5 Factors To Consider For Successful Wearable App Development

Wearables are a common thing these days and people use all kinds of wearable devices to track health, time, activities and many other aspects of their life. In the current raging market, wearables are growing as fast as smartphones. The wearable device market is valued at 181.51 million units and is anticipated to register a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.10% over the forecast period (2019-2024).

Wearable markets have products like Smartwatches, Head-Mounted Displays, Smart Clothing, Ear Worn, Fitness Trackers, Body Worn Camera, Exoskeleton, and many Smart Medical Devices on offer. Application development for such smart devices is quite different from your regular mobile applications. There are many factors to be considered for the development of wearable apps and we are going to explore five of them.

What is a wearable app?

Application for a wearable device needs to ensure high functionality as these devices are designed to provide several different functions to be carried out through them. Wearables Apps have access to device's hardware like sensors, receivers, etc, to collect data from the hardware and with network connection, utilize these data to f\urther provide the desired output.

Sometimes, these devices show relevant data of different activities on the device screen itself or are logged into a cloud database through an application on different platforms integrated with the device interface. Some devices also allow users to log their data on laptops and desktops through interfaces.

App Size:

Unlike applications designed for the user interface of a smartphone, the wearable apps need to be specifically designed for smaller screens and should be lighter to load. The user interface of any wearable device is designed to incorporate faster functionality and too much memory footprint can hinder the overall functionality of the device. This is the sole reason applications are meant to be kept light and agile.

Developers need to understand the computing needs of a wearable device, which is not like normal smartphone and needs very less overload. Hence, it is vital to keep a lighter version of applications for wearable devices to offer higher functionality.

Design Specifics:

APIs used in the development of wearable applications are specific and can't be used elsewhere. Even the sometimes specific apps can't be used in devices of the same makers. Mobile application APIs, however, have the flexibility of cross-platform usage an that is why wearable application differs from mobile applications on design specifics.

Another factor is the User Interface(UI) structure! the user interface architecture of wearable apps are according to the device specifications and ensure functionality by seamless interaction with various sensors present in the device.

UX specific:

Wearable apps should be three things if not many, user-friendly, easy to use and accessible. UX(User Experience) is the heart of any wearable device in the market. Wearable market has forced many smartphone giants to hire iOS developers and Android developers for the development of apps, compatible with wearable devices. The integration of platforms with the application is essential for its functionality and accessibility. As there is a rising demand among users for smartphone integration with wearable devices, it becomes necessary to part of UX specific designing.

Developers should understand that wearables are devices that personalize the experience of users through its technological advancement and the same should be reflected in application design, UI and the whole architecture of an application. Faster access to the app, seamless interaction, ease to use while having limited features are the key challenges to be overcome by developers during the design of applications for wearables.

One more specific UX specific feature to be kept in mind is to develop an app that can incorporate all the latest hardware developments and innovations in a wearable device. Develop your wearable app to induce continuous integration of future developments with every new version.

Battery Usage:

Most of the wearable devices suffer from a common problem of low battery backup. It is vital for developers to understand that wearables have smaller designs and so, they can't incorporate more memory back-up. Wise thing to do is to design the application that can reduce the overall memory usage by low loading RAM usage and lighter interface for application.

High-end devices in the market tend to offer battery back-up that lasts many days. But, in reality, these numbers decline due too wearable app architecture not designed upto the device specifications.

Testing of Application:

Testing of application is an essential part of the application development lifecycle. Testing renders the results over apps performance on precise requirements of users to enhance UX and UI functionality of wearable apps. Most important factors that needed to be considered while testing is, Installation, Functionality, Performance, Usability, Connectivity, Security, Localization/GPS, Memory Leak, IOP.

There are many challenges and factors that will be developed, due to constant innovations in IoT(Internet of Things) and AI(Artificial Intelligence). These factors are to be kept in mind as they are updated.

Wrapping It Up:

Wearable devices have come a long way from initial smartwatches to VR(Virtual reality) technologies converging on the horizon of technology and scientific advancements that promise to make life easier than ever. Yet, smartwatches are the most successful wearable devices in the market. With 141 million units sold in 2018, smartwatches are on the rise and will remain on the top in wearable markets.

Future holds more to offer on the wearable devices end and we can expect wearable app development to go a notch higher year by year and dictate the markets of tomorrow by integration into businesses, enterprises and many more aspects of human life.