Exploring Opportunities in Wearable App Development Arena

Technology continues to influence people with its advancements. If talking specifically about handheld devices, we have changed our preferences from pager to mobile phones, smartphones, tablets and wearables in short period of time.

Wearable app development arena has experienced a surge as people are expecting to use more wearable apps in future. Did you know that one out of six consumers own a wearable device? This compact size device is the most convenient way to be updated with recent phone calls, messages and other updates.

Mapping Expectations with Opportunities

Wearable devices are used in conjunction with mobile phones to experience its unlimited benefits. It is observed that employees using wearable technology recorded 8.5% increase in productivity and 3.5% rise in job satisfaction.

However, users expect much more than this. They look at wearables as a promising replacement of smartphones where they could be used standalone to handle few operations.

Users love this wearables technology and want it to grow big by overcoming challenges that come in the way of development lifecycle.

Dealing with Design Related Challenges

User Interface

As all of us know that the major issue faced by designers during wearable app development is because of its small screen size. This is a major restriction when thinking of deigning user interface for the wearable app. As there is not much room to include different UI elements, it is recommended to keep it simple with fewer and clearly visible icons.

Another effective way to deal with small screen size of wearables is to use voice commands for triggering actions. With this, developers can program the app to include more functionality and users can undertake an array of tasks that surpass the screen size limitation of the device. In combination to voice commands, wearable apps can incorporate support for gestures that respond to incoming calls or messages with vibration or sound.

User Experience

How will your wearable app interact with the user? Though small in size, the way users engage and interact with it defines its overall user experience. The shape of screen (circle, oval or square), size of display screen and operating system on which the device operates is considered while crafting the UX of app.

Wearable application launched for a particular OS does not run on another device with different OS. As of now, there are not any hybrid frameworks available to develop apps that could run on multiple platforms. When wearables app are portable in nature, one could expect high ROI.

Overcoming Other Technical Challenges

Battery

Users have high expectations when it comes to battery life of wearables or even smartphones. This makes it important for developers to take the aspect of battery life into consideration while developing wearable app.

Minimum battery eating apps are usually preferred by users. Those apps that drain more battery are useless because wearables are designed to last longer than other handheld devices. Wearables apps can be designed in a way to use device-specific battery saving feature.

Memory

Though the app is expected to include high-end functionalities and features, it should not be heavy in terms of size. Applications that consume less RAM space are preferred for wearables. Wearables have limited storage space which makes it essential for its apps to be memory conservative.

Security & Privacy

Apps need to have strong mechanisms in place to protect sensitive and personal information of user. This factor becomes utmost crucial when considering wearable app development in finance and healthcare sector.

Conclusion

Wearable app development is triggered considering the increasing trend of this gadget among audience. However, with every opportunity comes a major challenge to deal with. The abandonment rate of smartwatches is high in the recent times and the only reason for this is its limited usability.

One way to increase the utility of smartwatches and other wearables is to develop high-end apps that fulfill user’s expectations. If you are in search of a trustworthy wearable app development company who can assist you in creating feature-rich app, get in touch with Hidden Brains today!