Performance Metrics of Mobile App: Front-end and Back-end

In the race for innovation and adapting to the latest technology trends, businesses are strongly inclined towards mobile strategy. This trend has resulted in the creation of apps for mobiles and tablets. Industries strongly influenced by the mobile revolution include real estate, healthcare, education, logistics & distribution and retail.

For each domain, there are thousands of apps available; however, not all of them are successful in finding a place in the user’s mobile phone. What could be the possible reason for this discrimination? Though two similar kinds of apps offer almost the same functionalities, one of them is quite popular, while another is lesser-known. Out of 2.6 million apps in the Google Play Store, only 85 free apps and 28 paid aps have over 100 million downloads while just 19 apps make it to the ‘top category’.

Image Courtesy: Google Play Store

Image Courtesy: iTunes

One major reason for the aforementioned discrimination is the performance of the app. How smoothly a user can navigate through the app and its robustness sets two similar kinds of apps apart. This line of distinction is not thin enough to neglect. Let’s discuss performance metrics that define the working mechanism of mobile app:

Front-end Performance Metrics

When looked at an app’s performance from the end user’s perspective, the factors that come to mind are front-end metrics. These elements have to be worked upon on a priority basis as they are directly related to the end-user.

1. Response Time
How much time does your application take to load completely? 2 to 3 seconds time is considerable enough, but anything more than this is subject to the loss of users. The reduced attention span of people and fast-paced life leaves no room for slow mobile apps.
How to improve my application response time? Reconsider the following elements of your mobile app:

• Reduce the number of unique objects on the page for fewer HTTP requests
  Minimize the number of URL redirects
• Avoid usage of heavy components such as Flash

2. Fit-To-Screen Resolution
Irrespective of the screen size of your mobile phone, a mobile app should provide a consistent user experience across all devices. Images, content and animations should appear correctly when the app is loaded. To test the screen rendering metric of the mobile app, ask the following set of questions:

• How does the mobile app appear on the mobile screen?
• Is the text readable or needs to be zoomed in or out?
• Are the images scaled properly to appear appropriately on mobile devices as well as mobile browsers?

Positive answers to these questions will enhance the performance of your mobile app from the end user’s perspective.

3. Protection Against App Crashes
Crashing is the last problem your business mobile app should encounter. In addition to making a negative impression in the minds of users, app crashes imply performance failure. Who would like to use an app that crashes frequently? Such issues reduce the brand value of the business. It is advisable to develop a flawless mobile app that does not face such major and embarrassing issues.

4. Resource Consumption
Mobile apps that consume a lot of resources are less preferred by users. Development of apps should be such that they do not drain an extra battery of mobile phones or occupy much space in RAM. Users have an array of apps on mobile phones to perform different tasks. Keeping this point in mind, develop an app that doesn’t eat much battery and utilizes the minimum resources of mobile phones.

Back-end Performance Metrics

Front-end and back-end performance metrics go hand in hand. This means some of the back-end performance elements directly influence the user’s experience and account for its UI/UX. Let’s discuss few important back-end metrics that account for the success of mobile app:

1. Time to First Byte
Minimum server response time is crucial to provide users with fast performing apps. The time from when a user requests particular data to the time that information is fetched on-screen is termed as TTFB (time to the first byte). Less the TTFB, lesser is the response time and faster is the mobile app.

2. HTTP Requests
HTTP requests take a longer time for server communication and slow down the performance speed of the app. Reduce the number of HTTP requests to avoid issues of long response time from server and app crashes. A fewer number of computing cycles will result in a faster-performing app.

3. Connections and DNS lookups
Proper management of the connection to the back-end with appropriate bandwidth and latency is important with respect to the performance of the mobile app. DNS lookups take 120 to 400 milliseconds to process, which is equivalent to handling downloads of multiple object requests.

Start Optimizing your Mobile App Today

Are you monitoring your mobile app’s performance in the right way? What have you planned to improvise the performance of the mobile app? Strike a balance between front-end and back-end performance metrics to come up with the fast, responsive, scalable and robust business mobile app.

Mobile app development is not any layman’s work. Handing over such a project in the hands of reputed mobile app development company India is a wise move. Experienced professionals working for such a company know about these performance metrics very well. Keeping the minutest of details in mind, top mobile app developers go ahead with the development of a robust business app.

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Albert Smith

Albert Smith, Marketing Manager at Hidden Brains, drives brand growth with innovative strategies in web, mobile app, and software development.