Top 3 App Development Tips for the Social Market

Jan. 25, 2012 - PRLog -- Designing a mobile or tablet application for any market can be stressful. There are countless decisions to make, from color scheme and icon to content and filters—all of which affect the usability of the app. The stressfulness of app design is ratcheted up when you’re working in a crowded market like social networking. For the iPhone alone, there are just under 2,500 social apps currently listed in the app store.

So how can your mobile social networking app stand out amongst its peers? Read the three tips below from industry expert Alicia Waters, graphic designer at mobile app developer Metova, for design advice for your next social app.

1.   Share (easily)

The whole point of a social networking app is for users to share and gain knowledge from others. Basic ways to build this usability into your app include:

Pictures & Video: Show thumbnails for multimedia. Make enlarging images intuitive and not distracting from the flow of the app. Use the device’s touchscreen to your advantage, letting users enlarge images, swipe to another or share with a long tap.

Text: Many social apps limit characters when users want to share thoughts. While this may seem constraining it’s actually a great strength for social apps, especially on a phone where screen real estate is limited. To help your users limit text, use @ tags, shorten links and provide filters and groups.

Link & Tag: Links that let users share content are extremely helpful. Other tools for sharing quickly are tags, which instantly connect users with others. Favorites also allow users to quickly save items and return to those items easily.

Timing: Keep your content up-to-date with real-time feeds. Information travels fast and you definitely need to stay current and keep the activity within your app relevant to its users.

Location: Allowing GPS recognition is a feature that can come in handy if your app focuses on locations. A GPS can help initiate content without having the user spend time typing in a search. This can make your app extremely favorable and intuitive.

2.   Focus (narrowly)

Your social app must have a focused purpose, and no, “social networking” isn’t focused enough. To help clarify the message of your app, move non-integral features to the background, or completely remove them from the project.

It’s best to concentrate on the main reason you want users to connect, because this is what sets your product apart from its peers. For example, all social apps have some form of content feed where information is being shared; by creating a theme to this feed your app becomes incomparable to others.

“School of the Legends” is a sports app developed by Metova that’s focused in its content and design from start to finish. It’s a social network for fans and football players to connect, train, watch and shop with other members of the community. The app’s content is so targeted and unique that there’s no question what users are there for. The design built around the app’s content helps create and nurture the community, which is built every time the app gains a new user.



3.   Connect (liberally)

Allow users to connect with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Flickr…and any other app that your users already frequent. Providing this usability speeds up sharing and builds trust within your community. It also expands the reach of your app by letting users broadcast what they share on your app to their connections on other platforms as well.

Pinterest, designed by Cold Brew Labs, is a great example of an app that lets users connect with Facebook or Twitter to expand their reach. Pinterest is an online pinboard that acts as a visual bookmark by allowing users to collect images across the Web.

When logging into the Pinterest iOS app users are given categories to define and access to other users pins. Initial contact with this app requires users to actively engage, resulting in easy adoption to the new network. The design is simple and focused around the content and power of sharing, exactly what a social app should be.



Social networks are a part of our daily lives. The most popular social apps are those that bring users new ways of sharing their worlds with others. This is definitely a space where you can use your best creativity to create a network worth joining.

You can connect with Alicia on Twitter @metova or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Metova. Visit Metova online at www.Metova.com.