With more than 1m applications currently active on Google Play it is becoming increasingly hard to get noticed. The good news is that Google is paying attention – it is actively helping users find the best applications out there.
To resolve the discoverability issue, Google took a tried and true design pattern of “featured applications”. Each week the Google Play editorial staff select a new set of apps to promote in its popular Featured and Staff Picks collections.
The Featured collections highlight the latest and greatest app and game titles available for Android. Category featuring highlights the best and most popular apps in the top categories. Staff Picks collects all recently-featured apps and games on Google Play. To better reach tablet users, there’s a special Staff Picks collection that highlights the best apps for Android tablets.
So the only question left is how to get featured, right? Here are six things you can do to improve your chances
Be consistent with the OS
Google aims to create several groundrules for basic navigation of any application to help users with a more intuitive and pleasant experience. Here are some examples:
The application must use the system navigation of ‘back,’ ‘up,’ ‘home,’ and ‘recents’ without any changes and must not override them.
All dialogs must be dismissible with the back button.
Be stable and reliable
Don't keep your users guessing; make it absolutely understandable what happens when the user touches, clicks or swipes any part of the screen. Make initializations and content loading as fast as possible. Test your application with all of the tools available, and pay special attention to testing in ‘strict mode.’ When turned on, no red flashes should appear anywhere during the application's runtime on all targeted devices.
Audio and video should perform smoothly with no distortions during normal application usage. And the application must never crash, freeze, force close or behave abnormally during normal application usage
Dress for success
A great application GUI is key, but there's more to it. Make the UX intuitive, effortless and fun. To do so, use carefully-placed animation to illustrate situations (like a sticking animation at the end of a list or gallery). Make objects as real as possible so that users don't have to think what will happen when they click, swipe or roll-over them. Allow users to make their instance of your application their own with personalization when possible. And use your application and the user ecosystem to get to gather feedback from your user base.
You should also support HD quality UI (minimum 720p) on all applicable devices, and also, support all device screen sizes that you can, and utilize all that Android offers for it, such as fragments, multiple resource folders, etc.).
Take the time to fill out your applications Play profile, including thumbnails and icons of all sizes; screenshots of selected screens; an explanation video; a full and well thought-out description; and an accurate and appropriate maturity and content rating.
Do no evil
There are a few practices that serve as a big red flag to Google Play's editors, and you must avoid them at all cost. These ‘flags’ all have something in common – they are all perceived by Google as a way to manipulate either the end user or Google to obtain something not in the way that Google intended.
To stay out of any black books, try to keep you app from asking for permissions you don't need for the advertised functionality; downloading and installing other applications; offering in-app rewards in exchange for positive ratings or comments; including content that doesn't comply with the maturity rating, as reported to Google Play upon creation; and doing anything without the users’ direct consent and without clearly stating it on the application's description in Google Play.
Respect your user
This refers to thinking about functionalities and how they might affect the user's lifestyle in the real world. For example, your application shouldn't play music when the screen is off, the device is locked, or your application is in the background, unless it is a core functionality and the user opted in (e.g. if the application is a music player). Neither should your application play sounds when the screen is off, the device is locked, or your application is in the background, unless, once again, it is a core functionality and the user opted in (e.g. if the sound is a notification that's important to the user).
Do your homework
Treat this post as just a starting point. There are mountains of resources, most of them made available by Google, in order to help you make the best apps that you possibly can. Here's a short list to start with:
- App Quality Checklist
- Android Design Guidelines
- Designing for Performance
- Graphic and Image Assets
The more of these you read, the better chance you have of creating a great application for your users and encouraging Google to notice your application.
Royi Benyossef is set-top box team leader at Vidmind
