
The iPhone marked a before and after in the development of applications. Although initially, the Apple smartphone did not have support for third-party apps, the year after its launch, the App Store (2008) was born, a repository where you can find mobile applications that cover the user’s needs that are not covered by your own. Phone operating system. They were not the first, but they were the ones that have had the most influence on the current trend.
Almost a decade later, thousands of applications can find in the App Store, Google Play, and even desktop operating systems have their application store: Mac App Store and Windows Store, respectively.
The popularity of smartphones and the possibility of installing any app, game like casino online real money we want mean that application development is experiencing a great moment. However, there is a lot of competition, and it is tough to position yourself in official stores.
The variety is the taste, but unfortunately, not all apps are equally good. Hence, I will go over the most common mobile app problems after this article I wrote about yesterday’s and today’s program usability disasters.
Problems, design errors, usability disasters… Indeed you have found them in more than one application you use or have installed on your mobile device.
Notifications
The misuse or abuse of mobile app notifications is enough for an entire article. It is an efficient tool for the user because it allows him to find out about things without constantly consulting the app: messages, notices, emails, last-minute offers…
They are also an excellent tool for the app’s author because they are a direct communication channel with the user to notify them of news or changes in their application or related service. But when you receive notifications without having requested them, that app that was useful to you often begins to dislike you.
The most apparent abuse of notifications is usually found in games, which invite you to play them again when you haven’t opened them for a day or two. Once, okay. Two, it’s okay. But by the third or fourth notification, instead of playing that game again, you are thinking of uninstalling it. You can mute game notification from the online game like casino enligne francais.
Some applications generate many notifications, such as social networks (Facebook, Instagram) or messaging apps (WhatsApp itself). Still, they usually notify us of messages from our contacts. If you do not want so much warning, deactivate that option.
But the problem comes when the notification is from the author of the app that suggests you continue using it. The most curious cases that I have seen lately are Pinterest or Shazam. In Shazam, the app reminds you that you found a particular song, so you can keep using it. Curious. And in the case of Pinterest, if you do not disable notifications, you will receive content suggestions daily. Every day.
Upgrades
Along with notifications, updates are another problem with current mobile applications.
On the one hand, their size. Is it essential for Facebook to update once a month, and the update takes more than 100 MB? A separate case is that of games, where they can be justified by including new levels or better graphics.
Apple and Google have been recommending updating applications over WiFi for some time now, and updating via 3G/4G means you’ll have to vent your mobile data plan in a single day if you haven’t updated in a long time.
The developers say that it is due to the number of current apps’ functionalities, far from the simplicity of years ago. Still, these options go unnoticed in many cases or are so hidden that we do not see any apparent improvements.
To this, we must add the parsimony with which some authors indicate the changes in the app stores, where the usual thing is to show “Error correction.” Luckily, some take more time, like Telegram, where an extensive list of well-explained changes accompanies each new version.
Applications versus web pages
A decade ago, it was almost an obligation to have your website if you had a company, business, or someone you knew. Today, the responsibility is to have your app.
As with a page or website, having your mobile application because you feel obligated to have it can be counterproductive since your app has to contribute something.
The number of mobile applications is such that limiting yourself to porting your web page in portable mode to an app is a mistake, especially if your carrier offers a service where interaction with the user is essential.
On the other hand, the app should provide an experience as good or better than the website itself. Why download an application that gives you problems or is not manageable when entering the official page? Will you achieve better results?
It is frustrating to compare an application and its corresponding page and see that the second page has more information or is updated than in the app. In the case of online stores, this is disastrous because you discourage using your application.