Education and technology always seem to go hand in hand. New technological advances make it easy for students and educators to stay in touch. Even more important, they have the potential to improve the overall educational experience.
Thanks to web and mobile apps, the education market has expanded in ways that few would have imagined just a decade ago. It is now possible to learn via our mobile devices, no matter where we are. From language apps to music theory and even meditation, there seems to be a big difference between the topics, but all education apps share some elements that differentiate the successful ones from the rest.
Getting some of these elements right is essential to guarantee the future of your project. That’s why in this post I’ll discuss some things to keep in mind when developing your EdTech app.
Challenges With EdTech
Developing an app for a specific industry poses its own challenges. This is true for the case of EdTech apps.
In order to build a product that users love, it is necessary to face the following challenges.
- Engagement: most people start using an educational app with the goal of learning something. In the beginning, commitment levels are high and engagement soars. The problem comes when the initial excitement fades and motivation disappears.
- Learning: this might sound obvious for any education-related technology. However, it is common that project managers focus too much on building a great product and forget what the actual goal is. It is important to always keep in mind the learning experience.
- Monetization: learning can be fun, but not everyone likes to pay for it. Finding the right way for users to pay for your EdTech services is an important part of your business. Users need to feel that their resources are in the right place.
5 Tips for Building EdTech Apps
Managing these challenges is no easy task, but it doesn’t have to be a constant pain. Consider these 5 tips and make your EdTech project stand out from its competitors.
Gamification
There was a time some years ago when everything seemed to revolve around gamification. If an app had an engagement issue, gamification was the way to solve it. If a new business model was being tested, gamification was the answer to do it. That moment has luckily passed, and we can now see clearly what gamification is all about.
Realistically speaking, gamification is not the miracle cure for bad digital products. It will not save a bad app, but it can make an engaging one even better. By using game elements, EdTech apps can keep users motivated to learn and improve their skills.
Don’t just limit your gamification features to awards, scores and rankings. Be creative about how you can relate to your users and help them achieve their goals. Find out what works and what doesn’t, but always try to make users feel like they are playing, not working.
UX and UI
Having the right user experience and interfaces in place can make all the difference when it comes to winning the hearts of your users. Designers’ experience has an important role to play in this process, but keep in mind that the best way to ensure your app’s success is to field test it. Only by having users try it out and give you feedback will you be able to fix issues and improve your app.
A useful concept to keep in mind is the customer journey. By focusing on your users’ touchpoints and pains you will be able to identify where improvements can be made. This will help you reduce friction along the educational process. Linc’s award winning platform is a good reference of how this should be done.
Quality Assurance
Learning can be frustrating for many people. Adding any additional layer of difficulty can end up making things worse, so avoid any mistakes and bugs in your app. Not doing so can result harmful.
Make sure to identify any potential threat at the early stages of your app’s development. Once an app goes live, mistakes are more expensive to fix and users will not tolerate them. Perform the right quality tests and avoid having a bad time in the future.
Simplify
It often occurs that we want our EdTech app to have many features, but more does not necessarily mean better. Having lots of features is nice, but it can also increase an app’s complexity. Avoid this and try to keep the number of features at the right number. There is no right or wrong way of calculating this. The best advice we can give you is to try and focus on simplicity. If something makes you think, then it is not simple enough.
Outsource
A common mistake of many EdTech companies is doing everything in-house. Because education is something that needs specific knowledge, many educators believe that they need to be on top of every detail. Although looking out for details is very important, it is also necessary to know when to delegate.
Not all companies have the same resources or know how to develop an app. Some tasks need to be delegated to third parties. This allows for better use of resources and also better results. When it comes to EdTech app development, finding a strategic development partner is key. Learning to develop digital products using an Agile framework is also very important.
Final Thoughts
As remote learning alternatives gain a considerable amount of market share, EdTech apps will have many opportunities. This implies that they will have to face important challenges to connect with their users. To do so, it is important that companies make the right decisions and avoid costly mistakes.
Having the right experience in your team is crucial to guarantee your app’s success. Whether it is through an app development partner or staff augmentation services, Koombea might be what you are looking for.
We’ve been helping our clients build world-class apps since 2007 with outstanding results. Our custom Agile methodology has been proven with over 1000 software products, guaranteeing you that your goals are met and your budget is kept tight for your EdTech app development project.
Contact us today for a free consultation and find out how we can help you make your dream app a reality.
