From last two years we have seen countless small businesses and local enterprises are continuing to show interest in making the digital presence better through mobile apps. That trend has been so significant that in 2016 alone mobile apps for small businesses almost became a specialized niche. In the coming time, this trend is only going to be more robust encompassing more businesses across the niches and locations.
But when it comes to developing apps for small businesses you need to consider their constraints and limitations as well. Actually building mobile apps for small businesses requires a more accurate approach compared to their big shot counterparts. On the other hand, mobile app development principles also went through a wide arched evolution. While some principles have almost become basic and prerequisites, there are others that are becoming important in the present context of business challenges.
Here we are going to introduce some of the most evergreen and emerging challenges for building mobile apps for small businesses.
Evaluating the UX and UI idea
Apparently, a small business just cannot afford expensive measures for wireframing as millionaire businesses do. But that doesn't mean they cannot evaluate the kind of user experience, and user interfaces their audience going to prefer. But building the app without evaluating the look, feel, and user experience before actually building it can lead to total wastage of time, effort and investment. Let us offer you some of the simple measures to seek opinion and evaluate the proposed look and feel of the mobile app you are going to build.
- Simple sketches of the app screens with all elements including the buttons and content boxes clearly laid out.
- You need to have several different designs and respective sketches of the app screens to ensure offering your primary audience number of options.
- Initially, you can also take help of several quality Prototyping tools that come either free or against a small fee.
Let the user know instantly what it's about
We are all aware that mobile users typically have a feeble attention span. Just a little delay in engaging with an app can lead to removing the app from the screen forever. This is why quick onboarding experience and instant engagement are two most crucial elements that mobile app developers and designers should ensure. Here are some important tips to ensure this.
- A guided tour for the app user will ensure smooth onboarding experience.
- A brief video tutorial about the app and its usability is another way to make onboarding experience better.
- Making visual sequence for different on-screen elements is another intuitive way to help users learn about the priorities and usable elements.
Making your business brand shine through
Most small businesses require mobile app primarily for making their brand presence for the mobile audience. With many of their clients preferring to shop, browse and communicate through mobile apps it becomes necessary for them to remain updated for their customers. While designing the user interface and creating the overall user experience developers and designers particularly should focus on the brand elements. Design wise brand elements should be present all over the app. The app should instantly remind users of the business brand associated with it. Consider the following tips.
- Offer a brand-specific color statement and design elements that quickly present the business behind it.
- Make the app thoroughly consistent in look and feel.
- Make the business logo appear where is her it's needed.
Make the app actionable
Can the user take definite actions when using your app? Did you provide clickable and actionable elements that beside engaging audience helps business conversion? After all, a new mobile app for your business is nothing but another digital channel to drive business conversion and marketing. So, your app should have several actionable elements that can allow users take decisive actions. We doubt these actionable elements your app cannot perform like a business channel with clear scopes of business conversion course. Let us offer here a few valuable tips in this respect.
- Provide easy to tap call to action buttons.
- Provide a call to action button is within easy reach of the user's thumb.
- Make all call to action buttons, and Nicobar linked bigger and optimized with attention grabbing colors.
- Besides the call to action buttons, other valuable business information should be provided above the fold and in the extended area capable of drawing attention easily.
- Provide a detailed map information about the location of your business facilities along with contact details.
- Make sure that the contact details can be used in real time through the device functionalities.
Personalized push notification
As a business, you must be aware of the importance of push notifications to address the mobile audience. Well, there is not a better way to address user needs contextually than with push notification messages. But those days are gone when businesses used to make use of push messages just as a one size fit all marketing measure. Today any messages that do not serve the particular user purpose or context are either ignored or lead to non-acceptance of push messages further from the app.
Right from the beginning, your app should make it clear how the push notifications are going to help with personalized content and contextual addresses. Offer a landing page describing the advantages of opting for push notification.
A mobile app for a small business should take into consideration multiple microelements that make user experience pleasurable. Widely dubbed as micro mini interactions these elements boost by addressing user concerns quickly. By offering smart and intuitive feedback to the user actions, the app can only make the user experience better. Quicker response time, intuitive and personalized user experience and clutter free as well as sophisticated design, all of these are relatively achievable by the developers and designers when building mobile apps for small businesses as well.
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