Growing your business means meeting consumer demand, one such demand being mobile apps. Right now, at least 80% of consumers now prefer mobile apps over a mobile website. This is due to many factors, one being that last year mobile app use accounted for 86% of total mobile usage, demonstrating that apps have fast become the way we want to get to the internet on our phones. Given this, it may be time to consider building a mobile app for your business. Before you pick up the phone to call your friendly local app developer, do your homework to make sure you’re getting started the right way. Define: What is the problem your app will solve? In today’s on-demand society, consumers are looking for apps that will somehow make their lives easier. We know, we know, of course the very nature of your product/service is something that will improve everyone’s life -- but why? And how does that mission translate into a mobile app? There are plenty of ways that mobile apps help improve the lives of mobile users, but what users are primarily looking for is something that increases efficiency by solving a problem. Differentiate: What is the value that will set your app apart? Diving into the mobile app marketplace means you’re fighting with millions of others. Unless you can bring a specific value that sets your app apart from the competition, it may not even be worth the cost to build it. Not everything is Field of Dreams in that, “If you build it, they will come.” You need to ensure your app is not only well defined, but has that extra sparkle that makes yours stand out differently to get those coveted downloads. Design: Simply Focus on designing the app so it solves the problem simply. We can’t tell you how many wide-eyed entrepreneurs have come to us wanting to build the app-of-all-trades, only to become overwhelmed realizing the complication will subsequently overwhelm users. The more simply you can frame your core concept, the more accessible it will be to your target user. Today’s busy consumer doesn’t have the time nor the patience to fuss with learning a complex application. Design beautifully - but design simply. Decide: iOS or Android Although there are cross-platform apps, as well as the possibility of building both Android and iOS right out of the gate, many business owners opt to build on one platform first. Given the fragmented nature of mobile app usership, there are many things to consider in choosing which one is best for your desired outcome. Consider your audience and do the research on if they are more likely to use iOS or Android. These will help you choose the right platform to get started with. Developer: Who will do the building? Once you’ve figured out what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and where it will live, it’s then time to figure out the right team to build it. App developers come in all kinds of varieties, from expensive to cheap, proficient in one platform or another, local or offshore, large firms or small boutiques. After you’ve done your homework and know what you’re looking for, those conversations with potential developers will go much more smoothly, and raise the possibility of coming out with what you’re looking for. Homework isn’t all bad, especially when it’s for something that will improve business. If you need help figuring out how to get started, we can help.

Think back to the last time you were in a place teeming with millennials: it was probably difficult to find people who weren’t tethered to their smartphone. For better or worse, a stereotype of the millennial generation is that they’re constantly connected. That connection happens through apps — ones that have integrated so deeply into their lives that they can’t imagine living without them. If you’re thinking of building your own app, it’s important first to know which ones are reining in the popularity points. Without further ado, here are some of the apps that have the highest concentration of millennial users, according to Statista’s 2016 report on the matter. Social Media While currently in a tumultuous period, Vine remains an incredibly popular app, with millennials making up 78% of its 200 million monthly users. The app is a micro-entertainment platform where anyone can share six-second looping videos. As of January 2017, Vine has rebranded to become Vine Camera, where users publish their short videos directly to mother company Twitter, rather than into a Vine community. Several video gaming apps also serve as hybrid social networks. Apps such as the PlayStation Official App and Twitch have social sharing and messaging functionality integrated into the app, allowing gamers to chat and live stream the video game they’re currently playing. Apps that target a specific niche market — in this case, millennial males who love gaming — have huge potential to be successful. Messaging Yik Yak is a social messaging app that allows users to scan their geographic area and anonymously chat with people in their vicinity. An online community center, Yik Yak users share news, photos, and questions with people around them in the form of “yaks.” They also have a say on the popularity of those yaks, casting an up or down vote for individual posts. Unlike Twitter, where anyone can chat in a specific area if they use a geographic hashtag (i.e. #NewYork), Yik Yak users must be located within a five-mile radius of where they’re chatting, guaranteeing that the commenters are genuinely in the area. Yik Yak has the highest concentration of millennial users for 2016 — 98% of its audience is within this demographic group. The popular GroupMe is a group messaging app that works across every platform — perfect for the millennial who is equipped with five devices. Three-quarters of GroupMe’s users are millennials, and the app makes it simple to coordinate dinners with friends or this year’s trip to Coachella. [gravityform id="9" title="true" description="true" ajax="true"] Music SoundCloud is an app used by millennials to publish, listen to, and discover new music. Initially seen as competition for MySpace, SoundCloud’s advantage is that it allows users to reshare music and sounds via a specific link, making the app more social in nature. This shareability and its usability on the go is a reason why 74% of SoundCloud’s users are millennials. YouTube Music is another app with a high concentration of millennial users. It’s a standalone app that allows users to listen to the same number of tracks they’d be able to hear on competitor platforms. The app also creates a daily playlist for users and integrates other interesting features such as karaoke tracks and the ability to view live concerts. Finance When it comes to personal finance, Mint is the leading app among millennials. This could be because of its easy-to-navigate interface and its functionality: users can view all their financial accounts in one place, and the app automatically categorizes spending into categories such as groceries and utilities. Millennials recognize that budgeting is important, but are less likely to create a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. Mint puts budgeting and financial management in the palm of their hand. Venmo is excellent at simplifying the daily finances of a millennial. The app is a digital way to keep track of what is lent and owed money-wise amongst friends and family. Whether it’s buying festival tickets for a friend or splitting the cost of dinner, Venmo can be used to track those transactions. Once that information is entered into the app, Venmo users can securely send and receive money using the app, saving friendships from a potential slog of IOU lists and reminders. Millennials clearly find the app useful — 94% of its users fall into this age category. Reason for Popularity Amongst Millennials Each of the apps above tap into a different part of a millennial’s daily routine. What they all have in common is a simple interface and the ability to enhance a user’s social behavior. When creating or improving an app, consider how your app will integrate into a twentysomething’s daily routine. If you can’t picture them pulling out their phones and intentionally opening up your app or talking about it with a friend at least once a day, it’s probably not going to be a hit. If your app is shareable, provides deep value, has a chic look, and is easy to understand, it will have a greater chance of success among this population.

As a business leader looking to keep up with the competition, you might decide the easiest way to do so is to have your own app. Many of the major companies have one, and it can be a huge driver for e-commerce and even bigger profits. But just as a well-designed app can give your business a boost, a poorly designed app can crash and burn. The good news is, a lot of app development problems can be fixed in the early stages if the proper time is taken to prototype. A prototype is not an actual app, it’s an interactive set of mockups created using specific prototyping software. The goal is to simulate the end experience, similar to how an architect will create a building model before diving into construction. But why take the time to create a prototype if it’s not really an app? There are a few reasons, which may not be obvious. It Brings Everyone Together It’s no secret that there are a ton of teams that work together on an app — everyone from programmers to designers to testers to directors. With so many hands on the app, it’s perilously easy for things to go off the rails because one team didn’t get the feedback from another team, or one stakeholder wanted something different than another. Prototyping can help mitigate this strain and make sure everyone stays on the same page as far as expectations and concerns go. You Find What Works and What Doesn’t The prototype is essentially the first draft of the eventual finished product, which is what makes it so good at identifying what’s working and not working with the app. Prototyping can let stakeholders see what ideas look like when they’re translated into real-life design. “One of the beautiful things about prototyping is that it allows you to work through this before you make a promise to a client or invest in the creation of the final product,” says Sheena Lyonnais at Adobe. If you’re a company commissioning an app, then you’re going to want to use prototyping to see if it looks as good on paper as it does in ideation. It Accounts for All Viewing Mediums Do you want your app to look good on all smartphones, tablets, or both? An article at Design Instruct reminds us that given how complex different viewing mediums have become, it can be difficult to design an app to fit the display specs for all devices. Prototyping allows app developers to create wireframes that let them see just how an app will react in multiple viewing environments, which is key if you’re looking to make your app available across all platforms. It Saves Time and Money Prototyping gives devs the ability to create a basic, clickable rendition of how the app could look and function — a lifesaver if the dev team is short on resources.  “Prototypes are no longer optional,” offers Peter Holmes, Creative Director at Barefoot Solutions. “Starting development without one would be like starting a construction team without a blueprint.”  Creating a usable prototype saves both time and money — plus it lets you refine the app as you go. Prototyping Is Proactive It’s tempting to want to rush right out there and get your company’s app into the marketplace. But for the sake of having a successful app with a long lifespan, allow developers enough time to prototype what they want it to look like and how it should operate. It doesn’t need to be a lengthy stage, or cost a lot of money, but it’s a vital step to get everyone on the same page and sort out any technical or creative difficulties early.