Are you considering creating a mobile application? A great idea! However, before diving headfirst into development, it’s imperative to ask the right questions to avoid pitfalls that could cost time and money.

At Edana, a Swiss digital agency with specialists in mobile development, digital transformation, UX design, strategy, etc., we understand the importance of preparation in the success of your application project. Here are ten crucial questions to consider before bringing your mobile application to life.

1. What is the purpose of the mobile application in a few sentences?

Understanding the purpose of your mobile application is fundamental to its success. It goes beyond merely defining goals. It involves a deep exploration of user needs, market gaps, and the unique solutions your application will provide. This clear vision informs design and development, providing a roadmap for features, user experience, and expected outcomes.

Moreover, a precise understanding of the application’s purpose helps establish key performance indicators (KPIs), facilitating continuous evaluation and adaptation to changing user needs. In summary, being able to formulate a clear and precise purpose creates an essential foundation for the success of your mobile application. Do not overlook this phase to ease your work later, as the success of each phase depends on the success of the preceding ones in such projects.

2. What is the real deadline?

When do you want to see your mobile application in the market? Do you have a specific constraint?

Understanding deadlines fully allows for effective planning and anticipating unforeseen challenges throughout the development process. This step goes beyond setting deadlines to become an informed anticipation of key phases, time constraints, and necessary margins. In-depth time clarity not only allows for precise planning but also integrates the required flexibility to resolve potential issues without compromising project quality. Furthermore, it serves as a guide to optimize resource allocation, minimize delays, and maintain a viable work pace.

Therefore, a well-defined deadline promotes effective collaboration, open communication, and ongoing motivation within the team, providing stakeholders with a clear vision of the path to achieving set goals. Coordinate with all project stakeholders and clarify this point to move forward without uncertainty.

3. What are the risks associated with the development of the mobile application?

Identifying potential obstacles is the foundation of a proactive approach to ensuring project success. This strategic anticipation not only recognizes upcoming challenges but also initiates the implementation of preventive action plans. By fully understanding these potential risks, a team can not only mitigate them before they escalate but also develop alternative solutions to avoid any negative impact on the project. Thus, this proactive approach goes beyond simple foresight, strengthening the team’s resilience and cultivating an adaptability mindset in the face of adversity.

In the end, this proactive approach establishes an environment conducive to innovation and quick problem-solving, making project success an achievable reality.

Examples of risks that can compromise a mobile application project

Compatibility issues

Mobile applications must work on different platforms (iOS, Android) and various devices. Hardware and software differences can lead to compatibility issues, requiring extra efforts to ensure a consistent user experience.

Data security

Data security is crucial for user trust. Security breaches can compromise user-sensitive information, leading to legal consequences and a loss of trust. Robust security measures must be in place from the early stages of development.

Changements dans les réglementations

Laws and regulations regarding data protection and privacy evolve regularly. Non-compliance can lead to significant sanctions and delays. It’s essential to stay informed and adapt to regulatory changes.

Technical challenges

Technical issues such as persistent bugs, slow loading times, or malfunctioning features can hinder the user experience and discourage potential users.

Increased competition

The mobile application market is highly competitive. Constant competition can make it challenging to acquire and retain users. It’s essential to develop unique features and stay tuned to market developments.

Ineffective project management

Lack of effective project planning and management can lead to delays, cost overruns, and a degradation of the final product’s quality. Clear communication and constant monitoring are crucial to avoid these issues.

Limited resources

Budget constraints, a lack of qualified staff, or delays in obtaining necessary resources can slow down application development and compromise its quality.

By anticipating these risks and implementing mitigation strategies, the development team can strengthen the application’s robustness and maximize its chances of success in the competitive mobile application market.

Discuss your mobile project with one of our experts

In the continuation of this article, we address questions related to business strategy, business model, target audience, user experience, project management, and market competition. Continue reading to learn more and succeed in your mobile project in Switzerland or internationally.

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4. What are the business goals of the mobile application?

Clarity in business goals guides the development of the application toward tangible and measurable results. By determining these goals, you create a solid foundation to evaluate the application’s success, focusing on clear and tangible performance indicators.

This precise definition of business goals also fosters a shared understanding within the team, aligning efforts towards achieving the company’s strategic objectives.

Examples of business goals for an app:

1. Customer base expansion: Increase the number of users of the mobile application within a given period.
2. Improvement of user retention: Enhance user loyalty by increasing the number of monthly sessions per user or reducing the uninstallation rate.
3. Direct monetization: Generate direct revenue from the application through models such as in-app purchases, subscriptions, or in-app transactions.
4. Strategic partnerships: Establish partnerships with other companies or platforms to expand the application’s reach and reach new market segments.
5. Brand awareness: Improve brand visibility by using the application as a communication and marketing channel.
6. User data analysis: Collect and use analytical data to understand user behavior, optimize application features, and personalize the user experience.

By defining clear business goals and choosing a suitable economic model, the development team can better align its efforts to create an application that meets the business needs and can be meaningfully assessed in terms of commercial success.

5. Who are the target users?

A deep understanding of your audience will facilitate the design of an application that will precisely meet their specific needs. By clearly identifying the characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of your target audience, you will be able to create a tailored and engaging user experience.

This thorough understanding notably promotes a closer connection with your audience, allowing the establishment of lasting relationships and user retention.

To achieve this, conduct market research, UX research, and brainstorm with all stakeholders in your project. Feel free to involve potential users and conduct test sessions with a navigable prototype if possible.

Examples of applications we have designed, revolutionizing UX in a specific sector:

Designing mobile applications, software, and websites for our Swiss clients is our core business. Here are some mobile development case studies illustrating UX logics tailored to a specific user target and innovating in their market.

Get your mobile application designed by Swiss experts

6. Who are the key stakeholders?

The precise determination of key stakeholders, whether internal or external to the project, is essential to build strong foundations for collaboration. By clearly recognizing these stakeholders, it becomes possible to establish transparent relationships, define responsibilities, and align everyone’s expectations. This identification facilitates smooth communication and optimal coordination among the different parties involved.

In this way, a better understanding of each party’s roles and needs contributes to quick decision-making and effective problem-solving. In summary, it fosters a harmonious work environment and successful cooperation to complete the project.

7. Are there competitors to your application?

By carefully examining competitors in the market, you can grasp their trends, strengths, and weaknesses. This in-depth analysis provides a unique opportunity to position your application in a distinctive and remarkable way. By understanding gaps or unmet needs in competitors, you can identify opportunities to offer a unique value proposition to users.

This not only differentiates your application but also anticipates user needs while making significant improvements compared to what is offered by competitors. Ultimately, this informed competitive analysis establishes a solid foundation for creating a mobile application that innovatively and relevantly meets user expectations while standing out in the market.

8. What is the budget for development?

This budget directly determines the scope of features, the project’s scale, and influences strategic decisions. By setting clear financial limits, you can define specific priorities, paying particular attention to essential features and critical business needs.

This strategic approach ensures alignment of business goals with available resources, ensuring project success within the pre-established budget. Furthermore, it promotes careful resource management throughout the development process, maximizing efficiency while avoiding unforeseen financial overruns.

In the end, a well-defined budget streamlines choices, keeps the focus on goals, and optimizes results within the available resources.

9. What is the application’s monetization strategy?

The monetization strategy of an application is crucial for its long-term financial success. It represents the master plan that determines how the application will generate revenue, whether through targeted advertising models, sponsorship partnerships, subscriptions, in-app purchases, or other methods.

A well-thought-out strategy takes into account the value offered to users while ensuring an optimal user experience to guarantee sustainable profitability. It requires an in-depth understanding of the market, users, and trends, as well as flexibility to adapt to evolving needs. Ultimately, a well-thought-out monetization strategy is an essential pillar to maximize the financial potential of your application while preserving its relevance and value for users.

Example of a business model for a mobile application in Switzerland

1. Freemium : Offer a basic version of the application for free, with premium features available for payment.
2. Subscription : Propose a model based on a monthly or annual subscription to access all the application’s features.
3. Advertising : Generate revenue through advertisements integrated into the application, using models such as CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per mille impressions).
4. Data selling : Monetize data collected by the application by selling it to third parties, while adhering to privacy and data protection rules.
5. Integrated e-commerce : Facilitate purchase transactions through the application, taking a commission on completed sales.
6. Software license : Offer a usage license for the application to other businesses or partners.

Discuss your mobile application project with an expert

10. How will your customers make purchases?

Understanding your customers’ purchasing process is essential for designing a smooth and convincing user experience. By carefully examining the various stages of purchase and identifying potential obstacles or frictions, you can create an intuitive and suitable user interface. This approach optimizes the purchasing journey, facilitating navigation and simplifying payment processes.

Such a deep understanding of user needs and behaviors guides the design of a seamless purchasing experience, promoting customer satisfaction and encouraging conversions. In summary, it contributes to building user trust in your application and establishing lasting relationships based on a positive and smooth purchasing experience.

Conclusion

Launching a mobile application is an exciting venture, but success depends on meticulous preparation.

At Edana, we are experts in the field, ready to guide you through each step of the process. Before you launch, make sure you have answered these crucial questions. The clarity you gain will facilitate the development of a powerful and effective application.

By considering your business goals, specific context, and particular needs, we develop, from strategy to execution, the digital transformation and mobile application you need. Our approach aims to provide you with a tailored and effective solution, designed to meet your specific requirements and business goals.

Importance of User-Centered Design

The strength of user-centered design lies in its ability to prioritize the needs, desires, and capabilities of users in the application development process. This fundamental approach recognizes that the success of an application depends on its optimal ability to meet the expectations and requirements of those who will use it.

By adopting a user-centered perspective in the early stages of application development, designers and developers can better understand the target users. This allows them to anticipate users’ needs, behaviors, and preferences, leading to the creation of more intuitive, user-friendly applications tailored to specific needs.

This proactive approach reduces the risk of designing applications that are disconnected from users’ actual expectations. By deeply understanding end-users, development teams can create simpler and more effective interfaces, providing an enhanced user experience and reinforcing long-term adoption and loyalty to the application. From a business perspective, this is crucial, as the success of a digitalization program or a market-released solution directly depends on its alignment with user needs.

User-centered design also contributes to minimizing costs related to post-launch modifications and adjustments. By integrating user feedback throughout the development process, teams can iterate and refine the application continuously to meet changing needs and market trends. This is also a central point for a company’s profitability.

At Edana, aware of its importance in creating meaningful and high-performance user experiences, we actively integrate user-centered design into our application development process for Swiss and international businesses. Whether it’s providing support in digital strategy, software engineering, mobile application development, or comprehensive guidance, we prioritize user needs.

Key Principles of User-Centered Design

The key principles of user-centered design represent essential foundations that guide the development process by placing the user at the forefront of thinking. These principles are crucial for creating applications that truly add value, whether it’s a business application to digitize company processes or a consumer-focused application like a mobile app or web platform. Here are some of these principles:

Empathy and Understanding Users:

The first step is to develop deep empathy for users by understanding their needs, motivations, and challenges. This profound understanding guides all design decisions to ensure the application meets users’ actual expectations. This is what a user experience (UX) specialist, a product owner, or to some extent, a marketing strategist does. However, every stakeholder must show the utmost empathy during their participation in the application design stages. This requires varying levels of effort and specific guidance. Workshops are sometimes good opportunities to facilitate this co-creative process in which empathy towards the end user takes a central and crucial role.

Active User Involvement

Actively involving users throughout the development cycle is crucial. Continuous user feedback allows for adjustments and improvements, ensuring better alignment with their needs. This can start with tests and questionnaires targeting an audience close to the end users during the project’s design phase. Once the product is in production, feedback obtained from direct users of the product is valuable to evolve it in the right direction and ensure it better aligns with the expectations of its actual users.

Continuous Iterations and Testing

User-centered design involves iterative cycles of design, testing, and feedback. This iterative approach quickly identifies and resolves potential issues, constantly improving the user experience.

User Experience (UX) Design

Placing user experience at the heart of the design process ensures the application is easy to use, intuitive, and enjoyable for users. Well-thought-out user interfaces and smooth navigation are key elements for a positive user experience.

Adaptability and Scalability

Applications designed based on these principles must be flexible to adapt to changing user needs and technological advancements. They should be scalable to integrate new features while maintaining a consistent user experience.

By combining these principles, development teams can create applications that not only meet user needs but also delight users with their user-friendliness and relevance, providing exceptional experiences that stand out in the competitive application market, for example.

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Common User-Centered Design Methodologies

Common user-centered design methodologies encompass various methodological frameworks and specific approaches aimed at integrating user needs throughout the development process. Here are some of these methodologies:

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is an iterative process focused on deep understanding of users, creative idea generation, and solving complex problems. It encourages an empathetic approach to define, conceptualize, and implement innovative solutions.

UX/UI Design

User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design are key disciplines in user-centered design. UX Design focuses on creating positive user experiences by analyzing user behavior and optimizing accessibility and ease of use. UI Design focuses on the visual design of the user interface to ensure an aesthetic and intuitive experience.

In-Depth User Research

This methodology involves techniques such as interviews, observations, surveys, and user testing to gather valuable information about user needs, desires, and preferences. This data guides the design process.

Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping involves creating iterative and simplified versions of the application to gather user feedback as early as possible. These prototypes validate concepts, identify potential issues, and allow for rapid iteration of solutions.

User Testing and Continuous Evaluation

User testing involves having real users test the application to assess its functionality and user experience. These tests help identify issues and make continuous improvements throughout the development process.

Illustrative Case Studies

Illustrative case studies highlight successful examples where user-centered design has been applied effectively. Here are some representative case studies:

Improving User Experience at Airbnb

Airbnb redesigned its interface based on a user-centered approach, collecting user data through surveys, behavioral studies, and platform usage analysis. Using user testing and prototypes, Airbnb identified pain points and revamped the interface to make searching and booking accommodations more user-friendly.

UI Redefinition at Slack

Slack redesigned its interface based on in-depth research into user behaviors and needs. Usability studies, interviews, and careful listening to user feedback informed changes such as menu simplification, improved visibility of notifications, and organization of communication channels. These adjustments were made to streamline interaction and navigation, enhancing platform efficiency and user-friendliness.

Mobile Experience Overhaul at Google Maps

Google Maps revamped its mobile application by focusing on specific elements to enhance the user experience. They simplified the user interface by restructuring menus and navigation options for smoother use. Additionally, Google Maps integrated customization features such as route suggestions based on user travel habits and real-time traffic information, providing a more personalized and convenient experience. This redesign resulted in more intuitive navigation, better adaptability to user needs, and increased overall user engagement with the application.

Projects by Our Engineering Teams

Our experts in UX design, software architecture, full-stack development, DevOps, and security design user-centered applications that are robust and business-oriented. Here are some concrete case studies of projects we have undertaken for Swiss clients:

These case studies highlight how applying user-centered methodologies has enabled these companies to develop remarkable products and user experiences, demonstrating the tangible benefits of a needs-focused approach in application development.

Let’s talk about your application/software project now

Challenges and Future Perspectives

Les défis et les perspectives futures dans le domaine de la conception The challenges and future perspectives in the field of user-centered design provide insight into current obstacles and upcoming trends for application development professionals. Here are some of these challenges and perspectives:

Current Challenges

In application development, a major challenge lies in the increasing diversity of users, characterized by a variety of needs, habits, and skills. Adapting applications to meet this diversity represents a constant challenge, requiring a flexible and inclusive approach.

Collecting data to understand users is crucial, but it also raises questions about privacy and ethical management of personal data. Responsible approaches are necessary to ensure the security and confidentiality of collected information while using data ethically to improve user experiences.

Another major challenge is maintaining the long-term relevance of applications. User needs evolve rapidly in a constantly changing technological landscape. Keeping an application relevant and useful requires continuous adaptation and regular updates to meet changing user needs while aligning with technological advancements.

Managing user diversity, ethical data collection, and the need to maintain long-term relevance are key challenges in application development, requiring an agile and constantly adaptive approach to meet changing user expectations in a dynamic technological environment.

Future Perspectives

The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize the user experience is an emerging trend. This evolution aims to offer more tailored and relevant interactions for each user, using AI algorithms to customize application features and content based on individual preferences.

Immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) open new horizons for creating innovative and captivating user experiences. These technological advances offer opportunities to design applications with more immersive and engaging interactions for users.

In the context of user-centered design, ethical-based approaches are gaining importance. It becomes crucial to ensure transparency, security, and accountability in the collection and use of user data. This ethical approach aims to preserve user confidentiality and rights while responsibly using data to improve user experiences.

Closer interdisciplinary collaboration between different fields such as design, technology, psychology, and ethics becomes essential to create more holistic applications. This collaboration considers various aspects of the user experience, ensuring a comprehensive and balanced approach in developing user-centered applications.

By addressing these challenges and anticipating these trends, user-centered design professionals can develop more adaptive, innovative, and ethical applications that meet changing user needs while providing exceptional and relevant user experiences.

Conclusion on User-Centered Design

In conclusion, user-centered design goes beyond a simple development process. It is a crucial strategic investment, not only to meet user needs but also to strengthen the competitiveness of the company, ensure compliance with market requirements, and ensure operational resilience.

By integrating this approach into your technological strategy, you consolidate your company’s competitive position in Switzerland and/or internationally, foster customer loyalty, and open up new growth opportunities. Edana remains at your disposal to assist you in the successful implementation of these strategies, essential to ensuring your competitive advantage in the market.

Mobile Application-Comfort Zone

As time flies and digital daily activities are becoming parts of our lives at a deeper level-customers don’t just want a digital environment, but a comfortable one. Slowly even laptops will be losing their popularity and tabs/smartphones and mobile applications seem to have started ruling over. Now, of course there are still certain activities which need a computer. For example-3D Design for architectural projects takes up huge amount of power and energy. It’s least likely for a tab or a regular smartphone to render the 3D materials.

Easy Access

Some generations call us lazy ones for wanting to make everything easier. Now, the question here is-why make it harder though? On daily basis we are all striving to better ourselves and improve a way of living on a personal and global scale. So, why not make services easier too. For example, easy Log-In procedure saves you some nerves not to speak of time after all. Isn’t it just annoying to waste any of your precious time? Or imagine a first aid application to take much time to function. Do you imagine how many fatal incidents that might result in? There is nothing wrong with making something easy in a quite a rushed and stressful daily challenging environment.

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Customer Behavior Again

Like we’ve discussed in many previous articles-customer behavior research is a huge must. Creating an app alone is not enough. Well maybe for a certain amount of time a fact of App’s existence could pop some conversations and feedbacks, but creation alone is no good unless you update it constantly.

Listen to Feedback

There is a funny thing about all of us thinking we are pros at everything and just sometimes we say stuff we might become embarrassed for later, but if there is an idea and it doesn’t sound quite too logical-turn it around and around until you see the actual point. Some customers are kind enough to politely point out on updates your product needs, some are even more generous and provide you with ideas to better your performance. The point being-listen to all of them and sort out the best. Customers know what they really want and it’s up to us to listen really carefully and provide best solution later on.

Buttons and Texts

Visual design is very important for a mobile application. Well it’s time we agree that UI and UX just really need one-another. A simple position of a button could drastically change the customer’s behavior-which is funny because it might be a very important button for your sales.

Framework

Frames decide the future of your mobile app from the first glance. Now, let’s discuss some examples. LinkedIn didn’t seem to have a mobile application for quite a while. This annoyed a lot of people, because maybe previously job searching was a procedure done at home, after current work with a cup of tea on a kitchen table and writing numerous cover letters and all those awkward procedures. Now, real-life communication has become more Valuable-an employee will have a brief look at your Resume but the rest is up to interview. Now that job searching can be done from any place and any time LinkedIn just had to organize a Mobile-Friendly Platform. After all, it’s one of the best digital environments in its field. Would be a shame actually to not have an app.

Transitions

Where the buttons or wireframes take you is something you should take your time researching. Just sometimes a wireframe or a button connected to it just don’t correspond quite well with one-another and this creates another really annoying experience for a customer. In summary creating mobile friendly digital experience is not enough if it isn’t time and cost-effective for your loyal or potential customers. Or otherwise it could become just a waste of time.

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