The Guide to 2019 App Development: Best Practices and Tips

Whether we like it or not, mobile apps have seemingly taken over the world. The number of app downloads is increasing rapidly, and this is only expected to continue. We use apps for all different things from communicating with others, keeping up with the news, entertaining ourselves, and literally dozens of other things. There is no doubting that people love their apps and would be lost without them.

In fact, the average person uses 30 apps or more each and every month. And this is often less than half of the total apps that a person has on their device. However, for the apps to play such a huge role in our day-to-day lives, someone has to create them. Thousands of software developers are tirelessly working to come up with the next big app.

With so many new apps being created and marketed every single day, it is more important than ever to ensure that your app is designed well. With that in mind, this blog post is going to look at a few different best practices and tips for developing apps in 2019 and beyond.

Ensure Your App is Secure

While how your app looks and performs is important, so is how secure it is. With cybercrime on the rise, you want users to know that their information and data is safe. As a result, you need to make sure your app uses sufficient security measures. You should offer 2FA, require strong passwords. Ensure every employee is well-versed on cybersecurity best practices.

In addition to protecting user information, you also want to ensure the app itself is secure. Thankfully, there are tools out there that make it easy to track all of the events within your app. Using an application performance management tool will allow you to always be notified about any potential security threat or other issues.

Testing is Incredibly Important

Of course, before an app is ever released, it needs to be tested thoroughly to ensure it works as expected. Even a single bug or issue can largely disrupt your app and can lead to a ton of bad press, which you may be unable to recover from. As a result, no matter how much you want to release your app,  you shouldn’t do so until it has been properly testing.

While you can handle testing internally, you also may want to consider working with the public or a third-party testing company. They may test or use your app in a way that you had not thought of, which could potentially unveil additional issues or bugs. Testing will ensure you have a quality launch and not one that is bogged down by several issues.

The User Experience Has Never Been More Crucial

With so many different apps out there in every niche or category, it is incredibly important that your app has a solid user experience. If users don’t enjoy the experience within your app for one reason or another, you can bet they will leave and try out one of your competitors. One of the main goals of your app should be to keep your user happy and satisfied with it.

There are a number of different things that can impact the experience users have. This includes things like your site loading speeds if your site experiences any lags or crashes and other performance-related issues. Any of these issues will hurt your user experience and could turn people away.

Users want a responsive and crisp app, that performs just as well as it looks. Of course, how the app looks can be important. How it works is what will keep people around or push them away. The content of the app is important, but it is your experience that will separate yourself from your competition.

Ensure Navigation is Simple and Clear

One very underrated part of a good app and a good user experience within an app is the navigation. Most apps are dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of pages. It needs to be simple for people to search and navigate throughout the app. While some apps will try and get overly cute or creative with navigation, it is best to keep it simple.

Not only that, but be sure to not hide the navigation anywhere complex and ensure to make it consistent from page to page. In addition to navigation being simple, your design should also be quite clear and clutter-free. While different app users will appreciate different designs, ensure it has necessary information without being too busy. Ensure also the colors fit and remain consistent throughout the app.

In conclusion, hopefully, this article has helped you learn some valuable tips and best practices for developing apps in 2019.