12 Tips to Make a Successful Mobile Application

10 min readOct 11, 2022

Build apps that fit your brand, gain exposure, and increase loyalty among your customers.

by Sherry Arjomandi content specialist, Etrexio

Creating a mobile app can be a big undertaking. As a business owner, you want to ensure you are getting the most value from your app development investment and set yourself up for success. Don’t worry, Though there are ways you can maximize the success of your application, successful apps don’t just happen. You have to work at it.

Below are 12 key tips for building apps that people love.

#1 Defining a strategy

Have an idea!

If your mobile app idea doesn’t solve a problem, it will be difficult to market it and will likely not be able to rise above the immense competition. If it does solve a problem, this is your cue to take the app idea from here and start building it further.

Know your audience!

Before you start developing a mobile application, you should know who is going to use it. What is their age group? What are their interests? Are they male or female? This will help you determine what kind of app you should develop.

For example, if you are developing an app for teenagers, then it’s best to include some kind of social media integration so they can share their favorite music with friends.

Identify your competitors!

The mobile app market is crowded with millions of apps available for download on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store combined. For app companies to be successful in this space, their app idea needs to be outstanding, should leverage the right technologies, and should have a competitive edge.

#2 Find an agency to build the application

When you’re ready to find the best mobile app development agency, it’s important to do your research.

First, make an introduction call. This will give you a chance to ask about your project’s key challenges and points. Expect satisfying answers supported by previous experiences.

You’ll also want to try and understand if they are looking for a long-term partnership, or if they just want to finish and pass off the work to another client. If they’re looking for a long-term partnership, this is a good sign — it means that their business model isn’t just about churning out projects with little regard for quality or communication with clients.

Finally, ask how the maintenance process works and if they offer additional paid development services after the handover. If they do, it’s likely that they have enough team members working on your project — which means that it will be easier for them to keep up with updates and new features as they become available.

#3 Prepare a feature list and arrange a pre-project meeting

The top priority of any software development project is to identify what features are needed, and how to build them.

Feature requirements are always changing, but it is important to define them as early as possible.

Here are five steps for preparing a feature list:

1. Define the problem

2. Decide on a feature list

3. Prepare a feature list and arrange a pre-project meeting

4. Do an initial design or prototype

5. Create a document that describes each feature in detail

#4 Request a Project File

A Project File is detailed and contains a feature list, budget, etc. It is a kind of pre-agreement between the company and the client, so it should be clear what both parties expect from each other.

It’s a good practice to send a Project File before starting any project. It allows for avoiding misunderstandings and clarifying all doubts before starting to work on the project.

#5 Legal agreements

At the beginning of the project, you should ask for a legal agreement. The agreement serves to protect both sides and helps avoid any misunderstandings along the way.

The agency will usually send you a contract based on their own template. If they don’t have one, then you can ask them to prepare one specifically for your project. Being able to provide legal advice whenever you need it, is one of the many advantages of working with an independent agency.

If they have their own legal department, they will probably have already prepared it and would be happy to provide it for you to review. If not, don’t worry; Freelance lawyers are available to help you complete this legal form quickly and easily.

#6 Want UI/UX from an agency

The development agency mostly has a design team. If they have a team, you can start with the UI/UX design phase. This part is crucial because when the team completes the design, you will be able to see what your final product will look like.

Also, you can understand if you have any lack of features or any excess so you can balance before coding.

The next step is the development phase where the agency will deliver all of your requirements into a working prototype or actual product.

Finally, testing is an important step for both parties because it helps us to see if there are any bugs or issues in our product.

At this point, both parties should work together and try to fix every single bug as soon as possible so that you can launch your product on time and deliver it to your users!

#7 Understand what is sustainable and optimal for your app

There are many questions that you should ask when interviewing a potential team. Some of these questions are about technical aspects, but some are more related to the process of how they build software. These questions can help you understand better their approach and their culture.

Before starting the coding phase, you should ask the agency to present a presentation about data architecture and technologies that will be used by the team.

Ask questions about the costs and sustainability of the app — hosting, 3rd party tools, etc.

Considering the possibility of your application growing too fast, ask if the infrastructure is configured to handle it.

Is there any principle they follow? The improvable and flexible development process is globally based on these principles (ie. SOLID principles). If you want to add a new feature in the future, are they able to add this feature? Especially make sure about the latter if you don’t want to create another application from scratch just to add a new feature.

#8 Test, test, test — QA process of the application

Testing is an essential part of the app development process. The more you test, the better your app will be.

The first step of testing is to check if your application works as expected and meets all requirements. This is called functional testing, which includes checking that every feature works as it should.

If you decide to use automated tests, this can be done using some tools. However, if your app is complex or has a lot of features, it may be hard to write automated tests for every action or might increase the project budget.

Manual testing should cover all possible user actions and scenarios that can happen in real-life situations. Manual testing is more flexible than automated tests since it allows testers to try different things and verify results manually instead of relying on predefined scripts. The agency you’ll work for should provide you with a detailed Test Documentation. If they don’t know what it is or aren’t willing to create this kind of document, it’s a red flag.

#9 Deployment and publishing

The process of deploying and publishing an app can be long and complicated. It takes time to get an app ready for launch, and even more, time to apply updates after the initial release.

That’s why it is important to plan ahead and hire a professional agency that knows how to deal with these issues in order to save you time and money.

Here are some of the steps that should be taken before you publish your app:

Screenshots, promotional text, and approval process — If you are not technical, the agency should do this. Preparing all these contents is advantageous!

If you don’t own the app, you cannot update anything about the application, even if you want to. You are not allowed to post any bugs that you find since you do not own the app. This is a big problem because there are people who have found bugs but they don’t get them fixed because they do not own the app. Also, the agency should publish the app on the client’s App Store and Play Store account.

#10 Getting access to GitHub repo after handover

Code handover is a critical step in the software development process. The developer who created the application is responsible for passing on all of their knowledge and know-how to whoever is taking over the project.

However, this can be challenging for developers who have built complex applications with multiple levels of security and data protection. This is because accessing the source code and documentation can be difficult if you don’t know where to look.

It is also important that you have access to the GitHub repo after handover so that you can use it whenever necessary.

#11 Get user feedback and improve the app with the team

It’s no secret that mobile applications are the future. From Uber and Lyft to Snapchat and Instagram, mobile apps have become an essential part of our lives. But creating a successful app isn’t easy, especially if you don’t have any experience in the field.

If you’re a business owner who wants to enter this exciting new world, here are some tips to help make your first mobile app a success:

Get user feedback and improve the app with the team

It’s important to ask for feedback from your users as soon as possible so that you can learn how they’re using the app and what features they want to be added next. You should also ask for feedback from people outside of your organization, such as family and friends, or social media platforms such as Reddit. This will help you understand how others perceive your product and how it fits into their lives.

Once you’ve gathered all of this information, use it to improve your product by making changes based on user needs and suggestions. If multiple people are asking for one feature or function at once, consider adding it right away so that everyone gets what they need right away!

Make Survey

One of the best ways to gather feedback is through surveys, which allow users to give their opinions about different aspects of your application without ever needing to leave.

#12 Always ask for an analytical tool integration like Google Analytics or Mixpanel

The more information you have about your customers, the better you can serve them. But it’s important to choose the right tool for your business.

There are a lot of analytics tools out there, but not all of them are going to be right for every company. Here are a few things to look for when choosing an analytics platform:

1) Look at other tools that integrate with this software. If you want to track their movements on the application with every detail or if you want to create funnels for your clients, then you might need Mixpanel or Google Analytics.

2) Make sure the software integrates with all of the other tools that you use already in your business (like MailChimp). And if there’s something that you think would be useful, don’t hesitate to ask!