The fact that Android is so widely used may be enough of a reason for those looking to break into the mobile app market to choose it as their platform of choice. The number of smartphone users worldwide has surpassed 3 billion, and by the end of 2021, it is expected to reach nearly 4 billion.
As of August 2020, Android has a market share of over 74%, followed by iOS with a market share of around 25%.Whatever the reason, it's critical to use the best techniques to stay ahead of the competition to give your application the best chance of success in this highly competitive market.In this blog post, we'll go over a few Android development best practices.
Concentrate on the usability of the App
Usability was first defined in 2004 as a key component of the user experience honeycomb, which has since become a popular framework. Even though usability is now universally recognized as a critical mobile app development best practice, it is frequently overshadowed by, or even confused with, UX.
Usability enables users to achieve the goals that a mobile app is designed for in a timely and satisfactory manner no one likes "Swiss Army Knife" apps that are over-bloated with little-used features that don't support the app's core functionality. The usability of an Android app is determined by several factors, including navigation, visual clarity, device resource usage, and error management.
Focusing on usability will ensure that your customers enjoy using the application and that happy users equal app success. As a result, usability testing should be an integral part of your Android app development strategy.
Emphasize UI and UX design
The mobile app development process includes two distinct but interdependent elements:
- User Experience Design and User Interface Design.
- UX design is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on making the user experience as simple, meaningful, and engaging as possible.
- It includes branding, usability, and functionality.
- UI design, on the other hand, is in charge of creating an aesthetically pleasing interface that provides users with a pleasurable and emotionally rewarding experience.
- A great mobile app experience is a blend of UX and UI that is both harmonious and complementary.
- Whereas UX makes interfaces useful and assists users in achieving their goals, UI makes interfaces beautiful and establishes emotional bonds with users.
- To provide users with a unified multi-platform experience, a good UX/UI design must transition seamlessly across a variety of Android devices and platforms.
- There is a two-fold effect.
- First and foremost, a well-designed app captures the attention of users.
- Second, its natural, streamlined, and rewarding usability encourages customers to use it again and again, resulting in increased retention.
- You might want to hire teams that specialize in designing UX/UI for mobile platforms because UX and UI design are becoming increasingly specialized disciplines.
Select the right tools
Given the vast ecosystem available, selecting the right tools for an Android app development project is always difficult. Should you use older, more stable technologies or newer, less stable technologies with more features?
What are the tools that developers use?
For example, for many years, Java was the preferred language for developing Android apps.
Today, however, more than half of professionals hire android application developer who uses Kotlin, a JetBrains-developed programming language that Google has declared a priority language over Java, recommending that all new Android projects be written in it.
Furthermore, according to Android Developer Stories, Kotlin is used in over 70% of the top 1000 Android apps. According to Duolingo, Kotlin reduced the number of lines of code by 30% on average and reduced the number of crashes by 33%.
Interest in Kotlin is sparked by two factors: productivity and interoperability. In comparison to Java, Kotlin is widely regarded as being more concise, effective, and faster.
Before the start of the project, assign important roles
Project managers, developers, back-end developers, UI/UX designers, and testers make up the majority of professional Android development teams. To ensure the project's success, it's critical to define and assign the project's core roles and responsibilities well ahead of time.
Product ownership is maybe the most important responsibility in any large-scale app development project. The product owner is in charge of defining the requirements that an app must meet to outperform competitors and meet customer expectations.
In many ways, product owners bring the customer's vision and voice to the app development process, and they are ultimately responsible for the end product.
Provide regular updates
Updates are part of the lifecycle of every mobile app development process, whether they're to improve security, add new features, or extend functionality. However, overwhelming users with major app changes is never a good idea.
For example, it's always preferable to roll out major UI changes to a larger audience only after they've been A/B tested with a more representative group.It prioritizes outcomes over outputs to ensure that everyone on the team is aware of the overall business goal behind each release.
It enables development teams to release specific functionality to specific user segments at specific times, reducing time-to-market while reducing risk.
Integrate quality assurance throughout the development process
After the development team, end-users should not be the foremost group of individuals to interact with an app. In the competitive world of mobile apps, Quality Assurance (QA) teams are a critical part of development.
The main role of QA in the app development process is to ensure that the app is fully functional and free of bugs. QA does this by establishing quality standards, defining functional requirements, and ensuring that an app satisfies all of its quality requirements.
It is in charge of detecting and correcting errors before releasing software to end-users, as well as ensuring that all releases are "Fit for purpose" and "Right the first time."Before apps are released to the market, QA teams are responsible for running dynamic tests.
These tests look at a variety of factors, including user experience/interface, cross-device functionality, security, and resource usage, to name a few.QA should be incorporated into every stage of the app development process as a best practice.
Make security a top priority
Among mobile app development service providers, security is quickly becoming a competitive differentiator. Modern apps' ability to protect user privacy and data, particularly on a relatively open platform like Android, is being closely scrutinized.
App security is an ongoing process that begins during the design phase and evolves in tandem with, if not ahead of, cyber threats.One of the most effective ways for developers to secure their apps is to use continuous testing.
Penetration testing, for example, can help prevent potential threats by highlighting a variety of security flaws. Strong authentication and authorization systems that take key parameters like privacy, session management, identity management, and device security into account must also be included in Android app development.
Conclusion
To summarise, Android app development isn't just about making pretty apps; it's also about making functional and appealing apps that users enjoy using and that add value to the company. To achieve that specific result, begin with the right development team, then concentrate on usability, UI, and UX.It's also critical to select the appropriate development tools and methodologies, place a premium on quality and security, and have a well-thought-out pre-launch marketing strategy in place.
