Key Challenges faced by Mobile App Developers

by Rob Stephen getaprogrammer

Building a competitive app has become essential to stay on top of the App Stores. There are many challenges mobile app developers face during the development process to build an ROI-driven application, some of which are discussed here in this article.

Do you think that creating a mobile application and a website is the same and needs the same skills and abilities? If yes, then you are wrong. Focussing on just ‘what to do’ is not enough when you are developing a mobile app. For building a mobile application, you also need to consider ‘what not to do’. You have to possess the skills and knowledge of different app development tools, programming languages, and strategies to create an application. You also must be aware of the major challenges mobile app developers often face during the development process.

Overcoming these challenges can be tricky and difficult but it is necessary to end up with a flawless application at the end. Keeping this in mind, an expert in application development has listed out these challenges here to help you to identify and overcome the same for a glitch-free and smooth application.

Fitting everything into different screen sizes:

The screen size of smartphones may vary depending on the model of the devices. It may range from a minimum of three inches to a few more inches. But, of course, the sizes are much smaller than the screen sizes of laptops or desktops that range somewhere between thirteen to fifteen inches or more. What you may see or what may fit in those bigger screen sizes may not be easy to place on the smaller screen sizes of the smart gadgets. Fitting everything within the limited area or screen is the first challenge developers and designers face while building a mobile application. To overcome this challenge, you need to be familiar with responsive design skills. A small tip may also help you in this case. What you can do is just keep the minimum required elements on the screen to make it look clean and uncluttered even on the small screens.

Creating an app that will show accuracy when users will use their fingertips for navigation:

Most of the mobile application users use their fingers or more specifically their fingertips to navigate an app. This makes it essential to ensure accuracy when users navigate the app with their fingers. No user would compromise on this point and keep using an application if nothing opens or gets clicked on tapping on a particular element on the UI. Make sure to design the user interface keeping this in mind.

Keeping battery consumption, storage, and memory in mind while mobile app development:

With hard drive storage space, memory capacity, and battery consumption in mind, a developer needs to build an application. This is an important factor to consider while coding. Developers need to build an application that will consume less storage space and less battery. Just think to yourself, would you like to keep using an application that eats up all your phone’s battery power and space on your phone? Obviously not. The same logic is applicable to all. Keep this in mind while you build a mobile app.

Optimising the layout and flow of the app:

Due to the smaller screen sizes that developers play around with, an app developer needs to create a well-designed navigation system and multiple screens, instead of trying to fit anything into one single screen. Moreover, a developer needs to avoid using too many unnecessary features that can make the app too heavy and slow. The use of SEO-friendly tools and technologies can help in taking the app on the top of the App Stores. Overall, one needs to build a fully-optimised app, which can be a challenging task as there are so many optimised apps out there on the App Stores, but not impossible if one can use the right optimisation tools.

Offering a superior UX through the app:

If you are unable to offer an easy and enjoyable user experience, then you will definitely lose users and get to notice a decrease in the number of downloads and more uninstallations. Would you like that to happen? No business owner would want this for sure. Research your competitors and include their strong features and avoid their weak elements to end up with the best application that can offer a great user experience. A few key points to consider are creating a simple layout, an easy navigation design, and minimum features. Think from the users’ point of view if you want to give the users the best experience. In simple words, build a mobile-friendly application.

So, now you are aware of the 5 major challenges you may face as a mobile application developer. There are many more challenges you may come across as well during the process. But overcoming each one of these successfully can only help you to deliver a flawless, a cutting-edge, and a widely-used mobile application.

Rob Stephen is one of the most experienced and skilled mobile app developers of a reputed company in Australia, GetAProgrammer. The author has written this article to help out the beginners in identifying and overcoming the major challenges they may face during mobile application development.