Tips for Creating Awesome Apps #3: Apps Should Play to their Strengths

Apps should play to their strengths – what does that mean?

It goes back to the question you should be asking yourself in the beginning of this process: why does your business even want an app?  An app for your business should be doing things for you that can’t easily be done in order ways.  So lets have a look at the things an app can do really well, that is not easily done by a website for instance.

• Apps can send push notifications.  These are easy and very cheap to send to all app users and can alert your customers to special offers, deals or whatever.  Because they are out there on your phone screen, these messages are still getting read over 95% of the time and immediately.  There is no other messaging platform that competes.
• Apps are great at using GPS to show their their live location, give directions and so on.  For instance you can even restrict your notification messages to within a few metres, for an event or whatever.
• Apps are inherently mobile.  They are great for people on the move.
• Apps are self-contained and can be used when there is no data access or signal.  Often apps are not set up to do this, but they absolutely can be.  See the View Ranger hiking guide app.  Once you download the route, it requires no signal at all to work perfectly.  Websites can’t do this.

Tips for Creating Awesome Apps #3: Apps Should Play to their Strengths

Use  these strengths.  They will give your customers much stronger reasons to download your app and to buy in to what you have got to offer.

Example: See the View Ranger hiking guide app.  Once you download the route, it requires no signal at all to work perfectly.  Websites can’t do this.  It uses GPS of course and is inherently designed for people on the move in areas where there is little or no mobile signal.