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With so many applications on Apple’s app store it’s becoming harder than ever to get yours noticed.
Obviously it’s fine if you are investing a fortune creating an enormous advertising push behind it or if you’re one of the companies lucky enough to have their work showcased by Apple. But if, like most of us these aren’t an option then here are some tips that will help you get the most return on your investment.
Showcase your application
The old adage that “first impressions count” is as true for your iPhone applications as it is for anything in life. It may seem obvious, but getting the icon, screenshots and description right are key to how well your iPhone App performs.
Many potential customers will make a snap decision whether to buy or download your application from the descriptions and screenshots you provide to make sure they are attractive as possible. Nothing puts a customer of quicker than dull, low quality screenshots as these are seen as a reflection of the application as a whole.
Crafting the correct description is much like the writing of blurps at the back of a book, you should take some time and if possible use a good copywriter.
Test, debug and test again
Nothing will put customers off your application faster than buggy code, more so if these cause memory leaks resulting in their beloved iPhone crashing.
O.K, so if a customer is experiencing a problem with your application then you have at least got them to download it in the first place! However, if it’s an application to drive traffic, promote brand awareness or generate money from repeated use then you’re in trouble.
You should also remember than dissatisfied customers can get their money back so even if you have taken their money before they experience a problem you may soon find yourself paying it back again.
Either way there‘s no excuse for not testing your iPhone application thoroughly with the plethora of tools available as part of the Apple iPhone Developer Program.
Watch that battery usage!
With so many features at your disposal it’s easy to carried away building the most feature rich application you can. While this may look great and work fantastically it could have a major drawback in the battery department.
Some of the more interesting features available can, if used incorrectly or over generously, cause the iPhone battery to drain at an alarming rate which is likely to mean you application gets used sparingly. Calls to gain information on location and velocity and anything that keeps the screen illuminated for long periods should be carefully monitored to ensure they’re only used for as long as they need to be.
Provide a clear navigation
As standards of usability slowly improve across the internet the same cannot always be said about mobile application design.
Apple have done as much as they can to provide a consistent user interface and frequent tips on control positioning, however many developers are still ignoring or overlooking these.
Where possible you should ensure you are using the standard iPhone controls such as Tab bars, buttons and pickers to provide a user experience that iPhone users are used to.
Do not link to web pages that are not optimised for mobile
One of the biggest complaints we hear from iPhone users are applications that send them to web pages that are simply impossible to use on an iPhone.
If you need to send users to a website, ensure that the pages you are sending them have been optimised as much as possible and that it’s easy to find the information they are looking for. If the pages are on a website you do not have control over then warn the users first!
The most common place this occurs is in applications that send users to payment providers without thinking about how they will use this page. Tailoring the page to work better on an iPhone is a simple job and one that should not be overlooked, better still keep the user in your application and build the content in.
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