Developers Notebook: App Usability - Too Often Neglected!

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This is the follow up to the blog post, “A Strategic Approach to App-Development.”

If one has the idea then it is time for implementation. The goal must always be to build an app that inspires others. From my perspective, there are four important criteria to consider:

• Performance
• Usability
• Design

Performance

Performance is a very critical issue in software. Customers have very little patience for software that does not run fast and smoothly. Due to the hardware fragmentation of Android, this is certainly not an easy task. Because we want to achieve an audience of one hundred percent of all Android users, one should optimize an app for all devices

If you want your app’s quality to remain consistent on all devices, you also have to test each app release on all devices. This is hardly economical. And usually trying to include all devices is virtually impossible.

So, my approach is to consider in advance exactly which group you’re targeting with the app. Are there more students? Or is it more for business people? Are there more women or men who use the program? Is it for teenagers or an older audience? With this information you can then decide what hardware the majority of your future customers use- and then optimize the app for that audience. Thus, the cost is significantly reduced without a loss of quality in the phones the majority of your audience uses.

Usability / Design

I want to set my focus mainly on usability and design. These two aspects are, in my view, still too often neglected at Android. They are critical for success.

I am one of those people who do not read instructions. At least, not as long the device is working. I am also of the opinion that as a "product builder" one should have the right to waive the instructions completely. Here we learn, in fact, much of Apple’s strategy.

Perhaps more fundamentally, there are five important principles that should be considered for usability:

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Source: http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/blog/394756/Developers-Notebook-App-Usability-Too-Often-Neglected