The smartphone revolution has grown at a phenomenal pace for nearly half a decade. Now, mobile presence has become a necessity for any business. Companies understand that having a mobile app can make a huge difference to their business process and customer interaction. But with the diversity of business specific needs and design elements, new design and development trends are also continuing to evolve.
We have seen several app trends to emerge in the recent past including the DIY apps, brutalist design, AR and VR apps, smart home apps, more penetration of enterprise apps and much more. In 2017, app development app development trends are going to manifest with their full potential.
Here we introduce 7 awesome trends that are likely to dictate mobile app development in 2017.
1. Overwhelming demand of Enterprise Apps
Did not we experience unprecedented, the never-before growth of enterprise apps this year? Enterprise apps emerged as a necessity for industries vying to have a mobile presence. Well, if it can be considered as just the beginning, in the coming year we can only see this trend to grow and define the digital footprint of many companies. Most important of all, for brick and mortar stores to local retailers to small production facilities little known outside of their usual area of operation, all these businesses will find having business app necessary to boost growth, connect customers and remain efficient.
2. Game app for every age group and niche
Adult gaming in a span of a just a couple of years became a big trend. Well, silver-haired granddads and grandmas are no longer insignificant compared to the game playing habits of kids. With the elder population is increasingly favoring handheld devices for their pastime and leisurely activities, small gaming apps for old people are going to come in large numbers. The success of AR games like Pokemon Go can also push the development of robust cross-niche games targeted for people across the age groups. Gaming apps will get more integrated into learning environments allowing more interactive possibilities for young minds.
3. IoT and smart home apps
The connected reality of gadgets and networked interfaces referred as Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as the new frontier. From the burgeoning range of smart home apps to the cloud-based apps to wearable gadgets to office automation interfaces, all are now offering central control through mobile apps. There is not a single wearable you can name coming without a mobile app and in the same way, there is not a single smart home device you can refer without a control mechanism offered through a mobile app. As connected gadgets and interfaces will only grow, mobile apps will continue to accompany the IoT and smart home gadgets.
4. Localization will rule
The success of beacons is evident of the demands and scopes with sophisticated localization technologies. The location is not just crucial for retail, travel, logistics and few industries that need to track their customers, carriers, and goods on the way. While these industries will continue to remain biggest beneficiaries of the latest range of location sensors, other industries are increasingly speeding up in integrating location sensors and allowing vigilance through connected mobile apps. In healthcare, such sensors and connected apps can revolutionize patient monitoring. In field service, use of location sensors and the connected app can play a great role in enhancing productivity. From improving security measures through improved location sharing to monitoring fuel level and road security for public transport vehicles, latest location technology in mobile apps will continue to create value for end users.
5. DIY apps
DIY (do it yourself) apps are suddenly mushrooming across niches with simple coded features and straightforward design. Over the years, app marketplace is experiencing huge growth thanks to burgeoning enterprise demands, gaming apps and mobile apps penetrating every walk of life and mood. What about building an app quickly for the benefit of your business environment before even anybody could guess? Well, such creative spurt helped the growth of DIY apps. You need to maintain a sales tracker with on-field attendance for your sales staff but most of the so-called market-available apps of this sort either are too limited for your purpose or too robust.
So, with simple or no codes, with ready to use templates, drag and drop functionality and a lot of handy plugins you can build an app that perfectly satisfies your purpose. This trend already known as the citizen developer trend gave birth to some DIY development platforms as well. The PowerApps is such a platform offered by Microsoft for DIY developers.
6. The limelight on UX will contine
UX is continuing to get the biggest share of limelight just because it now defines the user engagement and business conversion. A great UX with optimum ease of use and simplicity will fetch more interaction, convert more business and retain more users. It has almost become a tried and tested principle that every UX designers obey. Don’t you think UX will have the same amount of focus in the time to come? Visual cues, storytelling effect, split screen, grid layout, experimental typeface, various types of scrolling, Microinteractions, conversational UX, all these design elements will only evolve to make UX easier, richer and better.
7. AR and VR will take over business app
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) offering mimicking effects of the real world interactions penetrated into mobile apps as a definitive force. The overwhelming success of AR-enabled games like Pokemon Go is a clear example of the potential of such reality defining technologies. But, still, both AR and VR are at their nascent state considering the kind of potential they have. In the coming years, they would penetrate into other apps and interfaces defining the lived experience in a new light. Both the technologies will open up immense vistas of possibilities like VR enabled retail apps offering live shopping experience right on your device screen and AR-enabled glasses offering stadium spectators 360-degree views of the ground with zooming effect.
About author:
Juned Ghanchi is marketing strategist and blogger with an 8 plus year career in marketing business. He is the director of brand marketing at IndianAppDevelopers.com, top mobile app development company.