Before the Covid-19 outbreak, mobile applications had already made significant market breakthroughs, with consumers spending 87% on mobile phones. Mobile app use will dramatically increase in the coming years, as it did during the pandemic. By the end of 2021, the Google Play Store will have 196 billion apps downloaded, while the Apple Store will have 42 billion.
Competing mobile apps will produce $693 billion in sales globally over the same period. Companies are looking for ways to increase remote work cooperation, expedite contact tracing work, and improve consumer e-commerce connections due to the recent coronavirus outbreak, which has accelerated app development.
As a result, businesses seek to achieve mobile excellence to develop approaches that address immediate challenges while also laying the groundwork for long-term success.
But, with the Covid-19 situation still raging and no clear resolution in sight, how can businesses ensure that the apps they build remain reliable and relevant even as the 'new normal' emerges? Here are 17 ways to achieve mobile excellence in 2022:
Design for the device
According to Google, 53% of customers will abandon a mobile site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. You can throw in a few tricks to prevent the majority of those visitors from leaving your site due to the speed. For the design of your device to be fast and agile, you need a language that supports that kind of speed and performance. Here’s where JavaScript comes into the picture. JavaScript programming is known for its speed and agility. For enhancing the loading speed of your device, using a JS Framework will work wonders.
Above-the-fold components are served while elements farther down the page are loaded in the background. It is known as lazy loading, and it's a systematic method for hiding the actual loading time. However, when it comes to using slow loading to hide latency, be cautious. Google warns that if you use lazy loading on your mobile site incorrectly, it may prohibit Google from scanning your content.
Techniques such as srcset allow it to display larger images on desktops while serving smaller images on mobile devices. Because you're offering a smaller total page, you can utilize this to your advantage and reduce the loading time on mobile devices.
However, test this well before using it, as it's easy to make a mistake. Instead of providing a mix of data and markup HTML to a client, the design can be accomplished with JavaScript development by sending JSON (or sometimes XML) data to the client.
Touchless interfaces
77% of customers demand non-touch interactions for customer experiences, according to Capgemini research. Even once the present pandemic has passed, more than 62% expect the same touchless experience.
Touchless interface development is becoming increasingly relevant and vital, as users seek applications that eliminate the need for face-to-face interaction. Touchless experiences employing technologies like Bluetooth Low Energy, NFC, biometrics, and QR codes have been essential in the push to replace public touchscreens with touchless experiences.
The current focus is mostly on emotion identification, from the face to hand motions, but it may also encompass full body gestures in the future. The demand for gesture recognition is currently worth $9.8 billion and is predicted to grow to $32.3 billion by 2025.
ASR will play a key role in providing valuable consumer insights by capturing relevant interactions. Low-latency ASR for remote work is fuelling the market, which will reach $21.5 billion by 2024, especially for non-native users or those with speech or hearing difficulties.
The JavaScript framework, Sencha Touch, is the best suitable option for building powerful touchless interfaces. It facilitates high-level responsiveness, sports a fast-loading time, and is compatible with all the latest versions of mobile software.
Reduce search efforts
Assist your users in rapidly locating what they require to meet their demands and increase conversion rates. You can use barcode scanning and keyword search in your app, for example.
Providing consumers with a search tool and criteria to help them find what they're looking for will boost conversion rates dramatically. Because this strategy aims to assist consumers in finding what they're looking for, the search integration mustn't filter out all results.
Moreover, with voice recognition and controlled personal assistant software like Siri and Google, search efforts have been reduced tremendously. It has enhanced the consumer experience where the effort put in is minimal, but the result of the search is optimal.
JavaScript helps in achieving interactive UIs and is built for 21st-century users. Being highly adaptive, the JS Framework is the best option to reduce search efforts.
Optimized, mobile-friendly website for speed
The browser fetches the complete page content whenever you visit a new web page, whether a blog post or a static site and then offers it a native surfing experience. Most of the time, you are required to download the entire website before viewing anything beyond the fold.
On the other hand, lazy loading instructs the browser to load (render) content that is only visible within the user's viewport. As a result, if a page contains size-sensitive photographs or videos, those files will only appear when your browser screen reaches that section of the site.
JavaScript is a simple and effective way to load your graphics fast. The script is also turned on on the project's homepage, so you can see it in action. It will help you increase the overall performance and speed, resulting in an optimized, mobile-friendly website.
Super apps
Platform-based business models are gaining traction in digital economies. Platforms now account for seven out of 10 of the world's most valuable enterprises. This trend has intensified as firms across industries have begun to transition away from single-purpose applications and multipurpose apps.
It is culminating in the emergence of a new breed of product known as the Super App. Adopting a JavaScript model will help you create and deliver a Super App efficiently.
By establishing a Super App, you attract a large audience to your platform who will use it to do all of their purchasing. This user data can assist you in gaining a better understanding of the user's shopping habits, among other things. This volume of data can assist you in anticipating consumer wants and providing them with the best possible service.
Adopting offline-first experience
Most businesses don't think about creating an offline experience for app development because smartphones allow users to access the internet from any location, anytime. Until the app communicates with the server, allowing the app to work offline may appear unnecessary.
On the other hand, mobile networks aren't always dependable because coverage fluctuates from one location to the next. As a result, mobile apps users should prepare to deal with network failure and latency. Offline architecture can help in this situation. For example, Spotify offers an offline music experience if users download music on the app. This is possible only because of an offline-first experience approach.
Businesses are increasingly adopting an offline-first strategy, in which an app performs without a network connection, allowing users to sync their data, receive updates, and more. The offline design also has other benefits, such as lowering roaming expenses while traveling, reducing data usage on maps, conserving battery life, and allowing for quick loading.
Intuitive and easy navigation
Navigation is more than just about design aesthetics; it's about structuring your app in a way that encourages convenience and efficiency. Businesses should use standard icons, positioning, and design to ensure that navigation matches user expectations.
The Hick-Hyman Law is another essential consideration in navigation design. This law pushes us to limit the number of choices on the menu. The more the options available, the slower will be users' interactions with them, especially when trying out a new app.
Media content is subject to the same law. Consider offering little pieces for consumers to investigate, if they desire, rather than overloading them with an extensive array of media selections.
The critical, fundamental feature of navigation is clean interaction, which relates to how consumers engage physically with navigation in various circumstances. It is one area where putting yourself in a consumer’s shoes will help you design better.
Make an effort to comprehend your users' actions. JavaScript is the best solution to achieving intuitive and easy navigation in creating apps. Businesses should leverage the JS Framework to achieve competitive mobile excellence and constantly meet user expectations.
On-demand apps
On-demand apps act as a "third party" that allows users to hire a service or a product. Uber, where the service in question is a ride, is one of the most prominent examples. On-demand apps provide services in various industries, including food, logistics, groceries, lodging, and more, when and where consumers need them.
In 2020, there were a plethora of on-demand apps, but in 2022 and beyond, there will likely be even more. People will think of more ways to make their lives easier as new technologies emerge, and on-demand apps will be able to cover those gaps.
As on-demand apps permeate every aspect of life, from the home to your profession, to vacation, and much more, luxuries will be needed. Edge computing and 5G have the potential to enable previously unthinkable on-demand services.
React Native is an excellent solution for building on-demand apps. Businesses get an edge in logic, APIs, and time for designing sophisticated mobile apps because React Native apps share 80% of the code for Android and iOS platforms.
Accelerated mobile pages (AMPs)
AMPs are a Google and Twitter open-source project that attempts to make pages load faster. As the name implies, accelerated mobile pages reduce the time it takes for a web page to load by removing redundant code. As a result, pages load a lot faster and consume far fewer data.
According to Google, AMP pages take less than a second to load and consume ten times fewer data than non-AMP pages. It is a product of Google's mobile-first strategy, which prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in search results. businesses are using JavaScript in their development, which increases the speed and eliminates lazy loading.
Although AMPs will never wholly replace applications, they will render low-quality apps useless. Because of the recent movement in progressive online and streaming apps, some apps will prefer to employ AMP protocols rather than filling up the App Store or Google Play Store. As a consequence, you'll see more relevant, mobile-friendly apps as well as PWAs that load quickly.
IoT and blockchain
If there is a secure method for storing data, a record of transactions or papers, it's blockchain. However, in a global pandemic, one of the most critical functions of blockchain is to track COVID-19 vaccines.
Banking is the industry with the most blockchain spending in 2020, accounting for 29.9% of the worldwide blockchain market value. Along with blockchain, another technology is making its mark in the mobile app development field. The Internet of things (IoT) is spreading at a fast pace. Integrating IoT data with mobile apps provides users with on-the-go access to real-time data about people and equipment, increasing process efficiency.
IoT applications have already begun to impact businesses. Leading brands have invested in the technological revolution to give users a seamless linked environment. According to Statista, from 2015 to 2025, the global installed base of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices is set to increase.
Businesses have discovered a sorted way to design interactive UI with fewer lines of code, thanks to the arrival of JavaScript frameworks for building mobile apps. This, in collaboration with IoT and blockchain, is all set to disrupt the user experience for mobile users and businesses in the years to come.
Leveraging cross-platform development technologies
In recent years, cross-platform development methods have advanced significantly, and they are now practical for most apps. While there are few cases where an app needs to get very near to specific hardware, device-specific code is unnecessary for most apps.
Instead, frameworks like React Native and Flutter enable you to design solutions that work across a wide range of iOS and Android devices. Programming languages like JavaScript allow programmers to think outside the box and develop fresh ideas. It helps in creating cross-platform development technologies.
The advantages of using JavaScript are apparent. You can support two platforms with one code base using cross-platform development methods, eliminating the requirement for additional technical personnel and increasing the likelihood of acceptance. It means you can accomplish more with less, lowering your total cost of ownership and staying lean so that you can get to market quickly.
Pushing business logic to the backend
The visible part of an iceberg is an engaging mobile app running on the user's device. The backend of this is a mobile app, which handles all user interactions. The mobile backend server provides user administration, push notification, app management, app insights, secure backend integration, and other essential features of any mobile app.
Developing these features for each mobile app while constructing the front-end user experience is the most critical mobile app uptake and maybe a time-demanding component.
These backend capabilities are provided by mobile backend service providers and can be utilized by front-end applications via APIs and SDKs. Businesses prefer to build code to create the most incredible user experience possible, leaving backend skills to cloud providers.
These services are called "Mobile Backend as a Service" (MBaaS) or "Backend as a Service" (BaaS). This backend server also interacts with a microservices-based business logic layer and consumes high-value services like cognitive and analytics REST APIs.
The server is entirely detached from the front-end rendering process with the JS development framework. It helps push business logic to the backend and achieve an enhanced mobile experience.
AI and machine learning (ML)
Machines, unlike humans, can examine vast amounts of data. Machines look at data, learn from previous actions, and forecast each user's best effectual output or solution. Look around; you'll notice that you're already utilizing machine learning.
Machine learning is likely to disrupt mobile app stores with valuable capabilities, thanks to its excellent pattern recognition potential.
AI and machine learning offer enhancements in a mobile experience, like recommendations, personalization, user analysis, fraud detection and security, fast and intelligent search, and healthcare and fitness management. Working with a JavaScript model gives you a change in programming style and freedom required for working with AI- and ML-based models.
Augmented reality (AR)
Augmented reality technology requires no more than a smartphone. It allows users to scan photographs, objects, and their environment with their phones to display hidden digital material.
Since 2020, when covid-19 began influencing different industries, including manufacturing, social distancing technologies have worked. For example, 60% use augmented reality and virtual reality as virtual auxiliary labor in virtual production lines. As a result, many manufacturers claimed to have decreased operational expenses while also increasing productivity.
Businesses can build an immersive, inventive, contextualized, practical, and relevant experience for the user when working with AR. Continue reading to learn more about the advantages and practical applications of augmented reality in user experience.
AR has improved mobile experience by displaying multiple sources of information, facilitating engrossed engagement, easing out communication, immersive entertainment options, and an enhanced shopping experience. As JavaScript is easy to learn and implement, integrating JavaScript framework with AR interface provides a superior digital experience.
Low-code app development
Organizations can employ low-code app development frameworks to speed up app development timeframes, similar to cross-platform app development frameworks. This appeals on several levels, as businesses may not always have the resources or time to develop an app. An organization can use a low-code (or no-code) platform to design and develop an app without coding skills.
A low code app eliminated the challenges of complex app development. The operations are simple, involving drag-and-drop actions and an intuitive user interface. However, it is not likely to replace traditional app coding. Still, they will become a standard option for businesses to create their initial apps without paying or outsourcing an app developer.
According to TechRepublic, low-code will gain traction in 2022. Forrester's software development projections back this notion for 2022, suggesting that as the working environment changes due to the pandemic, more and more development shops will use low-code platforms. Low code platforms allow true, real-time agility, allowing businesses to remain secure and compliant while maintaining consistent and uninterrupted customer experiences.
Predictive analysis modeling
Predictive analytics can act as a magical crystal ball for app businesses, allowing them to determine which users will stick around and eventually leave. And, because no app developer or marketer wants a single user to go, they will aggressively re-engage and keep those users.
Predictive analytics is a comparatively new concept in software development, yet it is now a buzzword. However, it is helping in boosting online sales, driving engagement, and eliminating guesswork. Predictive analysis needs power, and a JavaScript Framework supports that. It is why one should consider coding through JavaScript for excellent results.
Beacon technology
When beacons were first introduced, they connected with retail environments. Other types of businesses, such as events, dating apps, museums, and banks have adopted beacons and extended their capability for real-world context over time.
SXSW was one of the first event-related organizations to introduce beacons. SXSW worked with Eventbase in 2014 to create an official event app that included iBeacon to give attendees a more seamless festival experience. Beacon technology requires multitasking, and JavaScript supports this feature like no other language. This makes JavaScript the first choice in app development.
Conclusion
The competition is fierce. Businesses need a trusted technology partner with a futuristic approach and problem-solving capabilities to meet evolving consumer demands. Using advanced technologies to enhance user experience will take your business a notch higher than that of your competitors. Businesses must set their engineering teams up for success in today's fast-paced technological world by giving them the freedom to focus on building outstanding user experiences rather than reinventing tools and services that already exist.
If you are looking to achieve mobile excellence in 2022, reach out to our experts at business@qed42.com.