The majority of mobile app developers have probably worked in IT and web development prior to the mobile boom, and if so they’ll know that mobile app development is a totally different ball game.

When it come to commissioning an app, it’s easy to get carried away in the capability of mobile and draw up a 30 page document about what you want the app to be able to do. Whilst the sheer amount of options available on a mobile app is exciting, simplicity is the key to mobile app success.

Overly complicated mobile apps will fall down on a number of different levels…

Keep it simple

Usability

With such a small screen and keypad (even on a tablet), even the best-designed complicated app can look busy and confusing. Users should be able to almost instinctively understand what to do and where to go to achieve what they want. Giving users lots of options and buttons will cause frustration and skipping back and forth in an app can be difficult. With such a saturated app market, many users won’t give a second thought to deleting yours an opting for a competitor.

A rule that’s worth keeping in mind is can you explain your app in less than five screen shots? This will not only help you to understand it’s usability level, but also aid you when it comes to your app store listing.

Bugs

Quite simply, the more data and content you have on your app, the more chance here is of issues and bugs being missed in testing or something going wrong. Not only is this costly from a back-end perspective, but it can damage your app ratings too.

Battery drain

Complex apps are likely to be more draining on users batteries, due to the data and functionality needed. Keeping your app simple and applying a few tricks to ensure your app doesn’t drain too much battery will help this.

Whilst battery usage will always be a factor of mobile apps, excessive use will irritate users and, once again, damage your app ratings.

Size

A complicated app will undoubtedly be big in size. Despite what we once may have thought was huge amounts of space available on smartphones and tablets, many users will have little left to use.

Whilst it may go against instinct, keeping the end user in mind at all times and keeping your app as simple as possible will go a lot further than you think.

Image source: Flickr