THE OVERLOOKED BUT ALL-IMPORTANT ANDROID FEATURE GRAPHIC

Posted on June 21, 2018June 21, 2018

Nora

Once you’ve built an Android app, it’s time to think about the promotional materials that you’ll put together in order to get the app seen and downloaded in the Android market. Since you’ve spent so much time and effort on developing the app, many of these promotional details may have been pushed to the back-burner.

The truth is, some of these details are just as important as how your app functions because they may be the determining factor for whether or not a user will download your app. One of these details is the feature graphic, which appears at the top of the screen when you look at the details for an app in the Google Play App Store.

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The feature graphic acts as a visual summary to describe your app’s purpose and its benefits to users who may not have ever seen or used it before. The image should be colorful and eye-catching in order to stand out in the sea of apps in Google Play or any other Android app markets.

feature graphic example for android play market

Android Feature Graphic Rules

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Feature graphics must follow the guidelines that Google provides in order to fit perfectly in the space provided in Google Play. It’s better not to take a graphic that you used for a different promotional spot, like on your Facebook page or your app splash screen, and stretch it so that it fits in the feature graphic space. The feature graphic should be specifically designed for use in the Google Play Store.

That being said, you can certainly use elements or the style from other graphics you’ve created for your app. Just make sure that your designer creates the feature graphic using the dimensions outlined by Google. The design requirements can be found in the SOP document available for download above.

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When considering the design of your feature graphic, think about whether you plan to translate the app into different languages in the future. If this is the case, you should think carefully whether or not you want to include any text within the feature graphic. Google allows you to change the feature graphic for each language but this may end up being a an unnecessary use of your time, especially if you plan on keeping the style of the app updated with market design trends.

If you can come up with an image for the feature graphic that describes your app without any text, it will simplify your work in the long run. Additionally, try to avoid using screenshots of your app in the feature graphic or you will need to update the graphic every time you make changes to your app.

ANDROID FEATURE GRAPHIC SAMPLE GALLERY

The Importance of the Feature Graphic

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The feature graphic is the very first thing that your audience will see related to your app after they click on the app icon in Google Play. They will see this graphic before they see the your app’s written description. They may even judge your app based solely on this graphic.

Creating the feature graphic for an app is often an overlooked or rushed task, but it’s important to spend a little bit of effort creating a graphic that grabs the attention of your target audience. Choose bright colors, simple messaging and make sure you don’t crowd the space with unnecessary images or text. This will encourage users to download your app which in turn will lead to a higher ranking in Google Play and more potential revenue for your team.

take time to create a quality feature graphic

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As the design is so important for the feature graphic, outsourcing this task to a designer with a marketing background may be a good idea if you don’t have one in-house. Experienced graphic designers will understand the best layout for the space and will know which elements to include within the graphic to attract the attention of your audience. The designer can use some of the working files from your user-interface design and playfully incorporate them into a graphic which becomes an eye-catching ad for your app.

The SOP document that will be emailed directly to your inbox is a creative brief with all the instructions that your designer needs to create a feature graphic for Google Play.

You will get a PDF and a DOCX that you can edit yourself to add in your specific requests or details. Pass the SOP to your designer and they will pass the feature graphic back to you. Good luck on your project!

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Design

HOW TO UPDATE YOUR APP UI WITHOUT THE HEADACHE

Posted on March 30, 2017

Nora

After your app is on the market, the job is far from over. You probably already know that with every new update to iOS or Android that you have to make sure all functions of your app continue to work. While making sure that the functions work is a critical part in continuing to work on your app, make sure that you’re not neglecting the design or user interface. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the the designs in the app market evolve and how easy it can be to start to look outdated.

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One reason why you may update the user interface of your app is to match your website or vice versa. This is really crucial to your branding so that you are users understand that there is a connection between your website and also your social media sites. Make an obvious visual connection between all of your marketing content and your product.

When updating your app UI, don’t neglect to also take a look at your app icon. It may also need to be given a facelift to connect with your slick new brand image. Get the App Icon Creative Brief here.

PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO MARKET DESIGN TRENDS

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Having an outdated design will affect your brand image more than you may realize. Because the market is so saturated with millions of apps, you must make sure that you don’t lose out on a large part portion of your audience because you are turning them off with your design.

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Often a lot of the cost of developing an app goes into the code and backend which is something that the user never sees. The user is not going to appreciate how many hours you spend to create an algorithm that works flawlessly. They only care about how the app looks and feels as they use it in their day-to-day life. This is why the design is so crucial though it is often overlooked by a lot of app companies. Putting a new face on your existing app can help improve your downloads and can give your users the feeling of more value when they download your app.

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If you are not only considering updating your app UI, but the UX as well, you should consider doing these things in separate updates. Sometimes doing both of these things at once can overwhelm the user and they may feel too confused to continue using your app which can cause a decline in app retention. There are examples of companies in the past that have updated the UI very gradually in order to prevent the audience from feeling scared and not using your product anymore.

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eBay is a classic example of a website which previously created completely new UI and adjusted the UX all in one update. Their users freaked out and there was major uproar so they quickly reverted back to the original interface and then slowly started implemented the new changes bit by bit so that their users wouldn’t be shocked. This is an important lesson to learn: Always keep your current users in mind when creating dramatic changes to your products.

UPDATING APP UI VS. UPDATING APP UX

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When it comes to updating the app UI, the best practice is to first leave the majority of the buttons and functionality in the same relative location on the screen and just change the style first before making any large adjustment to the UX.

The SOP that you can download above makes this process much simpler by providing your designer with steps that they’ll need to take in order to update app. This will take a lot of the headache out of the full process and allow you to focus more on the design instead of on telling your designer what to do. If you currently have ideas for how you imagine your updated app to look, you can add them to the SOP in the spaces provided.

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Also make sure to check out your competitors apps on the market and even some of the top apps in your category in order to get inspired with the design trends.

Updating your app UI is an ongoing process and you should consider doing touchups and design reviews on a regular basis. Doing this at least once every six months will help you to make sure that all of your development work to create a great app hasn’t gotten lost on the user.

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Design

CREATE PERFECT APP STORE SCREENSHOTS

Posted on February 21, 2017

Nora

For better or worse, people today consume much more digital content on a day-to-day basis than even five years ago. This often means that we are all overwhelmed with data and content being thrown at us on a regular basis. People take less time to actually read the content of articles or product descriptions and instead they generally look first at the pictures to gauge whether the information is worth their time before spending time to read.

People are influenced faster through visual communication and so your apps store screenshots are a great way to get their attention and tell them your message without them actually having to read anything.

SCREENSHOTS OVER APP DESCRIPTION

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If you’re anything like me, and are attracted to shiny, pretty things, app screenshots are one of the most important things that will persuade me to download an app. Often the most brightly colored images will entice me and in general I’m heavily influenced by details and interesting graphics that I see in the screenshots.

According to research only 2% of people actually read the full app description and many people actually ignored so your screenshots are extremely important in order to get people to download your app. It’s important to include the features in your app. Consider the features that your competitors have and those that are unique to your app. Highlight your apps truly great qualities and convince your audience that out of all the apps on the market, yours is the most essential.

MAKE YOUR SCREENSHOTS AS A MINI-TUTORIAL

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You can also use the space as a mini tutorial to show your users how easy your functions are to use. People will often judge the quality of your app based on the screenshots as well. If your screenshots are unattractive and the design is outdated then they’ll be more likely to think that your app is worth less and be less willing to purchase it, especially if it’s a paid application where they can’t see the actual app until they buy it in the App Store.

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App screenshots are also an incredibly important opportunity to localize your app. In both iTunes and Google Play, you’re allowed to upload different screenshots for all major languages. As most developers now upload screenshots with a bit of text around them explaining the features, you can change this text into different languages. This is a simple way to have a much wider reach in the App Store for people who do not speak English.

LOCALIZING YOUR SCREENSHOTS

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Even if the app itself is in English only, you can still localize the explanatory text in the screenshots. In our experience, we saw a massive download increase (400%+) after localizing this text without even updating the actual app’s interface into other languages. It also helps to translate the app description, but even just doing the text in the screenshot images will help quite a bit.

When creating your screenshots, you want to make sure that the dimensions match the requirements in the App Store. In the past, it was popular just to take a screen a literally take a screenshot of your app on your device and then use that post that directly to the app store. Currently the design trend is to have the screenshot embedded into a larger image that has a background and a space for a short sentence or a few words to describe each app function. This has many advantages, not least of which is that it saves you the hassle of taking screenshots in multiple resolutions. Instead you can just chop the border area in order to fit the resolutions that you need.

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This space around the screenshots also allows you opportunity to put other kinds of text, such as awards that you had that your app has won or positive reviews that people have given. This also encourages the user to download your app.

When you are creating your screenshots, use colors and fonts that are consistent with your app design. Also make sure to utilize all five screenshots allowed in iTunes. Google Play allows even more than 5 for your users to peruse. Keep in mind however, that most users only look at the first one or two screenshots so make sure you put your app’s key functions first.

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Before creating or asking somebody else to create your screenshots, you might want to get inspired by a checking out the top apps in your category and seeing what they’ve done with their screenshots.

The SOP above provides detailed and current information about how to create a screenshot and the requirements from the App Store. You can pass this SOP directly to your designer and they will use it as a creative brief to create the screenshots for your app.

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SOP Library

INSTRUCTIONS FOR UX TESTING YOUR APP

Posted on January 26, 2017

Nora

User testing your app is a critical way to evaluate the design, content and usability of your application. Even if you don’t have a large budget for market research, you can still gain valuable suggestions and ideas while discovering errors and potential confusing sections of your app just based on a few user tests.

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If you have been working on the development of an app for a long time, it’s very easy to ignore or miss small mistakes in the design. You may not realize that there is a flaw in the app’s navigation. For this reason, you should ideally have the user testing completed by someone who has never seen the app before. There are plenty of websites out there that offer free and paid user testing. You could also have friends test your app, however you should be aware that these people may be somewhat biased. Even if you have a small budget, try to have at least one person who doesn’t know you user test the app.

You may be able to watch while someone is user-testing your app. This can give you some amazing insights into your app’s user experience. In this case, it’s extremely important that you keep silent and simply watch. Your instinct may be to help them if they have questions or issues, but try your best not to interfere with the testers’ experience. Hold your tongue and don’t give out any hints- let them figure it out. After all, you won’t be able to help your real users when they download the app themselves.

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You can gain so much insight if you watch as an impartial and silent observer as your user-tester navigates through the app. Even just watching the way that their fingers move on the screen, or how long it takes them to navigate from one screen to another is extremely helpful in streamlining your design.

User-testing isn’t a one time event. It should be done on a regular basis and it should be consistent from version to version. You should strive to ask similar questions to one batch of reviewers versus another so that you can compare how your app has improved or deteriorated over time.

For those of you who have never asked someone to user-test your app before, the SOP download above includes an explanation of the test and a set of suggested questions you can ask your user-tester to answer about your app.

You can give your tester the SOP directly and ask them to follow the step-by-step instructions. When they finish the SOP, they will follow the directions and give you back a short report including information ranging from issues about navigation to their opinion on the design and colors used in the app.

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Before having someone take part in a user-test, you might want to set some specific goals for what you intend to gain from the test. For example, you may want to ask them to complete a specific task in your app, such as creating an account or editing a photo. Keep in mind what the main goal of your app is. Are you trying to generate revenue? Are you more interested in building your membership database? You can customize the SOP by adding a few of your own requirements.

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The ideal test will also include a user who is part of your target market. If your app is a game for children ages 10 to 14 you should try to find some kids who will can test app. Try to find at least a few user-testers that fit your target market’s profile, as those are ultimately the people that will be using your app.

Ready to get started? Even if you have no experience with user-testing, it’s a super simple process to collect this data using the SOP provided at the top of this post.

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Design

GIVE THIS APP ICON CREATIVE BRIEF TO YOUR DESIGNER

Posted on January 3, 2017

Nora

The app icon is a small square that makes a big statement. With such limited space, the app icon offers a unique but very challenging opportunity for you to express your app’s function and overall style. It also helps to create brand recognition and many brands choose to use the icon or a variation of the icon to represent their whole image.

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Because the app icon is so small, it makes sense to use either a tiny amount of text or no text at all. You will see that most apps follow this this rule and focus on an image that is related to the brand. The image should stand out enough to evoke recognition in a returning customer or interest in a new customer.

CREATING AN APP ICON CONSISTENT WITH YOUR APP’S GENRE

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Consider the genre of your app when designing your icon as well. Games generally have fun and colorful icons, whereas educational apps might have more serious and interesting-looking icons.

Pay attention to modern design trends by scrolling through the app store’s top rated apps. It is especially useful to look at the top apps within the same category as your app. Browse the app icons of your competitors and view as many icons as you can to get a feel for how other developers are currently utilizing this design space. Update your app icon every so often in order to make sure that you don’t little outdated in the app store. Over time the overall style of app icons shifts as design evolves. Be sure to check back every few months or so to make sure you stay current.

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Another thing to consider when creating your app icon is whether or not this will be the only app that you release on the app store or whether you plan to create a series of similar apps in the future. You’ll have better brand recognition if your app icons resemble each other or maintain some common theme.

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Research

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH APP STORE METADATA

Posted on October 13, 2016

Nora

App Store Optimization (ASO) is a big topic for anyone working on a mobile app. For those new to the subject, it basically means futzing around with the title, description, keywords, and images that you upload to the App Store.

There is plenty of advice out there that gives you up-to-date practices for the latest algorithm changes in iTunes and Google Play. Rather than write a massive blog post about the ins and outs of all the strategies, today we’ll be giving you a quick and dirty guide for getting started today with choosing keywords and building great metadata for your app.

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This SOP will give you a jumping off point and is designed to get you going in the right direction. Once you’ve completed this task however, the job isn’t done. In fact, with ASO the job is never done. Working on ASO is a constant tweaking process. Check out the More Resources section in the sidebar once you’ve finished this task to find out where to go next.

THE ASO PERSONALITY TEST

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Those who like tinkering with the details thrive in the task of finding the perfect mix of keywords, imagery, and content for ASO. These are the types of people who probably took apart the toaster as a kid, once they had discovered Daddy’s toolbox. If you’re not one of those people, it’s best to outsource ASO if you have the budget for it. You need a detail oriented person who loves statistics to get the most out of your ASO. If your budget is tight, you can at least get started with this SOP in order to get a baseline and decide how much effort to put in later.

IS ASO REALLY NECESSARY?

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Getting your app seen in the App Store is the best way to generate organic app downloads from your audience. There is no exact formula for completing this task, but there are some pretty stable principles that you can learn in order to get started.

The two most important things for ASO is the title of your app and the keywords associated with it. When you choose to name your app, you should try to be as descriptive as possible. Make it obvious what the app helps people do. This is important when people are searching for your app in the App Store, because they have likely never heard of you or your company before.

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Apple and Google both have their own set of requirements when creating the metadata for your app. For example, with regards to the title, Google only allows you 30 characters while Apple allows you quite a bit more. It used to be recommended for Apple that you utilize all of the characters available to you in the app title field in your meta-data however it seems to be the trend lately that Apple penalizes you for keyword-stuffing or adding unnecessary data in this field. The point is, create a title that is relevant and descriptive without keyword-stuffing.

ASO is very similar to web SEO in that if you overuse specific keywords, you’ll be penalized. So when creating your keywords, try using some synonyms as these may be keywords that your competitors have not thought of.

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The next thing you should consider is your competition. If you rank for a keyword that has very high traffic but you rank in the 200s, this would be a waste of keyword space because no one will scroll down 200 apps to find you. Instead, go for more specific keywords or phrases for which you are most likely to rank in the top 10 slots within the App Store.

There are several free tools available for monitoring and choosing keywords which have high traffic but low competition in the App Store. Here’s a list of some of the good ones to get you started:

When using these tools, the most important thing to consider is relevance. The next thing you should consider is competition.

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Google Play doesn’t have a separate keywords field in the metadata for your app on the App Store. For an Android app, you’ll need to strategically place your keywords inside of your app’s description. Google will also penalize you for over-using specific keywords so again, follow good SEO principles like you would on a blog post. Use descriptive words which excite your user about your app while using relevant keywords- but don’t overdo it.

Google’s app description is also quite a bit longer than the description you’re allowed in iTunes, so feel free to be more informative and use this space to its entirety. Keep in mind however, that the user will most likely only read the first paragraph and decide based off of that whether not to download the app. Make sure the first paragraph clearly describes the benefits to the user and functions available your app.

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For Google Play, organic search makes up 80% of app downloads. Similarly to iTunes, Google Play has an algorithm for ranking apps. Most of this is a mystery, however there are some things that we do know. Among these is certainly ratings. If you have 200 reviews this will definitely have a positive effect on your ranking. A consistently high number of downloads will also improve your ranking in Google Play.

Users may also stumble across your app when doing a keyword search in Google when they’re working on a computer. Take advantage of this by making sure that your metadata is suitable for both experiences. Whether the user is on a small screened phone or at their work computer, make sure the metadata looks great and is easy to read.

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Google also allows you some extra fields to enter information into that iTunes does not have. For example, there is a promotional text area which gives you the opportunity to write a one-sentence description that summarizes your app. This description is all that most mobile users will read of your app’s metadata because they will have to click down to view the full app description.

STRATEGIES FOR TRACKING YOUR ASO

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Once your metadata is finalized, decide how you’re going to measure its performance. If you make any changes to the metadata, make sure you do it little by little so that you’re able to accurately measure the impact that it has on your app downloads and visibility in the App Store. Also consider that the strategy for each App Store will be different. Don’t be afraid to change the Google Play app description so that it’s totally different from the iTunes app description if it will improve your downloads or rankings. As long as it’s telling the story of your app, that’s all that matters.

The SOP download provided above gives you detailed instructions for how to create optimized metadata that will fully utilize all of the opportunities available in the App Stores, both for Google Play and for iTunes. It lays special emphasis on walking you through the steps to do good keyword research. This is a task you can and should outsource from time to time in order to discover new keyword gems that can make a big difference in your App Store visibility.

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