Welcome to the 3rd post in the State of the Black Business Directory Series. Several black business directories already have mobile apps in either the iTunes Store, Google Play Store, or both. The importance of a mobile presence is growing everyday so it's great to see other directories with mobile apps. Unfortunately, due to the over saturation of mobile apps, the mere prescence of an app is not enough, it's also important to consider areas of improvement that will set your app apart.
User Experience and Design
The first topic I want to discuss is user experience (UX) and design. UX is one of the most important but overlooked aspects of any design project. It's one thing to build a product that functions, but it's another thing for the product to be intuitive and easy to use. Companies like Apple continue to be successful due to their prioritization of UX.
I honestly haven't found a black business mobile app (including IABB) that has done a great job with UX. Knowing this, we've engaged Shaw Concepts for a UX review. The feedback from this review really opened up our eyes to certain UX items that we had not considered. As we gradually include the feeback, our mobile app will continue to improve and become easier to use despite the addition of more complex features.
Reviews
Both Apple and Google allow consumers to easily post reviews of each app. These reviews vary from poor to great. The biggest issues I see in reviews of all black business directory apps deal with the number of businesses as well as data validation. We also see reviews about the apps not working as expected. Delivering a great app requires both testing the application on emulators and real devices as well as ensuring the backend servers are highly available and can handle the load from consumers using the app.
Feedback is key to the success of any product or service. Reviews are a valuable resource that are being under-utilized. At IABB, we review our app store reviews on a regular basis to ensure we are actually addressing and delivering on the needs of our users. We also use each of the beta testing solutions provided by both Apple and Google. If you like being on the cutting edge, you can join our beta testing program and gain access to new features before the public.
Android vs iOS
Not surprisingly, most black business directories have mobile apps in both iTunes and Google Play. Being in both stores is great as they cover most users; however, some black business directory apps appear to have neglected their app in one of the stores or both stores. It is common for some mobile apps to concentrate on one platform first but the nelgected platform shouldn't lag too far behind the other platform.
Based on my technical exprience, most of the black business directory apps should be able to utilize one of the mobile development techniques listed here. As mentioned, IABB currently uses cordova and JQuery but will be transitioning to another technique for our next major release. Keeping both iOS and Android up-to-date with the same features is a high priority for our team.
I hope this post helps push forward the improvement of black business directory mobile apps. For the consumers, be patient as our team and others continue to improve their directories and mobile apps. Continue to provide constructive feedback and support black owned businesses.