What would you choose? Exercise on the choice of applications from the App Store

There is an old and very famous Apple slogan “There's an App for that” (“for this there is an app”), supporting the idea that people can find and download an app to solve any problem. The App Store has more than 1.2 million applications and their number continues to grow. The Apple Application Catalog is a great example of the right distribution of software and content. Applications of well-known companies have millions of downloads in the first hours after being hit in the catalog. The question is, how can users find your application in the vast expanses of the App Store? In this publication we will try to briefly describe the main factors that influence the choice of the user.

ASO

App Search Optimization (ASO): ASO is probably the most important factor that affects the ability of users to detect your application in search results. Below is an example of a search for the Periodic Table application in the Apple App Store. The query “Periodic Table” in the directory displays about 300 applications. In this case, the user simply does not have time to study each of them and see which one is better. In the screenshot below, the top 30 applications from search results for the query "Periodic Table". Usually, users look only at the first positions and very rarely fall below. Here are 18 applications that occupy just the top lines.



The choice between “pay or not pay” is the essence of human nature. “Why pay money for the application if there is a free analog?” We advise developers to position their applications as free and try to monetize with indirect methods (advertising in the application, in-app purchase, etc.). Therefore, in the current example, we suggest removing paid applications from search results.
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Icon: Various studies show that the application icon is very important to the user. For example, large developers often create several dozen icons for their program, and then try using the focus group to choose the best one. In our example, we suggest removing unsuccessful (this is a subjective opinion) icons. Total remove 8 applications.



What do we have in the end? Let's review 3 applications with pretty cute icons, and look at the screenshots with an example of a running application. If you are looking for an application from an iPhone, screenshots are immediately displayed. Here are some examples. Ask yourself a question: what would you choose? We, for example, like this screenshot, which is highlighted by a frame.

Other factors

Reviews: if the user has enough time, he will read the reviews. Usually, most attention is paid to reviews for paid applications. It should be remembered that feedback is one of the important criteria for ASO.

Company: If your company is well known, users will treat the application favorably. People tend to use what they are already familiar with. For example, the Bill Nye Science Guy Disney app attracts the attention of children and parents because many know Bill Nyei and, of course, Disney.

Video: A great opportunity for developers to promote their iOS application is to post videos. It is displayed in the search with the iPhone, replacing screenshots. Video is a powerful tool. A good example of its use is the movie of the paid application “Elements by Theodore Gray”.

Instead of output

Of course, the approach to the choice of applications, described as an example in this publication, is subjective. However, you can get a rough idea of ​​how the application is displayed in the directory, and what affects the choice of the user when downloading.