Building Mobile Apps That Students Like and Use

5 Paths to a Successful Mobile App

What students don’t like, they simply don’t use; abandonment rates for mobile apps are at an all-time high. Below are 5 suggestions to help you create an app that not only brings value to students but is one that they will actually use.

• My app is a call to action - Engaging apps are designed for students to take informed actions
• My app transitions a paper process to a mobile experience - Making student services accessible on-the-go is a great step towards making the business of being a student easy
• My app engages students in the Humboldt campus community experience - Studies show that having a sense of belonging to the campus community and being socially active on campus are strong contributors to student success
• My app is focused and concise - Less is more with many things, and especially so with mobile apps
• My app was created in collaboration with students - Partnering with students is the best way to ensure that your app is one that students will actually use!

Build mobile apps, not mobile websites

Today’s students are discerning users. They don’t want to deal with a page from a website on their small screen.

• Mobile apps work faster than mobile websites (almost 5 times faster)
• Mobile apps include the ability to send instant, non-intrusive notifications to students
• Mobile apps utilize mobile device features such as camera, contact list, GPS, phone calls, maps, etc. to make the user experience interactive and shorten the time to perform a task
• Mobile apps are not dependent on browser features like the back button, refresh button, and address bar to work
• Mobile apps can be designed with advanced gestures like tap, swipe, drag, pinch, etc
• Mobile apps can provide basic functionality off-line

Provide "mobile forms" not PDFs

A successful mobile experience is one with a consistent flow. Taking the student out of the mobile experience can be disruptive and generate a negative response to your app.  The "download PDF, manually complete, and then deliver to some office" workflow is far from a mobile experience.

• Replace PDFs with Drupal Webforms
• Drupal Webforms do not require downloading and can be completed and submitted within your mobile app 
• Drupal Webforms provide both a mobile display and a website display
• Drupal Webforms are easy to create, use, and process on the back end
• The same Drupal Webform can be used on both your mobile app and your website - edit once, use in both