Even a couple of decades ago the concept of having a watch that can help you in replying your phone calls, track your heartbeat, or even use it to read your text messages was a concept. An idea that we often associated with science fiction movies, but with the rapid progress of technology over the last few years wearable apps or smartwatches are a reality. The rapid evolvement of technology has given rise to wearable app development where innovation is meeting necessity and technology is becoming wearable.
Market Growth For Wearable App Development
The trend for wearable devices is going to rise according to the experts of the market. It has been estimated that the wearable device market will make $34 billion by 2020. Since the gadgets are now being developed bearing in mind the user experience design it has been assessed that within the next two years there will be 111.9 million such wearable devices in the market.
So if you are in the apps development business or a startup company that plans to develop a wearable app device you have to consider some of the factors when developing the apps. In this article, we will go through some of the features that you need to take into account when developing such an app or wearable device.
Why Do You Want To Develop A Wearable App?
Well, it has already been mentioned t
hat the market for wearable app is on the rise hence the opportunity to make big in the market with wearable app development is quite lucrative. But should that be the only reason why you want to develop a wearable app device? In order to succeed in the business of wearable app devices, it is important to identify what kind of purposeful app do you want to develop? Whether such an app is already in the market and if it is there how is it fairing? Why should people go for your app instead of the one that exists in the market? How will it be different from others? If it is a new app then what is the demand for it in the market?
All these questions need to be answered to make the app a success since every wearable app or wearable device offers a set of features that are common while there are some different features too but all focus on providing the best user experience. Furthermore, the wearable apps are not as robust as the mobile apps hence the way they are developed is different from that of mobile app development.
Important Factors For Wearable App Development
Hence when you are into apps development for wearable device or apps there are certain criteria that you need to bear in mind while developing them. They are:
1: Selecting the Apps for the Device: The crucial aspect of the wearable device or app is the size of it. Any wearable app or device needs to be portable and of a size that can be worn. So while as a developer you can develop several apps for a smartphone with the same idea, however, that is not possible for wearable devices. This is because the computing process for wearable devices is different; they have certain limitations, unlike mobile apps. Hence you cannot just keep on loading the wearable device with apps as it will hinder the functioning of the device as well as the apps. So you have to select carefully the apps that you want to incorporate in the wearable device.
2: End User Experience: Almost all the wearable devices in the market, as well as the apps for wearable devices, intended to provide the best User Experience (UX) to the end users. One of the benefits of wearable devices in this phase is that the devices have apps that allow the user to avail certain features of the smartphone without taking it out by using the wearable device. But since wearable devices are new in the market there is still a huge scope for improvement and developers can give something new to the users.
3: Features of the Apps: Wearable apps are typically not that powerful as the original apps, i.e. the ones in the smartphones. So it is now up to the developers to decide on the features that they should include in the wearable app and keep the irrelevant features out that would make the app cumbersome. Also, a reminder to the developers is that do always keep some space for improving the app since technology keeps changing.
4: Faster Access: The difficulty faced by developers of wearable apps are not only limited to best UX but also have an app or device with user experience design that offers faster access to the app, seamless interaction, easy to use while having limited features.
5: User-Friendly: The focus of the developer for a wearable app or device is to make it user-friendly. So while developing do bear in mind the daily requirement of the target audience from the app.
6: Integrate It With Smartphone: Despite you having some restrictions when developing a wearable app for the OS like iOS and Android it is important that the apps can be integrated with such platforms. It is known that both iOS and Android offer limited tool resources when one is developing an app but without integrating the wearable app with the smartphone your app or device will suffer. This is primarily because the users of the wearable device want the app of the device to be integrated with their smartphones.
7: Do not start with Hardware Solutions: Develop a wearable app that can incorporate the latest developing technology so it would be a wrong step to start developing a device with hardware solutions. This is because the hardware is continuously evolving so as a developer when you launch the app use the current hardware solution but leave the space that would allow you to release later versions when required to satisfy the customers.
8: Testing The Wearable App: Testing a wearable app is different from testing a mobile app, but it is as crucial for wearable apps to be tested before it is launched as it is for mobile apps. Some of the features that a developer needs to test for a wearable app are:
- Installation
- Functionality
- Performance
- Usability
- Connectivity
- Security
- Localization/GPS
- Memory Leak
- IOP
So these are the few criteria that as a developer you can keep in mind when developing a wearable app or device. Since developing wearable apps and devices are still new in the market and undergoing sea changes there are many challenges and updates that the developers will continue to face. Hence it is important that you understand the market, have a passion for it and find someone that has experience in developing wearable apps and devices in the market.
