APP USER STORIES AND PROJECT ARCHITECTURE

ELEMENTS OF A USER STORY

As every morning begins with a sunrise, so does every app begin with a user story. User stories are segmented descriptions that capture an app’s functionality from a user’s point of view.

Written by product owners, they are created around the value an application is offering, what users want from it, and what it is missing with respect to user engagement.

Great user stories exist mid-point between a user and an app, marking their relationship to a business brand or product. They are concise, informal, and easy to understand.

A properly written user story also helps to empower product scope discussions between an app’s development team and its owners.

As with other means of documenting user requirements, there are certain elements that you must consider before writing an effective user story. These elements enable you to move fast and accurately describe the functionality of your app. They include:

Story name: A story name is a concise and easily identifiable title of your user story.
User role: A user role is essential in identifying the functions of your app’s user demographic. The user role also provides a better perspective for your user story.
Achievable action: You must identify the values (goals) that your intended users stand to benefit. This also offers precision.
Acceptance criteria: This helps to identify the phase at which you have succeeded in completing the user story.

Users of Your Future App

Irrespective of an app’s quality, it’s become challenging for developers to capture the attention of today’s app users. Similarly, developers with vast app user demographics are having a hard time generating high revenue streams for their apps.

Several reasons can be affixed to both scenarios, with the most important reason being not capturing the right user audience.

So, here lies the big question: how do you discover the most appropriate user demographic for your future app? First and foremost, you must identify and understand the user personas that will successfully make use of your app.

In doing so, you will validate how business-aligned your app idea is, and simultaneously examine how communicative it is to your user demographic.

On the other hand, getting to know the right users of your future app also includes conducting in-depth user research, checking trends, and gathering user feedback, among others. This way, you will have unrestricted access to the best user personas for your future app.

Why Users Will Use Your App

With millions of mobile apps competing for users’ attention every day, it’s becoming increasingly essential for mobile app teams to understand what exactly influences app user personas.

Now, in 2020, there are over 2 million apps on both the Apple and Google Play stores, and this is the same trend for other app stores. Now you’ve successfully built and deployed your future app to popular app stores. It’s intuitive, secure, and easy for your target audience to download. Your app base is getting larger by the hour.

However, there is a setback: although your people are downloading your mobile app, they just aren’t using it. Below, we’ve listed a couple of reasons that ensure users will not only download but use your app after they install it.

Make your app useful

The importance of this criterion in app development cannot be over-emphasized. In all cases, every successful app is created around some form of value. And as such, a valuable app must be useful to its user.

The rendered use can be in the form of social communication, time management, entertainment, and more. Apps that do not deliver value in any way might get installed, but they’ll get rarely used.

Focus on the big question — Why will users use your app? — the best place to start is by identifying what value your app will deliver to its users and incorporate it into your app’s value proposition.

Understand your users

As cliché as it sounds, some mobile app teams fail to conduct usability tests before launching an app. Today’s users want a mobile app to be flawless, or they want you to face the consequences.

If your mobile app is hard to use, many users will uninstall and replace it with a competitor’s app.

As such, you must ensure that your future app is used by people that fit your app’s user personas before going live! This will enable you to understand how users will interact with your app and why they will use it a certain way.

Having people test your app before going live will also allow you to make all necessary adjustments before launch.

These include:

Ensuring onboarding is easy.
Avoiding redirects.
Using the best practices of app development.
Maximum integration.
Ensuring a safe environment for users.
Implementing an engaging & compelling user interface (UI).

Steps

A tricky part in app development is identifying the maximum possible value in the functionality developed. However, there is a clear-cut solution: creating a successful user story right from the start of your app development process.

User stories deliver a framework to discover the values of users by interacting with them, all through the development cycle.

Today, empathy is more of a requirement rather than an option in creating a successful user story. While some users claim it is easier to curate a list of requirements, the importance of understanding your target users is crucial to building an app that delivers great value.

When writing a user story, it’s essential to ensure that they remain straightforward while also including one-line statements of benefits.

Next, start by writing customer journeys alongside conducting in-depth surveys to understand the required functionality of your future app.

Note that user stories are meant to be unique, simple, and complemented by diagrams, story maps, boards, mockups, and more. In summary, follow the best practices mentioned below to create a useful user story:

Know Your Users
Focus on the Users
Keep It as short and straightforward as possible.
Encourage discussion and collaboration.
Avoid Technical Details
Focus on knowing what your app is, why your app is essential, and who will use your app.
Embrace Visualization

PROJECT ARCHITECTURE

What Is It

Project architecture is a set of well-structured blocks with information that describes each screen of a future app and its functionality. Project architecture is used in the development of an application.

It is the starting point or roadmap that provides mobile app teams with the most appropriate practices to follow when building your future mobile app.

How to Create It

Good project architecture is one that ensures an app development cycle is ultimately efficient and straightforward. Mobile apps with excellent project architecture are not just scalable or reliable, but they also enable companies to detect gaps in functionality.

While creating the best project architecture is essential for any mobile app, not many application development companies succeed in doing it.

In this overview, we’ll take a close look at the steps our mobile app development team follow in creating the best architecture for your future app.

Client onboarding

In pursuit of the best architecture, start by onboarding product owners to the project while also employing innovative technologies that will be used during the app development process.

Knowing the app target audience

Next, continue by conducting data-driven research around the app target audience, their personas, and what platform they use. This enables to determine the best technology framework for future app and the user experience style that its end-users expect.

Market research

Using App Business Canvas, we then conduct in-depth research with regard to the growing needs and market trends that pertain to your business space.

Mapping user story flow

Once you identify your audience, start designing an optimal use-flow that keeps clicks and field entries to an absolute minimum, thereby ensuring users achieve their goal in no time. Then, create user story flow maps that uncover how end-users will navigate when interacting with your mobile app.

Conclusion:

By now, you may have a clear picture of how vital project architecture is in building an app that delivers genuine value to users. It is a roadmap that helps you start on the tough but exciting journey of building your future app.

Now while many app users are certainly challenging to please, the rewards of meeting their app requirements can be truly immense.

At Messapps, we understand the amount of effort that goes into creating the right project architecture for any mobile app.

As we determine the right architecture for your app, we do it with your business and user requirements in mind – while complying with industry standards – to make your mobile apps better.

Author’s Bio:
Though a lawyer by trade, Vasily Malyshev found his passion for mobile tech, self-taught design, and development. He is the founder of Messapps, one of the top New York app development companies. Today, in addition to working with Messapps, Vasily is also teaching app development and marketing at New York University and regularly invests in other tech startups.