In a media storm of: “big bad corporations shelter billions in offshore tax havens”, one would think that you either have to be a “big bad corporation” or a “money-grubbing 1%’er with an overwhelming penchant for hiding money” in order to have an offshore bank account. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nearly anyone can and should utilize the services of an offshore bank.Why would you want to keep your money in an offshore account you say? One of many reasons could be concern for domestic bank stability, and unless you’ve been under a rock for the last several years, you are likely more than a little weary of domestic bank stability. And as of January 2013, the FDIC is rolling back coverage on individual accounts to a cap of $250,000. This is likely not an issue to most of us, but what’s the bigger picture here? What does this say about the solvency of the FDIC? How many near-simultaneous bank failures will it take to bankrupt the FDIC completely? What other policy changes are there that could; in the event of multiple bank failures, effect your hard-earned life savings?You’ve heard about diversifying your assets, between stocks, cash, and hard assets such as gold and silver, but what about diversifying your banks? I’m not talking about opening an account at your local Savings and Loan and an additional account down the street with Citibank, I’m talking about diversifying your banks in different countries. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you head out and convert half of your life’s savings to Icelandic Krona, you can keep your money in US Dollars, just don’t keep those US Dollars in a US Bank. Think about it, you wouldn’t keep your entire life’s saving in one company’s stock, or one mutual fund with one investment company would you? At least I hope you wouldn’t! (Bernie Madoff Investment Securities ring a bell?)Many international banks offer great lines of product with fantastic rates of return designed specifically to attract depositors with US dollars that just don’t exist domestically. Many of these programs are only available to account holders. Even if your credit rating has taken a beating in recent years, you may still be eligible for mortgage financing from your offshore bank when domestic banks won’t even look at you. Granted, the money may be pricey and may have steep equity requirements, but when no domestic lending institution will even give you the time of day… any financing is better than no financing.There are inherent risks with having your money in an offshore bank so take your time, do your homework. Just as you wouldn’t put your money in a domestic bank that appears unstable, or is on the FDIC list of troubled banks, you probably would be well served to stay away from banks like the First National Bank of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. No matter what fantastic rate they offer you! Find a good bank, in a good jurisdiction. Want to know why Swiss banks look so attractive to wealthy account holders? You would think from listening to the talking heads on the major network nightly news programs it would be hiding money… think about that one for a moment: Would you consider a place that has been demonized on the nightly news year-in and year-out; and that is known by absolutely everyone, a good hiding place for money? So what makes you think these wealthy account holders aren’t using the same logic? They didn’t become wealthy by making mistakes with their cash, that’s for sure. The number one reason for using a Swiss Bank is simple: they’re really good at banking. In fact, they’ve been doing it for longer than the US has been the US, and are rock-solid stable. In fact, when was the last time you heard of a Swiss bank failure, collapse or a call for a bailout of the Swiss banking system?And what about staying out of trouble with the IRS? Guidelines change all the time, so be sure to check, recheck and understand them thoroughly before sending your money to a foreign bank account. If you follow the guidelines, do your homework and report your offshore holdings, you can enjoy your offshore account hassle free for many years to come!

Once the app is downloaded, you have little time to take a sigh of relief, and then again start focusing on making things easier for the them till their goal is achieved.

According to the AppsFlyer, an app marketing company, the global uninstall rate for apps after 30 days is 28%. Entertainment apps are most frequently deleted, whereas apps based on Finance is least frequently deleted. No matter which app category you belong to, your strategy should be to remain in the mobile phones of users for a long time, and not just sit around but to fulfill your purpose as well.

If we analyze the encounters of users with an app step by step, it can help us unveil the critical factors that influence mobile app audiences, so that we can work upon those and achieve our purpose. Here are the details:

Step1. Finding Your App in Appstore

For this, we have to first find out what exactly users type to search an app. Based on a research, it has been found that 47% app users on iOS confirmed that they found the app through the App Store’s search engine and 53% app users on Android confirmed the same.

What have been their search queries? Interestingly, as the per the data provided by the TUNE research, 86% of the top 100 keywords were brands.With little scope for non-branded categories, most of the keywords were either of games of utility apps. Common keywords in the non branded category are: games, free games, VPN, calculator, music, photo editor, and weather.

Leaving brands aside, if we analyze the user-type of a Non-branded category, we will get two types of users:

1. Users are informed, and they know what they are search

2. Users are exploring possibilities, have no precise information in mind.

If you are a mobile app development company, targeting non-branded users, then your efforts must be directed to creating apps that compel these two types of users. To do so, we have to analyze once they are on an app store, what keywords they use to search. Regina Leuwer, with expertise in marketing & communications, bring some light to the subject. She reached out Sebastian Knopp, creator of app store search intelligence tool appkeywords, who shared with her the data of unique trending search phrases. And according to that data, in 2017, there were around 2,455 unique search phrases trending in the US.

Now, if we study these data to get information, we will find that name of the app is critical to attract the attention of the users.

If your app belongs to non-branded category, then make sure your app name is similar to the common search queries but also unique in comparison with your competitors. So that when your app name is flashed, they click it on to it, finding it purposeful and compelling both.

Step 2. Installation

Remember your users are on mobile devices has limited resources, from battery to storage and RAM to Internet. Everything is limited. So better create an application that is easy to download or say get downloaded with 5 minutes. One critical advice here:

1. Keep the application file size small.

If you are a developer, use APK Analyser to find out which part of the application is consuming maximum space. You can also reduce classes.dex file and res folder that contains images, raw files, and XML.

Step 3. Onboarding

After the user has successfully downloaded your mobile application, don’t leave anything on assumptions. Guide them properly. This you can do through an onboarding process, where users can learn the key functionality and where to begin with the mobile app. Below are the 3 things you need to keep in your mind when creating an onboarding process for your users.

Short and Crisp: The entire guidance of features and functions should be completed within few seconds, with easy options loud and clear option to skip.

Precise Information: Don’t introduce them to the app. They already know what they have downloaded. The objective to inform about the key functions and features.

Allow Users to Skip: Let the tech-savvy users skip the intro. Your app is to meet their requirement and not to have a friendly session.

Step 4. Purpose and UI
Here, the stage is set for your app and it is the golden chance for you to impress your users. What is needed here is the collaboration between purpose and UI of the app. It totally depends on the problem-solving capability and ease of use of the mobile app. Interface design plays the critical role, allowing the users to access features of the apps easily and quickly to perform the task for what they have downloaded the app. When it comes to interface design, make sure that the design is interactive and task-oriented. Here are some factors that you must take care off while creating mobile app interface:

1. Usability: The Mobile phone is an epitome of convenience and if your users find it difficult to use your app, then there is no way there are going to make the space for it in their mobile phones. From screen size to the color of the app, there are many factors that are equally critical and need attention.

2. Intuitive: To create an intuitive User Interface, you have to read the mind of the users, and develop a model based on that. The next should be precise, clear and ‘obvious’ in an interface.

3. Availability: Key features should be hidden in the drop down menu or even if so, it should be obvious for the user to look into the drop-down. An intricate work of design and research is required to make essential features available for the customers and they don’t need to navigate here and there.

If you need more help with the user-interface and innovative ideas for a mobile app, write to me [email protected] and I promise to get back to you with interesting mobile app designs.