Don’t Make This App Development Mistake

You’ve done everything right, making sure your app has powerful access to back end data, a beautiful and intuitive UX, and availability for iOS, Android, and even Windows phones. It’s in the app stores and ready for those five star ratings. What could you possibly have overlooked?

You’re too mobile.

Don’t Forget the Desktop

There’s been such a push for mobile-first that we’ve forgotten how we spend most of our working hours: planted behind the oversized screen of a laptop or even – shudder – a desktop.

Ah, the hulking desktop, the ubiquitous laptop. They’re not glamourous or trendy, and we’re not standing in line to upgrade to the newest version every few months – but they’re still where a majority of real work takes place.

Of course we also need access to all that data, and reports, and forms on the go, but it’s in addition to, rather than instead of.

When I’m at my desk, it’s more productive to pull up my marketing analytics app directly on my big screen, where I’m already working, than switch to my phone or tablet and interrupt the flow. And when I’m on a tradeshow floor, it’s easier to check in on and configure my updates using the same app on my phone. Mobility, at the end of the day, is about convenience: in-the-moment productivity, using the tools at hand.

Building an incredible app and only making it available on hand-held screens neglects a large portion of those productive hours in the day, and therefore reduces your app’s appeal by a similar percentage.

So don’t forget the desktop. Be sure your app development strategy includes all screens.