platform.

2) similar to PhoneGap, PhoneGap adopts a hybrid technical solution. It uses JavaScript code to open an application in a browser. Avoid using this solution. Because of its slow running, unstable performance, unnatural performance, and hundreds of errors, JavaScript technology is not fully compatible with the localization experience.

3) tool-type applications similar to Appcelerator adopt a localized development solution. The performance of this solution will be improved a lot, but it still lacks flexibility and the code stability is also lacking. Because you cannot directly access the code running on the background of your mobile phone, it is even more difficult to locate and fix various errors. This solution also makes it difficult to immediately implement various new technologies, which is a significant disadvantage compared with competitors that can be adopted at the beginning of the new technology release.

4) Bottom Line: select the appropriate technical solution based on the design, rather than the design based on the technical solution. First, we need to design a multi-platform application solution, and then observe whether there is a solution similar to Appcelerator. We don't have to abandon the design for compromise.

Code Quality

A well-structured and well-planned code will not directly affect the user experience, but it will certainly affect the success of timely release and stable updating of these products to achieve sustainable development.

Otherwise, poor code will directly affect the user experience. Users do not care about why applications crash or why data is lost. They blame these brand errors.

It may be difficult to hire developers on an hourly basis. In the same time, a poor programmer can write a functional module, while a good programmer can write three robust and stable modules. Once you decide to replace that bad programmer, it is very likely that the successor will spend time re-writing the code, because the legacy code can only be understood by the author. The code written by excellent developers is usually easier to reuse.

 

4. Marketing

If your team already has a marketing department, it's not bad, but the grassroots marketing activities initiated by developers or designers are often more efficient. Believe me, no one knows who I am when I started. Now, I have been paying attention to my applications, including Apple, Mashable, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post, and Fox News. Except for the cost of website construction and maintenance, I did not spend a penny on marketing activities.

Start early

Many developers believe that marketing activities should begin after the app is released. But this is not the case.

A well-prepared and planned release activity is crucial, especially for applications with low prices. If the release activity fails to push your application to the top few in the rankings, it is likely to be drowned in the thousands of applications released every week. An application that does not appear in the ranking is almost invisible to users.

After the release, the comments left by users are not very helpful in promoting the ranking of applications. This is only the operating mode of the ranking system in App Store. The ranking algorithm has been changing, but it mainly depends on the download volume within a period of time, for example, the four days as of that day. This means that the promotion done on the day does not immediately affect the ranking of the next week. Fragmented marketing is meaningless. Only continuous and centralized promotion can bring results.

As Ken Yarmosh, author of App Savvy, pointed out, marketing activities should be started in the early stages of the product. Then, as the product continues to be launched, it is known that the release day has made a perfect blow.

Make friends

Networking is a crucial factor. They will make your marketing campaigns more effective. No relevant interpersonal relationships mean that you cannot get media attention, and your applications will be drowned in thousands of highly competitive applications.

I have created many follow lists on Twitter, including Apple employees, media staff, and some well-known iOS developers. This will help me establish connections with them.

　　Communicate with Apple employees, tech writers, and well-known design developers in the circle.These people are really cool, and they are willing to deal with people with good products and ideas.

　　1) find them

Twitter is a good place, where almost influential people in the industry send Tweets.

Posting comments on a well-known blog or writing emails to the author is a good way to get started.

Face-to-face communication is the most effective. We will participate in several WWDC and other industry conferences to recognize many people.

2) Interesting, but do not post spam ads

The chance to communicate with these people does not mean they will be interested in your application for a long time. First, establish meaningful interpersonal relationships. They will ask you what interesting things you are doing. When you show your work results, you can seek advice and feedback instead of advertising sales. This will bring good results.

3) Rewards

Understand their ideas and what they need in the process of communication, so as to establish meaningful interpersonal relationships. Maybe you can answer the technical questions they asked on Twitter or express your understanding of the ideas in their blog. Make sure you have some feedback! If you do it several times, they will surely notice you. Remember that people are vanity. When you appreciate their work, you must let them know.

4) Publish interesting information

Link to some thoughtful articles, or even write blogs to share what you have learned. People like to read real logs and application analysis articles. Websites like iDevBlogADay will recommend your articles to you.

Publicity

You certainly don't want the results to be very bad on the day of release, so you can start to publicize the trend several weeks before the application is released. This is to create the first batch of user fans and ensure that they will become the first batch of download applications on the day of release.

Websites like Teaser can help you build your expected and collect users' email addresses.

1) Create Twitter and Facebook accounts for your applications. This provides a quick way for potential users to focus on applications. You can publish product preview information, update progress, and other content. You can even focus on those who may be interested in your application. They will see your attention and then learn about your products.

2) create a product preview page and provide a form for users to leave their mailboxes. Provide attractive content, such as attractive webpage design, beautiful or even a video.

3) create a demo video. Nothing is better than a well-made video. The Clear Demo Video demonstrates this point. This is also a good way to present products to the media.

4) Internal test. Your testing users will become the first Loyal users after the product is released. Because they will feel that they are associated with the product.

Recommendation

Since winning Apple's Design Award, my applications have been competing for recommendations by various technical media, which I previously asked. However, the downloads produced by all these media sets are not as large as those officially recommended by Apple.

So how can we get recommendations from Apple? Tens of thousands of applications are published every week, and only a few applications can be placed on the homepage of the app store.

Only a small number of applications can be posted on the Apple Store homepage.

First, applications should have points worth recommending. It must attract Apple's interest in a certain aspect. Is it well-designed? Can it reflect the strength of the apple platform? What are the characteristics that other similar products do not possess? Any of these points can be your chance to get a recommendation. Fortunately, few products have the characteristics you just discussed, which gives you the opportunity to stand out.

Second, you need to attract Apple's attention. It is a very valuable opportunity to contact Apple internally. In general, you need to get their attention through your own efforts before Apple takes action. Apple has an editing team. They are looking for recommended applications, and you need to make your products appear in those areas of their attention. Based on my past experience, they may pay attention to the applications that are "Hitting the rankings. Therefore, make sure that the product has a good sales volume on the day of release. Each application category requires at least several hundred downloads to appear in the list. In addition, think about the websites on which you may find new high-quality applications, or the websites that Apple's editors are interested in.

Media Power

Media reports will help you establish product credibility, bring the first batch of downloads, and get exposure opportunities in front of celebrities or Apple employees. The media are very busy. At least one to two weeks before the release, they should be able to get their attention, so as to ensure that the relevant reports appear in front of everyone on the day of the release.

Obtaining media reports is an indispensable part of an outstanding marketing strategy.

Now is the time for you to contact friends you have known in the media and technology circles. Show them product previews and see if they are interested in learning more.

After you contact these links, you can call them. You can tell a story, keep it short and personal, and never forget to keep track of it.

Create user group

The most powerful companies have a large user base. Sonico Mobile, the company that developed the latest application of ages, recently released an application named iTranslate Voice. They achieved good results without any help from the media or apple. How did they do it? Because Sonico has tens of millions of iTranslate Loyal users, all they need to do is send a new product promotion email to these users.

Users can easily subscribe to all Sonico application information on Twitter or email.

It takes time to establish a large user group. Make sure that you can easily add your email address, love your Facebook homepage, and follow your Twitter account. In addition, you can consider releasing a free application for the public to get more users. For example, if Swappit provides free advertising services, you can accumulate points and redeem all the points on the day of application release in exchange for application promotion.

 

Summary

There are many criteria for measuring success. The first version of my application Grade only generates less than $10000 in revenue, but it is the first step towards the Apple Design Award and brings me a lot of valuable contacts in the industry. Now, our company is positioned to launch top-selling applications such as ages, not just to generate higher revenues than Grade.

It is very difficult to achieve success in wealth, but as long as you work hard, it will become more and more simple. As you continue to build high-quality applications, your brand will gradually be recognized by the media and Apple. Your team will gain valuable practical experience and you will build a large user base. This is indeed a long-term task, but the return is incredible. It's amazing when you know that your hard work is a pleasure for millions of people. Keep learning, don't complain, change the world.