Devlight, a leading mobile app development company with a remarkable track record, has been recognized as one of the top iOS development companies in 2023 by Techreviewer.co, a globally trusted and influential source for IT company evaluations and reviews. This recognition puts Devlight in the prestigious list of the top 100 companies from around the globe.

The ranking by Techreviewer.co underscores the continuing excellence of Devlight in providing top-tier iOS app development services. The inclusion in the list is testament to Devlight’s focus on cutting-edge technology, innovative solutions, and their unwavering commitment to deliver high-quality applications that enhance the user experience.

Devlight, headquartered in Kiev, Ukraine, with its top-of-the-line expertise and extensive experience, has been delivering the best-in-class iOS applications to clients across various industries, from tech startups to large enterprises. The team’s technical prowess in iOS development, combined with a customer-centric approach, has propelled the company to new heights, securing its place in Techreviewer’s top 100.

Techreviewer.co is a well-established online analytical hub that carries out studies and compiles lists of the top software development companies in various categories, based on market research and analysis. The recognition of Devlight as a top iOS development company not only showcases the company’s significant capabilities in the field, but it also provides a benchmark for potential customers seeking to source the best in the business. “We are thrilled and humbled to be recognized as one of the top iOS development companies in 2023,” said the spokesperson of Devlight. “Our inclusion in this prestigious list reflects our consistent dedication towards quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction. This is a significant milestone for us, but we see it as just the beginning. We are committed to continuing our efforts in delivering superior iOS applications, further solidifying our position in the global IT industry.”

The post Devlight Featured Among Top iOS Development Companies in 2023 on techreviewer.co appeared first on Devlight.

Mobile eCommerce has reached $3.56 billion in 2022, according to Statista. Chances are you consider entering the eCommerce app development sector. The solution is creating an eCommerce app.

Despite the difficulties affecting the retail industry, we have observed that more and more people are turning to their mobile devices to meet their needs, and apps are becoming important to the buying process. To maintain our competitive edge and brand distinctiveness, business owners should continuously improve the user experience on their apps. This will help them stand out from the competition, stay relevant in the worldwide market, and achieve long-term success.

In this article, we’ll outline several processes for creating an eCommerce app similar to the market giants, discuss e-commerce trends, estimate the cost of developing a mobile-commerce app, and list the features your eCommerce app has to have.

E-Commerce App Development Market Overview 

The worldwide e-commerce market’s size, estimated at USD 9.09 trillion in 2019, is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 14.7% from 2020 to 2027. The global population of smartphone users is growing as internet usage becomes more widespread. Among the many eCommerce possibilities available to the client base that uses the internet more frequently are financial services, e-tailing, travel and leisure, digital content, and travel.

Unsurprisingly, the number of internet shoppers is rapidly increasing. Online shoppers increased from 1.32 billion in 2014 to 1.52 billion in 2016 and 2.14 billion in 2021. This trend will continue as more customers use the internet for shopping. Despite accounting for a sizable portion of retail expenditure (27% in 2021), the mobile commerce app development sphere is expanding more slowly than traditional retail sales (32%).

This mismatch may be caused by the fact that many eCommerce businesses have started investing in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to tailor their content recommendations and suggest comparable products based on historical customer purchasing patterns. As a result, brands that successfully apply AI tactics have higher levels of social media engagement, which helps them draw in new clients and retain existing ones.

Consequently, consumer technical awareness would have a favorable effect on market expansion. In addition, the need for speedier surfing has increased connectivity, which has sped up the development of 4G and 5G technology. So now, let’s talk about other mobile commerce app development trends. 

eCommerce App Development Trends in 2023

New technologies that are introduced into the e-commerce industry have the potential to change the market in less than a year completely. Most e-commerce enterprises regularly follow the digital industry to adopt new solutions on their platforms. This enables companies to remain relevant and offer the finest consumer experiences, enhancing and personalizing them.

Follow (or even get ahead of) the latest e-commerce app development tech trends to ensure you keep up with client expectations and can compete in the market if your main goal is to develop an app offering a fantastic experience. Let’s examine the prevalent tendencies in this market more closely:

• Voice search is increasingly common. In the US, smart speakers are already installed in around 28% of homes, and by 2025, that number is expected to reach 75%. Voice assistants like Alexa or Siri embrace speech recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis to engage with users depending on the predefined scenario, in contrast to chatbots that are solely focused on text communication. This trend is primarily seen in voice-activated shopping apps that process complex queries to improve search outcomes and dialog. As a result, customers may browse and purchase goods using only their voices.
• AI-assisted upselling and cross-selling — according to Amazon, cross-selling accounts for 35% of their overall revenue.
• By adding the AR capability to their app at the most appropriate time, IKEA has amassed 8.5 million downloads. Augmented reality is used to visualize purchased goods.
• Due to the widespread in-store restrictions, the omnichannel approach has become another key component of retail practices. Thus, 60 to 70 percent of US shoppers across all categories conduct in-store and online research before making purchases. Therefore, it makes sense that in 2022, the development of mobile commerce apps will be smoothly included in a unified customer experience that combines offline and online channels to engage customers. 
• The prevalence of subscription-based services offers suppliers 65% conversion rates during the global pandemic.
• The majority of B2C organizations rely on big data to evaluate user activity, boost conversion rates, and provide actionable consumer insights. Personalized suggestions, dynamic pricing, demand forecasts, and trend projections are all supported by big data and its analytics. When used together, these strategies provide retailers control over the supply chain and enable them to maximize sales.
• A well-proven marketing strategy called geofencing is anticipated to generate more than $3 billion by 2026. It allows retailers to send in-app notifications based on a customer’s position, powered by radio frequency identification (RFID) or the Global Positioning System (GPS). This technique, also referred to as geo-targeted advertising, encourages more specific marketing messages and increases regional spending.
• Another trend that is expanding quickly is real-time shopping. This trend is anticipated to be worth $35 billion by 2024. Livestream shopping originated in China and is now a widespread phenomenon combining video, influential people, and E-commerce. Since users may remark on and respond to streams in real time, the phenomenon is also predicated on increased engagement.

The State of M-commerce as Predicted of 2023-2026

According to Statista, retail m-commerce sales in the United States are expected to amount to 710 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

Consumers Spent Nearly 110 Billion Hours in Shopping Apps in 2022

Source: data.ai State of Mobile 2023

Creating an effective mobile user experience should be a priority for E-commerce brands. Here’s why you should take mobile commerce seriously:

60% Of E-commerce Purchases Happened on a Mobile Device

This stat alone should prompt you to look at your site’s mobile experience. Shoppers used a mobile device to make more than half of the online E-commerce transactions which happened in 2022. That’s a 1.2% increase from last year. Brands should ensure their mobile websites are on point to take advantage of this.

Source: Data Report, January 2023

Insider Intelligence Predicts M-commerce Sales to Hit $534.18 Billion, or 40.4% Of E-commerce Sales, in 2024

The m-commerce revolution is being driven primarily by smartphones and tablets. Seven years ago, conversion rates dropped due to customer annoyance from having to complete an order on a smaller screen, and m-commerce was roughly evenly split between tablets and smartphones. Nowadays, smartphones make up 87.2% of all sales made through mobile commerce; m-commerce trends are essentially smartphone trends. The main distinction is that overall, m-commerce is still growing more slowly than smartphone commerce.

Despite a two-year rebound, tablet commerce will lose share and absolute order value this year. By 2026, tablet m-commerce revenues are projected to drop from $61.08 in 2022 to $54.01 billion. This decrease is probably the result of fewer people using tablets overall and better mobile buying experiences.

29% Of Internet Users Make an E-commerce Transaction on Their Phones at Least Once a Week

In 2023, 29.3% of mobile users shop on their devices at least once a week. This is only expected to grow in the coming years. In some countries, that percentage is actually much higher. Here are the top 10 countries by mobile e-commerce purchases:

• South Korea – 44.3%
• Chile – 37.7.%
• Malaysia – 37.7%
• Taiwan – 37.7%
• Philippines – 37.5%
• Mexico – 37.0%
• Indonesia – 36.8%
• Turkey – 36.8%
• Singapore – 35.3%
• Vietnam – 34.4%

The USA’s mobile E-commerce purchase ratio is on 32.2%, while the UK’s comes in at 29.3%.

Source: Data Report, January 2023

E-commerce App Development: Why Your E-commerce Business Needs an App?

The benefits of e-commerce are difficult to sum up in just two words, but the key one to highlight is providing the finest service to each client individually. The following reasons are to accomplish this objective:

Consumers Choose Apps Over Mobile Browsers

There are currently about 15 billion cell phones in use worldwide. The majority of people turn to their mobile devices to swiftly and conveniently make online purchases anytime they want. Websites cannot offer many entertaining elements, such as scanning QR codes with a camera, using GPS to find nearby businesses, or taking payments over the telephone, which can be done directly by applications. E-commerce app development for your company is no longer a luxury but rather a requirement.

Image source: Compuware

Apps for Mobile E-commerce Increase Consumer Retention

Client loyalty matters. Making mobile applications could aid in increasing your clientele. How? The first step is continuous presence. Your app and logo should be seen whenever users use their phones. 

Reduced Response Time

Measuring response time enables the identification of the application’s slow-moving and optimization-required parts. The app reacts more quickly and offers a better user experience making users more inclined to stick with your business and refer others to it. Mobile users choose m-commerce apps because they load way faster and do not cause user journey obstacles common for websites.

Enhanced UX

E-commerce UX refers to the user’s experience while making a purchase on a website. Every touchpoint influences how a user views your brand, website, and goods or services. Users begin to create an opinion about how simple, practical, and effective your e-commerce experience is as soon as they land on your mobile application. 

Thus, this implies that they start doing so right away. UX is essential to e-commerce as it guarantees that customers can quickly explore your app, find what they need, buy it, and move on. They’ll also buy more frequently if you make it simple for them to do so. Because of this, you need to ensure that your business provides the finest UX possible and implements enhanced UX best practices.

Increased Conversion Rates

Due to clients having access to your application from any device at any time, the business will see a significant rise in conversion. Additionally, smartphone features like push notifications, one-click purchases, and easy payment maximize every potential for a sale.

Applications that store data locally and use frameworks that are much faster than JavaScript on the part of websites allow for operation one and a half times faster than that on mobile sites. The best e-commerce applications also allow for offline basket adding and product viewing, which makes them handier than e-commerce websites and more tempting to customers.

User Behavior Changes After Covid-19

The e-commerce boom was considerably hastened by COVID-19, which greatly impacted how individuals make purchases. As a result, the total amount spent on e-commerce in May 2020 was $82.5 billion, up 77% from the same month in 2019. If we were to use the conventional year-over-year gains, it would have taken 4 to 6 years to reach that figure.

Additionally, there are other reasons to start mobile commerce app development besides only having a decent adaptive web view, such as:

• access to a user quickly;
• the ability to contact users through push notifications;
• improved alternatives for monitoring user behavior;
• effective data collection;
• prototype new features and test hypotheses.

Lower Mobile Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

The user experience is what is causing this significant difference between the cart abandonment rate for mobile apps and sites. The online purchasing experience on apps is typically more user-friendly for customers. Challenges on the websites include trouble seeing text and figuring out where to click, which are a barrier to checkout.

Having said that, if a large portion of your store’s online traffic comes from mobile devices, you might want to take additional measures to improve your customers’ mobile website experiences in order to increase revenue and benefit from a lower cart abandonment rate. Offering discounts, being open and honest about your fees, and reclaiming abandoned carts are all examples of great tactics.

Higher Average Order Value

Because it represents the typical amount each client spends, average order value (AOV) is a crucial number for any e-commerce company. A greater average order value shows that a company is generating more revenue through cross-selling or pushing more expensive products. Mobile apps offer a better environment for high AOV because of their seamless UX and all other aspects deciding customer loyalty.

Detailed Analytics

The performance measurements are useful in identifying and resolving issues in real-time. E-commerce application development analytics focuses on the most important issues to the business. Analytics for e-commerce are useful for assessing user behavior, performance trends, and ROI. Marketers use analytics to highlight campaigns’ return on investment (ROI) and help them decide how to boost sales, save costs, and enhance their company’s operations.

Tips to Build an E-Commerce App That Your Users Will Definitely Love

An outstanding user experience and assistance in achieving your business objectives are key components of a successful mobile app. The chosen features contribute to your app’s performance the most, so functionality should be of great focus:

MVP Level Features of an E-commerce App

When searching online, people don’t need more filters; they need better results. Therefore, the essential features are determined by the product itself. If you are constructing Shazam, you only need one button to test the concept. If you’re building the next Amazon, you only need features that offer your clients the most value.

• Simple registration 

Creating a simple sign-up and sign-in process is the first step in creating an e-commerce app. The process often starts with logging in using your email address, username, or phone number. A multifactor authentication system, such as fingerprint scanning, may also be helpful.

• Profile management

The second essential component of e-commerce software is profile management, which allows users to view prior purchases, the status of forthcoming orders, stored addresses, and payment information.

• Search and filter

An e-commerce app aims to make filtering things as simple as possible, whether searching for a specific item or looking through the newest products. The items offered in your store should be easy to find, displayed properly, and interactive (complemented by “add to favorites,” “add to cart,” and “buy now” buttons).

• Product details

The product description is examined in this e-commerce mobile app development section. This information includes the product name, specifications, price, cost of delivery, ratings, reviews, and estimated delivery date.

• Add to cart 

Every mobile commerce app must have a shopping cart so users can quickly add products, modify quantities, and place an order. Users can utilize the function to save things they like and purchase them later. The best way to use this facility is to make it omnichannel-friendly, which basically means that no matter what device your users use to access your e-commerce app, the cart details should duplicate without any issues.

• Purchase the Product

This is the point at which browsers convert to customers. Having a simple checkout sequence with remembered payment options, autofill form fields, and transparency on the timescales for product delivery is one method to make sure it goes smoothly.

• Track the order

Order monitoring comes next on the list of features. After the customer purchases the item, the app should provide tracking information with information on how the purchase is moving and an estimated delivery date.

• Push notifications

Push notification is one of the most important features for notifying users about important updates in e-commerce software. A simple reminder can be used to let a client know that the product has been dispatched, there are new sales up, or new product launches going on.

• Customer service

Customers occasionally require assistance navigating an online retailer when making a purchase error, initiating a return, or exchanging an item. However, the process becomes significantly simplified when there is some e-commerce customer care within the mobile app.

• Admin panel 

The admin panel is a component of e-commerce app development that simplifies the management of processes like orders, clients, and stores for the app administrator. In addition to a filtering mechanism, it eases the promotion and award arrangement process. 

Advanced Features E-commerce Mobile App 

You can incorporate phone functionality into your app to make navigation easier and boost user engagement. Additional e-commerce app development features include engaging your clients’ devices or those that are secondary to the main user experience, e.g., more entertaining than necessary.

• GPS

It enables a program to obtain the user’s current location. By adding a feature that geotags the customer’s address, you can do away with the need to input shipping information manually or allow the user to find the nearest offline stores and departments in case your business has one.

• Visual Search

This feature enables customers to use a smartphone camera to shop. They post pictures from any website, mobile photo bank, or social network profile and the inbuilt visual search will find products that are comparable in terms of color, shape, and size on your e-commerce app. As Gen Z and millennials prefer visual search capabilities to construct retail apps, this is an increasing trend in the internet world. 

• Social Media Integration

This feature of e-commerce applications makes it simple for customers to recommend the item they are thinking about purchasing to their friends or acquaintances on social media platforms.

• Voice Search

Encourage the clients to express their search terms verbally, which will speed up the search process. This feature should be added at any stage of the e-commerce app development, for example, during product scaling.

• Several Payment Methods

A simple and seamless checkout procedure is made possible by having a variety of payment alternatives. The option to pay with a credit card, through a service like PayPal, or possibly with a purchase now, pay later company gives clients some further options.

• In-App One-Click Purchases

According to Barilliance, 85.6% of the time, items added to the app’s shopping basket are never bought. A one-click transaction is incredibly helpful for preventing cart abandonment. The first company to incorporate this function into its app was Amazon. Besides, putting this technology into practice is not too difficult. It enables customers to make immediate purchases from product pages without first adding items to carts and then proceeding to checkout.

• Livestream Shopping

The live broadcast function is one post-pandemic feature that has changed the way internet purchasing is done. Social media giants like Instagram and YouTube were the first to popularize live streaming. Typically, during a live stream, brands present their goods from a variety of profiles and pin a link to them on the screen.

• Buy-Now-Pay-Later

As an alternative payment option, consumers are increasingly expecting a buy-now-pay-later feature service like Afterpay. Users can apply this option to make a purchase and pay for it over time in a number of installments. In fact, it is anticipated that BNPL transactions will rise by nearly $450 billion through 2026. Consumers and shoppers are reportedly more likely to use BNPL than credit cards when making large installment payments.

• Great User Experience

Because there are so many clear-cut, user-friendly apps available, users won’t hesitate to uninstall an app if it doesn’t meet their needs. You can only imagine how crucial UI/UX is for your app’s user retention. Make a unique and superior user experience your main advantage. Your app should be worthwhile for anyone to invest their time and money in.

E-Commerce App Development Best Practices

Mobile e-commerce best practices are key to increasing user retention, and websites and apps that ignore them risk being left behind and losing out on billions of dollars. Adhering to these mobile e-commerce UX design best practices will make your e-commerce development experience more professional and easier:

Create a Sales Funnel

When creating a sales funnel for an e-commerce app, you are essentially guiding a user through the app to the last stage, which is a purchase. The typical actions a user would do are listed below:

• Discovering a product;
• Providing details on the goods;
• Evaluating the item in comparison to similar ones;
• Possibly providing a promotion or discount code;
• Activating the “Save for later” option in their purchasing cart;
• Checking-out;
• Payment;
• Receiving a message of congratulations and shipping information.

Painless Onboarding

The onboarding process for e-commerce apps can make or break a user’s expectations. Be sure to hold the attention of consumers, but avoid terrifying them with excessive commitment! Maintain a clean, straightforward design. 

Quick Checkout

A seamless customer experience starts with the checkout process. Users should have the freedom to navigate as they like, but the experience should be as straightforward and uncluttered as possible. Users are more likely to leave your checkout process if it is too lengthy and complicated. 

Keep the User Interface Smooth

On a small screen of a mobile phone, things might quickly appear cluttered by having too many user interface components. Users must maintain attention on certain CTAs, such as “Add to Cart,” on each screen. The number of items on each screen should be minimal to keep the interface simple and focused solely on the most important buttons.

Consider the Visual Hierarchy

The term “visual hierarchy” also applies to a content arrangement. On the mobile app interface, a certain hierarchy appears when the elements, headings, buttons, etc. are arranged in accordance with their level of importance.

For e-commerce apps, a visual hierarchy is employed to emphasize the key components on each screen. For instance, you may highlight the image of an item and enlarge the CTA button relative to other elements on the display.

The names and descriptions of products should be structured to make it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for, whether it’s a product description, additional information, or shipping details.

Substantial Branding Components

Brand recognition is important in e-commerce apps. To effectively communicate a brand identity, colors, fonts, images, and language should all tie together in a unified way. Your e-commerce app should have each of these components shown on all screens to give it a unique appearance and feel.

Social Media Integration

For e-commerce apps, social media integration is a requirement! And this is something more than just one-tap user login made possible by this. If businesses appear on users’ Pinterest, Instagram, or TikTok feeds, it helps to keep them top of mind. They will get the chance to learn about sales, promotions, and new products at this time. Additionally, it’s an opportunity to develop user-generated content, which can greatly expand the brand’s visibility!

Put a Progress Bar There

Daniel Engber made the observation that a progress bar transforms the experience of waiting into this fascinating tale that you’re watching unfold in front of you in his TED talk titled How the progress bar keeps you sane.

An e-commerce app may benefit greatly from this functionality. Users want to know where they are in the purchasing process and how much is still required of them before they finish. A progress bar makes it simple to understand these specifics.

Maintain Consistency

For an e-commerce app to be consistent, identical elements must appear, operate, and feel the same. Because of this, users won’t have to figure out how to use or navigate your app each time, making it more predictable (in a positive way, of course).

The three key levels of visual consistency are as follows.

• Consistent buttons, fonts, and color schemes provide visual coherence.
• Functional consistency: On each screen, interactive features (such as buttons or navigation elements) should function consistently.
• External harmony: Whether it’s a website, social media feed, or advertisements, try to keep the mobile app experience consistent with any other external assets or products.

Add a Wishlist Feature

A wishlist is a fantastic feature, but a shopping cart is a need! The major goal is to enable customers to save products they intend to buy in the future. This is a low-pressure alternative because most consumers dislike being pressured into making hasty purchasing decisions.

Allow people to add items to their wishlists so they can buy them later if they find something they want but are hesitant to buy. It’s nice because wishlist items might give you information about your customers’ preferences so you can send them reminders or exclusive offers.

Reviews and Ratings

Reviews significantly increase credibility and customer loyalty. Create a section where customers may comment on and rate the goods they’ve previously purchased. This part can be structured simply using stars, a review headline, and a description. Along with assisting new customers, existing customers are made to feel valued, which increases the likelihood that they will continue to support the business.

Things To Consider for A Successful E-commerce App Development

There are always limitations in developing an app that requires specific consideration. E-commerce app development is no different. Thus, Devlight recommends keeping the following in mind:

Data Protection

As consumers sign in to your mobile e-commerce app, the first thing they do is provide you with personal information, such as their home address, credit card number, phone number, etc. You can’t let your audience down. Take precautions to prevent unwanted access to their data:

• Employ a personal cloud. Ensure your provider offers a personal cloud regime and establish access controls if you store user data in the cloud. For instance, some services are only accessible to those with premium subscriptions.
• Set a strong security system. Then, even in an emergency, you should be immediately aware of the danger and have time to take action to reduce the harmful effects.

Scalability

Proper mobile commerce app development aims to make your business scalable to accommodate a constantly increasing user base. Of course, you can skip the app’s scalability prospects. However, the reality is that you must design the architecture to predict the growth of your app at different stages of its development.

Will your application be able to support 1,000 users at once? What about ten or a hundred thousand? Will it function well and not crash immediately? You must thoroughly test the mobile application before releasing it by responding to these inquiries. You should take great care in this in case you plan to scale the app one day.

Stability

Other factors dramatically reducing your app’s performance include instability and frequent crashes. Users would want to use something other than an unreliable and unbalanced app. To get performance stability for your app, you should conduct QA tests, create many product versions, obtain customer input, and publish updated fixes.

How to Build а Successful E-commerce Mobile App in 8 Steps?

Providing a good mobile experience is not only beneficial. If you wish to conduct business online, it is crucial. Retailers must prioritize and maximize shopping applications or risk losing money. But how can you develop a successful mobile e-commerce app that attracts more customers, sales, and one-time buyers? Discover the precise actions Devlight took in our collaboration with e-commerce firms by continuing to read.

Step 1. Create the E-commerce Project Requirements and Plan

You should first write a plan and the specifications for your product before you can begin developing a relevant e-commerce mobile application. To keep the entire process detailed and coordinated, you must follow a certain procedure. Accomplish the project more quickly and effectively by adhering to the plan.

In order for your design and development team to know exactly what they need to work on, the requirements for your product also need to be thoroughly documented. The following items are typically included in the project requirements:

• A detailed project overview;
• Main goals and needs;
• Target market and audience analysis;
• Functional specifications and the intended feature set;
• Design features;
• Details that aren’t functional;
• Prohibitions and recommendations;
• Questions.

Step 2. Select Your Development Partner

After you have finished all the stages involved in gathering and creating the necessary data, you now need to choose a reputable eCommerce app development firm that can offer you a qualified team to assist you in developing the best application for your project. Here are a few ways to find such a company:

• Browse sites like LinkedIn;
• Compare teams using rating websites like Clutch.co;
• Consult with friends and coworkers to receive their recommendations on whom to choose;
• Choose Devlight for a Productive Team Collaboration Experience!

Step 3. Carry out Product Discovery 

If you want to understand the target market for which the product is being developed, carrying out the discovery phase of the product development process is a must. Customer feedback is gathered in this stage, and the product’s end-user pain areas are researched. Product discovery typically consists of

• discussing expectations and wants concerning timeframes for current company processes or a potential startup concept;
• analysis of the target audience; 
• examining your market’s competitors (direct and indirect);
• providing pain point solutions;
• determining the work’s scope;
• defining priorities and timelines based on the complexity of the project and market trends;
• role allocation in a diagram.

Step 4. UX/UI Design

Because the visual data will drive your sales, quality UI/UX design is essential. If you want to realize your app’s all aesthetic potential, these design principles work well:

• Simplicity. By UI/UX design simplicity, we refer to content optimization for mobile devices and a structural model that enables the simplest possible purchasing experience. It must be done following the visual hierarchy’s rules so that a significant object catches the user’s attention immediately.
• Convenience. The most user-friendly user interface, which won’t divert attention but will stimulate purchases, is what you need to offer to optimize sales. 
• Attention to sales. This rule applies to e-commerce app development, heavily emphasizing internal product sales rather than brand building and communication. These apps are a substitute for actual stores, and their design is centered on underhanded ways to encourage users to make purchases.

Step 5. Get Down to Software Development

Core, back-end, and front-end developers should work with UX/UI designers to create engaging services and interfaces. The Project Manager must correctly coordinate this concurrent process. The excellent quality of the code is ensured by compiling the documentation, building and running a foundation of automated tests, and using code-coverage techniques.

Step 6. Hold Product’s QA (Pre-release Stage)

The life cycle of product development has always included critical software product testing. Product testing is crucial for both finding and fixing bugs in the product as well as ensuring that the development process is organized and effective.

The only method to identify flaws and faults ahead and ensure that a successful and trustworthy product is introduced to the market is to carry out software product testing effectively. The QA role includes the next responsibilities:

• Guarantiing the software product’s predictability and dependability;
• Addressing any product bugs by updating packages to fix flaws and errors in the system;
• Technically, testing and documentation standards are enforced by quality analysis in the product development environment. This aids in system-level testing as well as other testing requirements for any software product, including functional testing and environmental testing.

Step 7. Release Your E-commerce App Into the Market 

Designers should confirm that the visual adheres to the style standard again. Errors that have been fixed or appeared due to these fixes are checked in the previously tested code. In addition, you may now share a list of each sprint’s code changes with the QA team. If an application passes the testing, it is prepared to be published on the market.

Step 8. Ensure Product Post-Launch and Scale the App

E-commerce app development continues even after the app is released in stores. You’ll be able to continue working on your business by regularly monitoring the many trendy mobile app business ideas. Libraries that record information about the user’s actions at the time of the crash, the device on which it occurred, and other information will help track down app bugs. Sending a crash notification can be integrated into the application’s design or added later.

A mobile application must adhere to current software standards, receive fast updates, and include bug patches. In addition, support monitoring is done to determine future e-commerce app development scaling. To fix the errors, iterate changes using analytics and customer feedback. Later on, this will aid in increasing app revenue and retention while fostering brand loyalty and recognition. The process of creating a mobile app is very dynamic. Therefore, constant work is required to stay afloat.

The Technical Stack Needed for an E-commerce App Development:

The mobile world’s digital arena has been split between iOS and Android. To construct an e-commerce app rapidly, you should be aware of the variations in development since each has advantages and downsides of its own. We have noted the principal ones:

• Programming Languages

The code terms represent the key distinction between iOS and Android. Use Java or Kotlin to create an Android app for online shopping. Choose Swift if you want to design iPhone apps for online shopping. These collections of programming languages have a vibrant development community and rich ecosystem. Depending on your e-commerce app development goals, you may create an e-commerce app utilizing any of the few remaining mobile languages and the wide range of server-side languages used for m-commerce apps. 

• Development Complexity and Speed 

The gap in speed and complexity of development between iOS and Android is due to the proliferation of smartphones. In addition, Android has a huge range of supported devices, whereas iOS is happy with the iPhone/iPad/iPod trio. Thus, developing an Android app for e-commerce will take longer.

• Deploying Method

Android apps can be published on Google Play far more quickly and easily than their Apple counterparts, in contrast to how quickly they can be developed. The verification tenets of both platforms account for this. While the AppStore review team exhaustively checks for flaws, which typically take a week to fix, Google Play runs apps automatically for a few hours. 

Besides, Apple’s policy is much stricter and this is also one of the reasons why it takes longer to deploy an application on iOS — there are simply more requirements. Luckily, iOS has more in-app purchases revenue than Google Play, surpassing it by as much as 80%.

The Team Needed to Develop an E-commerce App

A full-stack development team is necessary for an e-commerce app development from scratch. Depending on the project’s type, budget, and other elements, its size and cast may change. The project needs the proper people with the right expertise to succeed:

• Project Manager

The development process is coordinated by a project manager, who keeps it on course. The best practices for developing e-commerce software are widely known to an e-commerce project manager.

• Technical Lead

A professional software engineer with in-depth knowledge of industry-specific technology is called a tech lead. Instead of being managers, tech leads are mentors. These experts don’t focus on something other than coding as their main task.

• IT Business Analyst

Typically, a specialist with extensive experience in the e-commerce industry shapes the project’s vision. These professionals help to establish the fundamental KPIs and establish major product benchmarks. The business analyst should check the technical task from the client to see if it is possible to implement it at all, and not just assign the task to the developers. In other words, he not only translates the requirements into a language understandable for developers but also writes a clear TOR. BA keeps in touch with stakeholders throughout the development process and ensures their feedback is considered.

• Account Managers

This person oversees effective communication between the client and the team developing the outsourced e-commerce software. Such an expert frequently updates internal and external stakeholders on the project’s status.

• Developers

To quickly produce a high-quality product, the developers you hire should be well-versed in e-commerce systems. Experienced programmers know the best practices for designing all crucial components of an online store, including different product pages, user accounts, shopping cart systems, and more.

• Designer of UI/UX

Your storefront in e-commerce is your mobile app’s design. The top e-commerce UI/UX designers know the ins and outs of e-commerce app development. They can create an interface that is easy to use, has strong branding, and supports the offer rather than obscures it.

• QA Engineers

Although contemporary e-commerce frameworks include automatic tests for some fundamental features, they don’t account for all the subtleties. QA experts create software testing scripts to expedite the quality assurance process.

E-commerce Mobile App Development Cost

Everything depends on the app’s work scope and the chosen software services provider. It comes down to who you are investing in and how much you are investing in the end. The budget is, without a doubt, the primary concern for developing the app. Here are some reminders for you to keep in mind as you move forward with app development in order to spare you from this budgetary predicament:

• You can choose to launch your e-Commerce app with the minimum viable product (MVP), a mixed bag of MVP and advanced features, or a fully functional mobile e-commerce app with advanced features.
• iOS or Android? Because iOS is more expensive than other operating systems, choose which device will serve as your main business tool. You can always grow your company later.
• The low-budget, high-maintenance third-party APIs or the low-maintenance, pricey backend development?
• Hybrid app development offers a better time to market, but native app development offers better sustainability. You’re in the business game for the long haul, so choose wisely!

The approximate cost can be determined by multiplying the number of person-hours needed to implement all essential features of the app by the fees charged by your preferred supplier. So, a fundamental e-commerce app would include:

• Implementing a user profile, which requires 35–45 person-hours;
• 30-45 person-hours are needed to complete the main screen;
• Product screens – implementing thorough sections with a slider would take 30 to 40 hours;
• A shopping cart’s implementation could take 80–110 hours, depending on the extra features.

Devlight wants to remind you once again: all the prices and hours estimates are approximate. You must consider the functionality and labor hours required to implement the app’s functionality when calculating the cost of developing a mobile e-commerce app. There is a direct interdependence between the product cost and the number of features (product complexity), release dates (speed to market), team composition (backend development, analytics), and selected technology (cross or native). The essential features you will find in mobile e-commerce apps are

• Registration;
• Profile management;
• Search and filter;
• Product details;
• Add to cart;
• Payment;
• Order tracking;
• Push notifications;
• Customer support;
• Admin panel.

This list is good for MVP and full e-commerce app development – they almost do not differ in basic function sets. Including features like social network integration, push alerts, wishlists, and similar goods can help you create an e-commerce application that not only functions well and completes the intended goal but also lives up to the high standards set by the sector. Here are the approximate rates for app development in Ukraine in terms of hiring rate breakdowns:

Since our full-cycle development strategy is adaptable and can be set up following each customer’s specific needs, Devlight’s team will support you regardless of whether you want to start from scratch with a mobile e-commerce app, establish a website, or continue developing at any point. Finally, we cannot provide you with a specific development price without knowing the details. In case of any questions, contact us, and we will help evaluate your application cost individually, taking into account all the parameters above.

Main Pacesetters of the E-commerce App Development

Here are a few e-commerce apps that are nothing short of outstanding, from personalization to enhancing user experience:

Sephora

A sizable cosmetics retailer, Sephora offers both online and offline sales. The business’s mobile app is visually appealing, slick, and clear — aspects highly vital for the e-commerce app development success. The app includes easy loyalty program connection, tailored product suggestions, list saving, in-store stock checking, and product scanning for search and review. In addition, users may view an augmented reality representation of makeup on their faces using the Virtual Artist function. 

H&M

H&M is a clothing brand that gives you access to the newest trends at a low cost. Their smartphone app allows you to explore and purchase individual clothing items and complete ensembles. Discounts, notifications, intuitive product navigation, and an in-app store finder are all available on the H&M app. The ability to scan an item in-store and buy it right away online is a nice feature for omnichannel customers.

Home Depot

The Home Depot app combines cutting-edge technology with practical tools and is a great example of a successful e-commerce application development. Users may browse through products on the app or scan the product barcode if they’re in-store to learn more about it. A toolbox with a unit measurement converter and even a DIY measuring trick, depending on the user’s shoe size, are also included in the app.

ASOS

A large selection of apparel is available inside the ASOS virtual shop. Customers can access over 850 distinct brands with more than 85,000 products. The app has the Apple Pay feature integrated, sale alerts, wearable product videos, and 360-degree product views. Customers benefit from free shipping and returns, tailored outfit suggestions, and a simple buying process. In addition, the convenient Style Match function allows you to quickly browse for clothing or upload a photo to get clothing advice. 

Devlight Experience (Case Studies)

ELDO.UA

About the client

ELDORADO is a Ukrainian retail group of online/offline household appliances and electronics stores. It was founded in 1999. The network has more than 120 stores in 57 cities of Ukraine. ELDORADO has a wide range of more than 60,000 models of modern electronics of the top world brands.

The key goal

To develop the #1 e-commerce application and to satisfy all user needs with necessary features

Project scope (iOS and Android apps)

– New features development

– Promotion of the app to the TOP App stores Ranks

– Sales increase through apps

– Enlargement in cross-selling (accessorises, services, etc)

– UI/UX app constant improvement

– Boosting user’s personalization

App’s state before us

ELDO’s app needed a full reboot because of the number of critical issues we had to solve using the next approaches:

– Fix all critical errors and crashes in the shortest possible time

– Reconstruct all the application architecture

– Reorganise the code base for further development

– Solve the critical user experience problems

– Return and increase user loyalty and number to the application

– Enlarge the communication interactions with users in the app

– Boost the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

– Setting up correct analytics from the app

Our solution

• Code Review phase+project documentation audit. Code and documentation review is necessary for a complete understanding of their structure, quality, and technology.
• UI/IX Audit phase. UI/UX analysis of the current application for the planning stage of the development scope and redesign
• Acceptance QA Testing phase. Current bugs documentation.  Forming the description report on the testing results. Photos and videos are also provided.
• Code refactoring phase. Updating and correcting the project code step by step
• UI design + product phase. Visual component design and detailing. Finalization of product and functional requirements collection.
• Development phase. Features development and bug fixing according to the approved documentation, design, and selected implementation methods.

Novus

About the client

NOVUS is a Ukrainian chain of supermarkets founded in 2008. In July 2020, the Novus chain had 80 stores in Kyiv, Kyiv region, Rivne, Cherkasy, Ternopil, and Mykolaiv. From April 2022, online sales and delivery of products were successfully launched. 

The key goal

Develop easy and powerful e-commerce application to satisfy clients needs and solve their pains.

Project scope (iOS and Android apps)

Create the first MVP version of the product and then spice it up with the E-commerce part by using the following steps:

Full and rich project Discovery to define main functionality and key features

Detailed Design phase to create application appearance

Materials preparation to enhance the app with unique and self illustrations and descriptions

Base application Development

Further Discovery phases and Designing for next application versions

Continuous application support and improvement

App’s state before us

Before our cooperation, NOVUS had one more Discovery experience with another company. But the results of that Discovery did not meet the expectations. The results were not enough to start a development or even to estimate preliminary works in the project.

So with that artifacts, NOVUS reached Devlight and asked for our expertise. Here is where our cooperation began.

Our solution

Based on our own experience and the improvements we bring into each project, we’ve prepared and presented a solid plan for NOVUS so we could proceed with the project implementation:

• Initiation phase. The starting point for all from-scratch projects is to gather general information and base features planned. Here we prepare the project’s Backlog describing key User Epics and User Stories, defining our clients and their needs.
• Requirements phase. Deep business analysis session to gather all the needed requirements and understand the overall project scope. Based on the Backlog, the detailed PRD is created. Our Business Analyst proceeds with subject area research, as well as with investigation of current client’s solutions. After collecting information, they describe Acceptance Criteria for each Epic and Story. So-called Q&A sessions with our clients are held so we can dig deeper and understand better the main functionality and what they expect from the product.
• Design phase. Requirements visualization as UI/UX Design based on the existing brand book. With the completed PRD, we can now proceed and create rich visuals of our product. Similar to the Requirements phase, our designer specialist does their own research to investigate similar solutions and understands main patterns. Then they develop a full UI/UX Design of the product relying on the existing client’s brand book.
• Development phase. The Development itself. Creating dream applications based on gathered Requirements and Visuals. Having a precise description of the work that needs to be done, we can now continue with the project development phase.
• Iterative process. Repeat the plan above for each version to achieve the best results in the next releases. Now, if we want to proceed with further versions, we can just stick to the plan and iterate through the steps to enrich our existing product with new features.

Choose a Reliable Business Partner — Work with Devlight

We are prepared to help you if you consider updating your online store to take advantage of the most recent developments or creating a brand-new business solution from scratch. Our experts in software development have a lot of practice integrating the newest digital technologies into e-commerce software and are passionate about constructing it.

What makes Devlight one of Ukraine’s most experienced app development companies?

• Our mobile app engineering company, which has been operating since 2016, creates excellent apps for well-known brands in the market. We presently collaborate with the Forbes top 100 companies to establish digital category leaders;
• We have cases of working with e-commerce app development giants; our portfolio of 100+ projects includes collaboration with Nova Poshta, Eldo, and Epicentr; 
• We know how to work with large volumes of data and scale products. We serve more than 450,000 active user sessions every month;
• Our team launches digital leaders — our application for new mail is #1 in the Business category in the Ukrainian app store and Google Play;
• Devlight has its own Mobile App Development School; we launched a project where we taught people how to code on Android. 

Finally, Devlight has more than 6 years of experience developing mobile apps, 35 million installs, and more than 100 completed projects. We do sound like a great option for your next development company, don’t we?

The application is an effective digital tool that will promote client loyalty, boost revenue, and make your company more competitive. We raised in-app purchases for one of our retail clients by 313% on iOS and 244.5% on Android. We can ensure the quality and durability of our products with the basis of a professional development strategy. Feel intrigued? Contact us to set up a time to discuss the ideal option for your company.

The post The Ultimate Guide to a Successful eCommerce App Development appeared first on Devlight.

Numerous reviews claim that Devlight is successful in creating final versions of apps that satisfy all specifications and pass quality assurance tests, enabling the client to get ready for the launch. Weekly updates on progress are given by the team as well as regular feedback is provided. We show adaptability and subject-matter knowledge. Read on to find out what makes Devlight so good and how our progress is measured in specific figures provided by the world-known IT rankings.

Consider Hiring Devlight as One of the Most Trusted App Development Companies in Ukraine 

The next step you should take if you’ve already decided to deal with Ukrainian software developers is to choose a trustworthy tech partner. When making a choice, pay close attention to an outsourcing provider’s expertise, experience, client recommendations, and finished projects. Devlight is a fantastic and trustworthy option. What makes us a top app development company in Ukraine?

As a mobile app engineering company, which has been operating since 2016, we create excellent apps for well-known brands in the market. We presently collaborate with the Forbes top 100 companies to establish digital category leaders. Devlight has cases of working with media and market giants — our portfolio of 100+ projects includes collaboration with Sense Bank, Nova Poshta, Visa, Vodafone, Tailor Brands, and Movinga. Let’s proceed to more numbers!

Top Mobile App Developers in Ukraine! According to Clutch

Clutch is your data-driven guide for businesses. For you to choose a top app development company in Ukraine for your upcoming large project, they conduct genuine customer interviews, gather information, and assess the competitive scope of solutions. Their website contains in-depth customer reviews verified by industry authorities. By gathering customer input and examining industry data, Clutch breaks through disorganized market research. It provides organizations with the insights and analyses they need to connect and face obstacles with confidence.

Devlight has been named number one among the top app developers in Ukraine by Clutch.co, an independent research firm based in Washington. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering we have more than 6 years of experience developing mobile apps, 35 million installs, and more than 100 completed projects. Clutch.co is renowned for locating the top software and professional services companies that deliver exceptional outcomes for their clients. 

Clutch.co mapped the capabilities of the best B2B service providers using the Leaders Matrix approach, and Devlight received the highest rankings based on a number of factors, including the company’s experience, market client list, industry recognition, and client reference interviews. What is more, we were also honored to gain third place in Clutch’s Top App Developers in Europe ranking.

GoodFirms: Top Mobile App Development Companies in Ukraine

When it comes to choosing a top app development company in Ukraine, GoodFirms aims to give you the tools you need to make an informed business decision.

They provide you with 60,000+ verified reviews and ratings as a leading B2B review and rating platform to assist you in confidently choosing the correct businesses. Company listings are supported by research to find top-performing businesses. GoogFirms offers game-changing market insights to assist your company in making wise development investments.

Good Firms included us in top 50 of their global ranking (26th position) and granted us with 6th place in Ukrainian ranking, emphasizing our skills in the next areas:

• iOS App Development;
• Android App Development;
• Prototyping & Concept Development;
• Product Design;
• Quality Assurance & Automated Testing;
• Mobile Backend Engineering;
• App Analytics and Reporting;

Top 100 Mobile App Developers in Ukraine by The Manifest

The Manifest is a digital media company that helps B2B clients find their service provider. They may access industry statistics, how-to guides, and certified profiles of top development businesses worldwide. The Manifest can help you with everything from development to marketing, design, IT, and accountancy by offering the next solutions:

• Searching through our lists of the best B2B service providers, which is beneficial for businesses;
• Keeping up with the most recent poll results on the company and consumer objectives, difficulties, and preferences;
• Joining their free matchmaking service to receive professional assistance in discovering the ideal business.

According to The Manifest, which granted us with a 10th position in their ranking, “Devlight handled mobile app development services for a B2C logistics company. Their team built the app for iOS and Android as well as created a cloud platform for the apps.” The final review says, “Devlight delivered an adequate and elegant solution.”

Among Design Rush’s Best Ukraine Mobile App Developers

What is DesignRush? By grouping professional companies according to their areas of competence, DesignRush is your resource for identifying the top ones according to your specific request. To assist brands in finding the best full-service agencies, web design firms, digital marketing agencies, and top technology companies, they evaluated hundreds of agencies. DesignRush formed clear rankings of companies according to parameters like spheres of influence, locations, and specific requests to help you find your top app development company in Ukraine.

Devlight is honored to be named one of DesignRush’s Top Mobile App Development Companies in Ukraine. Our team of highly qualified experts takes great delight in providing world-class mobile app solutions to clients. Our dedication to quality and user-centric strategy has distinguished us in the sector. To find out more about Devlight’s experience and competence in developing mobile applications, visit our DesignRush profile.

SoftwareWorld: Top 50+ Ukraine-Based Mobile App Development Companies in 2023

SoftwareWorld is a site for software reviews that highlights the greatest software products suitable for a range of sectors and offers thorough reviews by contrasting the top products on the market. The platform compiles unbiased lists of the best software products by category to assist companies in finding the best option.

According to SoftwareWorld’s review, “Devlight has a quality team on the UI and UX side, and they have an entrepreneurial approach. They know that we are a startup, and are willing to take the risk and come up with ideas. Devlight is also flexible, making us feel like this is more than an outsourcing project. I have gotten a sense of commitment from the team.” – Michaël A. Overall, we managed to gain 22nd place in the ranking with a total score of 96/100, which makes us a top app development company in Ukraine!

Top Mobile App Development Companies in Ukraine According to ReVerb

ReVerb was established in 2017 to offer businesses all around the world all-inclusive marketing and development services with a focus on technology. Reverb conducted a thorough research on the mobile application market in Ukraine by taking 1000 companies under analysis. As a result of their study, they singled out Devlight in 2nd place making us a top app development company in Ukraine. 

“The company’s software solutions come with the ultimate stability, performance, and security, providing clients with all the necessary tools to set their businesses up for success.” Devlight boasts of a second place in this ranking, proving that our skills can help you overcome your development obstacles.

Top App Developers in Ukraine by Visual Objects

A ranking website called Visual Objects features portfolios from the best creative companies worldwide. You can consult Visual Objects’ lists to identify the ideal design partner for your business requirements. Your company may view the work of creative companies and plan out new projects with the help of this platform’s recommendations. As an integral part of any hiring process, Visual Objects offers the tools you need to make an informed top app development company in Ukraine selection.

According to the project summary we received from Visual Objects, “Devlight has developed an iOS mobile application for a digital design and custom development company. They’ve created the backend, admin panel, and UI/UX designs, implementing the client’s ideas.” As a positive result of this cooperation, we scored 4.8/5 starts on the platform and obtained 11th position in the ranking.

Bottom Line

We work hard to maintain our reputation for offering our clients top-notch services and to dominate the app development sector. Devlight has a mobile app development school of its own! We started a project where we instructed people in Android coding. Our graduates have a high rate of employment. This is how we support the growth of the talent pool and the IT community of Ukrainian app developers, and this is what makes us a top app development company in Ukraine.

Finally, with more than 13 thousand reviews and thousands of network members, we are among the top contributors on GitHub. We support the growth of the mobile development sector by using open-source technologies, as proven by the 13k stars we have received. Our open-source products were rated as some of the best libraries in the world by GiftHub.

We would like to express our gratitude to the experienced teams from Clutch.co, GoodFirms, The Manifest, ReVerb, DesignRush, and other classifying platforms for their recognition! This is just the beginning for us, a lot more to come. We are even more assured that we are headed in the correct direction because of your incentives.

Devlight is honored to have been chosen by Clutch as the best Ukrainian company for developing mobile applications. This distinction is a result of our team’s commitment to providing world-class mobile app solutions.

The post Devlight — A Top App Development Company in Ukraine appeared first on Devlight.

Every entrepreneur seeking guidance on launching a mobile app business and achieving success will encounter the concept of an app’s unique value proposition (UVP). A strong value proposition for your potential clients is what makes you stand out from the competition, so it is vital for the product you want to sell.

Yes, your target market will require a compelling reason to pick your app above the competition, and you shouldn’t make them go looking for it. Give them one or more convincing value propositions that will persuade them. What exactly motivates people? Let’s delve into the topic together.

What Is a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) For Mobile App?

A unique value proposition (UVP) is something that distinguishes you from competitors. It might be a benefit, an offer, a distinguishing feature, or a statement. You can guarantee that you will offer it to your target audience, benefiting them and addressing their issue.

What distinguishes your goods from those of competitors? What advantages does that bring? These questions are the main ones when it comes to identifying your app’s unique value proposition. Further details on developing the UVP for your business are provided in the following sections.

Value Proposition’s Difference from Other Terms

Your company’s distinctive identification is your value proposition. Without it, customers won’t be motivated to buy your products. Consumers might even decide to choose a competitor merely because of how well that company’s marketing and sales efforts convey its value offer.

In light of this, you might question whether your app’s unique value proposition is synonymous with your slogan. Nope. Your value proposition can be mistaken for other brand components like your mission statement, tagline, or slogan. The differences are described below.

Mission Statement vs. Value Proposition

Your value proposition explains what you have to offer and why clients should choose you, whereas your mission statement explains what you want to accomplish as a company. While the two can have certain similarities, a value proposition is more goal- and product-oriented than a mission statement is.

Here are two imaginary illustrations:

• “Our CRM is easy-to-navigate and well-designed” is the value proposition.
• Our mission is to “assist businesses in better growth.”

Slogan vs. Value Proposition

A slogan is a succinct, memorable phrase that businesses use in advertising campaigns to promote a particular commodity. While the elements of your app’s unique value proposition (at least typically) wouldn’t be used in an advertisement, a slogan and tagline would. The most crucial thing to remember is that a business can use various slogans for various campaigns or goods:

• “Dazzling gems, top-notch designs, and breathtaking jewelry” are the value proposition.
• The slogan may sound like “A diamond lasts forever.”

Tagline vs. Value Proposition

A tagline is a succinct phrase that encapsulates a certain element of your brand or company. Although a value proposition is more specific, a tagline can convey a principle or ideal that your company upholds. Most companies have a single, distinctive catchphrase that serves as the foundation of their brand:

This is an illustration from Apple:

• According to the value proposition: “Best experiences. On Apple only.”
• “Think Different is the tagline.”

The difficulties you want to help customers with and what makes your product or service the ideal answer are both covered in detail in your value proposition. Establishing an app’s unique value proposition is crucial before you compose the statement itself. After creating a value proposition canvas, you can go on with determining the next brand components.

What Makes a Value Proposition?

Most frequently, your app’s main page or your company’s landing page will contain your value proposition. Although you can put it on marketing campaigns and brochures, your home page, and, if you’d like, your product pages are where it will be seen the most. The headline, the subheadline, and the graphic component are the three key components of an app’s unique value proposition.

1. Headline

Your value proposition’s headline outlines the advantage the customer will experience from making a purchase from your company. The headline can be original and alluring, but it should, first and foremost, be succinct and precise.

2. Paragraph or Subheading

It should be clear from the subheadline or paragraph what your business provides, who it serves, and why. You can expand on the details in the headline in this area.

3. Visual Elements

In some instances, a video, infographic, or image may be able to communicate your value proposition more effectively than just words. Use graphic components to strengthen your message and draw the audience in.

Why Is It Important to Have a Unique Value Proposition for Mobile App?

Why would you need to create an app’s unique value proposition? First and foremost, this statement explains why users and potential consumers should choose your product and offer above those of your competitors. These days, there are so many apps on the market serving the same purpose that it could be very challenging to stand out. 

Every week, customers are exposed to tens of thousands of offers. They don’t want to conduct extensive studies on each purchase they intend to buy. Formulating an app’s unique value proposition obvious to the users is crucial for this reason. It helps them to quickly understand what you offer and whether it matches their needs.

This assurance of value has the power to alter the target market’s perception of your company completely. It explains to them why you are the best option for their issues and pain points.

Step-By-Step Guide to Defining Your App’s UVP

Value propositions can have a variety of formats as long as they are particular to the business and the clients it serves. An app’s unique value proposition should distinguish a good or service from the competition, not contain any specific hard-to-understand marketing terms, and quickly convey the product’s value.

Researching the target market and examining the competitors is the first stage in identifying the Unique Value Proposition for your company. To outperform your competitors, you must thoroughly research their business operations, objectives, marketing plans, and value propositions. Let’s examine this process in more detail.

Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience

Every company has a target audience, and reaching out to people outside of this group can bring about disappointing results. A product for everyone is a product for no one. Thus, don’t try to benefit everyone. Seek the audience that matches your general app’s purpose and then narrow it down to a more specific category. There is too much competition in all businesses to neglect this step.

What can you do to reach this category? Where are your app’s target consumers located? What are their pain points? What benefits do they seek in a product like yours? Make up a user profile and try to cater to real people with real problems and expectations. 

Step 2: Identify Your Competitors

Identifying your app’s unique value proposition requires researching other market players because it helps you determine how to make your product stand out. Even if you may have discovered a fantastic client need and a fantastic solution to address their issue, don’t forget there are other apps on the market. Your product will fail inevitably if it doesn’t offer more benefits than the one already existing. 

When conducting your research, focus on at least three reputable competitors that your customer considers when choosing an app like yours. List each one’s features and the means they use to transfer their market offer. After doing that, search for gaps: What advantage does your product or service have over those of your rivals? Your starting point for the following action is here.

Consider changing how you define “benefits” if you have trouble coming up with original ones. For instance, your product’s functional advantages could be identical to those of your rivals, but what about intangible advantages like brand perception? A strong app’s unique value proposition exists when a customer can feel a certain way about your product, the way they don’t feel about other apps.

Step 3: Identify Your App’s Unique Features and Benefits

You’ll know what advantages to emphasize once you identify the problems that your solution solves for your target market. When developing your app’s unique value proposition, make a list of the advantages and principles of your app. Describe your competitive edge. What sets you apart from your rivals? What makes your product special? While developing a new marketing strategy, value propositions frequently incorporate the answers to these questions.

Step 4: Narrow Down Your UVP to One Sentence Using UVP Formulas

Marketing specialists have been using special formulas to identify the app’s unique value proposition for years. They can serve as a foundation for your statements:

GEOFF MOORE’S VALUE POSITIONING STATEMENT

1. For ______ (target user)
2. who _______ (need)
3. our app is _____ (product category)
4. that ______ (primary benefit)

For instance, “Our app is a tracker that discovers budget-friendly restaurants for hungry college students based on the recommendations of other students.”

STEVE BLANK’S XYZ

1. We help ___ (X – target user)
2. Do ___ (Y – need)
3. Doing ___ (Z – primary benefit)

“We help busy parents choose responsible babysitters by conducting rigorous background checks,” for instance.

COOPER & VLASKOVITS’ PROPOSITION TEMPLATE

Patrick Vlaskovits and Brant Cooper, co-authors of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development, created the following template to help startups position themselves:

Customer: Who your customer is.

Problem: The problem you’re solving for the customer.

Solution: Your solution for the customer’s problem.

Customer: Athletes who need to follow a healthy diet. 

Problem: They suffer from a monotonous diet. 

Solution: Revolutionize your meal routine with our AI-powered mobile app that suggests personalized meal options based on your dietary preferences and available products.

DAVE MCCLURE’S VALUE PROPOSITION TEMPLATE

Dave McClure, investor, and entrepreneur developed a template based on the classic elevator pitch. The following are the rules for crafting this message:

Be short, simple, and memorable; what, how, why.

Contain a maximum of three keywords or phrases and two sentences.

Contain no jargon.

“Our customization app is the quickest and easiest way for you to create personalized t-shirts that are shipped to you in two days or less.”

DAVID COWAN’S VALUE PROPOSITION TEMPLATE

Venture capitalist and entrepreneur David Cowan wrote a post called “Practicing the Art of Pitchcraft” in which he outlines his tips for creating a value prop. His template is structured like this:

Show Something Interesting Right Away: Intrigue the person hearing or reading the VP.

Don’t Make Them Think Too Hard: Keep it short and easy to understand.

Science Not Allowed In The Elevator: Say what your product or service does, not how it does it.

Establish Credibility. Name Dropping Allowed: Explain why you or your company is qualified to provide the service or build the product.

“Four out of five doctors have lousy handwriting, leading to patients taking incorrect medication. Using the new PrescriptionPad app, doctors can are create legible prescriptions in a flash. Jointly developed by handwriting experts and Doctors Without Penmanship.”

ERIK SINK’S VALUE PROPOSITION TEMPLATE

Software developer and entrepreneur Eric Sink developed a basic value proposition template that includes the following:

Superlative: Why this product

Label: What is this product

Qualifiers: Who should choose this product

Example: The most effective flock protection system with an app for tech-savvy chicken farmers.

Step 5: Test Your UVP With Your Target Audience

Your app’s unique value proposition should be put to the test and improved. Do clients begin associating your company with your UVP, and does this result in a recognizable brand? Do the clients you work with don’t exactly understand what market benefits to expect from your app? How do you plan to measure your marketing strategy effectiveness?

Building unnecessary products is one of the most expensive development mistakes. This is why it’s crucial to validate your work before you start creating it through user interviews, demos, etc. The easiest way to verify your app’s unique value proposition is to perform user interviews with your competitor’s customers before you’ve even considered hiring someone to develop your app. For example, what would you like to see improved in your present software solution?

You will either get more confident in your idea after conducting enough interviews, or you may have new information to iterate on. The only way to engage with your potential users is to get closer to the ideal product earlier in the process, saving you time and money.

Examples of Strong UVPs for Apps

The app’s unique value proposition explains to the users why your app is the best choice for them. It assists customers in making decisions and, occasionally, in defending those decisions to others when it is incorporated into marketing materials and the customer experience. A persuasive justification might make them feel confident about their purchase and become brand followers. Here are examples of such UVPs:

Grammarly “Great writing, simplified”

The headline for Grammarly makes it clear what the company is delivering. The extremely clear UVP statement summarizes the services offered in terms that are relatable to the target audience. The advertising materials Grammarly uses (videos, campaigns) visually illustrate what makes Grammarly so excellent and distinguishes this app’s unique value proposition from other marketing techniques.

Anyone looking to improve their writing qualifies as a customer.

• Problem: Users make errors in writing (grammar, spelling, formatting, clarity, etc.)
• Solution: A capable AI that detects all writing faults and offers suggestions for enhancements or correcting.

Slack “Make work life simpler, more pleasant and more productive.”

There are two groups of individuals worldwide: those who adore Slack and those who haven’t used it yet. Slack is a chat and workplace productivity software. What makes Slack different from the tens of thousands of other messaging and productivity apps is that it is deceptively simple to use but robust enough for large teams working on complex projects (as demonstrated by Slack’s very clever inclusion of the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab example on the homepage).

Slack summarizes its value proposition by stating that it “simplifies cooperation, makes work more enjoyable, and increases productivity.” The NASA JPL example is also quite brilliant because it implies discreetly that if it is good enough for vast teams of NASA scientists, the kind of people that send robots to other planets, then it is good enough for everybody.

Digit “Save Money Without Thinking About It”

Another fiercely competitive industry is personal finance, where tens of thousands of apps are available to support better money management. The value proposition of a few services is as strong as that of Digit, a relatively new service that enables users to “save money, without thinking about it.”

Users can safely link their bank accounts to the Digit service so that it can analyze their spending patterns and regular expenses using an algorithm. Afterward, it starts to “optimize” users’ accounts to put a little cash aside here and there into an FDIC-guaranteed savings account, from which users can take their funds whenever they like.

Digit is completely automated, which sets it apart from other savings applications. Users don’t have to set the Digit to begin contributing money to a savings account; a few dollars here, a few dollars there, and before you know it, you’ve got a respectable sum saved for a rainy day while still having enough money set aside to cover monthly outgoing costs. It’s fantastic.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Defining Your App’s UVP

A clearly defined app’s unique value proposition improves brand perception and market positioning. Stating why your product is different from others sounds easy. However, in practice, product owners often make the following mistakes:

Mistake 1: Being Too Broad or Vague

A too-general or vague UVP will not be memorable or effective. It must be specific and unique. Using false statements or exaggerations in your UVP can also lead to mistrust among your target audience and a bad reputation. Don’t try to sell to everyone. Define your target audience and give them exactly what they want.

Mistake 2: Focusing Too Much on Features Rather Than Benefits

An app’s unique value proposition that focuses on the features of a product rather than the benefits it provides will not be as effective. Features can be common to several products. The way every app performs them is different. Your design, personalized approach, or strong brand perception are all keys to distinguishing the app from competitors. 

Mistake 3: Not Testing Your UVP With Your Target Audience

Creating an app’s unique value proposition based on personal experience is a bad trick. Your goal is to sell to people other than yourself. Arrange a survey among potential customers or old customers, find out their opinion from friends — use all available ways of obtaining valuable information.

A fine line exists between “we know better what you need” and the buyer’s decision to choose a competitor who takes better care of their desires. As a product owner, you may feel tempted to convince the users that they need your app. Instead, listen to the users and create hypotheses of what they might like. Then, test them.

Unique Value Proposition (UVP) For Mobile App: Summary

Developing a successful app’s unique value proposition can save money and draw in ideal clients whose problems you can solve. Compete with others in your market effectively by offering the users a unified solution between what they want and what you have. 

What is more, creating a UVP is now easier with so many famous examples from market giants. Don’t copy their statements; study their approach and use their experience to make your app stand out. Formulate a simple and brief UVP using formulas from professional marketers, then test your statements on real users. 

The post How to Define Your App’s Unique Value Proposition [The Definitive Guide] appeared first on Devlight.

Both start-ups and long-established organizations face the problem of finding their place in the market. To find it, they need to have a good understanding of what problems the customer is trying to solve with their product or service, what difficulties it presents, and what will bring the buyer the most joy from the purchase.

Value Proposition is a short and simple list of benefits that a consumer receives when buying your product. The Value Proposition Canvas template is great for developing Value Proposition for your mobile app. This is an algorithm that allows without additional expenses:

• objectively evaluate the features and parameters of the product;
• visualize the value you create;
• study the motivation of customers;
• consistently consider all options for achieving compliance with the needs of customers and your product;
• create a unique value proposition;
• to determine priorities and emphasis when promoting the product;
• achieve Product-Market fit.

Let’s find out what a value proposition canvas for a mobile app is and how to formulate one.

What Is a Value Proposition Canvas for a Mobile App?

A value proposition of a mobile app succinctly explains why customers should select your app. It significantly facilitates the search for the most suitable proposition for the market. The purpose of the VPC is to help you find a match between your product’s value proposition and the needs, wants, and challenges of your customers. This is what startups call product-market fit or problem-solution fit.

Writing it from scratch is challenging, though. Luckily, we’ll share  value proposition canvas template below that you can follow along with the rest of the article.

Why Is It Important to Fill Out a Value Proposition Canvas?

Value Proposition Canvas is a simple but powerful framework that helps businesses understand their customers better, develop products that meet their needs, and communicate their value proposition effectively. Let’s look at the key benefits of the value proposition canvas for a mobile app:

• Customer Understanding

Being customer-oriented is the secret to getting people interested in your brand and product. This method prioritizes customer happiness as the most crucial aspect of product creation. An overview of a value proposition canvas for a mobile app shows how needs are recognized and met. The advantage of this framework is that it enables you to concentrate on the qualities that clients find most valuable. Resulting in significant customer interaction.

• Better Product Development

With a better understanding of your customers, you can develop products and services that are tailored to meet their needs. This leads to the creation of more valuable products that are more likely to succeed in the market.

• Highlighting Competitive Advantage

By filling out the Canvas, you can identify gaps in the market and develop unique value propositions that set you apart from your competitors. This can help you gain a competitive advantage and attract more customers.

• Effective Communication

VPC helps communicate your value proposition more effectively. You can craft messaging that resonates with the target audience and convinces them to purchase your product.

How to Fill Out a Value Proposition Canvas for Your Mobile App?

The Value Proposition Canvas is formed around two building blocks: сustomer segments (profiles) you are targeting and value propositions that your product. Here are the steps to complete the canvas:

Step 1. Define the Customer Jobs

First, you need to understand what the buyers are aiming for and what they are trying to achieve. These may be jobs that they must complete, problems that require solutions, or needs that must be satisfied. To better understand these questions, try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

There are three types of Customer Jobs:

Functional-specific: they can be both personal and professional, for example, playing sports or writing a monthly work report.

Social: related to the formation of the desired image in society.

Emotional: receiving certain emotions, for example, feeling safe in the home.

Questions that will help you identify Customer Jobs:
· What is the one thing that your customer couldn’t live without accomplishing? What are the stepping stones that could help your customer achieve this key job?

· What are the different contexts that your customers might be in? How do their activities and goals change depending on these different contexts?

· What does your customer need to accomplish that involves interaction with others?

· What tasks are your customers trying to perform in their work or personal life? What functional problems are your customers trying to solve?

· Are there problems that you think customers have that they may not even be aware of?

· What emotional needs are your customers trying to satisfy? What jobs, if completed, would give the user a sense of self-satisfaction?

· How does your customer want to be perceived by others? What can your customer do to help themselves be perceived this way?

· How does your customer want to feel? What does your customer need to do to feel this way?

· Track your customer’s interaction with a product throughout its lifespan. What supporting jobs surface throughout this life cycle? Does the user switch roles throughout this process?

Step 2. Lay out the Customer Pains

Describe the negative emotions, unwanted costs, or risks that your customer experiences while performing their tasks. Identify obstacles that prevent the client from completing them. Buyer problems can be divided into serious and moderate. When you understand the seriousness of the consumer’s pain, you can choose the best ways to help him. To include the most beneficial products and services on the value map side of the value proposition canvas for a mobile app, you should consider these pain areas.

Questions that will help you identify Customer Pains:

· How do your customers define too costly? Takes a lot of time, costs too much money, or require substantial effort?

· What makes your customers feel bad? What are their frustrations, annoyances, or things that give them a headache?

· How are current value propositions underperforming for your customers? Which features are they missing? Are there performance issues that annoy them or malfunctions they cite?

· What are the main difficulties and challenges your customers encounter? Do they understand how things work, have difficulties getting certain things done, or resist particular jobs for specific reasons?

· What risks do your customers fear? Are they afraid of financial, social, or technical risks, or are they asking themselves what could go wrong?

· What’s keeping your customers awake at night? What are their big issues, concerns, and worries?

· What common mistakes do your customers make? Are they using a solution the wrong way?

· What barriers are keeping your customers from adopting a value proposition? · Are there upfront investment costs, a steep learning curve, or other obstacles preventing adoption?

Step 3. Uncover Customer Gains

Think about the gains that the consumer can receive. These include product features, social success, and cost savings. What are the gains:

• necessary – without them, solving problems and problems does not work;
• expected – your buyer expects to receive something else, but in principle, he can do without it;
• desirable – often, the consumer himself talks about such gains;
• unexpected – you can pleasantly surprise the consumer by giving him something that he could not even think of.

Questions that will help you identify Customer Gains:

·  Which savings would make your customers happy? Which savings in terms of time, money, and effort would they value?

·  What quality levels do they expect, and what would they wish for more or less of?

·  How do current value propositions delight your customers? Which specific features do they enjoy? What performance and quality do they expect?

·  What would make your customers’ jobs or lives easier? Could there be a flatter learning curve, more services, or lower costs of ownership?

·  What are customers looking for the most? Are they searching for good design, guarantees, specific or more features?

·  What do customers dream about? What do they aspire to achieve, or what would be a big relief to them?

·  How do your customers measure success and failure? How do they gauge performance or cost?

·  What would increase your customers’ likelihood of adopting a value proposition? Do they desire lower cost, less investment, lower risk, or better quality?

Step 4. Outline the products and services

To understand the value proposition, look again at the 3 components above. Now list all the products and services that your value proposition is built around. This is the place to list all the features, products and services you’ll provide. You can also list the version of the product you are producing, like freemium, trial. Focus on how the features and products will help customers get their job done.

Step 5. List your Pain Relievers

How do you know that your products and services are creating value? Describe how they alleviate customer pain:

·  remove or reduce negative emotions, unwanted expenses and situations;

·  reduce the risks your customers face or might face while performing jobs.

These relievers should be relevant to the pains mentioned in the customer profile. Here are some questions to help you define customer pain relievers. Can your product or service:

·  produce savings? In terms of time, money, or efforts.

·  make your customers feel better? By killing frustrations, annoyances,

and other things that give customers a headache.

·  fix under-performing solutions? By introducing new features, better performance, or enhanced quality.

·  put an end to difficulties and challenges your customers encounter? By making things easier or eliminating obstacles.

·  eliminate risks your customers fear? In terms of financial, social, technical risks, or things that could potentially go wrong.

·  help your customers better sleep at night? By addressing significant issues, diminishing concerns, or eliminating worries.

·   limit or eradicate common mistakes customers make? By helping them use a solution the right way.

·  eliminate barriers that are keeping your customer from adopting value propositions? Introducing lower or no upfront investment costs, a flatter learning curve, or eliminating other obstacles preventing adoption.

Step 6. List the Gain Creators

Describe how your products and services bring gains to the customer. What benefit do they provide, and what does he expect to receive? How to achieve this: through the benefits of the product, positive emotions, and financial benefits?

Your value proposition needs to solve customer pains and be unique. Each potential consumer determines for himself two key points:

1. Which of his problems does your product/service solve?

2. What is the unique value of your offer, how do you stand out from the competition? You can stand out with price, service, usability, new products, etc.

A correctly formulated value proposition retains customers and attracts a new target audience. Here are some questions to help you define customer gains creators. Can your product or service:

·  produce outcomes your customers expect or that exceed their expectations? By offering quality levels, more of something, or less of something.

·  outperform current value propositions and delight your customers? Regarding specific features, performance, or quality.

·  make your customers’ work or life easier? Via better usability, accessibility, more services, or lower cost of ownership.

·  do something specific that customers are looking for? In terms of good design, guarantees, or more features.

·   fulfill a desire customers dream about? By helping them achieve their aspirations or getting relief from hardship?

·  produce positive outcomes matching your customers’ success and failure criteria? In terms of better performance or lower cost.

·  help make adoption easier? Through lower cost, fewer investments, lower risk, better quality, improved performance, or better design.

Step 7. Test Your Value Proposition With Your Customers

Each of these strategies will have been developed in-house by your team. Therefore, it’s important to gather feedback from your intended audience. Your website, social media accounts, video, audio, and in-person interactions are just a few of the marketing channels used to spread the word about your value proposition for a mobile app. 

You may use each of these channels to test your proposition with members of your audience (both current customers and non-customers). You can speed up this feedback process with the aid of tools like UserTesting, making adjustments rapidly, and completing your value offer. Here are our final three pieces of advice:

• Investigate your competitors’ value propositions by conducting research.

Investigating the value propositions of your closest rivals is critical because they serve as the differentiator between your company and the competition. If you focus on your competitors’ strengths, you’ll better understand where your product or service belongs within the market, so be honest here. 

• Focus on what customers need the most

Before developing the Value Proposition Map you must keep in mind the following. Not all customer pains and gains can be addressed. The best approach is to target key factors that customers consider as the topmost priority. This will help your team concrete goals to focus on while developing the product.

• Continuously update your canvas

Your value proposition canvas should not be a one-time exercise. Continuously update it as your app evolves and your target customers’ needs change. This will help you stay ahead of the competition and continue delivering value to your customers.

Value Proposition Canvas for a Mobile App: Template

To assess your consumer segment right and build products and services that meet the requirements of that typical customer, you may use this value proposition canvas for a mobile app template.

Value Proposition Canvas for a Mobile App: Example 

ABC (name changed) is the largest provider of microcredits in Ukraine. They have no physical branches — their services are fully digital and offered online. They turned to us to help them with diversification and new ways of development. 

Five hours were spent in the workshop with the client’s team. We were able to come up with enough concepts for services, painkillers, and gain-makers during this period to declare that the value proposition for a mobile app was complete.

Value Proposition Canvas: Summary

Fill out your value proposition canvas for a mobile app before you start turning your conceptual business model into a real company to ensure that the problem and solution are a good fit. You may then be certain that customers genuinely need the product you’re launching. Also, we advise that you first release an MVP or beta version to gain additional market validation.

To conclude, let’s review some important conclusions we reached in this article:

• The value proposition canvas definition is a graphical representation of what customers need and experience and what a product may provide to address their needs and problems.
• A value proposition canvas for a mobile app works well together to provide a comprehensive analysis and enhancement solution for businesses.
• The canvas is divided into a value map and client segments.
• There are more opportunities to produce a product that is in high demand if there are more matches between the value offered and the client needs components listed.
• Both aspiring entrepreneurs and established business owners looking to grow their enterprises will find our value proposition canvas for a mobile app template valuable.

We advise you to try it and see how the canvas works. You’ll likely like its impact and find it beneficial for upcoming endeavors.

The post How to Fill Out a Value Proposition Canvas for Your Mobile App [The Definitive Guide] appeared first on Devlight.

One of the first things you need to accomplish when working on a new project is to provide a response to the question, “Who will use this product?” If you don’t have a clear response to this query, you risk launching an app that is useless as a whole.

Applying user interviews for mobile app development is a method for gaining this understanding. When conducted effectively, an interview can give you an in-depth understanding of your consumers’ objectives, viewpoints, and experiences. On the other hand, poor interviewing can provide you with false information that can lead to a misguided design.

You should know the methodology and peculiarities of conducting interviews and user surveys for mobile app development. Devlight examines the guiding principles of effective user interviews in this article.

Why Do User Interviews and Surveys?

Creating a positive user experience is key to your product. Knowing the user’s biggest pain, gain, and motivation, you can use this info to create a product that will have great value. 

Both in-depth interviews and general surveys bring about many benefits:

• they help you to gather opinions on a fresh offering that your company has made;
• surveys make you comprehend the demands and anticipations of your clients during persona-gathering meetings;
• they are great for developing fresh suggestions on how you could enhance an already-existing good or service;
• conducting a usability study helps to comprehend better what use clients can make out of your app;
• user researches generally help us learn more about how users perceive particular design aspects.

As you can see, user interviews for mobile app development work best when combined with other research techniques like usability testing and online surveys. Interviews, in particular, help us:

• Get truthful commentary

One-on-one in-depth interviews are free from any distractions or potential pressure that could be present in bigger focus groups. The direct dialogue with a participant may take an hour, leaving no room for the influence of other users. Also, some individuals feel more at ease sharing open comments in conversation than through a printed questionnaire. 

• Get a deeper comprehension of user behavior

Researchers can decipher body language during in-person or remote face-to-face in-depth interviews. Interviewers can also evaluate alterations in voice tone and word choice. Interviewers may create a comprehensive picture of user behavior using these subtleties, which is impossible using other online or offline feedback channels.

• Increase your knowledge of user goals and expectations.

With an in-depth interview, seeking further information, asking follow-up questions, and delving deeper into specific themes are simpler. They work well for open-ended inquiries that invite participants to provide lengthier, more in-depth answers.

When to Conduct Interviews and Surveys?

The timing for conducting user interviews and surveys in mobile app development may vary depending on the stage of the development process and the research goals. However, there are two general cases where we can conduct user interviews and surveys:

Discovery Research

Discovery research is typically conducted during the early stages of product development when a product has not yet been created. You may already have a general idea of your product, but you must research the market need and the issue you’re attempting to tackle before developing. Finding out about your users’ experiences and how they currently resolve problems is the aim of conducting user interviews during the Discovery stage.

Gathering In-Depth Feedback About an Existing Product

Have you recently launched a new feature or product? It’s time to get customer input after releasing the product with all of its features and user flows. Asking about their experience using the product will help you identify any unmet user needs and pain issues.

Types of User Interviews

A qualitative research method, an “in-depth interview,” entails conducting numerous individual interviews. These entail one-on-one interaction with participants, typically taking either in-person or remotely. Compared to moderated usability research, they have a more adaptable structure. In-depth interviews are employed to obtain a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of users’ viewpoints, experiences, and emotions regarding user experience.

In-depth interview questions can be customized for the interviewee and their particular usage as opposed to more general qualitative or quantitative questionnaires that are distributed to a larger range of clients. You have a few choices regarding the structure of your user interviews for mobile app development:

Structured Interviews 

The methodology of structured interviews is predetermined. Only preset questions focused on certain experiences would be asked by the interviewer. A structured approach constrains the potential for deeper exploration of the issues covered.

Semi-structured Interviews

Semi-structured interviews use a set of guidelines known as protocols. Although it’s a two-way dialogue, and the interviewer might enquire about specifics, most of the questions are prewritten. While interviewers will have a list of opening questions and topics to discuss, the course of the interview will be determined by the respondents’ responses.

Unstructured Interviews

Unstructured interviews are not pre-planned and are not defined. The interaction is akin to a dialogue between the researcher and the subject.

How to Conduct User Interviews for Mobile App Development

Thorough user interviews for mobile app development require preparation. It helps you better use your members’ time by pre-planning themes and conversation starters. Customers may be reluctant to participate in subsequent drives for consumer insights if they feel that their time was squandered or that the in-depth interview was simply too lengthy.

Also, keeping your In-depth interviews succinct and organized will aid in participants’ ability to concentrate throughout. Longer interviews with unclear goals risk exhausting customers and lowering the quality of their responses.

Step 1. Determining research goals 

Before conducting any in-depth interviews, it’s critical to understand the results you hope to achieve clearly. This aids in directing both your questions and, ultimately, the conversation. It will be simpler to formulate questions to help you better grasp what your end user wants to accomplish once you have determined your goals.

Step 2. Creating an interview guide for the interview

• Define your scope and Optimal Sample Size
  

Define your scope for conducting user interviews for mobile app development and the minimum number of responders. That should specify how many users you must interview. A five-minute interview with 120 participants, for instance, serves little purpose. Spending the same time interviewing 20 persons for 30 minutes each would be preferable. In this manner, rather than hurriedly going through a list of questions, you would have time to discuss themes more thoroughly with each participant.

In general, a sample size of 5-10 users is a good starting point for user interviews. This sample size is typically large enough to identify common issues and themes while being small enough to conduct in-depth interviews and analysis. Nevertheless, one situation requires you to speak with more users: if your product caters to diverse user groups. Interview three or four participants from each user group if you have two; or three participants from the three or more user groups.

However, larger sample sizes may be needed for more complex or diverse projects. Ultimately, the ideal sample size will depend on the goals of the research and the resources available.

• Set a time limit

Be aware of your participants’ time when conducting user interviews for mobile app development. Remember that if you talk for a long time, the quality of the answers may suffer toward the end of the exchange. Tell participants how long each interview will last… and adhere to it. Limit each interview to no more than an hour. This length is optimal enough for them to agree to the interview.

• Make a list of Good Questions

The correct questions will encourage participants to express their genuine opinions. Use a variety of question styles in your user interviews for mobile app development, such as:

1. general icebreakers: “Tell me about your main challenges right now,” for instance.
2. detailed questions with greater specificity: “What are you trying to accomplish by utilizing app, for instance?”
3. insight-driven questions: questions regarding new or existing features. For instance, “How helpful would you find this new calendar function?”

Asking the correct questions will help you better understand customer input and subsequently adopt it successfully. Also, you’ll collect qualitative data that helps improve your user experience decisions.

• Avoid Bad questions (Leading questions, Judgemental questions, Compound questions)

Asking participants about the future is not appropriate. They must make up the scenario they haven’t experienced to respond to the question. Besides, when a question is closed, only two potential replies exist. As a result, we don’t concentrate on what users care about; rather, we just validate our presumptions. These are a few illustrations of poor questions:

How often do you fail to do [a task]?

NO — this question makes the interviewee feel guilty

Would this [product] be useful to solve this [problem]?

NO — this question is begging for an affirmation and a compliment

Would you be willing to pay a bit more than you are paying now to get a much faster solution?

NO — the answer will never predict the future.

Step 3. Test your interview questions (conduct at least one trial run of the interview)

Get your teammates or friends to test your questions, and then get their comments on their clarity. Do they respond with the information you anticipated? Or ask you what you meant after each question? You should clearly identify what needs to be altered or improved going the future based on the feedback.

Step 4. Recruit the right participants for the interview

Recruiting the right participants for user interviews is crucial to ensure that the insights gathered are relevant and representative of the target user population. Here are some tips for recruiting the right participants for user interviews:

• Define the target user population: Before recruiting participants, it’s essential to define the target user population based on the research goals. Consider demographics such as age, gender, location, and other relevant factors.
• Develop a recruitment screener: Create a screening questionnaire to filter out participants who don’t meet the criteria for the target user population. The screener should include questions related to demographics and relevant user behaviors or experiences.
• Use a combination of recruitment methods: Use multiple recruitment methods to reach a diverse group of potential participants. This can include social media, email, online forums, or other relevant channels.
• Offer incentives: Providing incentives, such as a gift card or cash, can encourage participants to take the time to participate in the interview.
• Leverage existing user groups: If you have an existing user base, consider recruiting participants from this group. This can provide a more relevant and engaged participant pool.
• Use a professional recruitment service: If resources permit, consider using a professional recruitment service to find and screen participants. These services can provide a more targeted participant pool and can save time and resources.

Overall, recruiting the right participants for user interviews requires careful planning and consideration of the research goals. By defining the target user population, developing a recruitment screener, using multiple recruitment methods, offering incentives, leveraging existing user groups, and using professional recruitment services, you can increase the likelihood of recruiting the right participants for your research.

Step 5. Conduct the interview. Define your user’s biggest pain, gain, and motivation. Test hypotheses while user interviewing

The team should pinpoint the key user issues the product can solve during the initial stages of product development. Extensive market research and competitor analysis are required to determine the nest things:

• the primary issue that needs to be resolved (user pain); 
• the current approach being taken and how it will benefit the user (gain).

Begin the interview with open-ended questions that allow users to share their experiences and opinions in their own words. For example, “Tell me about a time when you struggled with using an app” or “What motivated you to start using an app in the first place?”

Use follow-up questions to dig deeper into specific pain points, gains, and motivations. For example, “Can you tell me more about how that feature caused you frustration?” or “What specifically about the app was most appealing to you?”

Ask users to share their experiences using the app in specific scenarios, such as when they first downloaded the app, when they encountered a problem, or when they achieved a goal. This can help identify pain points, gains, and motivations related to specific app functions or features.

Use hypothetical scenarios to explore potential pain points, gains, and motivations. For example, “If we removed this feature, how would that impact your experience with our app?” or “If we added this feature, how would that improve your experience?”

Pay attention to nonverbal cues: Observe nonverbal cues, such as body language and tone of voice, during the interview to identify areas where the user may be experiencing frustration or excitement.

Summarize the user’s pain points, gains, and motivations throughout the interview to ensure that you have a clear understanding of their experiences. Validate your understanding with the user to ensure that you are accurately capturing their perspective.

Testing the hypotheses is critical in user interviews for mobile app development and surveys to define users’ needs. The primary objective of user research is to test hypotheses through contact with potential users. Testing seeks to determine whether the problems are real and validate previously developed assumptions.

Step 6. Analyze and report the results

Analyzing and reporting the results of user interviews requires careful organization and prioritization of the data, as well as clear communication of the insights gained and recommendations for improvement. The first step is to transcribe the interview recordings and organize the data into themes or categories. This can help identify common pain points, gains, and motivations. Look for patterns and trends in the data, such as frequent mentions of specific pain points or gains. This can help prioritize areas for improvement.

Use quotes and examples from the interviews to illustrate the pain points, gains, and motivations identified. This can help make the insights more tangible and relatable. Creating visual aids, such as charts or graphs, can also help illustrate the data and identify patterns and trends.

Next, prioritize the findings based on their impact on the user experience and the feasibility of addressing them. This can help identify the most critical areas for improvement. Use the insights gained from the user interviews to create an action plan for improving the mobile app. The action plan should prioritize the most critical areas for improvement and include specific recommendations for addressing each area.

Finally, communicate the findings and action plan to the development team, stakeholders, and other relevant parties. This can help ensure that the insights gained are acted upon and integrated into the development process. 

Tip: In-depth Interview Best Practices 

The user interview is a research technique that allows you to develop empathy for users while learning about their requirements, problems, and desires. User interviews necessitate meticulous attention to detail and strong interviewing abilities. The best practices listed below will assist you in conducting user interviews successfully:

• Before each interview, warmup

While the first few seconds of user interviews for mobile app development can be difficult, your first objective should be to get to know the participant and establish a casual atmosphere. Set the stage for the interview by outlining its goals and estimating its length. If you wish to record the interview, the ideal time to request permission is now.

• Pose follow-up questions

Unplanned follow-up queries are those. Based on the knowledge you’ve gained from the interview, pose questions to them. You will learn the most from asking follow-up questions.

• The same questions might be asked in several ways

Reiterating your original query is an additional follow-up strategy. This technique is frequently used to identify the true cause of a problem and ascertain the user’s viewpoint. Here, using synonyms, introducing a perspective, or referencing the user’s prior experiences can all be very beneficial.

• Remember your script, but be adaptable

If you completely adhere to your script, you could become a bit robotic, which is not how you want to inspire empathy. Also, if you adhere too strictly to your plan, you risk missing out on important insights and details. Hence, have your script handy but be prepared to improvise.

• Provide a secure setting for your participants

When a user interview develops into an open discussion, it works best. Participants will feel comfortable giving their thoughts if you foster a nonjudgmental environment and project your credibility. Create a safe environment by making the necessary effort.

• Finish on a cordial note

Your closing remarks are crucial. It is insufficient to thank you and depart merely. Devote the time remaining after your user interviews for mobile app development to express gratitude for the participants’ time, inform them of what will happen next, and ask if you may contact them again if necessary. You might also ask them for suggestions on other people who would be eager to participate in an interview.

How to Conduct User Surveys for Mobile App Development

A survey, which frequently takes the form of a questionnaire, is a quantitative user-research technique. Your questionnaire needs to be well-planned and simple to complete – you will get insightful answers if you pose precise, research-relevant queries. 

Step 1. Determining research goals 

Before starting a survey, lay out your main research questions and establish a clear aim for the survey. These goals should be specific and actionable, such as identifying user pain points, determining user preferences for features, or understanding user motivations for using the app.

It’s crucial to comprehend the statistical significance and pay attention to the quality of your data. You can make inferences about benchmarks and trends based on your data.

Step 2. Select an online survey tool

Online survey tools for mobile app development can help you gather valuable feedback from users, identify pain points and areas for improvement, and make informed decisions about the design and functionality of the mobile app.  Here are some features that an online survey tool should include:

• Customizable survey questions;
• Multiple survey formats. The tool should offer multiple survey formats, such as multiple-choice, open-ended, and Likert scale questions. This can help you gather more detailed and nuanced feedback from users.
• Mobile-friendly: The survey tool should be mobile-friendly, meaning that users can easily complete the survey on their mobile devices. This can help increase the response rates.
• Automated data collection: The survey tool should automate the collection of survey data, making it easy for you to gather and analyze the data.
• Analytics and reporting features that allow you to visualize and interpret the survey data. This can help identify trends and patterns in the feedback gathered.
• Secure and confidential. The survey tool should ensure that the data gathered is secure and confidential, protecting the privacy of users who complete the survey.

At Devlight, we employ the following equipment for a variety of uses:

Screeners and surveys: Typeform and Google Forms.

Remote usability testing with moderators: Figma + Zoom/Google Meet;

Whiteboarding and group meetings: Miro + Zoom/Google Meet;

Results of usability tests: Google Sheets, Notion;

Step 3. Recruit participants

The ideal sample size for user surveys in mobile app development can vary depending on several factors, including the research goals or target audience. For example, if the mobile app is targeting a small niche market, a smaller sample size may be sufficient to gather reliable data. On the other hand, if the mobile app is targeting a broad audience with diverse needs and preferences, a larger sample size may be required to ensure that the data gathered is representative of the entire user population.

However, as a general rule, a sample size of at least 100 participants is recommended for user surveys in mobile app development. A good maximum sample size is usually around 10% of the population, as long as this does not exceed 1000. For example, in a population of 5000, 10% would be 500. In a population of 200,000, 10% would be 20,000. This exceeds 1000, so in this case, the maximum would be 1000. Even in a population of 200,000, sampling 1000 people will normally give a fairly accurate result. Sampling more than 1000 people won’t add much to the accuracy given the extra time and money it would cost. This sample size is considered statistically significant and can provide reliable data to inform design and development decisions.

Your online surveys should be brief. Your objective is to increase the response rate; you can accomplish that with a short survey. A survey should not take more than 10 minutes to complete.

Segmenting your audience based on the survey’s goal will help you find suitable respondents. For instance, gathering information from users who have used a certain function more than once if you want to update it. Here are the top resources to seek survey participants:

• Your personal network.
• Social media. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram can be great places to find survey participants. You can post your survey on social media accounts and also in relevant groups and forums.
• Online survey panels. There are several online survey panels, such as SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Qualtrics, that allow you to create and distribute surveys to a large audience. These panels also provide access to a diverse pool of participants, making it easier to find participants with specific characteristics or demographics.
• User testing platforms. User testing platforms, such as UserTesting and Userlytics, allow developers to recruit participants for user testing and surveys. These platforms provide access to a large pool of participants and can help you gather feedback.
• Customer support channels. Customer support channels, such as live chat, email, and phone support, can also be used to invite customers to participate in surveys. This is a great way to reach out to users who have already interacted with the app and may be more willing to provide feedback.
• Email lists: you can leverage your email lists to invite subscribers to participate in a survey. This is a great way to reach an engaged audience who have already shown interest in the app or brand.
• In-app survey: you can also include a survey within your mobile app to gather feedback from users. This is a great way to reach users who are already engaged with the app and can provide valuable insights on how to improve the app.

Step 4. Conduct the survey

Develop survey questions that are clear, concise, and relevant to the research goals. When creating survey questions, it is essential to use clear and concise language that is easy for participants to understand. Avoid using technical jargon or complicated terms that may confuse participants.

Open-ended questions are great for allowing participants to provide detailed and nuanced responses. However, it’s crucial to avoid leading questions that may bias the responses.

Likert scale questions are great for gathering quantitative data on user preferences and opinions. These questions ask participants to rate their level of agreement or disagreement on a scale. For example, in the question, “How satisfied are you with the service you have received from an app?” the respondent might be offered this 5-point Likert scale from which to select a response – Very satisfied; Moderately satisfied; Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied; Moderately dissatisfied; Very dissatisfied.

Focusing on one topic per question is essential to avoid confusing participants and ensure that the responses are relevant to the research goals.

Including skip logic in the survey can help tailor the questions to the participant’s previous responses. This can help ensure that the survey is relevant and engaging for the participant.

Using visuals, such as images or videos, can provide context for the survey questions. This can help participants better understand the questions and provide more accurate responses.

You can do an A/B test to determine whether making little changes to your survey will improve response rates. Consider the number of questions or the timing, etc. Put various surveys into various designs, then run A/B test studies to determine which kind of survey performs best in whatever situation.

Finally, it’s important to test the survey questions with a small group of participants to ensure that the questions are clear and relevant. This can also help identify any technical issues with the survey.

Step 5. Analyze and report the results

The most important step in this process is undoubtedly the analysis of user feedback. It entails transforming qualitative and quantitative user data into insights that can be used to improve products. 

First, organize the data in a spreadsheet or other data management tool to make it easier to analyze and interpret. Then, clean the data to remove any incomplete or irrelevant responses and ensure accuracy. Next, use descriptive statistics like mean, median, and mode to summarize the data and identify trends and patterns. 

After analyzing the data, identify key insights like user preferences, pain points, and areas for improvement. Use graphs, charts, and tables to help visualize the data and make it easier to understand. Report the findings in a clear and concise manner, providing recommendations for improving the mobile app based on the survey results. Finally, validate the findings by testing the recommendations with a small group of users to ensure they are effective and meet user needs.

By following these steps, you can gain valuable insights into user needs and preferences, and use this information to make informed decisions that improve the user experience of the mobile app.

Tip: User Surveys Best Practices 

To ensure the success of your upcoming survey, check out Devlight’s best practices:

• Keep your surveys short

Most of the time, those who complete your user surveys for mobile app development do you a favor. What better approach to appreciate their time than to refrain from occupying it excessively? Higher completion rates and more considerate answers to the questions you decide to include will be your reward.

• Ask the right questions

Add the third open-ended question at the end of the questionnaire if the previous two are screening questions for clarification. It is crucial to understand users’ behaviors and discover their significant issues during user surveys for mobile app development. Leave the respondents room for improvisation. 

• Avoid bad questions

Never use the same range of numbers twice. For instance, the same age mentioned in multiple age ranges is highly perplexing. Which option—10-20 or 20-30—would you pick if you were 20?

Questions that lead participants to a particular response, such as “Don’t you think this app is easy to use?” or “Don’t you agree that this app is the best?”

Questions that ask two things at once, such as “Do you find this app easy to use and visually appealing?”

Questions that are too vague or general, such as “What do you think of the app?” or “Do you like the app?”

Questions that use technical or industry-specific jargon that may not be familiar to participants, such as “What do you think of the app’s UX/UI design?”

Questions that can be interpreted in different ways, such as “How often do you use the app?” without specifying a time frame.

Questions that contain emotionally charged language or assumptions, such as “Don’t you think this app is much better than the competition?”

• Absolutes can seriously lower precision

Terms like “every,” “always,” and “all” are absolutes. They forbid more nuanced responses and force the respondent to either agree or disagree with a forcefully worded question. What if only part of the question sounds right? What if the question already contains a negative participle? Those are common errors. 

• Always review the survey before sending
  

Make sure to preview your survey to avoid any design errors. Even better, distribute it to others so they can correct any errors you may have missed.

User Interviews and Surveys for Mobile App Development: Devlight’s Case 

In recent years, the financial industry has seen a rapid increase in the number of digital banks, also known as neo-banks. The convenience and flexibility of neobanks have made them tangibly popular among consumers, especially the younger generation, who are accustomed to a mobile-first experience.

As a result, many traditional financial institutions and investment companies are now considering creating their own neobank concepts to tap into this growing market. An investment company approached us with just such a request.

During the introductory workshops, together with the client’s team members, we were able to formulate the vision of the business and the final product:

• Increasing users’ financial literacy and providing personalized financial savings tools;
• Building an effective and convenient tool for the investor to deposit and withdraw funds and other operations with an investment account;
• Closing all the daily needs of the client by creating universal services;
• Inclusive investing for a mass audience.

After that, we started research with the aim of:

• Conducting competitor market analysis;
• Detailing of user portraits;
• Validating hypotheses;
• Building and validating VPCs.

Hypothesis 1 — There is a banking segment of users who currently do not receive the required level of service — Disproved

During qualitative interviews, the majority of respondents were satisfied with their experience of banking interaction and pointed out one of the competitors as a standard of quality banking in the country. It should be understood that those users who keep up with the global fintech market understand that the competitor has many disadvantages, such as lack of payment using NFC, commissions for withdrawing funds of more than 1,000 conditional units, unstable operation of the program, lack of personalized experience, etc. 

Accordingly, it was worth thinking about deploying our potential product in the niche of Neobanks and not spending a lot of resources and time in order to compete with the most successful player on the market.

Hypothesis 2 — The level of financial literacy of a wide TA segment does not allow competent management of their finances — Approved

During the qualitative interviews, several respondents noted that, in their opinion, their country’s population holds an insufficient level of financial literacy, as well as experiences fear and mistrust of banks and financial infrastructures.

If you compare the results of the questionnaires, you can draw an analogy between the answers of our client’s customers and the wider audience (bank users). Namely: our client’s users interested in learning new savings methods, do not prefer to save their funds in the country’s currency, unlike a wide segment of users. From which we could conclude that users who have experience in investments do not save money in national currency due to inflation.

A sample of bank users showed that 59.9% of users do not plan a budget for the next month; 50% do not analyze expenses for the previous month.

Insight 1: TA uses deposits as the main way of saving their funds, despite the fact that the percentage of return on the deposit account did not exceed the annual percentage of inflation.

Insight 2: 87.9% of surveyed users would like to access an investment education platform.

Insight 3: 48.5% of respondents were receiving information about the investment market via Telegram, 30.1% via mass media.

Hypothesis 3 — TA is ready to use a fully digital bank without physical branches — Approved

The main trend of 2020 was the digitization of processes and business. Due to the restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, most small and medium small businesses have faced difficulties and have been forced to bring their customers online. Accordingly, the number of online transactions for the year increased by 39.7% worldwide.

Most of the respondents (qualitative interview) noted that they were not ready to go to a physical branch of the bank in order to resolve minor issues if they could be resolved online or over the phone.

It is worth noting the small sample of respondents who noted that physical contact with a live person in the department or on the phone was important to them, because they feel calmer when a live person dealt with their question. (As a rule, those were people aged 35+).

Insight 1: During the first year of quarantine, the number of online transactions increased by 39.7% worldwide.

Insight 2: In the priority of service functionalities, only 2.6% of respondents noted the presence of a physical branch as an important choice factor.

Insight 3: 77.2% of respondents preferred to issue a card online and receive it by courier.

Hypothesis 4 — The availability of bonuses or exclusive goodies is an important factor when choosing a bank — Approved

When conducting a qualitative interview, we asked a fairly simple question: “if you had a choice between two banks with the same conditions, would the design of the card be the deciding factor for you?” About half of the respondents indicated that the design of the card would be a decisive choice, even those who practically did not use plastic.

It is worth noting that a small number of respondents stated they did not pay attention to the availability of cashback and the possibility of choosing a card design, provided that the bank’s application covered their basic needs.

Some respondents noted that they were not satisfied with monthly withdrawal fees in their banks, as well as the presence of hidden fees when applying for a loan or installment plan.

Insight 1: Some users were willing to pay extra for a customized card design (quality interview).

Insight 2: Deloitte’s consumer market analysis shows that 1 in 5 users are willing to pay 20% more for a personalized or exclusive product. 46% of users answered that they were willing to wait longer to receive their personalized or exclusive product.

Hypothesis 5 — There is a user segment in the market that is interested in an affordable and simple investment product — Confirmed

Due to the drop in deposit rates, users are actively looking for alternative methods of saving their money. This is confirmed by the volume of trading on the securities and cryptocurrency market.

Despite the fact that respondents had never invested in securities, they, to one degree or another, were following the development of the market and were aware of all the latest events or quotations of shares of large companies (Tesla, Pfizer, Apple).

Speaking of active investors, the mobile application was not considered a professional investment tool, rather a simple tool to implement a previously made decision or to review the current value of a portfolio.

Insight 1: 49.3% of active bank clients were interested in investment or trading.

Insight 2: 80.5% of active bank customers would buy at least one share in their bank’s app if they had the opportunity.

Hypothesis 6 — A wide segment of users does not invest in securities due to a lack of understanding of the market and fear of losing savings — Can be interpreted in different ways

Some respondents answered that they were not ready to invest in securities due to their unpredictability, as well as the lack of guarantees of return of funds. (Thus, it is worth correctly explaining the essence of ready-made strategies or mutual investment funds to such users).

Based on qualitative interviews, as well as the results of questionnaires, most respondents understood that opening an investment account did not take much effort and time. Most likely, this is due to the fact that 49.3% of respondents were interested in the topic of trading or investments.

Insight: 49.3% of active bank clients were interested in investment or trading.

Conclusions drawn from interviews and user surveys:

Super app – not a fact

If you look broadly at the existing players in the market of banking services, most of the user tasks are closed at the basic level. Some giants have their own online stores and capture the market by expanding their spheres of influence and service providers with the help of partner services. 

Perhaps it is worth looking at it from a completely different angle and trying to create a bank that will not depend as much on a large number of integrations and partners but will be able to independently offer users the same bonuses as competitors. For example, the ability to arrange installments for any transaction, which basically eliminates the need to have your own online store.

Invest easily!

A wide segment of users of banking services has an active interest in the investment market, as well as in other methods of alternative capital multiplication. This is our chance to occupy this niche, but we will need to choose the right marketing campaign for this. After all, after the crisis in 2008, there remained a great distrust of banks and financial infrastructures in general. If we talk about the investment concept as such, then it should be simple, because intuitiveness will help us reach a wider segment of users. Let’s leave Tradernet for advanced users.

Know your user

Overall, we had a pretty strong response to our mailings, with over 60% of respondents leaving their email so that we could contact them in the future. This indicator proves the present active and open users and the opportunity to work well with the audience.

User Interviews and Surveys for Mobile App Development: Summary

As a component of a larger user experience research process, user interviews for mobile app development are a fantastic source of unique user insights. When designed and carried out properly, IDIs make it simpler to comprehend the needs and expectations of your users. You can communicate with people directly and delve deeper into how they feel about your UX, which is different from conventional qualitative data collection techniques.

User research is a crucial component of product development and helps guarantee that the final product is more suited to user requirements. You can learn more about your users’ requirements, habits, and problems by conducting user interviews, usability studies, or surveys.
Active listening, asking the correct questions, developing empathy, looking below the surface, patience, and many more abilities are required to be an effective UX researcher. It also calls for interpersonal communication skills. Our article has inspired you to respect user research and be diligent in your user surveys for mobile app development methods.

The post How to Conduct User Interviews and Surveys for Mobile App Development appeared first on Devlight.

“Most businesses die because they offer a product that consumers don’t need” — this is a famous saying of Eric Ries, the author of the Lean Startup methodology. So how can a hypothesis-driven development help your project avoid this trap?

The answer is simple — it aims to research the demand for your future product before making a mobile app. So it is worth starting the research by compiling a set of hypotheses about the needs of consumers. That answers the question about what problems and difficulties your future product will help solve.

Forming hypotheses is a creative process, and it is difficult to follow a certain procedure, but some rules still apply. In this article, we will describe an algorithm for creating a set of product hypotheses and their further verification upon user surveys.

What Is Hypothesis-Driven Development?

A hypothesis-based approach allows product developers to design, test, and refactor a product until it is acceptable to consumers. This methodology involves testing and refining the product based on consumer feedback to verify the assumptions made during the ideation process. The utilization of this approach helps to eliminate any uncertainties in the design phase and leads to a final product that is well-received by users.

Here are some examples of hypotheses for mobile app development from various segments:

• The behavioral hypothesis demonstrates user behavior under various conditions and what drives people to act in a certain manner;
• The difficulties users encounter and the justifications for why they regard such challenges as obstacles to their objectives are covered by the problem hypothesis;
• The motivation hypothesis focuses on the wants of users and the reasons why they are currently ineffective in accomplishing their objectives;
• The blocker hypothesis reveals the cause of the present ineffective conduct or difficulty.

Why Do We Use a Hypothesis-Driven Development?

When developing a product, you define your hypotheses, find the fastest ways to test them, and use the results to change your strategy.

You have a lot of assumptions, to begin with. You predict what users want, what they are looking for, what the design should be, what marketing strategy to use, what architecture will be most effective, and how to monetize the product.

Some hypotheses need to be corrected. You don’t know which ones. CB Insights determined that a lack of market demand was one of the main causes of startup failure. Almost half of these projects spent months, or even years, building a product.

The only way to test a list of hypotheses for the mobile app is to give the product to a potential customer as soon as possible. If you follow this methodology consistently, you will realize that most hypotheses fail. You assume, fail, and have to go back to the beginning each time to test new hypotheses.

This approach is not an innovation in product development. When you write a book or essay, you spend a lot of time editing and revising. When you write code, you also redo it. Every creative endeavor requires a huge amount of trial and error.

In this world, the one who detects their own mistakes and corrects them faster becomes the winner. The most important thing is to determine which of your hypotheses is wrong with the help of feedback from real users. Thus, when you’re building a product, writing code, or developing a marketing plan, always ask yourself a few questions:

• Which hypothesis in the project is the most doubtful?
• What is the fastest way to check it?

How Does A Hypothesis-Driven Development Look Like in Real Life?

Let’s look at a simple example. Let’s say we choose a project approach (one that sets a task, not puts forward hypotheses) to a service for selling goods. We decide to add a delivery option to it. We decide to hire delivery people, buy them branded clothes, bags, and possibly transport. The development team creates a page where you can enter the delivery address and the desired date. Then we write a service that transfers the order from the store to the delivery person and an application for those delivery people. What happens in the negative scenario? That’s right. We’re losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What if we had a hypothesis-driven approach? First of all, we would write hypotheses and confirm that customers, in the first place, need the delivery option. Then we would understand the optimal cost and delivery time to calculate the unit economy. Next, surveys or interviews of users would be conducted to give us an understanding of user needs. Then we would make a fake “delivery” button on the website or in the app to see how many clients would try to use it. 

Of course, this action cannot be used to calculate the exact demand because there are still dozens of ways to kill the conversion after the user’s clicking the button: complicated fill-out forms, poorly available delivery periods, high costs, etc. But, at least, we would understand how many people out of 10 thousand, who saw the button, tried to use it — three or eight thousand. So then, to test the hypothesis in real-life conditions, we would use a ready-made B2B solution rather than develop our delivery feature. 

Moreover, to save the integration time, we would collect orders, put them in a database, and then pass them over to our manager, who would manually issue each delivery through the third-party service web form. What would happen in the worst-case scenario? Nothing too serious. We wouldn’t have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars and many weeks on development.

To sum up, hypothesis-driven development aims to understand what product feature will bring the greatest value at the moment and test this feature in the simplest possible way. To put it bluntly, try to refute each of your hypotheses as soon as possible. Proving to yourself that an idea is worthless without spending time on its development is morally difficult but very effective from the company’s activities point of view.

A hypothesis-driven approach provides a structured way of consolidating ideas and building hypotheses based on objective criteria. This methodology provides a deep understanding of prioritizing features related to business goals and desired user outcomes.

How to Test the Hypothesis of Product Demand and Value Without Development

Starting development without testing the key hypotheses behind the new product is a widely spread mistake. In this case, you are completely sure of your idea and see no point in testing it but begin the development process immediately.

The second most common hypothesis-driven development mistake is to look for confirmation of a hypothesis instead of testing it. Often, demand or value testing becomes a formal step. The decision is not based on received data but on initial settings and startup owners’ prejudices. This cognitive distortion happens for several reasons:

• Commitment to an idea blocks critical thinking (typical of startups);
• The bureaucratic apparatus perceives testing hypotheses for mobile app development as that part of the project development process, which is inevitably followed by implementation, regardless of the results of the test (typical of corporations). Even if all the early tests show that the product in its current form does not stand a chance, it still goes into development;
• The third mistake is testing unimportant things. Instead of testing key risks (demand and value), secondary elements related to subjective perception (appearance, non-core functions, etc.) are tested. As a result, time is wasted, and the hypothesis-testing process itself is devalued.

Testing the Demand Hypothesis for a New Product

The demand hypothesis is one of the riskiest assumptions behind a new product. This hypothesis assumes that the potential audience is interested in solving a certain problem. The demand hypothesis is also called the need hypothesis or the problem hypothesis. 

It is necessary to study the target audience and its tasks in order to check the demand, sometimes to sell a product that has not been created:

• The most common way to test the demand is to create a landing page with a detailed description and illustrations of the product and show it to potential buyers;
• In some cases, you don’t need to create your site— just place an ad on a platform attracting the audience of potential customers for the product;
• The demand for some products is difficult to check with a landing page or an announcement on social networks. Especially if the sales process includes a long conversation, a call, and sometimes a meeting with the buyer. You can use targeted advertising and personal communication in such situations. Again, without yet creating an actual product;
• If deciding to buy your product requires minimal experience interacting with it, you can offer customers a shell without filling;
• One of the easiest and most effective ways to test demand without development is to show users videos simulating how the product works. This way, you can demonstrate its capabilities, interface, design, and situations where the product will be useful.

Testing the New Product Value Hypothesis

Once the demand list of hypotheses for the mobile app is validated and you know that the product solves the desired problem among potential buyers, the next key risk is the value. The value hypothesis assumes that the product’s intended implementation will bring customers real value. It usually means that the product will solve users’ problems more effectively than alternatives available on the market. Otherwise, users will have no motivation to switch from one solution to another:

• Allowing users to try something as close to the future product is the most proper way to test a value hypothesis. This can be done with the help of third-party services that reproduce complex functions and automate their work without writing your code;
• Alternatively, to check value hypotheses for mobile app development without development, you can reproduce the process of the system in manual mode;
• The third method lies in value validation through the prototype. Usability testing of prototypes allows you to see the process of using the product, and subsequent interviews give a fairly accurate understanding of the presence or absence of the value of the solution being studied.

How to Build and Test List of Hypotheses for Mobile App

The HADI (Hypothesis – Action – Data – Insights) methodology is the simplest algorithm for cyclical testing of ideas – from hypothesis through action to data and conclusions.

The hypothesis-driven development management cycle begins with formulating a hypothesis according to the “if” and “then” principles. In the second stage, it is necessary to carry out several works to launch the experiment (Action), then collect data for a given period (Data), and at the end, make an unambiguous conclusion about whether the hypothesis was successful, what and how it can be improved by launching the next cycle of hypothesis testing (Insights).

Step 1. Forming a Hypothesis

Here you formulate what you want to know. What problem are you trying to solve? Determine which product level you should test:

• Value level —  test the problem your product is supposed to solve. Understand whether it is worth solving;
• Feature level is a functionality through which the user quickly realizes the value of our product;
• Design level means the design and visualization. How does your functionality work in terms of user experience? Simply put, will people intuitively figure out how to manage, where to click, and what to do with your product?
• The feasibility level of hypothesis-driven development is about the technical implementation of everything you have created.

The hypothesis is based on the principle “If…, then…”. (if…then)

You can also prioritize the hypotheses to be tested. Think about what might have the biggest impact on your users’ needs and prioritize accordingly. You can also use the ICE Score framework, which includes these  three elements:

1. Impact;
2. Confidence;
3. Ease.

ICE is calculated as follows:

Of course, this is only one option — several formulas you can choose from existing. However, remember that the formula for all hypotheses you compare should stay the same, and your ICE should have the same rating range — either 1 to 10, 1 to 100, or another scale (determine it in the beginning).

Impact

Impact estimates how much an idea will positively affect the metric you’re trying to improve. To determine the impact, we ask the following questions: How effective will it be? How much will this affect the metrics (conversion, retention, LTV, MAU, DAU)?

Confidence

Confidence shows how much you trust the impact estimates and ease of implementation. To determine this hypothesis-driven development metric, you need to answer the question: How confident are you that this feature will lead to the improvement described in Impact and be as easy to implement as described in Ease?

Easy

Ease of implementation is an estimate of how much effort and resources are required to implement this hypothesis. The easier the task, the higher the number. To determine the ease of implementation, you need to answer the question: How long will testing these hypotheses for mobile app development or developing this feature take? How many people will be involved? Consider the work of the development, design, and marketing departments.

Step 2. Performing the Action

At the beginning of each cycle, we take several hypotheses and start testing them using the next methods:

• A/B Testing or Split Testing

In such testing, the main thing is clearly defining the sample or its size. This is important so that the results are as realistic and statistically significant as possible. We recommend conducting split testing with at least ten thousand active monthly users. If your audience still needs to be bigger, it is better to use other tools.

• Quantitative User Survey

Use special services facilitating survey creation and implementation. For example, Survey Monkey. Such services allow you to select the desired audience and ask them questions. With the free plan, you can create questionnaires with up to 10 questions. The link to the questionnaire can be placed on the website or social networks.

• Qualitative Research or Customer Development

This research type is a direct conversation with consumers or a certain group of potential product consumers. Such hypothesis-driven development interviews can be divided into two groups:

1. Usability— will help to understand whether users can use your product at all to solve their tasks with its help and achieve their desired goals;
2. Discovery – delves into the state, problems, and perceptions of users of a certain group in detail. In such interviews, we usually ask questions like “Who? How? Why? Where?”

How many such interviews do you need to test the hypothesis? We usually start with five. Then we continue until people stop giving new answers. You can stop as soon as the information starts to repeat itself. For hypotheses testing small product changes, 5-7 interviews may be enough. For the launch of a completely new product — 50-70 interviews.

Step 3. Data Analytics

At this stage, we collect data from our research. You should have a backlog of your hypotheses for mobile app development prioritized according to certain criteria to help you at various stages of development. Approach all feature development from the perspective of hypotheses. A good indicator is when you have two states: one in which an experiment is being planned to test the hypothesis and another in which functional validation is ongoing and data is being measured. 

Then, when your experiment is over, you can identify the hypothesis as being supported, refuted, or even abandoned if you decide to call it quits due to the results. You may ensure that you reach any necessary pivots as early as possible and prevent investing in needless work by always tackling the highest-risk hypotheses first.

Step 4. Insights

This stage can also be called interpretation. First, you should analyze whether your list of hypotheses for the mobile app was confirmed (worked). Whether a theory is confirmed or refuted, the process itself offers a chance to learn. Even if you cannot support the hypothesis, the result may offer insightful information that you might use for a different hypothesis.

Now that some of your hypotheses have been supported, you can proceed to development. But even once the product is released, testing must continue. In addition, you should be alert since certain aspects can need to change due to client needs, market trends, regional economics, and other factors.

List of Hypotheses for Mobile App: Example

ABC (name changed) is the largest provider of microcredits in Ukraine. They have no physical branches — their services are fully digital and offered online. However, ABC has thousands of contented customers and devoted staff members. The figures speak for themselves:

• During the first half of 2021, ABC’s net income was estimated at 44 million dollars (the biggest number among competitors);
• The company has a net profit of $1.4 million;
• ABC’s team consists of more than 700 workers;
• They are frequently used by 1.8 m Ukrainians;
• 6,000,000 loans were made in the service;
• Their total issued money circulation is $1 billion.

It is a sizable, contemporary, and well-run business that turned to us to help them with diversification and new ways of development. The customer’s goals were growing the company, diversifying the line of goods, and breaking into a new market. Devlight used this data when forming the list of hypotheses for the mobile app.

Internal Discussions and Hypotheses Forming

First, we gained a profound knowledge of the ABC team’s technology, product, capabilities, vision, and passion through our meetings. We saw that we could accomplish our ultimate objective thanks to our significant experience working with neo-banks and our business knowledge. 

The Ukrainian market was solely focused on loans as of 2021. Users voluntarily took out loans for various purposes, including small household and personal expenses, buying vehicles, and starting businesses. Loans were a common practice. It was typical, a common occurrence that clients were fully aware of.

However, the market’s offerings fell short of users’ needs. They were one-dimensional and impersonal. We concluded that this vulnerability is exactly where we can compete. Depending on their credit score, we can provide different consumers with flexible credit limits or high limits with a longer grace period. For instance, the market had nothing like a big credit limit of UAH 100,000 for 100 days. As a result of ABC’s significant experience in the credit industry, we can accomplish this relatively effortlessly.

One of the advantages of ABC’s business model was its capacity to deal with credit scores and potential hazards properly. These advantages enabled us to formulate the premise of a flexible product credit engine, which we could then use to develop the product’s key competitive advantage. The primary target audience had to be used to test this idea. It would serve as our foundation for hypotheses for mobile app development. 

Do you keep failing to form hypotheses for mobile app development? Devlight will be happy to point you in the right direction. Be sure to contact us!

Hypothesis-Driven Development: Summary

Do not worry that your hypotheses will be incorrect. Your objective is not to convince everyone that you are correct. Your objective is to establish a prosperous business. The hypotheses are merely a tool to get you there, so the more of them you debunk — the better. Finally, keep in mind that a hypothesis-driven development:

• is about a sequence of tests to support or refute a theory. Determine value!
• provides a quantifiable result and promotes ongoing learning;
• enables the user — a critical stakeholder — to provide continuous feedback to comprehend the unknowns better;
• enables us to comprehend the changing environment and gradually expose the value.

Apps that were developed based on tested hypotheses have a big and advantageous impact on a company’s business objectives. Utilizing data that is closely related to the company’s goal guarantees that customers’ needs are prioritized. 

The post How to Build a List of Hypotheses for Mobile App (Guide for Hypothesis-Driven Development) appeared first on Devlight.

Mobile app research is essential to the success of your app, and we’ll tell you why. Understanding your target audience, competitors, industry, and current market trends lie at the base of conducting mobile app research. Every attempt to design a mobile app begins with market research because it assists in validating your app concept and ensuring your app is meeting demand in the industry.

Data gathering and analysis are necessary for conducting mobile app research. You can sometimes get data from sources that already exist. Other times, you’ll need to carry out original research alone. The majority of the time, market research combines these two methods. Let’s talk about this analysis’s goals, perspectives, and types in detail.

Why Is the Mobile App Research Before Development So Important?

A thorough mobile app market research helps you determine what your customers desire from the product. You’ll be able to think of viable solutions for your business and customers after understanding your customers’ expectations. Gathering crucial information and insights enables you to design and sell your ideas. The research gives you a complete picture of your target market and rivals. 

You can identify new opportunities for your company by comprehensively understanding the market. Regardless of what occurs to the overall economy, it is essential to discover and comprehend approaches to develop your product based on shifting client needs or market trends.

How a Comprehensive Mobile App Development Research Helps to Build Successful Mobile App

Marketing analysis provides important and relevant information about the market situation, helps assess how effectively the company promotes its products, creates the right promotion strategy, and chooses possible directions for business development. 

Mobile app development research is needed whenever a company launches new large-scale projects, upgrades an existing one, or starts from scratch. Entering a new market (geographic or product) also requires details preparation based on analytical data. With solid investments, owners and managers must be fully confident in the effectiveness of investments. Market assessment, competitor analysis, and the study of channels and methods of promotion are carried out in order to guarantee the app’s future success. 

The Goals of Mobile App Research

Each marketing research has its own specific goal and solves a specific business problem. Without a clear goal for the research, you can get empty information and spend extra resources and time. We’ll consider the main goals of marketing research:

• Having a description of the market

Market description research aims to determine the size (capacity) and growth rates of the market, evaluate the main drivers of the market; identify key market players, describe their positioning and their share (place) in the industry; determine the main market segments and their share in the total market. The information obtained in the course of such research helps the company to form a common understanding of the significance and prospects of the mobile app within the industry.

• Carrying out market segmentation

The purpose of marketing research on market segmentation is to identify all significant consumer segments in the industry; uncover each segment of special preferences, habits of behavior, and requirements for the product; and assess segments’ size and growth rates. These findings should help the company discover free low-competitive market niches, start developing the mobile app for certain groups of segments, and correctly form the feature set.

• Assessing customer attitudes, expectations, and loyalty

The mobile app development research also aims to assess the level of customer satisfaction with a particular app or company. In the course of the study, the product’s degree of compliance with users’ expectations in terms of the main characteristics is studied. As a result, the company can understand the key disadvantages of the app (affecting the decrease in satisfaction) and form corrective measures to improve advertising, product, and service.

In general, the research on mobile applications helps you answer the following inquiries:

• Is there a need for your application in the market?
• What are the preferences of your target market?
• What opponents and challenges do you face?
• Does your mobile app stand out from the competitors in a special way?
• Do you have a successful business plan for mobile apps?
• How can you develop a marketing plan that is optimized?

Where to Use the Results of the Mobile App Initial Research

Market research is the basis for further analysis and building a future product development strategy. After completing the assessments, take note of everything you learned, compare it to where you started, and add it to your app. There may be a discrepancy between what you believed to be true and what you learned via study. It’s always preferable to detect errors in the app discovery stage. Then, the goal is to incorporate the results into your app’s creation easily. How do you do that?

Sort your findings into groups based on the topics you’ve looked into. Open a spreadsheet, for instance, and make a tab for each topic you looked at. Be careful to incorporate the following:

• your target market;
• competitors;
• a description of the sector and its developments.

Make sure to incorporate all the information you’ve gathered from outside sources and your initial findings. Comparing these to the notes you made before starting your investigation will help. You may, for instance, contrast the results regarding clients with your own idea of the ideal client. Do you notice any gaps? Remember that anything is subject to change since you’re just starting out with your app development journey. 

What Are the Mobile App Research Types and Kinds?

Any mobile app idea must pass the market research stage to succeed over the long term. The foundation of the entire process of developing an app is analytic preparation. Without conducting app market research, it will be challenging to comprehend the pain points influencing consumer behavior and current market trends.

When it comes to practice, your company can use various research techniques to verify the viability of its mobile app concept. Here are the most vital of them:

The Primary Mobile App Research

Primary research involves actively collecting relevant data. Typically, primary research will involve focus groups, surveys, interviews with potential customers, and competitive analysis of the current market. Primary research entails proactively gathering pertinent information. For instance, doing thorough demographic surveys to identify your app’s target population and their pain areas is a component of primary research for mobile apps. 

Primary research should also emphasize the most recent technological advances and how current industry trends affect your business model. However, before you develop a mobile app, you need to clearly understand your target market and how your app will answer their problems while still fitting into your business strategy.

The Secondary Mobile App Research

Secondary research is frequently employed by businesses to polish and refine their strategies. These involve studies and reports generated by other sources. For example, you might rely on studies conducted by industry research organizations to understand industry trends and the target audience better. 

The Global Industry Research

Industry research enables businesses and entrepreneurs to evaluate specific products, processes, and services in a given industry in general. Additionally, they employ this research to comprehend a company’s surroundings better. Conducting industry research is also done to analyze the competition, make strategic decisions, and spot market trends. Industry research frequently concentrates on a specific product or product range by analyzing the next criteria:

• Key players — searching for competing elements like bigger companies in the market. The research examines significant players’ primary products, solutions, and commercial strategies.
• Growth — examining whether an industry is expanding or contracting. As it demonstrates the amount of money the sector generates and speculates how this can rise, this information is helpful when developing a business plan.
• Trends — the mobile app development research assesses trends and how they impact companies. 
• Competitors — identifying the main rivals. Analyzing the tactics of other businesses and figuring out what makes them different enables companies to benchmark their products.

When to Do Mobile App Research?

Generally, the mobile app market research is carried out after idea validation, before the discovery phase. Paul N. Hauge and Peter Jackson, in their book, Do Your Own Market Research, point out three specific situations where market research is really useful:

• Goal setting. Knowing things like the size of the market or the description of potential customers can help you set sales goals.
• Solution of problems. Market research will help you understand whether your problems are internal, such as a poor-quality product, or external, such as aggressive competition.
• Support for company growth. Understanding how and why consumers choose products will help you decide which mobile app to bring to market.

Market research does not always have to be a large and complex project. The relatively new trend of agile market research allows you to research the market regularly and economically. With this approach, you use small, iterative, and evolutionary methods to respond to rapidly changing circumstances and adapt to unknown market territories.

Also, if you are in a startup environment, especially if you are developing an innovative product, you may be interested in customer development. In this methodology, mobile app research is the most “flexible” and closely related to product development.

How to Conduct Mobile App Research 

Researching the volume of the market is an integral part of market research. In this context, we should mention a few abbreviations: PAM, TAM, SAM, and SOM. They present a way to estimate the market size, which is popular in startups and growing businesses. The method is used by companies who want to understand the prospects for growth — and whether it is worth investing in a project. Here are their meanings:

• PAM (Potential Available Market) — the entire market volume, considering how it will change over the time you are interested in.
• TAM (Total Addressable Market) — the indicator includes all potential customers, even those who are already buying from your competitors.
• SAM (Served/Serviceable Available Market) — share of TAM. SAM shows you how much money is already being spent on solutions like yours. SAM is a market of direct competitors and analogs.
• SOM (Serviceable & Obtainable Market) — share of SAM. This is the number of sales a company can generate using its available tools.

There are two ways to calculate metrics: top-down and bottom-up. The top-down method uses analytical data, and the calculation starts with the total market volume — TAM. In the bottom-up approach, we use known indicators of the project, and the calculation starts with a realistically achievable market size — SOM. It is better to calculate both the first way and the second. The results will likely vary, but it will help to understand the real state of affairs.

Let’s look at an example – a mobile CRM application.

TAM – The global CRM industry is worth an estimated $148.49 billion.
SAM – The global mobile CRM industry is estimated to be worth around $26.64 billion.
SOM – Let’s imagine this particular mobile CRM application is aimed at companies with around 40-50 field sales reps. The number of companies that employ between 40-50 field reps represents about 5% of the overall SAM. So SOM – $1,33 billion.

1. Assess the Market

One of the most crucial things to think about when creating a mobile app is whether or not there will be adequate demand for it. To accurately assess the likelihood that your app is successful, you must first look at your area’s supply and demand conditions. This mobile app research stage will be quite straightforward if you’re interested in the app business. Search the Google Play and the App Store.

In Google Play, you can view how many downloads various apps have received. Analyze the information critically. 

Consider, assess, and fully grasp the reality of the situation before you. If you’re surprised and dissatisfied by the number of downloads for your topic, keep looking. Are there any competitor programs that perform this task more effectively? Maybe your app can do it better. However, mobile app development research gives life to your ideas.

2. Define the Target Audience

After verifying your mobile app concept, you must focus on locating the people who will benefit from it the most. Being as descriptive as you can when describing your target audience is essential. It is far too general and sweeping to say things like, “My app is fantastic for everyone,” or “My app is for all males.”

You should define the probable users of your application and include crucial demographic details like:

• Age;
• Location;
• Occupation;
• Marital status;
• Interests;
• Values;
• Lifestyle ;
• Education level;
• Income;
• Key traits.

You also need to be aware of the types of mobile devices your target market wants to utilize. You cannot write a single code line before you know which mobile devices your audience will most likely use. For instance, if your mobile app market research shows that most of your audience uses Android smartphones, you may want to consider developing Android apps and changing your app store optimization strategy to the Google Play Store.

You should also consider your target audience as inclusive rather than exclusive. If those outside your defined audience also enjoy your app, this is great and may result in more pertinent information.

The social media sites your target audience uses should also be a key factor in your study at this time. With this knowledge, your business can make social media accounts more effective for connecting with people who spend most of their time online. Social media profiles offer a useful source of candid client feedback that your company may use to develop a strong and effective marketing plan.

3. Define Your Users’ Problems

Understanding your users is vital before releasing mobile apps. Would you change to a business that offers subpar service? Yes. The same applies to mobile applications and related services. Contacting your potential customers and getting the required information is the easiest way to understand their difficulties.  

Additionally, there is much room for improvement, which is quite helpful. Users may be discussing the issues and theories with competitor apps right now on forums and social media. It is essential to use additional resources to analyze.

4. Know Your Competitors

Conducting a detailed analysis of your competitors is one of the core tasks of mobile app development research. Analyzing rivals is beneficial. You may observe what they do well and what users like, as well as areas where they fall short of the competition. You may improve your app idea, business plan, and app marketing methods by understanding where there is a market opportunity.

Your company can enhance its own app and income-generating predictions by fixing the flaws of your competitors’ goods and services. Even though you may be entering the market later than some big players, rigorous research will help you avoid their mistakes and hasten the development process.

5. Summarize Your Findings

Examine your idea’s strengths, weaknesses, unique possibilities, niches, and any potential threats from competitors or outside forces. Your company should do ongoing mobile market research as you progress through the development process to update learnings and adjust efforts to meet user and market demands.

Mobile App Research: What Can Go Wrong?

Whether they have received professional training or not, almost everyone thinks they have what it takes to be a market researcher. Curiosity, interest in people, and having a reactive mind are the three main characteristics of a researcher. However, this is not always enough. In light of this, we mention some specific mistakes founders/marketers make when gathering and analyzing market research data:

The Most Common Mobile App Research Mistakes

• Inadequate Sampling 

Your entire analysis could be inaccurate if you choose the incorrect respondents to your queries. While a poor question pops out, poor sampling is less immediately apparent. Because of this, avoiding this error is of the utmost importance. Make careful to define your sample right away. Make a list of the people you wish to talk to and why. Establish the rules so they can specify who belongs in the audience. Decide if additional analysis or cross-comparison may be necessary by segmenting your audience into smaller groups.

Be specific about the level of quality you require from your survey. This is becoming more crucial as access panels have become more popular, and their use of qualified respondents is frequently assumed. This is true for qualitative and quantitative mobile app research.

• Vague Questions

Your analysis will be unsusceptible to interpretation if your query is not specific, suggests prejudice, or has an unclear meaning. At best, your conclusions may encounter resistance inside the company. The worst-case scenario is that the wrong decisions are made using this information.

There is frequently ambiguity in the answer blocks. It is relatively simple to write answer choices from your own point of view while omitting certain important ones that responders might consider. Spend time making sure that the phrasing of the answer choices doesn’t cause overlap between some of them, confusing your respondents.

• Incentives for cost-cutting

The best way to think of incentives is as a form of compensation for time sacrifice. Due to their hectic schedules, people are asked to contribute some of their time to mobile app development research to help you do your job. Yes, they are driven by their interest in the subject matter or by a desire to see us succeed, but these reasons shouldn’t be used as justifications for not respecting people’s time. 

You don’t want the incentives to be severely low or excessively high since we aren’t attempting to sway or skew the research; rather, we want them to be fair and reciprocal. They offer us their time, and we return the favor. Its unjust evaluation of people’s time is one of the main causes of studies getting poor response rates. If you compensate appropriately, you will get greater quality research and higher response rates.

• Poor reports

Be careful when reporting. Make sure convincing data support all conclusions. Avoid words like “some” and “may” and try to make your points as briefly as possible. Describe your discovery in detail, including who it concerns, what it means, and what may be done. If action is to be taken, accuracy is required. Likewise, don’t exaggerate your conclusions. If you do, the resulting report can be ambiguous.

For instance, avoid generalizing about a particular customer demographic or behavior when describing clients. Don’t equate behaviors with people of the same age or location. Most essential, don’t generalize your conclusions to the entire company or offer broad recommendations outside your purview.

• Graph-pocalypse

Lastly, avoid stuffing your report with information that makes it difficult to read or comprehend. People frequently mean this when discussing telling stories or developing a narrative. Use evidence, but avoid ruining the project by chronicling every little detail.

Mobile App Development Research: Summary

Regardless of your company plan, attracting customers to your mobile app will be difficult. The mobile app market research helps you study the target audience and their specific needs to develop a reliable strategy. Companies can use market research to understand the demand for, viability, and potential performance of their product. 

Primary or secondary information, which gives distinctive insights into a company’s offering, is used in market research. A crucial part of a company’s research is used in the project discovery phase since it determines the app’s success and future scaling. 

The post How to Conduct Mobile App Research in 2023 [Market Research Step-by-Step Guide] appeared first on Devlight.

Consumer Trend Canvas is an easy-to-use analytic tool that allows you to accumulate and discover relevant information on a single “canvas” and is designed to collect business ideas from available “details quickly”: drivers, values, cases, insights, future users, and modern technological solutions.

The Consumer Trend Canvas aims to assess the external environment when working on an idea. If you do not yet have a product concept of your idea, CTC can act as a form of validation. Our template described hereby will help you create sustainable ideas and business solutions.

Why Is It Important to Fill Out a Consumer Trend Canvas?

Trend Canvas is the new standard when it comes to supporting companies and organizations in dealing with ideas systemically. It is not uncommon for people who bear responsibility in a company or organization to feel under pressure. Is this product really necessary? What drivers and values does the team have and how will they help shape the concept of a product that is really needed and valued by users? Use our consumer trend canvas template to tackle all of those issues during the brainstorming process. 

Here are several key benefits of using the Consumer Trend Canvas Model:

• Proven model – thousands of companies have used it для роботи у командах, making it a standard tool for the formation of business ideas and strategy. Apart from this, there are now different proven approaches to CTC — choose your  consumer trend canvas template and be sure about the result;
• Communication – having everyone on the same page is essential in any transformation or innovation process. The CTC is an ideal way to communicate essential information to all stakeholders and team members. It gives everyone a tangible realization of what you are working for and the expected result;
• Risk reduction – building a startup or innovating an existing business is risky. The CTC helps to understand the risks and prioritize the most dangerous factors to approach validation logically to minimize obstacles;
• Simple, not simplistic – you don’t need an MBA to pick up the CTC and start to innovate. The critical approach is to make your consumer trend canvas visual, ideate, test, and learn as you innovate and develop a competitive advantage;
• Speed – given the simplicity and practicality of the CTC, many iterations can be made in a short space of time;
• Design thinking – the CTC is one of the best tools for leveraging the power of design thinking for creating business ideas.

Two Main Components of the Consumer Trend Canvas

The Consumer Trend Canvas model we use at Devlight is divided into two parts — “Analytics” and “Solutions” and acts as a forecasting constructor to create sustainable ideas and business decisions based on core values, emerging drivers of change, observed insights, existing technologies, and emerging discoveries.

Analytics

This segment of our consumer trend canvas example consists of five blocks:

• Drivers and values. Factors currently shaping the world’s picture and leading to new needs and behavioral changes:

• Drivers – What drives you or your team to create this product?
• Values – What are the values behind your ideas?

• Insights. What do we know about the external environment and the market?;
• Technologies. Ideas that can be extracted from existing technologies and their areas of application;
• Cases. Examples from the practice of companies that are already trying to apply new ideas;
• Future users. Who will use it, and who will benefit from your idea?

Solution

The data collected in “Analytics” is used at the “Decisions” stage of the consumer trend canvas implementation, divided into two blocks:

• Competitors — Who are your competitors? How do they implement this idea?;
• Business ideas — the generation of ideas based on drivers and values, insights, technologies, cases, future users, and trends known or identified during the foresight session.

How to Fill Out a Consumer Trend Canvas? 

You can carry out the impact analysis alone or in a team. Both ways are valuable and provide interesting insights. If you work in a team, real dialogue is required — on the one hand, to explain the intuitive statements consciously. On the other hand, to articulate the interpretations precisely so that all team members have approximately the same understanding of the resulting picture. 

Devlight divides the process of working with its consumer trend canvas example into 8 steps. All process steps must be run through completely and in sequence in order to be able to deliver meaningful results.

Step 1. Drivers and Values 

What drivers do you and your team have for product development? Write down 3-5 main ones. What values do you want to create a product based on? How will your product affect users’ lives? This section is about what motivates and encourages you to create your mobile app.

Step 2. Insights

This step will help you sharpen your focus for generating insights. Ask yourself: “What do we know about the external environment and the market?”

“Insights” from a consumer trend canvas refers to the key takeaways and understanding that are gained from analyzing data and information about consumer behavior and preferences. This can include identifying patterns and trends in how consumers interact with products and services, understanding their motivations and needs, and identifying areas for potential growth or improvement.

Step 3. Technology

Answer the questions: How is technology changing, and what is the driver for this process? Which solutions appear in the adjacent dominance?

Technologies are highly important for a consumer trend canvas since they help you translate insights into real actions. You have an idea of the product, but how do you plan to create it, make it work, and bring your ideas to life? Think over programming languages, app-building tools, mobile development frameworks, and technological trends you plan to use. 

Step 4. Cases

Look for inspiration — search for cases of implementation of your idea. What can we learn from them? It is worth considering not only positive cases but also negative ones — they will help you not to repeat their mistakes. Innovation typically happens when previously unconnected information is integrated and used in a fresh, practical context. Businesses should draw inspiration from diverse sectors, viewpoints, geographical locations, and cultural traditions.

Step 5. Future Users

Who are your future users? What benefits will they get from your product? Determination of future users will open the door for you to understand how they interact with a mobile application. The user profile includes demographic, social, and other characteristics, as well as specific goals of the potential user. This pseudo-character helps to determine the base for whom the application is developed and why it is exactly that.

Step 6. Trends 

Analyze which trends dominate the market. How will they affect your product? A trend is the overall course the market takes over a certain period. While no set minimum amount of time is needed for a direction to be termed a trend, the trend becomes more noticeable the longer the direction is maintained. Keep up with the trend analysis, and choose the one that refers to your drivers and values.

Step 7. Сompetitors

Identify major competitors who already have existing products. Conducting a competition study will help you improve your marketing and company plans. Identify your distinctive advantages and potential development constraints. Additionally, a competitive analysis keeps your company proactive rather than reactive. 

Step 8. Business Ideas

The entire process of working with Trend Canvas is focused on the “Business Idea.” Analyze the previous steps — what business ideas did you come up with? What will help you to build your product? Unite all of the insights into a single generative process resulting in a perfected business idea. It should coincide with your company’s values, be innovative, be created considering your competitors’ mistakes/best practices, have an audience, and follow a certain trend.

Consumer Trend Canvas Template

Now that you have read about this tool, you are ready to bring your knowledge into practice. Start describing the different needs, expectations, and possible innovative solutions with our consumer trend canvas template!

How to use it?

1. Print the blank template as big as you can! Try using it to structure an ideation session with your team. Alternatively, use tools like Milo or Figma to create a web version and fill it out in real-time.
2. Start with the first segment: “Analyze,” — add supporting insights, data, and examples. Keep circling back to re-examine how the segments relate to each other. Insights in one segment may highlight other elements and help you uncover truly novel concepts.
3. Then turn to another segment: “Solution” will help you identify how to bring the analytical part to life. What means will you use? What would you like to implement?

Congratulations! Your new business ideas will be deeply grounded in consumers’ wants and described in a detailed consumer trend canvas. Therefore, it’s more likely to be successful.

Features of the Consumer Trends Canvas Template 

The CTC is just a tool. It will be as useful as much work you will get out of it. Download a printable blank canvas and start filling it in. Or even better, schedule a session with your team and see what you come up with online. Either way, you decide on what is the best approach, which details are worth your attention, and what results you plan to receive.

Here are the main consumer trend canvas template features:

• The CTC  is a comprehensive and holistic framework for identifying new business idea and developing innovative products or services. 
• The consumer trends canvas we use requires the company to describe your concept in eight key parts: drivers&values, insights, technologies, cases, future users, trends, competitors, and the business ideas.

What benefits does CTC offer?

• It makes processes clearer and helps to look at the situation globally, thanks to the thoughtful placement of blocks;
• Revealing weaknesses. Take a fresh look at the idea, detail it, and analyze the activity. Perhaps there is something that can be improved;
• Cuts off excess. The CTC highlights aspects that require attention;
• Corporate info-matrix. This model is an understandable way of conveying the viewpoint to partners. Our consumer trend canvas example helps to present information in an accessible, concise manner.

Consumer Trend Canvas: Summary

The consumer trend canvas is an effective communication tool, making it easy to validate the project’s concept (in the context of creating a mobile app or launching a new innovation, for example). Thanks to a simple formalization of the project, all the people involved can easily understand the content of the CTC. The consumer trend canvas template described constitutes a robust conviction tool to convince stakeholders of the performance of the product/service.

The post What is a Consumer Trend Canvas for a Mobile App appeared first on Devlight.