The Biggest App Planning & Design Mistakes Businesses Make, According to Experts [DesignRush QuickSights]

With 6.6 billion global smartphone users, as per Statista, businesses increasingly leverage mobile apps to connect with their audience. However, Fyresite estimates that 99.5% of apps fail. And according to MobileAppDaily, bad UX is one of the major reasons users uninstall them. There is no special formula for success, but there are specific design elements that can make or break apps.

DesignRush, a B2B marketplace connecting businesses with agencies, leveraged its 13,000-agencies-strong network for quick insights – or “QuickSights” – on the biggest app planning and design mistakes businesses make.

1) STARTING DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT PREVIOUSLY CONDUCTED CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS

In the opinion of Igor Repeta, project manager at Empat, most businesses fail to conduct customer interviews which is the key to delivering products that customers need.

“As we specialize in developing solutions for startups, the most common mistake is that clients start tech development without first conducting customer interviews,” said Repeta. ”According to a CBS Insights study, 35% of startups fail due to a lack of market need. As a result, a development company creates a mobile app that, as it turns out, the customers do not require. Early customer involvement can help deliver a successful product and reduce production costs.”

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2) NOT VERIFYING THE USERS’ NEEDS

Ace Infoway COO Vipul Shah adds that enlisting a good product analyst will help collect valuable user feedback. Then, you can adjust your expectations accordingly.

“Falling in love with your idea is easier than taking a step back and verifying whether users really need what you’re building,” said Shah. “I call this phenomenon ‘Visionary Premises’. 25% of apps downloaded by worldwide users were only accessed once after download. Every entrepreneur believes they’re Steve Jobs. But, when starting app development, make sure to enlist a good product analyst who will run small user studies and comply with how people interact with the prototype. Listen to their feedback and adjust your expectations accordingly.”

3) DESIGNING APPS FOR A WRONG PURPOSE

According to Andrey Kozhuhov, CEO of CimpleO, some businesses invest in app building for the sake of following trends rather than solving a problem.

“Avoid designing an app without purpose and ignoring budget restrictions,” said Kozhuhov. “Apps are often designed in order to follow trends, rather than to solve a problem, a pretty usual case when the client already spent 90% of the budget on a fancy design without any functional MVP or proper CustDev. Result — fail.”

4) NOT SETTING A NAVIGATION FRAMEWORK

White Cloak Technologie CEO Donn Gamboa believes that not setting a navigation framework is a big mistake since it is the key to proceeding in the right direction.

“By far the most common mistake is not setting a navigation framework,” said Gamboa. “Many successful startups follow the lean startup methodology, where a hypothesis is being tested every iteration. In this way, we ensure that every iteration equates to validated learnings, which turn the company in the right direction.”

5) HAVING AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF UNNECESSARY APP NOTIFICATIONS

Wild Web Art CEO Serge Lavrinchuck states that an excessive amount of unnecessary app notifications can lead to more app uninstalls.

“An excessive amount of app notifications coerces customers to uninstall the app,” said Lavrinchuck. “According to Clever Tap, 12.6% of users uninstall apps due to unnecessary notifications. However, notifications play a great role in user retention, so you can take consent from users about the type of notifications they would like to receive and send them to optimize [the] user experience.”