Why digital agencies will ruin your app You've probably worked with many digital agencies that say their experience in the industry sets them apart from everyone else. For your app to succeed you have to combine app expertise with industry experience. Industry experience alone isn't going to help you. There are many reasons why you should choose "mobile app expertise" over digital agencies with "industry experience". Building an app is a completely different ball game for it to be lumped together with everything else "digital" - especially when it comes to time, attention and money. Let's have a look at some of the cons of prioritising industry experience over mobile app expertise, as well as some of the downsides of choosing a generic digital agency over a mobile app agency.
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Digital agencies have created fewer apps Most digital agencies haven't done much app related work compared to dedicated mobile app agencies - mainly because digital agencies dabble in bits of everything. For that reason, they don't have a clue about issues that could cause your app to fail or get rejected. The little app work they have done in the past is not significant enough to build in-house expertise. Most of them probably create less than five apps in a year. In comparison, a serious app agency may have five or more apps in development at any given time.
Digital agencies haven't suffered many setbacks With each new app that we develop, we learn something new. Some of the things we've learnt include: ● Improving QA processes and checklists for app store submissions. ● Efficient methods of developing apps quicker.
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â—? Implementing key app metrics. Paying a digital agency to develop your app means you're basically paying them to learn how the job is done.
Digital agencies can have just one developer Most of the time digital agencies tend to multitask whilst attempting to develop apps for their clients. They can often only have one developer in-house. Having one developer means there's nobody else to check errors or suggest improvements. When a single developer is doing all the technical work, they may turn out to be a generalist, this is bad practice in the eyes of dedicated mobile app development agencies. Dedicated app developers understand what good UI/UX is and are always reading up on best practices.
Digital agencies don't have a defined process Building a high-quality app is an art with a bit of science. While digital agencies understand the first part, they don't understand or excel in the second.
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The process for app development needs to be rigorous to make sure everything stays within schedule and within budget. If you don't understand the full software lifecycle it's unlikely your app will ever make it to the app stores.
Digital agencies usually outsource app development Most digital agencies don't go through the hassle of hiring in-house developers, instead, they tend to subcontract their app development to dedicated app development agencies. This approach is the only way to ensure quality. The downsides, communication can become slow, and you end up paying more than you should.
Conclusion If you decide to value industry experience over app expertise you could be going down a slippery slope. This is one of the main reasons for ending up with a below-average app.
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Digital agencies don't have the experience, developers and processes in place to produce the same quality of apps compared to dedicated app development agencies. When you take all these points into consideration, it doesn't make sense to prioritise industry experience over app expertise.
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