The mobile app market is expanding by leaps and bounds. In fact, consumers are embracing the mobile revolution at such a tremendous rate it is changing the way we interact with businesses across the world.
Mobile apps benefit businesses and consumers alike—apps are functional and cost-efficient, offer a quick and convenient way to retrieve and transmit information, and provide a creative and engaging experience for all users.
As the CEO of Mag+, I have been an evangelist for the mobile digital publishing industry since before it was an industry. Whether you’re an enterprise wanting to create content based apps for internal information distribution, a business that wants to rethink your marketing collateral or if you’re simply looking to expand your content channel, there are a few key tenets to designing a compelling app that meets your business goals.
If you or someone in your team currently works with InDesign, you are already halfway to becoming a great mobile app designer. The additional tools required are free and only a few keystrokes away.
Here are 5 tips to get you going.
1. Why Mobile:
While creativity is key, planning is crucial. It’s important to understand why you are moving into tablets and allow for the time needed to think it through. Tablet readers are different than print and web consumers. You need to consider your users’ habits as you decide how to tackle your project. Are you a company with a BYOD policy, trying to disseminate internal information more efficiently? Are you a website wanting to capture the growing percentage of your visitors who are always on the run? Brainstorm, know your customer, and create a roadmap for success.
2. How Does Mobile Extend Your Brand?:
Second, remember that although you are designing for one brand, mobile is an entirely different product. What can you get your users to do on mobile? Then commit to making that experience immersive so that people fall in love with both the app and your brand. You are competing against not just other apps similar to yours, but with games, Facebook and a myriad of other distractions, so you must be thinking like a consumer.
For example, WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy, (WeSC), is a street fashion brand that has extended into the digital world to create a richer experience for their clothing line. This allows WeSC to be more interactive with their customers. Consumers are able to enjoy the beautifully laid out digital magazine where clothes are showcased and they are able to directly purchase products from this app. This app is to inspire their core audience to purchase their products and share the creativity an individuality which is what the brand is all about.
3. Keep it simple
Bells and whistles are enticing when you first explore powerful software. Embrace the technology, but temper your design to evolve with the expansion of your consumer base. It takes time to adjust to the design dimensions of a tablet, and the interactivity.
An example of elegant simplicity is DIY Weekly. It is a music magazine launched on the iPad and iPhone and is used to promote music reviews, concerts, and the latest news. In addition to the monthly print magazine, the tablet edition is available every week. In this day and age, digital platforms are widely used to listen and watch, bringing a completely different feel to the experience compared to the print. This app allows users to play tracks and watch videos with ease enriching their experience with simply with a touch of their fingertips.
4. Consistency is key:
Custom digital design requires human resources. Whether you’re adding staff or working with what you’ve got, it’s important to deliver on a schedule and within budget. Create and nurture this new app, but don’t be so overambitious that it becomes the project you delay, because users can stray all too easily. If you succeed at consistently delivering a smaller scope, manageable app on time, budgets to execute cooler more interactive things will grow too.
5. Experiment Now, Adjust Later:
The great thing about tablet apps is that this type of design has direct response analytics built right in, allowing for feedback on the performance of many of your design elements. If you see that consumers are not engaging with some of the app features or content, you can assess the situation and then adjust accordingly. Why did this element not perform as I hoped? Is it worth modifying? This element, (video, circle-tappable buttons, a particular piece of content), is performing so well, can we focus more effort on that?” My recommendation is to plan to design two or three issues, analyze the data and your iTunes reviews and then adjust your design.
What are you waiting for? Custom publishing is everyone’s future, and as with anything, first movers have an advantage.
