The importance of a fully functional and responsive website or mobile app cannot be overemphasized especially in this day and age where the majority of your customers can be found on the internet. Thanks to the advancement of technology, a large percentage of the world population have benefited from a quality, affordable and effective means of acquiring information from the web through internet-enabled, portable devices. This has enabled the sharing of information through the internet much quicker and effectively due to the already existing audience.
With that, the importance of effective web & mobile development services for any business that seeks to have an upper hand over its competitors cannot be underrated.
Steps to Achieving Effective Mobile App Development
The influx of mobile app developers in the market has its upsides and downsides. One major advantage is the availability and ease of finding a mobile app developer in your location. Nonetheless, the major disadvantage is that a good number of these app developers and web development companies claim to do what they cannot achieve.
The same issue has also been experienced in mobile web development where few service providers who claim to offer top-notch services can actually measure up to their promises. The problem with these companies is the fact that they are more focused on the end as opposed to the means of achieving their objective. The consequence of this is ineffective mobile app development.
On the flip side, The APP Solutions (TAS) technologies have a different approach to how it relates to its clients. With a customer-centric approach, we are able to analyze customer needs before giving appropriate solutions to meet the said customer demands.
Critical Steps Taken by the APP Solutions’ Web & Mobile Development Gurus
TAS takes into account customer needs before embarking on its problem-solving mission. This process entails analyzing customer needs in-depth first, to establish how these demands can be executed in a proper manner. Thereafter, we analyze the company’s competition to determine what extra capabilities can be added to outdo their business rivals. When all is said and done, mobile app development gurus and web developers kick in to offer their foreseen solutions.
Everything is pre-planned and achieved within the stipulated time-frame to suit the customer’s needs.
Requisites of an Effective Mobile & Web Development Process
TAS approach to offering quality services is subdivided into different categories namely: proper business analysis, web, and mobile development, time-bound execution and launch of projects, effective and meaningful support services, systematic development process, pegged on well thought of UI/UX and architecture of the mobile app and website.
Business analysis is important as it helps to iron out issues surrounding market competition and brings out never-seen-before ideas that may be essential for your business. TAS puts a lot of emphasis on business analysis in mobile web app development and desktop web development to identify blocks and holes in the market. That way, they can help your business capitalize on these fissures to attain success.
We place an equally important focus on UI and UX. User experience is crucial to the success of any app or website as it increases conversion rates, bolsters customer loyalty, and minimizes the company’s expenditure. Simply put, your customers will be willing to settle for your services depending on the experience they get from the platforms you have set out for them. This relation between UI and UX is what TAS strives to achieve through market research.
Similarly, TAS mobile app developers and website designers maintain a high level of focus on architecture as it plays a huge role in the appeal factor of their work. Website and app look and feel is an important part of user experience. This therefore boosts and bolsters your chances of attracting customers due to the usability of the platform. Moreover, architecture also has an influence on your page rank and the reliability of the information.
The development stage is by far one of the most important parts of coming up with a functional app or website. Our mobile app developer and web designer take a pre-planned approach to ensure the product comes out as envisioned by the customer. This also goes hand in hand with the launch of the product since it has to coincide with the set dates for the launch of the product. The release date of the product is vital since it determines whether the company will be able to achieve its objectives based on the dynamics of its market.
Lastly, The App Solutions customer support framework acts as the heart of the company, which keeps its customers going even after the completion of the project. TAS support services are essential in ensuring your app and website is running effectively without hitches. In turn, this ensures your business does not experience any downtime as a result of either your website or app being down.
Studies show that companies that develop effective platforms for their customers do not have to worry about their customers being loyal to the brand. TAS helps your business achieve this by offering groundbreaking web and marketing solutions for your company.
I remember the times when arranging your own trip was a true challenge only for the brave. For the rest, there were travel agencies.
With the escalation of technology, the world has become smaller and reachable. Together with that, the fact of the journey itself is no longer such a big deal. Any place you want to visit, any hotel to stay, any food to taste, is just in the distance of a few taps on your smartphone. Now there is a particular application for all types of trips and tourists’ needs.
If you want to make a travel app, you are on the right road to success. Despite the high competition, travel app development is a perspective niche for investments.
Why? Online travel bookings peaked at $755 billion in 2019, before declining 46% to $403 billion in 2020. In 2021, travel bookings increased to $613 billion, still below 2019 figures – the rapid recovery speaks to the interest of the audience in this service niche. And so, with the departure of COVID-19, further growth is to be expected.
Moreover, online sales will generate 73% of revenue in the travel & tourism sector by 2026. The last 5 years have been an important period for the growth of online travel sales via mobile as it increased from 36% to almost 50% of all digital travel sales. What other evidence do you need?
If you want to create a successful travel app, you need to choose its type, decide on the business model, and calculate the MVP cost.
Select the travel app type among booking, accommodation booking, transport apps, and travel guides apps.
Step 2. Conduct competitor research
Discover other travel apps in your niche, their advantages, and disadvantages. Besides, consider integrating ready-made travel app APIs.
Step 3. Select a travel app MVP features
Include the following features for your travel app MVP: user account, social sharing, booking, in-app payment, and location-based search & filters.
Step 4. Find the travel app developers
Hire the best travel app development company that proves its expertise with previous projects.
Step 5. Enter the discovery phase
Define the concept of your travel app depending on the current trends, determine the project scope and milestones, and find the best technical solutions.
Step 6. Develop the travel app
Start the app development process with a development team that will create the design and builds the code for your project.
To develop a travel app you need to decide what kind of app you are going to create. Below we share the most popular types of travel mobile apps with examples and some technical aspects.
Flight booking apps
Using such apps, travelers compare flight costs, book, and pay for tickets.
Now, let us look at Hopper, a flight booking application, and its main features.
Aside from developing a travel app API from scratch, you can integrate existing APIs. They display real-time data on flights and allow users to book tickets. You can use the following
Accommodation booking apps allow travelers to view, book, and pay for rooms. App users can also leave a review of the place they have visited and rate it. At the same time, the most innovative renting apps include a check-in feature and electronic keys.
Marriott’s hotel booking app illustrates such apps perfectly.
With transport mobile applications, travelers receive access to local transport information and routes. Often, such applications have a geolocation feature to define user location and suggest the nearest transport options. Big news: you can add even more value to your travel app by integrating ridesharing taxi services.
Want to see how the transport app works? Check Citymapper. This application provides users access routes with official data from local transport companies.
With a mobile travel app guide, travelers receive access to local attractions, insider tips, events, and sights. After visiting a particular place, travelers can share their experiences with other app users by writing reviews and recommendations. You can give users even more value by integrating currency converters, offline maps, and text-to-speech features.
So let’s take a closer look at Triposo, an offline travel app guide.
After analyzing content from various websites, the app provides users with personal recommendations about sights, places to sleep and eat, and nightlife.
Triposo is also powered with phrasebooks with a text-to-speech feature and currency converter.
Let’s dig a little deeper into technological solutions.
Travel guide apps are powered with smart algorithms. They gather data from numerous websites, parse it, and show the description for each location.
To create a travel guide application, you can collect information from the following websites:
Key points to consider when developing a travel app
Before you hire travel app developers, there are some key points to consider. We at The App Solutions often face the doubts of our clients. The most important are why to develop a trip mobile app if customers can simply get all the information from the mobile version of the website.
Criteo Analytics report that travel apps for Android or iOS bring 130% more conversion in comparison to a mobile browser. So, the result is worth the effort:
Users and their needs
Your passion for creating the best app for the travel industry, first of all, should consider the needs of your clients. Who are these people? What is their income? Do they prefer standard tourist spots or like to explore unknown places? Here you need to find out how your ideas will interest your customers. The better you know, understand and anticipate your audience, the more valuable a proposition you can present to them.
Competitor research
As you can see, the market is quite competitive’. But the good news is that key players provide their resources and databases, thereby, freeing you from a huge pool of work. For instance, Trip Advisor API gives access to a massive database of UGC (user-generated content) including photos and reviews.
Choose a development team
Finding trip app developers for hire is a crucial stage of the travel app creating process. Your team needs to be, not only professional but also share your beliefs and passions.
Your delivery team should help you to define the concept depending on market trends, determine the project milestones, and contribute to finding the best performing solutions.
According to Statista, over 90% of the apps placed in Google Play are free. The point is that most applications uploaded to the app marketplaces are supposed to be free. But when mobile application became popular, its owners applied different monetization models to gain profit.
Below you will find four monetization models you can apply to a proposed travel app.
In-app advertising. In this business model, the advertiser pays the app owner for running adds across the app and access to the app user base.
Commission. The app owner receives a commission from every booking or payment made in the app.
Premium version. With this monetization model, you initially provide users with free basic travel app features. Still, to receive access to advanced app functionality, users should buy the Pro version.
In-app purchases. In-app purchases allow users to purchase additional travel services, while the app owner receives the transition fee from every sale.
Still, to make these business models work, your app should be popular among users.
And the best way to develop a travel app that meets user expectations is to start with MVP.
Now, let’s dig a little deeper and find out what MVP is and its benefits.
MVP, or minimum viable product, is an app with a minimum set of features that may solve a definite problem for users.
Below we share the common practice of using MVP for project viability testing.
For initial testing, you need to create the app with basic functions
Then, you test an app MVP on the market
And find out whether it has the potential to succeed.
In our experience, MVP is the most reliable tool to understand your audience’s needs and expectations with a minimum budget and in a short time.
But why should you develop MVP for your mobile travel app?
Reasons to develop a travel app MVP
As we have said, MVP helps a travel app development company to gather feedback from the app user. Their interest in the product gives the green light for the full product version development.
MVP also has the following advantages:
Minimize development costs. Consider that every additional app function and design costs money. By using the app MVP for initial testing, you invest minimum resources, thus save the budget.
Test your business project. Any mobile application is a business project aimed at attracting customers and bringing in a profit. If you think your idea has a promising future, create the app MVP, and find out.
Get feedback. Consider that your travel app should solve a particular user issue. This way, user feedback is essential for app development. Feedback includes insights into the most desired and unwanted app features, as well as solving user issues.
Save your time. Rather than spending time and budget on developing an app that might fail, with MVP, you create a highly demanded and engaging app in the short term.
Attract investors. To attract investment, you need something more than a business idea. By developing MVP for a travel startup, your business idea becomes more promising for investors and increases the chances of being noticed.
Now that you understand MVP goals and benefits, let’s come to the final point.
With travel mobile applications, travelers can plan and book their trips in a more convenient way, therefore, the demand for traveling apps is growing.
Still, it is not necessary to spend a fortune on app development. We recommend to launch the travel app project as MVP and improve it using a continuous development approach.
With almost every aspect of our lives turning to the small screen to set up inventive presence, success in the field is taking on numerous new implications, understandings, and interpretations.
But, how is it possible that mobile app developers are making record profits while, at the same time, the number of free apps on the market continues to grow? The answer’s simple. Most app developers don’t make very much money.
But when we are talking about startup beginners, they are considering themselves as extremely ambitious personalities on their first steps in this field. My tip is to layout your startup on the business model canvas first.
This is what business people naturally do, and a unique idea will take more time to be developed into something tangible, something that will have definite value for future users.
So, what does success look like in the mobile space? Sadly, there’s no distinct answer. Above all else, it depends on who’s inquiring. In case, you’re a startup, displaying a new application or a worldwide brand hoping to build up an overwhelming mobile presence. Your goals will be distinctive, and as a direct result, so will your meaning of success.
Though years, prior speculators looked for after applications with a substantial client volume and neglected those with a moderately little after, today’s existence is an alternate story. Industry insiders know the force of an in number client base, paying little respect to its volume – a dynamic group with intriguing practices and examples demonstrates that the item is promising. Engagement is critical, not the amount.
It’s all about realizing what your product requires. It is a picture of the product, and how the startup will function. You can figure out your ways of mobile application monetization, the value of the product, the target audience, and the value of the product, to exude it during marketing campaigns.
Or there is another view, if your product is a transportation application, it doesn’t help when clients download your application but don’t book rides. A quality client for you would mean one that connects into their credit card information and orders a cab. That’s what success looks like for you.
The main truth is that for apps, tons of installations may not be as successful as the numbers lead people to persuade. A strong base of users who are dynamic, contribute to the community, and make in-app purchases, ought to be your main purpose, and harnessing more of those users is your new understanding of mobile prosperity.
But then again, if you’re a traditional, non-digital brand, your definition of success and achieving goals may differ. It shouldn’t be a challenge for you to make a name in the marketing field when you have already a consumer base.
For brands, succeeding in the mobile sphere means applying an improved experience:
by using everything that mobile devices have to offer.
by providing customers an alternative platform to cooperate with the brand in a way that will hold them coming back for more and more.
In a recent discussion with a partner, she mentioned that she uses an app for an American food chain that doesn’t have an affiliate in her country. She explained, that this source recommends not only food products, but also offers free music and other entertaining content.
It is a perfect example of a label that succeeded in creating a strong mobile experience that provides consumers demand for value-added tax.
Whether you’re a mobile startup or a well-established brand, accurately defining your goals is a significant step on your way to mobile success. Start testing them with upcoming customers. You have a team. But have no strategy? That is a serious question.
Just having a team without a clear understanding of its strengths and weaknesses doesn’t mean much. Don’t rush into creating a mobile strategy without first taking the time to understand clearly where you should go.
