1. Find the purpose

Firstly, it’s important to be clear about what you’re trying to achieve - how to best serve your users. Modern users expect quality interactive experiences, on the devices of their choosing. The increasing prevalence of digital native customers and staff alike, (as millennials have reached maturity) power the growth of mobile and drive trends such as BYOD. Whether you need to deliver premium content to these customers, run events, train staff, speed up admin, improve compliance, and much more - you first need to know who’s going to use your app and why.

Next, creating an inventory of your existing content, and setting objectives will help you define the format your app will take; the information it should contain and who will use it.

2. Research

Whether you outsource your app development depends a great deal on your in-house capabilities, and how much bespoke functionality you need. Even if you have a well-resourced and capable development team, the key considerations are; speed to market, ongoing maintenance, cross-platform capability and longevity.

App platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers like Rakuten Aquafadas can often offer a greatly simplified route to success, by taking the pressure off your organisation. From maintaining servers, to keeping up with OS updates, new devices and more, PaaS solutions minimise the need for long-term specialist IT support, allowing marketers and other line-of-business professionals to create content and administer day to day app operations.

But ongoing support is still an important consideration! Both business objectives and user expectations constantly evolve, so apps need to deal with more data and new requirements. Consider service level agreements (SLA’s) carefully and review regularly for appropriateness.

3. Experience led design

All too often, apps are created with a series of functions in mind – content deployment, feedback gathering, data entry, etc. There isn’t enough consideration given to user experience, which ultimately governs whether or not the app will be used.

Creating a successful user experience depends on a strong app architecture. This covers a number of elements including; how to access data, functions the app must be able to perform, cross-platform capability, and even connectivity or bandwidth expectations. Above all, the app architecture always has to keep in mind the core usability principles, to deliver superb user experience (UX) - intuitive navigation, and well presented, useful content.

4. Launch & Build Lasting Engagement

B2B or B2C - apps need to be ‘sold’ to their users. When your app is ready for release, it needs marketing and distribution support to encourage uptake. Whether you aim to increase productivity or deliver content, it’s imperative your app reaches the tipping point to ensure ROI.

In the early days of launch, a ‘listen and respond’ strategy is important as few apps launch without bugs or content glitches. Feedback is the most important way for app developers to iterate and improve their product.

Once your app is live, it’s important to develop an ongoing marketing strategy to build new users and keep existing ones coming back. This topic is worthy of it’s own blog, but the channels and techniques are as varied as any marketing campaign - from advertising, to email, social engagement and more. For existing users, perhaps the key tool is push notifications.

5. Measure & Improve

Just as with other digital properties, app analytics can offer real insight into popular content, typical user journeys, bottlenecks, and usability issues. From the moment of launch, all app owners - whether consumer or corporate, should use this information to constantly improve user experience.

Throughout its lifecycle, it’s important that any app has a champion within your organisation, responsible for ensuring its continued improvement - an app is a long term investment, but equally - it pays long term dividends.