Category Archives: iPhone applications

Mobile App Sales Taking Hold and Growing

Mobile is becoming more and more important to businesses around the globe. In a recent survey by Urban Airship of more than 100 UK retail executives, half of the retailers surveyed stated that between 21% and 50% of their online sales now come via a mobile device. Clearly either you should be considering how Android app or iPhone app development fits into your sales channels.

Currently, mobile devices account for 22% of all retail online sales in the U.S., which is expected to reach 27% by 2018. | Photo: TechStage (Flikr)

According to Tim Paterson, from Urban Airship. “A growing number of consumers prefer mobile apps to traditional websites. And although more digital transactions still occur outside of mobile apps, it’s the crucial pre-shopping interactions taking place via mobile that can have a big impact on the buying process.”

Currently, mobile devices account for 22% of all retail online sales in the U.S., which is expected to reach 27% by 2018. In a Flurry Analytics study, they found that the average US mobile consumers spends 86% of their time on a smartphone using apps.

An example of just how important mobile is to sales is the Cyber Monday from this past holiday season, according to IBM, mobile traffic accounted for almost half of all online traffic and 28% of online sales, which is an increase of more than 25% over last year. Given these stats, it is obvious that mobile apps are not going away any time soon. Clearly you should use them to your advantage, if you aren’t already.

If you haven’t entered the mobile arena, its not too late. Keep in mind that over time the technology associated with of smartphones is improving, allowing the apps they use to improve in complexity, this constantly creates new space for new ideas for apps to enter the market. Additionally, the market is constantly maturing, the old philosophy of building a better mousetrap certainly applies to mobile apps, if you can offer an easier or more intuitive way to perform tasks users will take note.

Pic: http://bit.ly/1o18GGj

4 Key Trends for Mobile App Design

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As 2015 is underway and certain trends are clearly standing out in mobile application design. iPhone application designers and Android application designers are both capitalizing on these trends and using them to improve user experiences.

Businesses that fail to pay attention to trends risk releasing an application that looks dated before it is even approved for publications. This is a key reason that it is so important to work with a professional UI design firm when starting your mobile application.

Following are the trends that will influence the forward thinking designers and developers over the coming year:

Minimalism

Mobile and minimal were made for each other. Minimalism is perfect when user experience is at a premium and nowhere is user experience more important than on the small screens of mobile devices. Minimalism is an essential style for designers to master that can produce remarkable results when utilized with mobile application interfaces.

Hidden Menus

While screens on mobile devices are larger, they still offer a limited workspace. In response to that clever designers hide app functionality until needed. A common example of this is a navigation drawer that slide out when required. Another example are functions that are displayed when swiped, such as deleting posts on some social sites. As app users continue to grow more and more familiar with applications we will see this trend grow to maximize a user’s workspace.

Typography

Typography is crucial in the mobile environments and when properly done can greatly improve a user’s experience. It’s key to make the typography work together with the design elements in the application and remain legible to readers. Poor typography can be distracting or unreadable and turn users away.

Depth

With the introduction of Apple’s iOS 7 software interfaces went flat. The past couple of years focused on flat design. While that will continue and designs on screen will still look flat, clever designers are finding ways to give them depth in the flat environment. A common tool for giving depth is using transparency and layers.

Get The Most From Your Mobile Audience

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The modern mobile user is sophisticated when it comes to advertising.

The modern mobile application and mobile web user does not respond well to marketing efforts that are forced upon them. In a recent study, AdVid details that 95 percent of the mobile users that they surveyed stated they are annoyed to receive messages from senders they haven’t given permission. It is best to ask for a users’ permission to deliver relevant marketing messages and then not abuse it.

An excellent way to get users to give you permission to market to them is to create incentives. iPhone application developers can help you create mobile programs that reward customers for being open to ads and other messaging on their devices are more likely to be participated in. Develop ways you can reward users who are willing to your receive your marketing efforts.

Understanding your users is easier than ever.

You have the technology to understand what your users are looking at and want, so improve your mobile marketing to fit their wants. Don’t waste time and money creating and delivering marketing that doesn’t speak to your users. Personalize the experience and you will get the best response. Marketing that doesn’t speak to your users will be opted out of or ignored.

Build integrated digital experiences that have consistent messaging.

Successful mobile app creation is aligned with your existing branding and can bring tremendous value to your customers. Effective mobile programs enhance your overall marketing campaign. But remember that key with mobile advertising programs is that you can use analytic data from app use to improve your marketing message and overall marketing response. In doing this you will also be developing marketing that speaks to your customer’s interests within your consistent brand messaging.

Creating Superior User Experiences

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User experience is of paramount importance to today’s consumers, so making it easy for them to get the information they need or want is a critical part of today’s mobile experience. If your mobile application‘s users can’t easily find what they are looking for, they will quickly abandon your mobile application. If you offer a positive user experience, making it easy and intuitive for users to navigate your application and find what they are looking for, your brand can engage and potentially convert a greater volume of shoppers or develop a solid user base. There are huge advantages to developing applications with a sound usability strategy and a big risk that if you do not you will be quickly turning away potential customers.

When it comes to retail or online brands, offering access to immediate customer support through tools like mobile chat, brands can quickly and effectively engage and potentially convert a high volume of consumers. There is a big advantage to offering real-time, personalized assistance at a customer’s fingertips. These advantages only just start with increased conversion ratios and go on to include items like reducing overall support costs.

Another key area is personalization. Mobile users generally don’t have the patience to sift through irrelevant information on a mobile application. Therefore it is best to make sure that content is based on the consumer’s location, preferences and history. Making your users dig for relevant info will just send consumers to your competition.

With the amount of time and money that consumers are spending on mobile growing, it is more important that ever to offer well thought out consumer experiences. Better user experiences are helping to fuel the growth of mobile and those that are not offering quality experiences will quickly find that users are flocking to those that are offering what consumers expect.

Let Customers Be Able to Find You via Mobile Devices

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In the last few years we are seeing people utilizing computing power in a vastly different way with smart phones and tablets often becoming the device of choice over laptops and desktop computers. Many small business have discovered that by being easy to find on these devices they have been able to increase sales and growth.

No longer can businesses just put up a web site and expect that to be enough. A business needs to be able to be found in a wide variety of places to insure that customers can find them where ever they are looking. Whether its via mobile web site, traditional web sites, mobile applications (including iPhone and Android apps) or social media, your business needs to have an established presence.

Here are some key items to think about regarding improving your presence in these mediums:

Mobile Web Sites: The number of searches completed on mobile devices has climbed 20% in the last year. Business owners without mobile web sites are missing out on a significant amount of searching. According to Nielsen, those who use mobile devices to search for you are statistically more likely to follow up on the search. 55% of mobile searches result in a purchase. A survey by comScore has revealed that searches done on mobile devices are much more likely to result in a sale than searches done on computers.

Mobile Applications: Mobile apps provide consumers a regular way to keep contact with your business. Applications are fantastic at deepening markets and businesses need to provide content that keeps loyal customers coming back. Is your app a one shot deal or something that consumers want to keep readily available to visit? Do you provide something of value to those that have downloaded your app? Apps that users return to over and over help generate repeat business at a tremendous rate.

Social Media: About 40% of those surveyed use social media to interact with businesses. This is a huge number of people that your business could reach. Social media outlets are well formulated to the mobile environment and a great way for consumers to find you via their mobile devices.

It is essential for your business that you and your products are readily findable on mobile devices. Once consumers get to your mobile site or app, make it easy for them to find most relevant information about your business: your address, phone number, and hours. This is important with social media as well. Make it easy to find your physical location on your digital presence.

Savvy businesses are embracing these trends and leveraging the power of mobile to propel growth.