One of the most popular apps recently, Flappy Bird is garnering headlines left, right and center, but no one quite knows how Dong Nguyenâs simple app rocketed to super stardom so, analyzing its rise to fame, we tell you how your business app can replicate its success.
The Standout Feature
Likely, a team of all of the analysts in the world couldnât tell you why a game with a selection of unnamed birds, who are inept at flying, has captivated the world but players of Flappy Bird probably could. Theyâd tell you that the single mindedness of the game â there are no power-ups or distractions, just a whole lot of screen tapping and silent prayers that you can do well in the impossibly difficult game â keeps them focused. In typical game reviews, you look at every tiny aspect of the game, but here, the only thing to praise is that you must make the gameâs bird jump through a series of varying pipes and itâs this single feature that players of Flappy Bird are drawn to.
The way to bring this to your business app is that before you have even come up with the perfect name, stuck âiâ before any number of words or even hired an app developer, you have to come up with the standout feature, the USP (unique selling point) that sets you out from your competitors and screams what your business is about from the rooftops. Not only does this present a clear goal and vision, it allows you to focus on this and make it perfect, something that your customers will appreciate over the cluttered, kitchen sink offerings of your competitors.
Word of Mouth
Donât just put Flappy Birdâs success down to its standout feature, though, the fans are as responsible for the gameâs success as much as Dong Nguyenâs development work. What Flappy Bird encouraged, without the use of some bold icons for every social media site going, is the necessity to share.
Bringing fans into the foray, the entire point of Flappy Bird is to boast about your score. Now, perhaps that wonât be the case with your business focused app as youâre unlikely to get many people taking to Twitter to proclaim how much they loved making graphs or charts or whatever other nifty feature that youâve lovingly crafted but what they are likely to do is spread the word to other friends who might make use of what youâre offering. Good products sell themselves, but great products get the fans to sell for them.
Intuitive Design
You have to hand it to Nguyen, his gameâs artwork may, for the most part be lifted completely from the aforementioned popular Nintendo series, but his design is completely original.
The no nonsense design that Flappy Bird includes means that one of the hardest mobile games out there is difficult because of the playerâs skill. If you make your app hard to understand, cluttered or poorly designed, the only reason a user will find your app is difficult is because of you. Keep the fonts, methods and features clean and youâll have few complaints on your appâs design from me.