How to come up with the best ideas for apps and app features
16/02/2024
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While some software development teams are lucky to work for a client with clear needs, many teams developing apps have a significant hurdle to overcome regarding ideation. Even when they have specific requests from a client, there’s still plenty of creativity required to bring the app to life.
So, how exactly do you generate the best ideas for app concepts and app features that resonate with the audience and consistently turn a profit? Let’s discuss:
Refer to personal problems
One of the best ways to generate app ideas is to look inward and identify the problems you’re yet to solve. For example, maybe you have a mixed dish you’d like to prepare in your boiler/pressure cooker, but you’re unsure which setting to use.
After trying a few, you may settle on a particular setting with some slight editing, like switching back to warm/simmer for a short time or alternating between settings. As you have more dishes like this, memorizing all this information could become tricky. And maybe some friends have different approaches that work too.
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Accordingly, you could create a recipe book app where people can sign up and share their varying methods of preparing similar dishes. They can even collect clips from other sites in one central location and categorize them in any way they like.
Ultimately, it should be a problem that many other people face too. An app idea that makes your life easier but doesn’t do the same for many others may not be viable.
Examine existing apps
This method of idea generation can take one of two major routes. The first is where you look for inadequacies in an existing app and work on creating a new one that addresses those gaps. For instance, a sketchpad app may have only one type of pencil, yet some users would like to make lines of varying thicknesses.
In that case, you can create a new sketching app that enables users to work with numerous shades, thicknesses, and other drawing capabilities. The second route is building an app that provides a complementary service instead of doing what the original app does.
For example, you may stumble upon an e-commerce app that offers only two payment methods at checkout. And after checking through the reviews, you realize that many users would like more flexibility in this area. Consequently, you can work on a wallet app that allows users to deposit funds from various sources.
After that, you can approach different e-commerce apps and have them integrate your wallet app with their systems so shoppers can pay using your app. Essentially, you haven’t created a new e-commerce app but rather a payments app that plugs into e-commerce apps. Scrutinizing apps on the market helps produce some of the best ideas for app features for teams with an app idea.
Collaborative brainstorming
One main reason why many people struggle with app idea generation is they only have a piece of an idea rather than the entire concept. For instance, when you say you want to create a fitness app, it may seem like you’ve narrowed your thoughts to a specific category. However, within the fitness field, there are several possible app ideas.
You can make an app that tracks fitness metrics or suggests workouts. Additionally, you can offer an app that focuses on cardio or stretching or provides alternatives like Yoga. And lastly, you can create a fitness app that offers consultation with human experts or advice from a preset library.
So whenever you’re ideating, it’s vital to interact with other people, especially those you’re likely to work with during app development. These people can help flesh out your ideas into something more relevant. In addition, collaborative brainstorming can reduce the time and money spent on follow-up research.
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They can help point out who’s already making something similar to what you just suggested, which names have already been trademarked, any particular regional regulations that prohibit certain ideas, etc.
Consult industry experts
Though many people try to think of app ideas that would have mass appeal, sometimes the most viable ideas are those speaking to a specific industry. For example, the desire to create a frictionless health insurance process remains a priority for hospitals/medical practices and insurance firms.
In other industries that deal with delicate machinery subjected to extreme conditions, monitoring apps are of utmost importance since they help preempt catastrophes like fires, poisonous gas leaks, water damage, and more.
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In that spirit, it’s crucial to read about the technological strides made in different industries, then sit down with experts to find out what’s lacking. From doctors to civil engineers, pharmacists to lab technicians, several professionals can reveal a problem that could be solved with an app.
Observe the development process
Some of the best ideas for apps have been produced by development teams that were trying to solve internal problems related to communication, record-keeping, cybersecurity and more. For example, the widely popular app Slack started as a simple internal communication tool for a team designing an online game.
This app has enjoyed massive acclaim and financial success while the game the team was working on was eventually shut down. If the team wasn’t very self-aware and good at pivoting, they’d have missed out on a great opportunity, but luckily, they knew how to notice the instances where they were solving their problems sufficiently. Therefore, some of the best app ideas result from app development challenges.
Wrapping Up
There are many other ways to come up with amazing app ideas, such as tracking financing and support from venture capital firms, accelerators and incubators, attending events like hackathons and other meetups, browsing app stores, and checking review sites and social media platforms, among others.
You can also delegate this fundamental step to a software development team. At SupremeTech, we know how to work with clients to create something out of nothing, so if you’d like to produce a resonant app but don’t know where to start, contact us for a free consultation.
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