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Brand & Identity Mobile Apps UI Design UX Design

6 Reasons To Develop A Mobile App For Your Business

Mobile App

The business landscape has substantially changed over the years, especially with the tech boom. The biggest game-changers were the invention and evolution of mobile devices and the internet. Consumers have dramatically changed their behavior. The number of hours they spend on the internet is only increasing. New ways to find information and to buy products/services have emerged. E-commerce has become more important than ever. According to a study of IMRG, mobile devices are accountable for 45% of the e-commerce visits on websites. This growth is so significant that, according to what can also be read in this study, Google changed its algorithm to index the mobile app as a search result.

This proves how apps have increased their importance for consumers and businesses. They allow you to create an interaction between the brand and its users, generating and keeping an audience, instead of having to start from scratch with digital marketing.

The majority of adults in 2020 possess at least one smartphone for either business or personal use. This is why you should turn your focus toward mobile technology. Here are the top 6 reasons that should convince you to develop a mobile app for your business.

1. Increased Sales

One of the core objectives of any business is to increase sales and drive revenue. By using promotions and offers, customers are continuously motivated to buy from you. You can use push notifications to directly contact all the users of the app so they are aware of any special offers that may be in place — even using geolocation to contact customers who are close by.

Through apps, customers can make mobile payments using payment technologies within their phones. This can also improve loyalty by creating an automated loyalty point per purchase, which again increases the motivation to buy, and therefore, increases revenue.

2. Brand Recognition

Mobile apps support strong connections between brands and customers. For example, users willingly share links to their favorite sites, ask for feedback, and describe their customer experience in social networks. You can integrate popular social media platforms into your application to let customers discuss your products and services.

These are powerful tools for building your brand’s reputation, advertising your service, and drawing the attention of potential clients. Moreover, mobile users have amazing opportunities to get push notifications with special offerings, discounts, and giveaways. This means that they can save money, so from a psychological perspective, they are likely to interact with such shops regularly.

3. Detailed Analytics

A mobile app allows you to collect a lot of useful information that can be further used for analytic purposes. For example, you can check on taps per view to learn which products your customers buy the most, see how much time they spend on the app, and even which functions are most popular on the app itself.

By keeping track of the way people interact within your app you can start understanding how you can improve it to create a more positive user experience. You can use this information to understand demographics using information such as geo-location, and the interests of your users. Having a solid understanding of your customer base is the key to being successful in any business.

4. Loyal Customers

Although a mobile app is a copy of the existing website, it is highly optimized, personalized, and well-designed, which significantly improves customer experience and facilitates the acquisition and retention of new clients. They find themselves in a convenient online store where they can choose goods and purchase them without the hustle and bustle.

Convenience is the word of the modern customer. Many people are willing to pay a premium to have things done for them with minimal effort. You can use push notifications that advertise your deals and promotions, so your customers are kept aware of the real-time news and information about the progress of their order. Also, for customers who want to get more information about your company, the products you sell, and the services you offer, having an app allows them to do this whenever and wherever they want to. Being constantly exposed to the products and services of a business increases loyalty. And, more loyal customers mean more sales and revenue.

5. Contactless Payments

Individual smartphones can now replace cash and credit cards due to the invention of mobile contactless payments technology. Payment apps provide ease, speed, and security. At the checkout, you don’t need to get a wallet from your bag to take out coins, banknotes, or credit cards. Put the phone to the payment terminal and that’s it!

It has become especially urgent during the COVID-19 pandemic when people have to avoid touching things and try to reduce the time spent in shops.

6. Competitive Advantage

Even after being equipped with all of the knowledge about why mobile apps are a good idea for your business, many still choose not to take advantage of using them. This, however, could be seen as good news because as a result, the competition in this area is still reasonably low, and can still be taken advantage of.

Click here to know about five critical applications of animation within a mobile UI design

Everybody likes to be ‘first’ or ‘one of the first’, and by using a mobile app as a marketing tool in this way, you are already at a head start for the future. The business world is highly competitive, so it is necessary to take as many opportunities as possible to increase brand awareness.
We hope these reasons are enough to convince you that your business needs a mobile app. Talk to our experts and get started.

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Apple Brand & Identity Design Mobile Apps

Mobile UI Design: 7 Most Common Types of Screens

Mobile UI Design

There are over 2.7 billion smartphone users and 1.35 billion tablet users across the world. According to a study, on average, Americans check their phone every 12 minutes, and 90% of mobile time is spent on apps across the globe. Also, more than 6000 mobile apps are released every day. These figures are staggering and are sufficient enough to highlight the popularity of mobiles and their apps. The first thing a user notices while interacting with your app is its interface. So, it is crucial to have a pleasing mobile UI design to ensure that your user sticks around and enjoys browsing the app.

To build a useful mobile UI design, designers need to investigate its characteristics and learn their constituents and functionality thoroughly. Mobile applications indeed evolve with changing user needs. Thus, designers strive to add new functionalities every day to fulfill user needs. That said, there are still some screens that are default and are commonly used across a majority of apps. Here is a list of the top 7 most common types of mobile app screens.

1. Home & Menu Screen

The home screen is an essential part of any application. It’s the main screen from which users navigate to all the other sections and options of the application. Although home screens differ from one app to another, depending on the product and its purpose, still there are some common key elements of all home screens. Firstly, it has a search field so that users could easily search for what they are looking for. Secondly, it contains navigation elements providing access to the various content sections. There are two ways of presenting the menu in mobile applications – it can either be a part of the main screen or a separate screen. 

Note: It is advisable to keep the number of options in the menu under seven, featuring only the key sections. If the number goes beyond seven, use sub-categories to show them.

2. Log-in & Profile Screen

Creating personal accounts or profiles to sign into an app has become a standard norm these days. While this is a good way to ensure that your user gets a personalized experience, a lousy login screen could lead to people uninstalling your app. Designers must be able to understand how things work on login and profile screens. The key is to keep the login screen clear, uncluttered, and as minimalistic as it can be, to offer easy access to users. The amount of information has to be limited; otherwise, the profile screen may look too complicated. 

The UI must be intuitive, and at no point, users must be confused. The name and password sections, the confirmation button and a sign-up option must always be available on a login screen.

3. Product Screen

A product screen is most common in eCommerce apps. It displays the collection of products and when the user taps on the product they want, another screen displaying its specifications would pop up. 

The product screen shows the key information about the goods. It helps users to decide whether they want to buy the product or not. Designers usually place the product photograph at the center of the screen, with the description placed below it. The information is generally divided into small groups like size, material, weight, etc. so that users can get all the required info.

4. Catalog Screen

The primary objective of any e-commerce business is to sell products. For an e-commerce app, you would need a catalog screen to display all the products in one place. Visuals attract users and prompt them to make a purchase. So, designers must focus on designing a visually appealing catalog that will attract a user’s attention and encourage them to shop for a product. You can offer the user to scroll through the list, just like several other eCommerce websites and apps display it. The amount of merchandise/products in one row can be decided according to the width of the screen.

The product list in mobile apps can be similar to many e-commerce websites where the items are grouped and viewed via a vertical scroll. But, the products can also be displayed in a row with a horizontal scroll. To make the navigation intuitive, the last item in a horizontal row should be shown not in a full view to let the user see that this is the direction of scrolling. 

5. Check Out Screen

Nowadays, most of the shopping is done through smartphones. Therefore, it becomes crucial for companies to offer a smooth and convenient shopping experience to users. The checkout process is the final step during the buying journey of a user, and this has to be an easy task for them. 

The most fundamental aspect of a checkout screen is to have a form that captures all the personal data like name, address, contact number, card number, etc. Here, designers must ensure that their user data and sensitive information is secure. It can be callouts in a copy, icons of the famous brands who gave their approval or maybe even some certificate signs if there are such.

6. Splash Screen

The first impression may not be the last but is undoubtedly the most important impression. It influences the user’s opinion about a mobile application. When the user experience is pleasant from the very beginning of interactions with an app, there are more chances it’ll be more popular among users. That’s why splash screens should be given a lot of attention.

Splash Screen is the page in an app that demonstrates the main idea and features of the app. It must be minimalistic, displaying the logo, tagline, and name of a product. The fundamental elements must be kept in the middle of the screen for added visibility and a simplistic mobile UI design. The screen shouldn’t be shown for any more than 3-8 seconds. Users tend to get irritated after that. Also, it may be useful to show loading progress so that impatient users could know when the app will be launched.

7. Feed Screen

People typically use various social networking apps for communication and to remain updated with the news. You can take ideas from Facebook, wherein the feed is regularly refreshed, displaying the latest news and data related to the pages followed by the user. The mobile UI design should be simple and clear without a lot of fancy visual details. The stories can be presented one by one via a scroll. To make the navigation more intuitive, the next piece of news should be partially displayed.

We hope that these 7 most common UI screen designs will help you to get some clarity on how to get started with your app design. If you still have some doubts, talk to our experts NOW!!

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Blog Technology Web Design

Benefits of Custom Web Development

Custom Web Development

Creating a website used to be a big, troublesome task only a decade ago, but now, things have changed; not to mention it has become much easier. With web development platforms such as WordPress, even those who don’t have a single clue about coding can take matters into their own hands and create websites single-handedly. However, there are certain instances when using such a platform just wouldn’t work for custom web development.

At times like these, entrepreneurs need to make a few tough decisions and dive deeper into the entire web development process. One of these tough decisions might be choosing between pre-made templates for websites or opting for custom web development. Both have their pros and cons, and the solution is mainly subjective. However, sometimes you need custom development as the specific benefits it has may prove to be just the thing that will provide you with a competitive edge in the digital world.

Custom web development

Web development is the process of building, creating and maintaining websites. It’s what keeps the site going, i.e. allows it to load correctly on every browser and system. It is also the engine that processes e-commerce transactions, collects leads and downloads digital documents. It’s the engine of your site and it‘s digital presence.

It’s important to know that web development can either break or make your site’s popularity and profitability. It’s not all about the looks of the site, but features, speed, compatibility are crucial factors that will play an important role in your website’s success. This is where trained, professional web developers come into play.

Custom web development enables you to create a unique website and gain that competitive edge over others in your industry. Going with pre-made templates can also do the trick, however, if you are looking for something that will stand out, custom might be the route you should take.

Benefits of custom web development

Visual effectiveness and user experince

Aesthetics play an important role in driving traffic and boosting sales. In custom web development, you have more options to make your website visually effective and appealing to users. This results in higher user engagement and ensures efficient communication with visitors.

Moreover, custom-built websites are user-friendly. The developers anticipate user expectations and tailor the development process accordingly. For a successful online presence, it is important that you develop the website around your business needs and target audience. This is why custom-built websites provide a better and enjoyable user experience.

Serves the long-term purpose 

People in the industry know that custom web platforms yield more ROI when compared to pre-made designs, even though they are more costly. Custom websites are built with the customer, their business objectives and audience in mind. This means that every move the developers make serves your business to increase conversion rates and generating more profit.

Personalization and localization

Nobody likes to interact with robots. Internet users today are far more demanding and want a website to understand their needs and offer them personalized solutions. This makes them feel special, and a personalized experience tends users to stay longer on your website and visit it on a regular basis.

In custom web development you have the advantage to customize the web pages and offer visitors a personalized experience based on his location and demographics. This is why a custom-built are more trusted and live longer as compared to premade templates.

SEO and visibility

One of the most important reasons why digital marketers prefer custom-built websites is that they help the website to achieve better search engine rankings. There is intense competition for visibility, and a fact that is often overlooked is that web development and SEO go hand in hand. Search engines prefer custom-built website because it is personalized and user-friendly. Another important factor for better ranking is mobile-friendliness. In custom web development you have more opportunities to make your website mobile optimized and provide a seamless user experience to visitors on the mobile phone.

Flexibility to make amendments

You know your business will change or grow with time, thus your site also needs to progress with time. When you use a free template, you will bring your website to a standstill. Your features and functionality are limited. However, if you go for custom website development, you get complete flexibility to customize your site as and when you want. You can update your website over time and ensure that your developer will keep it updated with the trends and advancements of the internet. This consistency will enhance your ranking and credibility.

Better performance due to optimization

When you get a standard website from an online site building platform, it usually has a set of features that you cannot get rid of. Unused and superfluous functionality creates an additional load on your website’s performance.

Custom web development solves this problem by giving you exactly what need, nothing less and nothing more. For example, one custom Drupal module can replace a few free ones, because it is created specifically for you. This boosts performance, prevents conflicts, eliminates complexity, and provides for the smooth functioning of the website. We should note that in custom web development there are also more opportunities for its improvement.

Complete support

So you developed a template-based website and the server just crashed or a plugin isn’t working as effectively; what do you do next? With custom web designs, this hassle is completely eliminated. You will have a go-to person, i.e. your developer to reach in case anything goes amiss with the website.

As these reasons make custom web design more reliable and efficient than DIY templates, you should definitely consider hiring a professional team for your business. At NYX Ditech, we are driven to provide our clients with turnkey web design and development solutions. Schedule an appointment with us for a detailed discussion about your website, business, and goals.

Read more about services we offer in Web Development here

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Mobile Apps Technology

Top 5 Reasons Why Users Uninstall Mobile Apps

Mobile Apps

The number of mobile apps available for users today is staggering. Daily use, shopping, health monitoring, entertainment, sports, lifestyle, gaming, and whatnot? There’s an app out there for every possible thing that you can think of. The competition between similar mobile apps is cut-throat. Day-by-day it is becoming difficult for businesses to survive and ensure that the users not only use their app but at least not uninstall it. So what is that makes users uninstall any mobile app?

In this article we explore the top five reasons why users stop using a particular app and uninstall it:

1. They No Longer Use The App

This one is pretty straightforward. Once users build the impression that the mobile app is of no use, they will surely uninstall it. Not that they find a better replacement, but the simple fact that they don’t need it any longer. This indicates that your user engagement and retention efforts are not adequate. If your DAU (Daily Active Users) to MAU (Monthly Active Users) ratio is declining, it means that the frequency at which the daily active users are returning is very less. These are early signs of a possible increase in app uninstalls.

TIP: Track retention rate metrics and user engagement to make adjustments to the re-engagement campaigns, such as push notifications and in-app messaging. But don’t overdo push notifications as it could adversely affect the mobile app’s popularity and success.

2. The Mobile App Isn’t Helpful and Easy To Use

People install an app to find solutions to their problems and get what they need in the fastest way possible. If it takes too much time to get what they want, they are unlikely to return to your mobile apps and will look for a better and faster option. Mostly, this happens because developers spend a lot of time thinking ‘what the users want in an app?’, rather than thinking upon ‘how the users want to use the app?’. 

TIP: Spend time thinking about how do users want to search for products or solutions in your app. What is the level of urgency? Do they want to buy the product right away, or wish to save it for the future. Run usability tests to understand user behavior. Conduct a question and answer session with test users to understand their purpose and goals. These insights, in combination with the data collected from analytic tools, will guide you in developing an easy to use and helpful app.

3. Too Many Ads and Push Notifications

A vast majority of the apps available come with a free version. People expect the apps to be free and resist paying the price to download them unless it’s really essential. The primary method of earning revenue for a free app is through advertisements. People have come to terms with the truth that there will be ads popping up while using the free version of the app. However, they have become much more sensitive towards the ads. This sensitivity is a result of invasive and aggressive advertising tactics.

Similarly, too many push notifications also annoy users. Forget about using your app regularly, they start disliking you as a brand; so much that they eventually decide to get rid of your app. Nobody likes constant nagging. 

TIP: For ads, consider how they will interrupt the user experience and work around it. Track conversion rates and reactions triggered by advertisements and push notifications. Also, use platforms that allow intent-based segmentation. With a better understanding of user intent, you can effectively show relevant ads without spamming them.

As far as the push notifications are concerned, it is best to use common sense and to know how often you must communicate with your customers. The frequency of sending push notifications varies; it largely depends on the type of campaigns you run and the products or services you offer.

4. Bad User Experience in Mobile Apps

It’s not just a visually pleasing design that keeps users hooked on to an app. Creating a good user experience is equally important. If the app is not designed keeping users in mind, it baffles the user. They find it hard to navigate within the app, struggle to find what they need. Sloppy navigation, lack of search functionality, poor use of icons, illegibility of typography, unresponsive gestures, etc. are all ingredients of poor user experience.

TIP: Always keep the users in mind before starting to develop the app. The app must be intuitive and easy to navigate within. At no point in time, the user must get stuck in the whole buying (or conversion) process. Your users must be able to reach their destination with minimum clicks. It’s pivotal to provide a search option in the app. The search should be intuitive and must be leading users by using a predictive keyword algorithm. 

5. Security and Trust issues

The Facebook data scandal was one of the biggest data scandals of recent times. It made people think about how various apps store their personal information and how vulnerable they are. They have begun to believe that their data can easily get into the wrong hands at some point in time. If they don’t trust your app, they will uninstall it.

TIP: Ask and store only the required information. Be transparent with users and explain exactly why you want this information, where will you save it, and how will you use it. Your users must feel safe using your app. They should be assured that they can trust you with their credit card number and other vital, personal information.

Read more about Mobile Apps security here

The customer is the king. It’s a fierce battle out there in the world of mobile apps, and you need to ace your game to stay in the game. Keeping users engaged, respecting sensitivity to advertisements, and performing adequate software testing are some of the ways to avoid app uninstalls. Need to know more? Talk to our experts now!

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Design Mobile Apps UX

5 Key Uses of Animation in Mobile App UI

Mobile App UI

The advancement of technology has led to several new improvements and trends in web and mobile designing. Animation was once a visual luxury but has now become a functional requirement. Users expect to face animations at some stage while browsing a website or an app. Animation infuses life into interfaces and makes them more rousing and visually appealing.  The proper use of animations accentuates the responsiveness of an app. In this article, we will discuss five critical applications of animation within a mobile app UI design.

Animation infuses life into interfaces and makes them more rousing and visually appealing.  The proper use of animations accentuates the responsiveness of an app. In this article, we will discuss five critical applications of animation within a mobile UI design.

1. System Status

There are plenty of tasks and processes like downloading and uploading data, calculations etc. that continuously run in the backdrop while the app is running. While these processes run in the background, users often feel that the app is frozen, as there is no activity at the front end. You must always indicate the status of all the ongoing processes through visual signs of progress. It provides a sense of control over the app to the users.

Page loading time is unavoidable, however, it is a very stressful time for users. Using animations can’t shorten the loading time, but can provide comfort to the users while they wait. Creative progress indicators can reduce a user’s perception of time. If users can watch something visually pleasing, while they wait, they are more likely to divert their mind on the animation, rather than the wait time.

Similarly, “pull down to refresh” is also a well-known system status indicator that reloads the page. Pull-to-refresh animations should match the design outline of the app. Movement and visually pleasing items naturally draw attention and create interest. Animating your notifications is a pleasant way to notify users about things, without hampering their experience.

2. Visual Feedback in Mobile App UI

Visual feedback is critically important for any user interface. It helps users to know and understand their current context in the system at any given time. User interface elements like buttons and controls should appear to be tangible, as they interact with them in the real world.

But, bridging the gap between the physical world and on the web is challenging. Visual and motion cues must immediately recognize the input and animate in ways that appear to be direct guidance. Animations enhance various points of interaction and reinforce the actions taken by a user.

3. Structuring Information

Animation allows proper structuring of information across the app. An animation draws users and shows what content to look for and where can it be found. The menu bar is one of the most common places where this can be implemented. 

There are many elements on the main screen of the app. When we activate one of them, the app should change the picture and display a whole new app section based on the selection. Animation helps users to know that it is the same element but with different form and scale.

4. Navigation & Transitions in Mobile App UI

Usually, users take the help of menu bar to navigate inside an app. A lot of apps have a complicated structure to show the list of app sections or features, which is confusing for users. Animation works as a visual navigator. 

A user should notice a changing picture on the screen while selecting or changing app sections. This lets them know that they are navigating to a different section or using a feature. Animation is a great way to transport users reasonably between navigational contexts. 

Read more about Mobile App Navigation

5. In-app Guide

Some apps have a more complex structure compared to others. If you don’t want to scare-off or irritate your app subscribers, you should clearly explain to them how an app works at the very beginning. Animation comes in handy here. A user gets brief instructions about the app in very less time via animations. Usually, an animated guide opens up when the app runs. However, users should have access to the guide whenever they need.

Animations are really pretty, but as mentioned earlier there role is no longer confined to adding beauty to an app. So make animations with purpose and use it in the app UI design to simplify user interaction with the user interface.

Let us know if you are looking for designing your new or existing mobile app. Our UI and UX team will be happy to assist. Contact Us today

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Technology

5 Factors To Consider While Linking A Payment Gateway With Your Mobile App

Payment Gateway

It’s astonishing how every possible day-to-do activity has shifted to mobiles from everything else. People including you and me cannot simply think about life without our mobile phones. From a task as basic as booking a cab to complex tasks like banking transactions or booking an abroad vacation, everything is taken care of by our little pocket superhero. According to a report, about 40 % of the orders received by business until the end of 2018 will be through mobiles. The impact of mobile apps is increasing every single day. Mobile apps have broadened their horizon in terms of the services that they offer. They have a huge array of services and products to offer, which leads to the need of collecting payments as well. That creates the need for a payment gateway.

Payments is a crucial step in the consumer journey and hence apps should ensure a seamless and advanced payment experience. There are a number of things to be considered before integrating a payment gateway with a mobile app. Here are a few important considerations listed for you.

1. The Integration Process Must Be Simple

The process of integration must be kept as simple as possible. Developer SDKs must be very easy and must take minimal developer time for integration. The updates should also be simple so that the merchants can handle it and that too without any major fuss. Keep the SDKs light so that they don’t eat a lot of space on user’s mobile. Large apps are more prone to get deleted by users. It’s quintessential that the SDKs provide support for your required platform and framework. Select a gateway that offers multi-platform and multi-framework support (like Android, iOS, Cordova, React Native, and Ionic.)

2. Maintain A Consistent UI

The UI offered by the payment gateway cannot be in contrast with your overall brand language. It should merge in and compliment your brand language. The payment process through the payment gateway must be a cake walk without any barriers or friction. Another important aspect to consider here is the total number of steps involved in the payment process. The less the merrier in this case. Prefer payment gateways that offer you customized checkouts that can include your brand logo, image etc.

3. Payment Received Communication

It’s always advisable to send payment confirmation communications through email or SMS to the customers. It boosts the trust of the customer and encourages them to use the payment gateway more often. The payment gateway has a direct and most updated status of the payments, thus they are the best people to send the most accurate status information. So choose a payment gateway that has the facility to send timely communications to customers.

4. Quick Payment Settlement Cycles

Customers are the king and their convenience comes before anything. Thus, quick payment cycles are a must. Moreover, quick payment cycles ensure smooth functioning of the business. A typical settlement ranges between a few days and utmost a week, depending on the size of your business and your business industry. Gather all the information regarding the settlement period from the payment gateway merchant to analyze if it suits your business model.

5. Comprehensive Customer Support

This is one of the key elements which often gets neglected while integrating a payment gateway. Customer support is crucial both during the integration process and handling post-integration payment related queries. A payment gateway must provide effective customer support through various means like chat, email, call etc. for all payment related queries. The support must not be restricted to merchants, but must be extended to the end users as well to address their queries in the shortest span of time.

Conclusion

Integrating with a suitable payment gateway is very important for the success of your business and brand. People drop into a different level of comfort zone when they glide through the overall payment process without any hassles or delays. The above-mentioned points are very handy while selecting a payment gateway for your mobile app. If you want to know more about the same, our experts will be more than happy to assist you.

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Technology

How To Pick A Name For Your Mobile App?

Pick A Name For Your Mobile App

What’s in the name you may ask. Well, almost everything. Naming anything is very crucial and holds great importance. A name can create a huge impact or may even become the sole cause of a blunder. The naming process is imperative and must be dealt with caution. The same holds true even when you’re naming your mobile app. The name needs to not only suit your business and brand, it should also instantly ring a bell in people’s mind. Whenever someone hears the name, they should picture the image of your brand in their mind in a way that you wanted them to.

Think of all the great brand names like Adidas, Mercedes, Audi, Coca-Cola, Subway, Walmart etc. Do you think these names were pulled out of thin air without any thought process? Absolutely not. Moreover, a lot depends on the name of your app when it comes to search rankings. It’s great to have an amazing app, but it might not get the deserved attention if the name just sucks. In this article, we have compiled a few tips that you must consider while zeroing down on the name for your mobile app. Take a look.

1. Analyze The Competitors

It’s always a wise step to take a look at the already established players in your genre. Visit the app store and go through the top performers in your category. Understand what kind of names are grabbing more popularity. Long names or short names, common names or distinctive names, names related to some person or nonperson names etc. Check all these factors to know what is the safest bet. No need to be over innovative and swim against the tide. Just go with the flow with a little stroke of uniqueness. Do not try to be way too close to your competitor’s name or you may end up with legal issues.

2. Understand The Market Rules

It goes without saying that if you wish to play a game, you must know all the rules of the game. In case of launching a mobile app, you must be aware of the best practices of the store that you want to launch your app in. Whether you want to hit the Apple market, Android market, or both, it totally depends on you. But knowing the market rules and best practices is a must.

Apple store allows only 30 characters in a mobile app name. They recommend simple names with simple spellings and the name should have a connect with the functionality of the app. Apple also suggests maintaining distance from generic terminology and names similar to the already existing app of the same genre.

On the other hand, Android app store allows 50 characters in a mobile app name. They have strict terms about keywords stuffing in the name and description of the app. It can call a suspension if you don’t follow these rules religiously. Even if Google allows more characters in the app name, it’s advisable to stick to 30 characters as its an appropriate length for a mobile app name. Moreover, if you are launching the app on both the platforms, it’s good to have a common name.

3. Select A Brand Name Rather Than An App Name

Yes, we agree that technically you’re selecting your app’s name, but the name is not merely the name of your app. It’s the face of your overall brand. Thus, the name must look apt on all the platforms, social media pages or even on merchandise. Don’t just be an app, be a brand name. We don’t say that you will scale exponentially to become a global brand name like Coca-Cola or McDonald’s, but they would have been there if they would have thought the same.

The branding strategy must also focus on a clean and crisp logo which directly relates to your app name. This way it can be used as the app icon as well. It helps the users to identify your brand distinctively yet keeping the uniformity at place.

4. Stay Away From Unique Spellings

In a quest to be different and innovative, people sometimes cross the line. That’s when the trouble starts. It’s good to inject innovation and distinction when it comes to app names, but the innovation should have a limit and must not cost you the overall success of your app. One good advice on this label is to stay away from unique spellings. Don’t play with the spellings and please stick to the official ones. It has a very negative impact if you spell your app name in a way that is not standard.

Let’s see an Example: Suppose a user suggests your story app to his friend. He says “Dude check out this awesome story app by the name of Freaky Stories”. He searches it on the app store and couldn’t find you. Why? Because you wanted to be uber cool and thus spelled your app as FreeKey Stories. Unless you hold the formula to immortality and selling it for free, chances are that the user will not waste more time and efforts to search you. You will lose more and more potential users like this.

5. Consider A Third Party View

While you are the owner of your business, app, and brand, it will never hurt you to consider someone else’s opinion. This exercise can sometimes provide a new perspective or dimension to the whole process. You can select the names that top your list and can take opinions from friends, family, closed ones, knowledgeable, and even experts. They might give you the best suggestion or may even scrap all the ideas with a solid logic behind it. Both the things are for your good. You can even hire a consultancy firm for the same. They can conduct a study on a sample group, collect responses and provide you valuable insights.

Conclusion

There is always an unsung hero in any epic story and I think a mobile app name is that unsung hero of the epic success story of an app. There are plenty of advantages of selecting an apt app name considering the overall business and branding goals. The process may sound very simple, but sure needs a lot of brainstorming keeping the above tips in mind. Thus, naming an app must be amongst the top 5 on the ‘To-Do checklist’ if not at the very top. Talk to our experts to know more and discuss your mobile app development requirements.

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Technology

Taxi Businesses Must Invest In Mobile App Development

Mobile App Development
Taxi Businesses Must Invest In Mobile App Development

How we book a taxi today is completely different from how we use to book it a few years ago. People have shifted from the conventional taxi booking process to booking a taxi through an app. With the rise of mobile taxi booking app giants like Uber and Ola, conventional taxi businesses got a big blow. People find it much easier to book a taxi with just a tap on their mobile rather than following a rigorous procedure. It’s time that conventional taxi operators realize the fact that they cannot run their business without investing in mobile app development to get their own app.

Benefits Of Having A Mobile App

Increased Profits

As a taxi business, if you join hands with popular aggregator apps, you need to pay a large commission to them. This leaves a very narrow profit margin and eventually leads the business to low earnings or even losses. Having your own app will cut down on this commission paid and thus the overall profit will substantially increase.

More Visibility

Having a mobile app boosts your overall visibility to a whole new level. People reach out to their smartphones to perform any and every task today and booking a taxi is no exception. Tourists normally depend on their smartphones to locate taxi services. All the taxi operators without a mobile app are losing out on these customers.

Cost Reduction Through Automation

With the adoption of new technology, customers can directly get in touch with your drivers. This will provide them better cab booking experience through a reduced ETA. The overhead costs will also plunge down through automation and the driver’s performance will also improve. You get an added advantage of customization and branding when you have your own app.

Creating your own taxi-booking mobile app may be a savior for your falling business. It’s always wise to ride the tide (technological advancement in this case) rather than trying to flow against the tide. You might have understood the importance of a taxi booking app by now, which leads us to the next step and the nitty-gritty related to that. Once you have decided to develop a mobile app for your taxi business, you must understand that there are certain golden rules to follow in order to create and manage a successful taxi booking app.

Here are a few mantras for any taxi booking app to be successful:

  • The process of locating a suitable and quick means of transport must be as simple as possible.
  • The primary objective of the app must be to conveniently connect the driver and the customers.
  • Drivers must also be benefitted, especially while offering their ride to the people close to their location.
  • There must be a provision to share a ride in order to cut down the cost.

The business model of taxi booking has changed drastically over the years and having a mobile app is mandatory for any taxi business. By no means developing a taxi booking mobile app is a simple task. There are a lot of technicalities that need to be taken into consideration while developing it. Talk to our expert developers and understand these technicalities. For sure you will let our experts do the job for you after the discussion.

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Technology

5 Mobile App Development Trends To Notice in 2018

Mobile App Development Trends 2018

We are in the last week of 2017 and what a great year it has been for mobile app development. Plenty of new app development trends surfaced and some of them have changed the mobile app development process forever. The popularity of mobile apps is increasing rapidly. The number of free app downloads has increased from 57.33 billion in 2012 to approximately 254 billion in 2017. This number is going to increase even further in 2018. So in this last blog piece of 2017, we have selected 5 mobile app trends that one must watch in 2018.

1. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Google launched AMP in Feb 2016 and since then the page loading on mobile apps has accelerated substantially. Besides the awesomeness of accelerated page loading speed, Google has also declared that it will provide a separate search index for the mobile web. This completely transforms the approach towards mobile app development in terms of SEO. Accelerated Mobile Pages will ensure that web apps load swiftly on mobile devices, thereby decreasing the bounce rate. Publishers will also be benefited as their ads will get more visibility which will eventually lead to higher traffic. AMP will lead to higher CTR, easy content placement, easy visitors analysis, and elimination of sitemap. With so many positives, AMP will surely be trending in 2018 and will impact the mobile development process.

Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page)

2. Internet Of Things (IOT) & Wearable Apps

The concept of smart cities, smart offices and smart homes is growing like never before. IOT and wearable apps have become popular in a variety of sectors like health, education, automotive etc. Although it’s still in the growing phase, 2018 looks to be a promising year for the Internet of Things and wearable apps. Apple watch apps are already becoming quite popular and Google has also launched Android Things to pace up the acceptance of IOT. Experts predict a 33.3% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) by 2021. A rise in IOT directly impacts the mobile app development process as the devices are controlled by smartphones under IOT.

The Imminent Security Fiasco of IOT

3. Android Instant Apps

Android Instant Apps are native apps that function exactly like websites. They are very convenient to access and thus can attract a huge crowd. Android Instant Apps provide a seamless experience by fading all borders between an app and a website. Apps can be accessed from anywhere without actual installation. They are compatible with all the android versions clocking back till Jelly bean. It saves a lot of space on your smartphone as you don’t need to install unwanted apps. They are also easily shareable. The mobile app development process will definitely be impacted by the rise of these instant apps in the year 2018.

Android Instant Apps

4. Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality Apps

2017 has been a great year for AR and VR. AR and VR have found their way beyond gaming and entertainment. The growth trends have suggested a spike in demand of AR and VR not only for consumers but also for businesses seeking new technologies. Healthcare, retail, real estate, and engineering are the key industries which are more likely to continue the growth trend of Augmented Reality, whereas Virtual Reality will be driven by gaming and event industries. The future mobile apps will be developed hand in hand with AR and VR.

AugmentedVirtualReality

5. Lazy Loading

One of the biggest factor to increase bounce rate is the slow loading of a page. Often pages that contain high image content takes forever to load which irritates the user and forces him to bounce off. The industry experts have identified this threat and have developed the concept of Lazy Loading to address this issue. Under Lazy Loading, the images load only when their turn comes which quickens the page loading process and avoids overcrowding of the web page. Mobile app developers will surely need to implement lazy loading while developing apps in 2018.

Lazy Loading

Mobile app development has witnessed a huge change and advancement in the past few years. 2017 was a terrific year for mobile app development and the future looks very promising. The world of mobile technology is constantly changing and it’s very important for the app developers to keep themselves abreast of the latest trends. Implementing the latest trends in mobile app development will ensure that the app is updated and doesn’t get written off in the app market. Ask our expert app developers how you can create or modify your existing mobile app to match the latest trends.

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Technology

The Most Popular Frameworks For Mobile App Development

Mobile App Development

We live in an age where we all are surrounded by thousands of gadgets. The role of various gadgets in our day-to-day life has become more prominent with every passing day. Today we are gonna talk about our favorite gadget, the smartphone. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, mobile phones are something which we can’t live without. Our entire life is packed in this little device. Be it birthdays, contacts, exercise regimes, daily schedule, banking, shopping or anything else, it’s all tucked in neatly in this device. With the demand for more and more apps, mobile app development has become a serious business leading to a high demand for app developers.

App developers use a lot of different mobile frameworks to develop the desired app. However, there are certain frameworks which are more popular and effective than others. Here are 7 of the most popular mobile app frameworks which can boost your mobile development skills.

1. Ionic

Over the past few years, Ionic has established itself as the new superhero in the hybrid mobile development community. Ionic gets an upper hand as it is fairly easy to use and learn. It also offers a library of optimized HTML, CSS, JavaScript CSS components, gestures & tools, and works with predefined components. The best part about Ionic is that it provides all the functionality which can be found in Native mobile app development SDKs. This means that when users build their apps on Ionic, they can access all native functions of the device including camera, contacts etc. Ionic also provides custom components and methods to interact with these native functions by using Angular.

Ionic

2. Mobile Angular UI

Angular UI is an extension to Bootstrap 3 but without any dependencies on Bootstrap or Jquery. Angular UI uses fastclick.js and overthrow.js for a smoother and better mobile experience. This is the perfect combination of Angular and Bootstrap that maintains Bootstrap 3’s amazing syntax and adds popular mobile components such as witches, sidebars, overlays, scrollable areas, and fixed-positioned navbars.

Mobile Angular UI

3. jQuery Mobile

Built on the already popular extension to JavaScript, there was no surprise when jQuery was also included for mobile development. jQuery is an excellent mobile framework to create cross-platform apps for desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets or e-reader devices like Nook or Kindle. jQuery mobile is built on solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation which makes it a complete framework to build apps that can run seamlessly on mobiles, tablets, and web. jQuery focuses more on the performance of the app rather than providing a Native look.

jQuery Mobile

4. Xamarin

Xamarin was introduced back in 2011 and has gained massive popularity since then. It works with the mono framework to communicate with the API. It comes with a C# Codebase which allows developers to write Native apps for Android, iOS, and Windows. One of the most interesting features of Xamarin is that you can directly test your app on the cloud while you are monitoring them.

Xamarin

5. Appcelerator

Appcelerator writes applications in JavaScript and runs them on a Native platform with the use of its Titanium SDK. This cross-platform development software focuses on producing Native apps and offers more than 5000 APIs for Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, and HTML5. Appcelerator is not that easy to use as compared to its counterpart but is best known for its performance and extensive feature set.

Appcelerator

6. PhoneGap

PhoneGap is the brainchild of Adobe. PhoneGap is a combination that not only allows users to create their apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript but also package the app, make it portable, and release it to multiple app stores. It can also extend the features of HTML and JavaScript to create apps with Native look and feel. Cordova provides a set of JavaScript APIs that allows the app to use Native functions such as Camera, Compass, Geolocation, and Contacts. PhoneGap also supports multiple operating systems such as iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, Web OS and many more.

PhoneGap

7. React Native

React Native separates itself from rest of the frameworks in this list by shifting its focus from creating Hybrid apps to creating real Native apps. React Native was designed by Facebook on the basis of React and was derived from their Ads Manager app. It comes with fast development cycles and declarative self-contained UI components while retaining the feel and speed of Native apps. The application logic is written and run in JavaScript while the UI is fully Native. This offers developers a chance to maintain the look and feel of a Native app without using the traditional languages.

React Native

To Conclude

While there are plenty of other mobile development frameworks available for users, these are the topmost frameworks that offer a simple and easy way to develop apps. If there are any other frameworks which are your personal favorite, do let us know in the comment section and for any other discussion related to mobile app development, talk to our experts NOW !