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diff --git a/docs/html/distribute/essentials/optimizing-your-app.jd b/docs/html/distribute/essentials/optimizing-your-app.jd new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fe91b28 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/html/distribute/essentials/optimizing-your-app.jd @@ -0,0 +1,517 @@ +page.title=Optimize Your App +page.metaDescription=A look at how to get the most visibility and the highest ratings possible for your app or game. Optimizing the quality of your apps is a key strategy. +page.image=/distribute/images/gp-optimize-card.jpg + +@jd:body + +<div id="qv-wrapper"> + <div id="qv"> + <h2>Strategies</h2> + <ol> + <li><a href="#listen-to-your-users">Listen to Your Users</a></li> + <li><a href="#measuring-analyzing-responding">Measuring, Analyzing, and Responding to User Behavior</a></li> + <li><a href="#improve-stability">Improve Stability and Eliminate Bugs</a></li> + <li><a href="#improve-ui">Improve UI Responsiveness</a></li> + <li><a href="#improve-usability">Improve Usability</a></li> + <li><a href="#professional-appearance">Professional Appearance and Aesthetics</a></li> + <li><a href="#deliver-features">Deliver the Right Set of Features</a></li> + <li><a href="#integrate">Integrate with the System and Third-Party Apps</a></li> + <li><a href="#related-resources">Related Resources</a></li> + </ol> + </div> +</div> + +<div class="top-right-float"> + <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-optimize.png" class="quality-top-image" style= + "width:239px;padding-left:1.5em;"> +</div> + +<p> + With thousands of new apps being published in Google Play every week, it's + important to look for ways to get the most visibility and the highest ratings + possible. Optimizing the quality of your apps is a key strategy. +</p> + +<p> + A higher quality app can translate to higher user ratings, generally better + rankings, more downloads, and higher retention (longer install periods). + High-quality apps are much more likely to get positive publicity, such as + being featured in Google Play or generating social media buzz. +</p> + +<p> + The quality of your apps is something you should consider addressing both + before and after launch. Gaining users after the launch of a poor quality app + can be hard and recovering costly. On the other hand, maintaining the ranking + of high-quality apps is made easier if there are continual improvements, a + practice that also fuels the impression-install-ranking cycle. +</p> + +<p> + On this page you can find advice on a number of ways in which you can drive + improvements to your apps’ quality. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> + <h1 id="listen-to-your-users"> + Listen to Your Users + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<div class="figure"> + <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-optimizing-chat-bubbles.png"> +</div> + +<p> + Listening and hearing your users can be one of your best tools for success. + Start listening to your users before launching your apps and continue to + listen after launch. +</p> + +<h3> + <strong>Listening before you launch</strong> +</h3> + +<p> + You can listen to your users during the development of your apps. This + process can start with focus groups to review app features, continue into + user experience workshops, and onto alpha and beta releases. Listening at + these stages has two main benefits: <strong>you’ll build apps with features + users want</strong> and <strong>any issues they identify will be cheaper and + quicker to fix</strong> than they would be once the app is launched fully. +</p> + +<p> + If the practicalities of focus groups and user workshops seem excessive in + relation to the development of a particular app, drawing on the feedback of + colleagues, friends, and family can be much more useful than getting no + feedback at all. +</p> + +<p> + It's crucial to conduct user testing before releasing your apps to Google + Play. If you can only engage with colleagues, friends, and family you’re + already making a good start. For more extensive testing consider a public + alpha/beta test or creating your own trusted tester program. You can manage + app distribution yourself through email or your own website, or you can use + <a href= + "{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#alpha-beta">beta-testing</a> + and <a href= + "{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#staged-rollouts">staged + rollouts</a> in conjunction with <a href= + "http://www.google.com/+/business/">Google+</a> or <a href= + "https://groups.google.com/forum/#!overview">Google Groups</a> to distribute + software and gather feedback to a subset of users. <strong>Users on alpha or + beta versions cannot leave reviews or ratings</strong>, so there is + <strong>no risk to your rating</strong> on Google Play. +</p> + +<p> + Unless you have to, don’t restrict the users you involve in these stages in + the information they can share through their social networks and blogs - + users engaged in these early stages (and listened too) are likely to be great + ambassadors for your apps and will help create great social media buzz. +</p> + +<h3> + Listening after launch +</h3> + +<p> + Once you have launched, the most obvious way to listen to users is by reading + and addressing comments on Google Play. Although the comments aren't always + productive or constructive, some will provide valuable insight on aspects of + your apps. It's important to remember that users have the opportunity to + change their ratings and comments as much as they like. +</p> + +<p> + There are more interactive ways you can reach users, help them address their + concerns, and gather more detailed feedback: by setting up support and + discussion forums. There are some great support tools out there that can put + you in touch with your users directly, from forums such as <a href= + "http://groups.google.com/">Google Groups</a> to comprehensive customer + support products and tools like UserVoice. Once you get set up with such a + tool, make sure to fill in the support link in your Google Play product + details page — users do click through to these. +</p> + +<p> + Also don’t forget to use the <a href= + "{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#alpha-beta">beta-testing</a> + and <a href= + "{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#staged-rollouts">staged + rollout</a> features of Google Play with app updates. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine" id="measuring-analyzing-responding"> + <h1> + Measuring, Analyzing, and Responding to User Behavior + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<div class="figure"> + <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-optimize-analytics.png"> +</div> + +<p> + One of the best ways to spot issues to resolve is by measuring user behavior. + Optimizing your app becomes much easier when you analyze performance before + and after you launch. Drop off points, low ratings, and high percent of + uninstalls can be indicative that there’s a problem. Measuring and responding + to user-related metrics such as download sources, retention rates, and in-app + behavior regularly is critical to keeping and bringing back your hard earned + user base. +</p> + +<p> + You can get data from tools in Google Play or third-parties to analyze user + behavior. You can identify details such as: +</p> + +<ul> + <li> + <p> + Where installs are coming from. + </p> + </li> + + <li> + <p> + The types of users you are acquiring. + </p> + </li> + + <li> + <p> + What is causing user churn and how to reduce it. + </p> + </li> +</ul> + +<h3> + Statistics for analyzing installs and ratings +</h3> + +<p> + Once you’ve published your app, Google Play makes it easy to see how it’s + doing. The <a href="https://play.google.com/apps/publish/">Developer + Console</a> gives you access to a variety of anonymized statistics and custom + charts that show you the app's installation performance and ratings. +</p> + +<p> + You can view data and charts for active, daily, and total installs per unique + devices or users, as well as upgrades and uninstalls. You can also view the + app's daily average user rating and its cumulative user rating. To help you + analyze the data, you can view install and ratings statistics across a + variety of different dimensions such as Android version, device, country, app + version, and carrier. +</p> + +<div> + <img class="border-img" src="{@docRoot}images/gp-dc-stats-mini.png"> +</div> + +<p> + You can see your app statistics on timeline charts, for all metrics and + dimensions. At a glance, the charts highlight your app’s installation and + ratings peaks and longer-term trends, which you can correlate to promotions, + app improvements, or other factors. You can even focus in on data inside a + dimension by highlighting specific data points (such as individual platform + versions or languages) on the timeline. +</p> + +<p> + You can download all of your installation data as a CSV file for viewing in + the business program of your choice. +</p> + +<h3> + Tracking and analyzing Marketing campaigns +</h3> + +<p> + While you should consider monitoring user behavior data as a part of your + normal activities, it’s particularly important when you’re running any form + of marketing campaign, to make sure you’re getting the right users at the + lowest cost possible. +</p> + +<p> + One way to track your marketing campaigns is to link <a href= + "http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2013/10/improved-app-insight-by-linking-google.html"> + Google Analytics with your Google Play account</a> to analyze activity from + source to install. +</p> + +<div style="margin-top:1em;"> + <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-optimizing-image-4.jpg" class="border-img"> +</div> + +<p> + You can also use any of the variety of tools on the market to help track your +marketing success and improvement ROI if you wish. There are also third parties +who can help automate, measure, and optimize your mobile marketing. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> + <h1 id="improve-stability"> + Improve Stability and Eliminate Bugs + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<p> + There are many tools and techniques for testing and profiling your app on + different devices and user scenarios. +</p> + +<p> + One noteworthy and yet relatively underused tool for catching stability + issues such as crashes is the <a href= + "{@docRoot}tools/help/monkey.html">UI/Application Exerciser Monkey</a> + (Monkey). Monkey will send random UI events to your app's activities, + allowing you to trigger user flows that can uncover stability problems. +</p> + +<p> + Also, with the Google error-reporting features built into most Android + devices, users have a way to report application crashes to you. The error + reports show up in aggregate in the Google Play Developer Console. Make sure + to read these reports often and act on them appropriately. +</p> + +<p> + Last, keep an external bug and feature request tracker and let users know how + to find it. This will enable them to engage with the app at a closer level, + by following features and bugs that affect them. User frustration with app + problems can be effectively managed with diligent issue tracking and + communication. Several community support tools offer issue tracking features, + and if your project is open source, most popular repository hosting sites + offer this as well. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> + <h1 id="improve-ui"> + Improve UI Responsiveness + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<div class="figure"> + <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-optimize-speed.png"> +</div> + +<p> + One sure-fire way to lose your users is to give them a slow, unresponsive UI. + Research has shown that <a href= + "http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2009/06/speed-matters.html">speed + matters</a>, for any interface, on mobile, web, or desktop. In fact, the + importance of speed is amplified on mobile devices since users often need + their information on the go and in a hurry. +</p> + +<p> + You can improve your apps' UI responsiveness by moving long-running + operations off the main thread to worker threads. Android offers built-in + debugging facilities such as StrictMode for analyzing your app's performance + and activities on the main thread. See more recommendations in <a href= + "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4znvD-7VDA">Writing Zippy Android Apps</a>, + a developer session from Google I/O 2010. +</p> + +<p> + A great way to improve UI performance is to minimize the complexity of your + layouts. If you open up <a href= + "{@docRoot}tools/help/hierarchy-viewer.html">hierarchyviewer</a> and see that + your layouts are more than 5 levels deep, it may be time to simplify your + layout. Consider refactoring those deeply nested <a href= + "{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/LinearLayout.html">LinearLayouts</a> into + <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/ui/layout/relative.html">RelativeLayout</a>. + The impact of View objects is cumulative — each one costs about 1 to 2 KB of + memory, so large view hierarchies can be a recipe for disaster, causing + frequent VM garbage collection passes which block the main (UI) thread. You + can learn more from the Google I/O session <a href= + "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBM6wVEO70">World of ListView</a>. +</p> + +<p> + Lastly, as pointed out in the blog post <a href= + "http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/10/traceview-war-story.html">Traceview + War Story</a>, tools like <a href= + "{@docRoot}tools/help/traceview.html">traceview and ddms</a> can be your best + friends in improving your app by profiling method calls and monitoring VM + memory allocations, respectively. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> + <h1 id="improve-usability"> + Improve Usability + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<div class="sidebox-wrapper" style="float:right;"> + <div class="sidebox"> + <p> + <strong>Tip:</strong> As you’re designing or evaluating your app's UI, + make sure to read and become familiar with the <a href= + "{@docRoot}design/index.html">Android Design</a> guidelines. Included are + many examples of UI patterns, styles, and building blocks, as well as + tools for the design process. + </p> + </div> +</div> + +<p> + In usability and in app design too, you should listen carefully to your + users. Ask a handful of real Android device users (friends, family, etc.) to + try out your app and observe them as they interact with it. Look for cases + where they get confused, are unsure of how to proceed, or are surprised by + certain behaviors. Minimize these cases by rethinking some of the + interactions in your app. See the <a href= + "{@docRoot}design/patterns/index.html">Patterns section</a> for tips to + improve your design. +</p> + +<p> + In the same vein, two problems that can plague some Android user interfaces + are small tap targets and excessively small font sizes. These are generally + easy to fix and can make a big impact on usability and user satisfaction. As + a general rule, optimize for ease of use and legibility, while minimizing, or + at least carefully balancing, information density. +</p> + +<p> + Another way to incrementally improve usability, based on real-world data, is + to implement <a href= + "http://code.google.com/mobile/analytics/docs/">Analytics</a> throughout your + app to log the use of particular sections. Consider demoting infrequently + used sections to the overflow menu in the <a href= + "{@docRoot}design/patterns/actionbar.html">Action bar</a>, or removing them + altogether. For often-used sections and UI elements, make sure they're + immediately obvious and easily accessible in your app's UI so that users can + get to them quickly. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> + <h1 id="professional-appearance"> + Professional Appearance and Aesthetics + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<p> + There's no substitute for a real user interface designer — ideally one who's + well-versed in mobile and Android, and handy with both interaction and visual + design. One popular venue to post openings for designers is <a href= + "http://jobs.smashingmagazine.com/">jobs.smashingmagazine.com</a>, and + leveraging social networks can also surface great talent. +</p> + +<p> + If you don't have the luxury of working with a UI designer, there are some + ways in which you can improve your app's appearance yourself. You can use + Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, GIMP, Inkscape or other image editing + tools. Mastering the art of the pixel in these apps takes time, but honing + this skill can help build polish across your interface designs. Also, master + the resources framework by studying the framework UI assets and layouts and + reading through the <a href= + "{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/index.html">resources documentation</a>. + Techniques such as 9-patches and resource directory qualifiers are somewhat + unique to Android, and are crucial in building flexible yet aesthetic UIs. +</p> + +<p> + Before you get too far in designing your app and writing the code, make sure + to visit the <a href="{@docRoot}design/index.html">Android Design section</a> + and learn about the vision, the building blocks, and the tools of designing + beautiful and inspiring user interfaces. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> + <h1 id="deliver-features"> + Deliver the Right Set of Features + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<p> + Having the <em>right</em> set of features in your app is important. It's + often easy to fall into the trap of feature-creep, building as much + functionality into your app as possible. Providing instant gratification by + immediately showing the most important or relevant information is crucial on + mobile devices. Providing too much information can be as frustrating (or even + more so) than not providing enough of it. +</p> + +<p> + Again, listen to your users by collecting and responding to feature requests. + Be careful, though, to take feature requests with a grain of salt. Requests + can be very useful in aggregate, to get a sense of what kinds of + functionality you should be working on, but not every feature request needs + to be implemented. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> + <h1 id="integrate"> + Integrate with the System and Third-Party apps + </h1> + + <hr> +</div> + +<p> + A great way to deliver a delightful user experience is to integrate tightly + with the operating system. Features like <a href= + "{@docRoot}guide/topics/appwidgets/index.html">Home screen widgets</a>, + <a href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/notifications.html">rich + notifications</a>, <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/search/index.html">global + search integration</a>, and <a href= + "{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/QuickContactBadge.html">Quick + Contacts</a> are fairly low-hanging fruit in this regard. +</p> + +<p> + For some app categories, basic features like home screen widgets are + expected. Not including them is a sure-fire way to tarnish an otherwise + positive user experience. Some apps can achieve even tighter OS integration + with Android's contacts, accounts, and sync APIs. +</p> + +<p> + Third-party integrations can provide even more user delight and give the user + a feeling of device cohesiveness. It's also a really nice way of adding + functionality to your app without writing any extra code (by leveraging other + apps' functionality). For example, if you're creating a camera app, you can + allow users to edit their photos in another app before saving them to their + collection, if they have that third-party application installed. More + information on this subject is available in the Android Training class + <a href="{@docRoot}training/basics/intents/index.html">Interacting with Other + Apps</a>. +</p> + +<div class="headerLine"> +<h1 id="related-resources">Related Resources</h1><hr> +</div> +<div class="resource-widget resource-flow-layout col-13" + data-query="collection:distribute/essentials/optimizing, tag:addia" + data-sortOrder="-timestamp" + data-cardSizes="6x3" + data-maxResults="3"></div> +<div class="resource-widget resource-flow-layout col-13" + data-query="tag:adia" + data-sortOrder="-timestamp" + data-cardSizes="6x3" + data-maxResults="3"></div> + |