App Failures: Causes & Prevention Strategies

1.     Poor research on market and audience 

Is it possible to validate the assumption that your app will be loved by users?

• Understanding your product’s target audience is essential before development begins.
• The development of marketing campaigns that will attract new users is aided by audience research in addition to creating apps that address specific user needs.
• User research is the cornerstone of a successful app launch strategy. 
• An app can be used by multiple groups of people, so identifying the app’s central demographics and creating user personas is essential during the early planning stage.
• Personas are fictional representations of a product’s ideal users. User personas should be as detailed as possible.
• In a user persona, you should consider factors such as demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. 
• You might build a product you assume people will want, but in reality, won’t, if you don’t do the research, define the audience, and strategize use cases and features that will appeal to them.
• In order to introduce a new product to the market, iteration is required.
• Continually meeting the needs of users and maintaining engagement is highly beneficial through iterative processes. 

What should you build for your users, and how do you know what to build?

• Develop the minimum viable product by identifying user pain points and determining how to meet those needs over time using the minimum viable product development method. 
• By building an MVP, a Startup can enter the market quickly and provide a solid foundation for users.
• Using this insight, companies can determine how users react to the app’s primary function and make logical product and business decisions based on that insight.

2.     Unoriginality

In addition to not being original, most apps fail because they lack creativity. There is an oversaturation of similar apps in app stores.

• Apps with a unique value proposition are the most successful in today’s market.
• In order to determine your own competitive advantage, you must uncover the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.
• It won’t be easy for you to win over users if you build a similar product to your competition.
• The first step in optimizing user loyalty and business success is to develop a unique value proposition (UVP).
• It is essential to create a vision statement for your product if you want to increase your chances of success.
• An application’s vision statement defines the end goal and gives it a sense of direction.
• Additionally, your vision statement describes the solution to the problem that your target audience faces.
• Another excellent way to create a UVP is to prototype a mobile app.
• User-centric design and development require user-tested prototypes for mobile products.
• In design thinking, prototyping is an essential part of the research process, which involves rapid iteration and aims to create products that are useful for users.
• By prototyping, new ideas are often revealed and the best development path is determined. 
• Product teams continuously review and refine their product concepts until they meet business objectives and the needs of the users as part of the prototype development process.
• As a result, the process helps identify and fix problems early, when making changes is far more affordable. 

3.     Unwise platform selection

There are intuitive interface guidelines on many platforms, including Android and iOS. However, they appeal to different groups of users and operate differently.

• Statistical data alone can provide some useful insight into your users’ smartphone choices.
• The average income and education level of iOS users are higher than those of Android users.
• Your decision about how to monetize the product could be influenced by this information alone. 
• Android is a better platform if your strategy relies on advertisement placements, rather than in-app purchases.
• In general, mobile applications are designed to solve a specific problem faced by users collectively.
• Developing an app that meets the specific needs of your target users will be challenging without a solid understanding of how user behavior varies between operating systems. 

There is a major problem with apps that don’t work well across devices, networks, and operating systems.

• Apps that work on the iPhone don’t work on the iPad, for instance.
• Your mobile app’s goal and purpose should be considered when deciding what platform is best for you.
• App platforms are chosen according to the type of content you intend to create and your overall business objectives.
• In order to choose the best option for your business, you must analyze your target market and core demographics.
• The importance of considering platform differences when developing for multiple platforms cannot be overstated.
• Another common reason for app failure is user frustration.
• A little annoyance can kill an app’s chances of success when users decide within a minute whether or not to use it.

4.     An ineffective user experience

Apps fail because of a poor user experience. In order to build an app with a great user experience, there are many components to consider. 

You need an intuitive app at its core. Usability is poor if a user can’t figure out core features of your app easily and struggles to perform basic functions.

App User experience can also be poor due to the following reasons: