Since 1982, Inc. Magazine has set out to recognize the fastest-growing private companies in America with its Inc. 5000 list. The prestigious annual guide honors the extraordinary journeys of these organizations and is a testament to their hard work. We’re excited to announce that Dogtown Media has returned to the Inc. 5000 for the third year in a row!

The Inc. 5000 has a knack for recognizing companies which go on to achieve even more meteoric success — Microsoft, Apple, Dell, and Facebook are just a few of the list’s notable alumni. To stand among their ranks is an absolute honor. When Dogtown Media first started out, it was just two guys (Marc and Rob) trying to code their app dreams into reality. Today, our mobile technology studio has been fortunate enough to innovate in revolutionary fields like mHealth and Machine Learning with leading organizations like the United Nations, Google, and Citi.

Repeatedly making the Inc. 5000 is an endeavor that’s much easier said than done. “Of the tens of thousands of companies that have applied to the Inc. 5000 over the years, only a fraction have made the list more than once,” explained James Ledbetter, Inc.’s Editor in Chief. “A mere one in eight have made the list 3 times.”

We believe our sustained success can be chalked up to a few key ingredients. The passion and dedication of our app development and design team allow us to operate at the intersection of art and cutting-edge innovation. We love coming into work every day knowing that what we do is helping organizations solve their most difficult business challenges and make a positive difference in the world.

Last but not least, we also wanted to thank our clients and community for believing in us — none of this would be possible without you.

2019 is shaping up to be another hallmark year for us. We performed a live cryptocurrency hacking demonstration at SXSW. We talked with US political leaders about leveraging mobile technology to improve healthcare at AppCon 2019. We were recognized by Clutch for being a top mobile app developer in New York and California. And we joined the Cybersecurity Tech Accord to help make cyberspace a safer place.

This year so far has been busy, to say the least! Being featured on the Inc. 5000 again is certainly a crowning achievement for us. Once again, we’d like to thank our team, clients, and community for your support. We can’t wait to turn more app dreams into reality. Remember, if you can dream it, then we can build it!

Design is daunting and difficult; it takes a lot of effort to make something look and feel seamless. And in the current (and competitive) mobile app landscape, you can’t afford to skimp out on a beautiful user interface and experience. At this point, a seamless UI and UX is the minimum needed for mobile app success. Don’t disappoint users who download your app – design your mobile app right the first time.

If you’re not sure how to effectively and correctly design a mobile app, we’ve compiled a list of tips from the mobile app developers and designers in our Los Angeles-based office. Check it out!

#1: Plan ahead

Take the extra time and effort to wireframe, write rough copy, and revise everything in iterative steps. When you think you’re done, go back and minimize areas where users can get confused, frustrated, or cornered into a part of the app with no way of going back.

This is a great time to plan for what (if any) animations and gestures you want to incorporate into the design. Starting this conversation early can lead to many follow-up discussions with the rest of the team. It’s important to remember that any extra features, like animations, should remain intuitive for the user, both in their placement and their purpose.

Including a member from every team involved can also speed things up; if a developer is able to confirm whether something is possible on the back-end, the wireframe iterations will move along faster.

Visualizing the “big picture” ahead of time can be difficult and sound daunting, but it ultimately saves more time, budget, and effort for everyone. A project that may take six months without proper planning can take half the time when developers are given exact instructions to build upon. This also reduces internal back-and-forth and the risk of miscommunication between teams.

Lastly, does your client already have established brand guidelines and a style guide? This can take care of a lot of the initial legwork for you in helping define styles, color palettes, icon sets, fonts, and much more.

For all of this planning, your users will thank you by reporting fewer bugs and more compliments.

#2: Stick to a proven formula

But don’t be afraid to improve on that formula with each project you take on. Did your last mobile app require an extra side-step off of your current checklist? Add it in for future projects so you’re not doing any work twice!

Start with goals for your app, its users, and the business. List them out explicitly. You’ll want to return to these later when the project is getting more complex and involved. Use this list to keep yourself and the rest of the stakeholders and teams aligned.

When you think things are straying, remind everyone what was agreed upon at the beginning of the project. If needed, revise this list moving forward, but you will find that this list stays concrete for most projects. Goals do not usually change, but be prepared for small tweaks.

Remember, your proven formula will not be exactly the same as your competitors’ proven formulas. And that’s okay – you’re bringing a unique twist to this project, so don’t be afraid to let it show.

#3: Think of your users at every step

Does the client have their current user base and ideal user base mapped out? Who are you designing for and who might use the app in the future? User stories, complete with their problems, how your client helps solve their problem, how the user is acquired, and more, flesh out several users for you to envision throughout the design process.

The design process isn’t straight-forward, but neither are your users’ needs. If you can imagine yourself as the user of your new app, you’ll avoid most major pitfalls and areas of frustration from the get-go. Anything remaining (and minor) can be adjusted after launch. Doing this throughout the design and development process shows in the final product — often, these mobile apps are very obviously thoughtful and fun to interact with.

Move up your project’s timeline for all teams by a few weeks. Then ask everyone to spend the last few weeks interacting with the app, submitting bugs, adding more hand-holding instructions, and cleaning up anything left behind in the rush to launch. Go through the goals you wrote out at the beginning of the design process — are they being met? If not, how can you meet them?

Research shows that humans love positive reinforcement (come on, did we really need to do official research on that?). Did the user successfully check out their cart? Let them know with a small celebratory animation. Did the user clear their whole cart? Give them a way to undo that action, and let them know it’s okay. Meanwhile, maybe it’s a good time to check out how many users are clearing their carts and undoing the action; perhaps the “clear cart” button is in an area that’s too easily accessible?

Keep it up

As we mentioned many times, designing is an iterative process. By the end of the project, you might be completely bored of staring at the same wireframes. But the fire will come back when the wireframes are transformed into a real app. And that’s what keeps us going as mobile developers and designers.

Keep up your design eye by following your competitors, and leave some room in your design process for creativity and ideation. You’ll be surprised at what you’re capable of creating!

At Dogtown Media, we specialize in mobile app development, grounded with expert knowledge in the internet of things, fintech, medical tech and user interface design. We are determined to take on your next project and create an app that will help your business grow.

Clutch, a company that publishes unbiased reviews of B2B companies, has featured us once again in a recent press release of top California mobile app development companies.  We’re excited to share that we have been featured highly in their directory list of the top mobile app developers in California. This honor adds to our previous recognition as a top California Mobile App Development Company on DesignRush.

Clutch’s ranking algorithm takes many pieces of information into account when displaying companies on their directory pages; the most important part of Clutch’s ranking algorithm is client reviews. To date, we have received over 20 positive reviews. Our clients aren’t shy to share their successes with Clutch:

“Dogtown Media developed a solution for a project considered impossible to do in the tech world.”

“They were extremely responsive and supportive and I never felt like I was working on anything on my own.”

“Their work has made my life easier by automating features in the app that I was doing manually.”

In addition to our feature on Clutch, we were also mentioned on their sister-site, The Manifest.  We are pleased to announce that we were listed as one of the top mobile app development companies in the world on The Manifest.

Here at Dogtown Media, we are ready to improve your business by creating vital apps that will allow your business to access your consumers at all times.  Our team will work directly with your business to assess how to stand apart from competitors as well. We look forward to taking on your next project!

Each year, Clutch publishes a press release naming the top service providers within certain industries. We’re proud to announce that Clutch has named Dogtown Media among the world’s leading mobile app developers this year.

We’ve also been listed on Clutch’s sister website, The Manifest, a B2B news website that helps buyers through the process of selecting a vendor. Manifest also ranked Dogtown as one of the top app development companies in the world.

Founded in 2011, Clutch is a Washington, D.C.-based research firm that leverages unparalleled market insight to determine the leaders across numerous industries. With unbiased case studies, industry trend analysis, and business market comparisons, Clutch’s data-driven platform allows clients to find and connect with top-tier companies who can solve difficult challenges.

Clutch’s directories adhere to this meticulous, data-centric approach; it’s organized to list the most credible firms first. Credibility is gained by attaining client testimonials and market presence. Essentially, the directories allow potential buyers and clients in need of partnerships to visualize their different options with a holistic perspective of each company.

Check out some of the reviews we’ve received so far below!

Webdam is a digital asset management software company. We re-developed their platform from the ground up. Here’s what they had to say:

“Dogtown Media’s work was a massive improvement from the previous app version and received high praise from customers… They were extremely responsive and supportive, and I never felt like I was working on anything on my own.”

We also got the opportunity to help the University of Oklahoma improve its app with more student-centric functionalities and geolocation capabilities. Here’s their feedback:

Another client required an app for the University of Oklahoma. Here’s what they had to say:

“Dogtown Media’s expert team inspires confidence throughout the project by communicating clearly from the start. They bring creative ideas to the table at a reasonable value… Their work has made my life easier by automating features in the app that I was doing manually.”

The past few weeks have been surreal for Dogtown Media. Recently, we made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the United States for the second year in a row. Not long after, we were honored again by being included on Clutch’s list!

Both are incredible awards we couldn’t have imagined attaining when we first started developing in L.A. in 2011. We’d like to give a big thanks to Clutch, Inc., our team, clients, and community — none of this would be possible without you.

From humble beginnings as a mobile app developer in Los Angeles, we’re extremely proud of the work we’ve accomplished so far and we’re also very excited to see where the future takes us. We can’t wait to create more amazing mobile experiences for the world to enjoy.

If you have an idea but don’t know where to begin, reach out anytime — if you can dream it, we can build it!

Started in 1982, the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the United States has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success. The illustrious Inc. 5000 ranks privately held and independent American companies based on their percentage revenue growth over a three-year period. To many of the nation’s top entrepreneurs, inclusion on the list is a milestone, a sign that they have made it. It is the kind of recognition that can push a thriving business even further ahead.

This year, Dogtown Media is honored to return to the Inc. 5000. Ranked at #547, it is a testament to the continued commitment and dedication of our team of app developers and designers with inclusion on a list that in the past has included such tech giants as Oracle and Microsoft. Our continued growth has been fueled by our passion and dedication to the art of app development. Innovation is the bedrock of our mission as we operate at the intersection of art and code to advance technological solutions for global problems. Our agile process brings bespoke app development with diligence from concept to design, coding to launch to service the complex problems of our Enterprise and VC-backed startup clients. Our reputation continues to flourish as we deliver precise and unique technological solutions that solve some our clients’ most difficult business challenges.

2018 has been another big year for us so far. We expanded our team across two continents. We visited Berlin to present our wearable solution to NATO. We performed a live IoT device hack at SXSW. We advocated for tech-friendly policies at AppCon, engaging with the D.C. power players. We continue to rank as one of the top app developers in Los Angeles by Clutch. We launched our first in-house Healthcare product, SwiftHealth, that is actively saving lives in the field. Returning to the Inc. 5000 is a honor that demonstrates we are going in the right direction. It shows our team produces ground-breaking work that leads both the tech industry and the future of innovation for this nation.

It’s an understatement to say that we live in exciting times. Technological innovation is barreling forward at breakneck speed, improving our quality of life in many respects. With breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and the thriving mobile technology landscape, humanity is achieving things that even the most optimistic among us would have thought impossible a decade ago — and we are poised to accomplish so much more in the years to come.

On the flip side, headlines about issues like the Equifax hack or Elon Musk’s fears about an artificial intelligence apocalypse create a sense of dread about the future among the general public. A lot of these emerging technologies seem like stuff straight out of sci-fi, so who’s to say that the dystopian futures we see on TV or read about in books aren’t becoming increasingly more plausible?

Many of our politicians are just as confused by the big issues in tech as the rest of the public — which can make passing tech-friendly legislation a challenge. But lawmakers are as curious about the future of tech as anybody else and have long lists of questions about how innovation works, where it’s headed, and how it can help us all. But who is going to answer all those questions?

Tech and politics meet at Innovations in Silicon Beach

“The technological innovation we’re witnessing is poised to send shockwaves through every facet of society. Our nation’s political and business leaders have a limited timeline to come together and overcome the challenges ahead of us.” – Dogtown co-founder and CEO Marc Fischer

This past Thursday, Dogtown Media had the great pleasure of presenting a mobile app developer’s perspectives on some of the hottest issues in tech to government officials as part of the Innovations in Silicon Beach event. We hosted several political leaders for a wide-ranging conversation covering AI and the future of humanity, cybersecurity breaches like the Equifax hack, and the ways in which design and behavioral psychology influence how we consume technology.

Facilitated by our colleagues at ACT | The App Association, a D.C.-based public policy group that lobbies for app developers’ best interests, this summit gave us a chance to share our informed views on tech with lawmakers who have the power to encourage innovation — or to stifle it.

There’s a misconception that Silicon Valley is filled with a bunch of libertarians who want to keep the government’s mitts off their innovations. It’s not that tech leaders hate regulations so much as they just want smart regulations that will push innovation forward and keep technology working for the greater good of humanity. We believe that these tech- (and humanity-)friendly policies are only possible through education and open dialogue between the tech world and D.C.

Innovations in Silicon Beach was a perfect opportunity to share big ideas with a distinguished lineup of counsels, legislative directors, and other government officials from across 7 congressional districts and 5 major federal committees (including the committees on the Judiciary and Ways and Means). We’d like to think that everybody walked away with a clearer picture of what the future holds and how we can best shape our common destiny.

Tech fortune telling: Is the future bright or bleak?

Of course, there is no crystal ball that can tell us what the future holds, but we do have experts like Dogtown’s co-founder and CEO Marc Fischer to provide us with informed opinions on what we can expect in the coming era of technological innovation. In addition to being at the helm of one of the top mobile app developers in Los Angeles and one of the top 500 fastest growing private companies in America, Marc is an educator, creative technologist, and advocate for smart tech policies.

Innovations in Silicon Beach gave him the chance to share his passionate and clarifying take on the future with an audience that can actually help shape it. His presentation, Tech Fortune Telling: Is the Future Bright or Bleak?, breaks down the opportunities, challenges, and solutions that come along with exponential innovation.

What do we mean by exponential innovation? Consider the app economy, which really got rolling ten years ago with the advent of the original iPhone. Now the app economy is a $1.3 trillion dollar industry that employs some 1.7 million people. But this is only the beginning: leading analyst firm App Annie predicts that the app economy will increase 380% by 2021, bringing its total value to an astonishing $6.3 trillion.

Consider that sort of explosive growth one of the opportunities Marc is talking about. Accelerated technological advancement will enable major cost savings, generate huge revenues, and allow new businesses to thrive. And that’s not to mention the vast improvements to our lives technology brings, whether it is just making simple tasks more convenient or adding precious years to our lives.

But with these leaps forward come difficult choices and real dangers. Advances in artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics are already helping businesses by keeping costs low and improving efficiency (how do you think Amazon pulls off two-day shipping?). But this incredible progress poses a threat to millions of jobs: according to consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, 38% of American jobs will be disrupted by automation by 2030. What are truck drivers, hospitality workers, administrative assistants, and fast food workers going to do when they are replaced by machines?

Fortunately, we can start to make decisions now that will steer society away from catastrophe. If we act wisely today, we can prevent a future of devastating economic fallout and robot overlords by promoting solutions like better workforce training, STEM education programs, industry engagement, and smart regulations.

Inside the Equifax hack

More immediate than the dangers of AI gone awry are the cybersecurity breaches that have been popping up in the headlines with alarming regularity. The Equifax incident is only the latest in a long line of hacks. There was the WannaCry ransomware attack back in May, reports of hackers targeting nuclear power plants, and, of course, the Russian interference into the 2016 election. And those are just a few examples.

It can be hard to know what to make of these attacks without an expert on hand, which is why we’re glad to have Rob Pope on our team. Rob isn’t just our co-founder and CTO, he’s our resident cybersecurity expert, with more than 10 years of invaluable experience in the field. During Innovations in Silicon Beach, Rob presented his analysis of the Equifax hack, as well as some preventative measures that we can take to prevent more of these breaches.

In this day and age, data breaches are not uncommon, but when they involve sensitive data like Social Security and credit card numbers, they are not to be taken lightly. During the Equifax hack, 143 million Social Security numbers were compromised and 209,000 credit card numbers were accessed. It is now recognized as the worst data breach in America to date.

Making matters worse, there was a sizable gap between when the breaches took place and when those breaches were actually reported. Hackers first exploited a vulnerability in the Apache Struts web server software that Equifax uses back in March. Despite the fact that a patch for this vulnerability was released on March 8th, hackers were able to exploit the same vulnerability again on July 29th.

Yet reports of these massive breaches didn’t go public until September 7th. The company is now facing heat for its lack of transparency and failure to patch the server before another attack. In the aftermath of the hack, Equifax’s chief information officer, chief security officer, and CEO have left the company. (To find out if you were affected by this hack, click here).

After presenting the facts of the Equifax breach, Rob’s presentation moved on to a live hack in order to demonstrate how hackers exploit vulnerabilities in a system. These live hacks are something of a Rob specialty (check out the video of his “botnet in a box” hack below). They help to demystify hacking and to underline how susceptible our data is to attack.

But that doesn’t mean we should walk around in fear that our data is about to be scooped up by bad actors. These sorts of attacks can be prevented with the right measures. Rob proposes the following preventative measures:

• Technology. There is technology available that can both instantly detect data loss and stop it. Organizations need to take advantage of this technology.
• Cybersecurity education. There’s a short supply of cybersecurity experts out there (and as a result, they don’t come cheap). We need educational programs to prepare the cybersecurity experts of tomorrow — because we’re going to need a lot of them.
• Policy. It is necessary to put structure in place to punish organizations that keep breaches like this under wraps.

A crash course in design thinking and user research

In addition to educating our guests on technological innovation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, we wanted to invite them into our process and show them the thinking behind our app design. Designer Kim Calderone and Director of Business Development Marc Feder are two of the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) gurus on the Dogtown team. Their presentation to the Innovations in Silicon Beach crowd emphasized the human element that is at the core of our approach to design.

Dogtown Media adheres to the principles of human-centered design thinking all throughout our process. At the root of this thinking is a simple question: what are the needs of the people involved? Rather than tackling a creative problem from an abstract angle, human-centered design thinking encourages us to remain focused on the goals, psychology, and comfort of the people who will be actually using the product.

For us, that means approaching app design from the perspective of the user. After all, isn’t the goal to make a product that people find useful, intuitive, and satisfying? Maybe it sounds a little gooey, but human-centered design results in apps that people can integrate into their lives — and that’s good for business and humanity.

We utilize user research to find out what our users require. Through a series of tests (it’s a lot more fun than it sounds), we interact with people to determine their backgrounds, motivations, pain points, and goals. It is also important to circle back and see what features in an app they value most. What meets their basic needs? What satisfies them? And, perhaps most interestingly, what delights them?

With this data we are better able to tailor our apps to the needs and desires of our users. At the end of the process we have an app that meets the user’s goals and needs and gives them an enjoyable experience.

The principles of human-centered design thinking extend outside the tech sphere. They can be used in management, the sociological sciences, and really any framework where creative, empathy-based problem solving is needed. Think about what gridlocked Congress could accomplish if they applied these ideas to the problems our country faces!

The road ahead

We are already building the world of tomorrow whether we like it or not. If we want technology to work for humanity (and not the other way around), we have to take smart, conscientious action now. (It helps to apply the lessons of human-centered design by always keeping the needs of humanity in mind.)

But in order to build the framework for a society where technology boosts humanity to new heights, the nation’s innovators and lawmakers need to be on the same page. An event like Innovations in Silicon Beach bridges the gap between technology and government and gives our lawmakers the tools necessary to navigate the challenges ahead. The more lawmakers know about the opportunities and drawbacks of technology, the more capable they are to write the kinds of policies that spur innovation.

During our time together, our guests were enthusiastic, receptive, and full of questions. It was clear that everyone present wanted a better understanding of where tech is heading — and how we can get there together.

We were only the first stop (and what an honor it was to set the tone for the rest of the event). After us, the government officials moved on to our friends at AirMap, Cross Campus, SpaceX, and other bright lights of the Southern California tech community. It was a whirlwind couple of days.

It’s hard to think of two bigger forces for shaping tomorrow than tech and government. That’s why events like Innovations in Silicon Beach are so important. The only path forward to a bright future is if the tech world and government can talk to each other.

Since its founding in 1979, the magazine Inc. has chronicled all the major developments in American entrepreneurship. It has often been ahead of the curve; in 1981, it was the first magazine to feature Steve Jobs on the cover, claiming that he “changed business forever” (that definitely checks out). As app developers probably already know, Inc. publishes a list of the fastest growing companies in the United States every year. The prestigious Inc. 5000 ranks privately held and independent American companies based on their percentage revenue growth over a three-year period. To many of the nation’s top entrepreneurs, inclusion on the list is a milestone, a sign that they have made it. It is the kind of recognition that can push a thriving business even further ahead.

This year, Dogtown Media is honored to be on the Inc. 5000. Ranked at #271, we’re actually on the more exclusive Inc. 500. It feels great to see our hard work pay off with inclusion on a list that in the past has included such tech giants as Microsoft and Facebook. Our growth has been fueled by our passion and dedication to the art of app development. With a portfolio that includes a wide array of projects developed for small business, midmarket, and enterprise clients, we believe that no app is too big or too small. No matter what the size of the project, we bring our team’s full range of expertise to the table as the app moves through the development process, from concept, UX/UI design, and coding to monetization, marketing, and distribution. Our reputation continues to flourish because we show up for our clients, giving each project the attention and finesse it deserves.

2017 has been a big year for us so far. We raised money (and threw some great parties) for community art and the fight against blood cancer. We lobbied the nation’s lawmakers for tech-friendly policies, meeting with movers and shakers in D.C. during this year’s AppCon. We were ranked one of the top ten app developers in Los Angeles by Clutch. We saw one of our apps, Fayr, featured on Planet of the Apps, where it was backed by Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow. And now we’re expanding to another continent (more on that later). But making the Inc. 5000 feels especially validating. It is a marker of how far we have come — and believe us, this is only the beginning.

Every year, the Washington, D.C.-based research firm Clutch releases their findings on the best mobile app developers in various major markets. The criteria include the company’s specific areas of focus, experience, client satisfaction, industry recognition, and market presence. Clutch’s analysts perform highly detailed client interviews to really get a feel for what each app development company brings to the table. To make the Clutch top ten is a big distinction, a sign that you’re doing the kind of work that clients love. This year, Dogtown Media is honored to make Clutch’s list as one of the top ten mobile app developers in Los Angeles.

There’s some stiff competition among L.A. mobile app developers, so everyone at Dogtown Media’s offices is really proud to rise above the rest of the pack. We take every element of app development seriously, from concept, UX and UI design, and coding to monetization, marketing, and distribution. That’s why it’s such a thrill to be recognized for our technical know-how, customer satisfaction, and dedication. With a nearly even split between projects for small business, midmarket, and enterprise clients, we have experience developing apps on a variety of scales. But no matter how big the project is, we always approach it with the same amount of attention and passion.

According to Clutch analyst Amber Dewey, “The leading companies in our research have proven their ability to handle projects of any size and complexity, and create impressive mobile apps and custom software solutions that help push each client’s business further, whether it be internally or in the marketplace.” That sounds about right. While Dogtown Media is glad to be hailed as one of the finest mobile app developers in the city, we’re not going to rest on our laurels. We’re going to keep up the hard work so that we make next year’s list too.

Analytics firm Localytics recently released some numbers that chilled mobile app developers to the bone: 63% of mobile users will use an app 10 times or less before scrapping it. Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that 23% of users launch an app just once before deleting it. Users trust their gut when it comes to apps — and the gut can be ruthless.

After all the hard work mobile app developers put into bringing their brilliant, potentially world-changing apps to fruition, it can be hard to accept that users will discard them on a whim. It can be tempting to ask, “Why didn’t they give our app a fair shot?” But the more productive question is “What did we do wrong here?” and its follow-up “What can we change to retain users?”

It’s one thing to have a great concept that grabs the consumer’s interest and leads to a download, but getting that consumer to integrate an app into their lives is another matter altogether. The app store is crowded with great ideas vying for limited attention, and if an app’s UX is irksome, users are ready to move on to the next one.

We’ve developed our fair share of apps at Dogtown Media, and we know what drives user’s away from an app. In today’s post, we’ll outline five problems that lead to user churn — and some fixes that will help keep users around for the long haul.

Onboarding overload

The app experience begins with onboarding, the how-to tutorial that eases users into an app and familiarizes them with its benefits and features. Or that should ease users into an app — all too often, the onboarding process alienates users, driving them away before they even get a chance to see what the app can do.

Onboarding can be notoriously tricky to get right, but without a smooth onboarding experience, an app is almost guaranteed to lose users immediately. When it’s done correctly, onboarding starts to “bond” the users to the app and create habits that will keep them coming back. Much more than just a mere walk-through, the onboarding process should give users a sense of mastery. The faster users can feel like “experts,” the faster they can integrate the app into their everyday lives.

Unfortunately, too many developers botch onboarding, overwhelming users in their earliest moments with an app. It may be important to create a sense of expertise in users early on, but rushing the process can make an app seem too difficult to use. Cramming all the tips and tricks onto one screen at the outset will only scare people away.

Progressive onboarding provides a gradual, balanced way for users to navigate more complicated apps. This method allows users to explore the app, learning as they go with periodic assistance from inline hints that can point out the particularities of the app’s UI. (Of course, there should always be a “skip” option for users who already have a handle on the app’s functions.)

For simpler, more self-explanatory apps, a quick and easy onboarding process is the way to go. Too many apps delay what the user is there for: to use the app. Good onboarding design recognizes that users want to be productive and lets them get down to business. It’s a good practice to save sign ups and registrations until after the user has gotten a taste of what the app can do.

Putting lengthy, intrusive registrations up front puts hassle before reward, which is not a great way to keep users around. According to Localytics, 17% of users abandon apps after one use if they are asked to sign up in the first session. Only 9% abandon an app after one use if it has a “proper onboarding” experience that highlights an app’s purpose, functions, and value. Putting off registration takes pressure off of users and allows their all-important initial sessions with the app to be much more productive.

Awkward gesture controls

If an app’s onboarding process is too complicated, chances are the app’s UI is too confusing. In general, app users have a zero tolerance policy for counter-intuitive interface design. They expect to be able to learn how to use an app quickly, almost immediately, and when they cannot, the app in question is essentially useless to them.

Ever since Apple introduced fully touchscreen iPhones back in 2007, gestural controls have become a cornerstone in mobile UI design, largely because they are so intuitive. Tap, double tap, pinch, drag, flick — these gestures are basically universal, as Dan Mauney, former Director of Human Factors & Research at HumanCentric, pointed out in his widely circulated 2009 study. After studying the gestures of 40 people from 9 different countries, he concluded that people tend to associate remarkably similar gestures with specific tasks on mobile devices, no matter what their cultural background is.

In Mauney’s study, when the subjects wanted to delete an item, they generally tried to drag it off the screen. The second most common gesture was swiping it. These gestures make sense to people. They feel natural. Now imagine how confusing it would be to have an app that requires users to pinch an item to delete it. Sure, the user could be taught to use pinch to delete in the onboarding process, but it takes time and patience to retrain user’s instincts — time and patience most users won’t have for an app with unnatural controls.

Progressive onboarding is the best way to introduce users to slightly counter-intuitive controls. It’s important to find a balance between letting them explore and discover the controls on their own and providing subtle reminders along the way. The learning process should be as painless as possible; ideally, it shouldn’t feel like learning at all.

Privacy concerns

In the age of Snowden and WikiLeaks and justifiable paranoia, mobile users are growing more cautious about what they are downloading onto their phones. People store their lives on their mobile devices, and they want to feel as if their information is safe. If an app crosses the line and asks for too much personal data, users are going to feel as if their privacy is being jeopardized and dump it fast.

A few years ago, a Pew Research Center report found that 6-in-10 mobile users decided not to download an app based on the amount of information it asked for. 43% uninstalled an app for the same reason.

Much of the information apps request is used in relatively harmless ways (and that’s not to mention that a lot of permissions are necessary for the proper functioning of the app), but users often (understandably) have their guards up. They are increasingly suspicious of apps that ask for too much access to their phones, track their location, automatically share to social media, or sell their data.

Smart Android app developers should make it clear to users why certain in-app permissions are needed. After all, in that same Pew study, 9-in-10 mobile app users said that knowing how and why their data is utilized is an important factor in deciding whether or not to download an app. It can also be a determining factor in deciding whether or not to delete one.

Once again, it’s also best to postpone mandatory user registration, especially if it’s the first thing users see when they open the app. Not only is the sign-up process a drag to users who are itching to explore everything the product has to offer, it can make users squirm as the app asks for private details. The best practice is to let the user wait until they trust the app before springing a bunch of personal questions on them.

In-app ad onslaught

There is an unspoken — and uneasy — truce that mobile users have with mobile app developers: they’ll put up with a reasonable amount of ads for a free app experience. But they are only willing to endure so many obnoxious ads before they abandon an app.

Inescapable full-screen ads, constant pop-ups, low-res eyesores, a screen cluttered with bad ads — these are sure-fire ways to turn off users. Ads that aren’t quietly integrated into the app experience disrupt it. The relatively seamless Instagram model should be an inspiration to San Francisco iPhone app developers. Its advertising looks deceptively like native content, but users are generally okay with this deception because it’s much less intrusive than the alternative.

Most of the solutions to issues with in-app advertising are common sense. The key is subtlety. Developers need to space out ad placements so that users don’t feel like the product is more ad than app. They should also make sure that the advertising is germane to the app’s users, especially since irrelevant, tone-deaf ads really tend to stick out. And perhaps most importantly of all: if an app is geared towards children, it should not feature gruesome or pornographic ads.

Pushy notifications

When it comes to retaining users, few tools are as useful as the push notification. In fact, push notifications boost app engagement by 88%, according to Localytics. 65% of users who enable notifications return to an app within a month, while only 19% of users who do not opt in stick around. But too many push notifications, well, push users away.

App developers have to find the appropriate push notification strategy for their particular app and audience. The ESPN app or similar sports apps are okay to send out numerous notifications in a day; chances are, their users want up-to-the-minute scores. But if a retailer started sending out multiple push notifications in a day, users would likely see it as a spam attack. Finding the right frequency is crucial to keeping users around.

It’s also wise to send push notifications tailored to the user’s specific needs. Personalized messages are more useful for the consumer and encourage engagement much more than generic, easy-to-ignore messages.

An overly-aggressive push notification strategy that’s constantly blowing up user’s phones for little to no return will undoubtedly drive users to delete the app. But an optimized strategy will keep power users coming back and can even rope in straying users.

Why don’t you stick around?

Few things bum app developers out more than user churn rates. Apps are hard work — believe us, we know — and the fact that they can be so dispensable to users is discouraging. But it’s necessary to look at why users turn their backs on an app and to avoid the mistakes that have capsized so many promising apps.

The big takeaway is that users want to feel like the app is working for them, not the other way around. They don’t want to have to struggle to learn how to use an app or to feel like the app is just a mechanism to snatch their personal data and sell them stuff. And they don’t want to be annoyed.

Troubleshooting these issues may not bring back users, but it may help keep new users around.

Messaging apps — which is to say, apps that existing within messaging platforms like iMessage, Line, Messenger, and etc. — have been a huge growth area in the mobile tech industry. Sticker sets alone drove over $250 million in revenue for Line, and Western chat apps have seen similar success stories adding-on services to their platforms. That said, new data from Sensor Tower shows that developer interest in the platform is declining, along with downloads and use. Expanded messaging services are clearly a huge trend — so why is it struggling on Apple’s own messaging solution?

Part of the problem is likely due to the company’s reluctance to “clutter” the user interface with cues that the apps even exist. Unlike Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and other fun-based messaging platforms, actually accessing and using in-chat features like sticker sets is surprisingly difficult. It’s even trickier for actual apps (as opposed to sticker packs, which are oddly classified as “apps” and require a developer liscence to submit). For Chicago iOS app developers, the question becomes: “will anyone see my app?” rather than “will anyone want my app?” This is, for obvious reasons, a big problem.

That said, there are big wins to be made on the platform — and if Apple chooses to make the in-chat app store more accessable in future UI updates, app developers with good products in-place could suddenly find themselves scoring big wins in a surprisingly uncompettative app pool. Chat apps racked up as many developer submissions in the first six months as the app store did in the first year, but given the maturity of the iOS platform those numbers are surprisingly low. Even artists and graphic designers could find themselves holding a winner with the right sticker “app” at the right time. Whether or not Apple takes a leaf out of Facebook’s book or not, it’ll be fascinating to see how the strive to improve prospects for developers in one of the most-used messaging platforms in the US.