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How to Research your Competitors

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You’ve come up with the most brilliant, original idea for an app, and you’ve decided on your target market – now it’s time to start designing, right? Wrong. Before moving on, you need to do a little more research. This time, it’s research into your competition. In order to create a successful app, you need to observe the enemy to see what they do well – and what they don’t do so well. We’ve created a spreadsheet you can download to help you keep track of all this data. There are reminder notes attached to the column headings to remind you how to fill all the information in. Find your competitors First, in the spreadsheet, you’ll see a column where you can list all of your competitors. While there aren’t any real rules about how many competitors you look into, we usually focus on at least the strongest five and the weakest five, giving you a total of ten apps to study. To find these competitors, make a list of several of the most relevant keywords for your app, and search these on the app store. Make a note of which apps rank highly, and which rank poorly. Once you’ve collected this information, see if there are any trends – do certain apps consistently rank highly for more than one of your keywords (a positive competitor)? Do any consistently rank lower down (a negative competitor)? These are the apps you want to be looking at. Double-check that these apps are in fact competitors. They should be somewhat similar to your app in some way if they consistently rank well for your keywords, but confirm that they indeed are competitors and fill in why in the spreadsheet. Once you establish your ten competitors, fill in the spreadsheet with the keywords you searched, the ranking of your chosen apps, and if they are a positive or negative competitor. We have ten keyword spots open on the spreadsheet, but you can take away or fill in keywords as needed. Check each app Next, you’ll have to examine each app closely. You should download each app and use it yourself, taking note of what you like and don’t like about the app as you use it. Is it easy to navigate? Confusing? Do all of the buttons work correctly? You must also read many of each app’s user reviews, taking note of what users do and do not like. Fill in what you have noticed in the appropriate spots in the spreadsheet, under “What they do well” and “What they do poorly.” Use their weaknesses In the end, you will be incorporating these pros and cons into how you go about building your own app. Take the weaknesses of other apps and make those strong points for your own. Use the features that consistently work well for your competitors. Consider upgrading these features, but don’t forget the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It’s a popular saying for a reason! If you’re reading this post and sitting back the whole time thinking, “I can skip all of this, my idea is completely new and I have no competitors,” think about why you don’t have anyone competing in your field. Maybe it is because your idea has been tested in the past but has never been sustainable. Perhaps there was no demand for the idea. But hey, maybe you have discovered the new big thing!Now that you’ve researched your competition, it’s time to get to the fun part and create your first mockup!

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How to Find Inspiration for App Design

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There are few things we love more than creating custom apps for our clients. Thanks to our expertise and experience, we’re always being asked to flex our creative muscles, allow our imaginations to run riot, and implement the latest trends and ideas into our app designs. However, even for seasoned professionals like us, there’s a common problem which strikes even the best of us down from time to time: creative block. That’s right: it’s not just authors and artists who struggle with the nagging irritation of struggling to come up with winning ideas from time to time. App developers constantly have to be on the hunt for new, eye-popping designs, innovative approaches, and trendsetting, unique ideas and that really can be exhausting. Whether you’ve been called upon to design a new app for an up-and-coming business project, need to create a stunning platform for an event or money-making venture, or have been commissioned to dream up new games and entertainment options, creative blocks can be devastating, and tricky to overcome. After all, you want to ensure your client can’t wipe the smile off their face when browsing your app, and making those big impacts is the way to guarantee future commissions. With all that in mind, we thought we’d write an article regarding the search for inspiration, and how to grapple with creative dry periods. Ready to have your imagination sparked into life? Read on, and see where our ideas take you! Stay Grounded The first point we feel we should make is to stay grounded, and to not let creative dryness affect you too strongly. Everybody in the creative industries struggles with inspiration from time to time, and it’s important to not let these temporary dry spots have too much of a negative effect. At the end of the day, there are always going to be moments when you feel like a whirlwind of energy and inspiration, and other moments when you can barely do more than scribble a few meager ideas down on paper. If you find yourself up against a brick wall, do what any other creative do: get out of the house or office, take a walk, enjoy a coffee in the sunshine, have a nap whatever it is you need to do to recharge your batteries and take your mind off the issue for a while. Once you return to your desk, you’ll probably find the ideas start to flow once more. Frustration is the natural enemy of inspiration – don’t let it take a hold of you! Where to Seek Inspiration? This is a question that really has more answers than we have time to write in one short article. As you probably already know, inspiration can come from the most random of sources. Magazines, TV programs, pre-existing apps that call out for improvement, mood boards, music, etc. The list goes on and on and on. As an app developer, you’ll know the places to go to when seeking inspiration, and you probably have your own favorite ways to get the creative juices flowing. However, we’d like to point out one question that you really should be asking yourself, and which often leads to highly satisfactory results. Instead of asking yourself ‘what should I create?’, you need to be asking yourself ‘what needs to be created?’. By putting yourself in the shoes of your client and their audience, you can step out of your usual pattern of working and thinking, and approach your project from a more user-oriented approach. If you were the customer of the business you’ve been booked to create an app for, what sort of features would you most like to see? Which colors or themes would you most immediately be drawn towards? What do you dislike about the apps currently on the market in the same field? All of these kinds of thoughts will help you narrow down your thought processes, and pinpoint more accurately how to proceed. For Love or Money If you’re seeking inspiration for your upcoming app design, it’s probably important to step back a moment and ask yourself an important question: why is it you’re doing what you do? Are you in the app development industry as a designer and passionate artist, or are you in it as a means to make a living? Of course, for many of us, the answer lies somewhere in between… but by thinking in this way, we can help push ourselves out of a slump, and start focusing on the destination, rather than on the journey. Does it help if your app is completely unique and a representation of the pinnacle of your creative powers? Probably. Is it absolutely necessary for every app you create to be this way? Probably not. Is your client interested in getting an app which shows off your creative talents, or one which does the job very well and is perfect for their needs? The answer is surely more likely to be later rather than the former, so instead of worrying about how great the app is going to look in your portfolio, start concentrating on delivering a product which fits the brief. Creative flourishes can come later, but the important part is getting the fundamentals right first! Remember: Most Unique Products are Successful Copies This might sound like an oxymoron, but there’s a lot of truth in this concept. It cannot be denied that many of the most successful and seemingly ‘unique’ apps, platforms, games, etc started their journey as copies and imitations of others on the market. If you browse through some of your favorite existing apps out there, we’ve little doubt that you – as a keen-minded app developer – will be able to find a list of flaws and faults, and niggling small details which you feel could have been done better. In essence, that’s your solution: take what’s already out there on the market, and fill in the gaps, adapt the features, and make the improvements you’d like to

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Research: If There Is An Audience For Your App?

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Do you want to know if there’s any interest in your app or app idea? Not sure how big the market for your app is? Does your app offer the functionalities people really need? These are often pain points for those who develop and market mobile apps. They are often guilty of developing and designing a product without an end user in mind. Having a great idea for an app simply isn’t enough. An app should provide value for a specific group of people. If you take time to define your target audience first, you will save a lot of time and money during later app development stages. Answer the questions at the start of this article and you’ll find out “what your market thinks”. It will give you an idea whether your app will be a success. But how can you do this? Implement early access feedback surveys Let’s say you already have a great app idea and started development. To make it a success, you need to be aligned with your audience. Epic Games, creator of worldwide success game Fortnite, used online surveys in combination with user analytics, social analysis and community sentiment in order to gain deeper insights into how the audience felt about the company and their products. Keeping track of how users perceive the game has always been an important part of the development process for Epic Games. Especially in early access, when there is often still a large amount of balancing and development to be done. Due to their feedback loop, the dialogue between company and audience became of significant importance to the Fortnite developers, who relied on first-hand feedback to improve the quality of their game. This approach lead to a product that has been honed and refined in the interests of the wider community, and the conversation between players and company has ultimately led to a better-finished and very successful product. This focus on listening to the needs of early access app users as well as adapting and implementing the requested changes that gave the developers of Epic Games a competitive advantage over others. Soft launch your app So you have your idea validated, but how do you get your app to really stand out.75% of users uninstall an app within 90 days after installing. You don’t want that. You can waste a lot of money on your app if you don’t test the waters first. A soft launch is a perfect way to optimize your app before you move to a  widespread release. What is a soft launch? A soft launch is a preview release of your product to a limited audience. It allows developers and app creators to acquire a small group of users, receive early customer feedback, and get rid of bugs that you missed during testing. Another great advantage of a soft launch is the ability to increase user retention. Did you know that77% of new apps get deleted just 3 days after the download? Improving user retention should be a top priority. Soft launches give you excellent user feedback. It’s important to know what your users liked and disliked about your app. If you receive similar feedback from multiple users, then you can clearly identify a part of your project that needs some work. As you can see in the graph above, 58% of Android and 63% of iOS users find new apps via the app store. Soft launching is also a good opportunity to see if your app store pages are optimized. App store optimization is a crucial part of your user acquisition strategy so it’s important to get this right early on, it will help you build an audience that you can leverage in later stages to get the word out. Combine an interactive prototype with a survey Create an interactive prototype to draw people to your app and combine it with a survey to get valuable feedback from your users. Creating a prototype combined with a survey offers several advantages, it gives you invaluable feedback from your users. By analyzing yours and your target market preferences you can make informed decisions on how to move forward. Secondly, it allows you to validate your idea. With a prototype, you bring the user interface design to life. User testing helps identify potential improvements. It can bring new ideas to the table and confirm which direction to take during the development process. Since solutions to problems are given early, the development process will be more cost-effective in the long run. Ask questions to make more informed decisions As a method of gathering large volumes of feedback from your audience, surveys are a highly useful market research tool that can be administered for a relatively low cost, in comparison with other data collection methods. This makes surveys or polls highly useful for app builders with an active social following. Take Bowlcut Garms, who regularly use surveys to gain marketing insights, as an example. In the past, Bowlcut used their social media to collect first-hand survey data on topics such as what products customers prefer, or how audience members first heard about the brand. This feedback can then be used to improve their overall product line, and will also provide a wealth of easily understandable data for the team to continue to fine-tune their strategy in the future. However, in this example, these questions have been asked solely via Facebook. Be aware of respondent bias. Assume that these users may respond differently to those who are surveyed through different channels such as email or the phone. Therefore if you are looking to replicate a similar approach, it is always advised to ask questions through multiple channels to reduce any bias that could skew your results. Conclusion Nowadays, having a great app idea just isn’t enough. Your app should offer great value to your audience and finding out who exactly that your audience is, is an essential step to success. Hopefully, with these tips and tactics you can turn

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