It’s hard not to notice how mobile has become such a large part of our lives. While shopping, we scroll through coupon apps to find the best deals. Sitting in a meeting, we look up lyrics to that one song stuck in our head all day. On vacation, we take photos and share them with our friends and loved ones. Many of our experiences now start with a tap of the screen.

Recent studies have shown that Americans check their phone once every 12 minutes. Whether to answer an email or skip to the next song, we reach for our phones upwards of 80 times a day! Our clients have noticed this boom in mobile lifestyles and ask us how they can take advantage of how consumers now interact with the world — not only to increase revenue but to offer their customers new experiences and ways to connect.

From startups to Fortune 500 companies, many come to us with great ideas but need help articulating what feature sets they want, requirements for desired use cases, or even scope out how much their vision would cost. Here are some ideas (and features!) matching current trends from our exhaustive research.

For Commerce and Suppliers (In-Store and Online)

Create an app that customers would love to use and draw them to your store (or online) for that product or service they want!

    • Allow a quick inventory and price checker.
    • Offer a daily or weekly deal in the app exclusively for the app user.
    • Give customers a fun badge for checking in frequently and using the app.
    • Randomly send out special incentives after so many app check-ins.
    • Let customers easily tweet you a question.
    • Sell a gift certificate that can be redeemed anywhere.
    • Run polls to gauge customer interest in brands (Cove vs. Pepsi) so you know what to focus on selling.
    • Send the customer a freebie or just a greeting notification on their birthdays.

Event and Networking Apps

Professional and social networking has boomed lately. Create an event-specific app with many ways to stay in the loop!

    • Make it easy to find the event by providing directions, a map, and the host’s contact information.
    • Let them see who’s coming and speaker bios for networking.
    • Let them keep track of upcoming events.
    • Provide directions, maps, and the host’s contact information.
    • Make it easy to RSVP and keep tabs on event updates.
    • Let people post messages to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook right from the app.
    • Let them add comments, upload photos, and even share with their friends.
    • Use the location-aware capabilities to let them find people in their industry.

Restaurants with Daily Specials

Many restaurants have a website and Facebook page where they update information. Still, there’s an excellent co-marking and co-branding opportunity to save costs while keeping customers coming to the restaurants. You don’t have to be a restaurant owner to develop this app. You can establish and harvest anyway!

    • Share the content, such as stories and profiles of each restaurant in the app.
    • Offer customers one or many deals. Add/Update/Delete daily values for all the different restaurants.
    • Publish menu, hours, and locations.
    • Let customers place an order for delivery from any of the participating restaurants.
    • Sell a gift certificate that can be redeemed at any of the restaurants.
    • Send the customer a freebie or just a greetings notification on their birthdays.
    • Let customers reserve a table for parties.
    • Let customers rate and comment about their favorite meals.

Supply Ordering Apps

If you are a business product supplier, create an app that lets people order new supplies by photographing a barcode on the product they need!

    • Let users securely store their shipping and billing information in the app.
    • Let users edit the order quantity and quickly get more of the supplies they need.
    • Let users tap into their purchase history.
    • Provide push notifications for when they are likely to run low on a specific supply.
    • Include reviews, product recommendations, and shipping status notifications.

Healthcare Mobile Apps

Suppose you are a healthcare provider, pharmaceutical manufacturer, or doctor with practice. In that case, you may want to stand out from the competition and develop an app that keeps people informed and connected!

    • Provide a self-monitoring tool. Show drug information and effects.
    • Display beginner-level anatomy and educational videos.
    • Create tools that help determine whether the patient has made progress between visits.
    • Include an online exercise monitoring tool so users can set and track workout goals.
    • Provide a way for users to self-monitor emotional experiences associated with an illness.
    • Dentists can show the effects of dental conditions such as periodontal disease, decay, cracks, and other states over time.
    • Patients can make, update, or cancel appointments.
    • Gather patient feedback and testimonials.
    • Add a built-in GPS capability that will lead patients to your office from their present location. Once the patient starts traveling from the source, a notification can go out to you and your receptionist for a heads-up.

Legal Compliance Apps

Suppose your prospects and customers work in a highly regulated industry. In that case, you can create an app that answers legal questions, deliver results for government guidelines, and provides safety requirements so that they may rest assured that they’re compliant at all times!

    • Create a checklist that outlines regulatory requirements on demand.
    • Offer advice in various sectors such as business, contractors, charities, educational instates, and more.
    • Provide contract review and approval.
    • Provide trademark registration and handling of IP infringement issues.
    • Facilitate incident/accident reports and whistleblower reports.
    • An attorney can provide checklists in their practice area and advertise their law firm.

Apps for IT Companies

Finally, if you are a software developer like us, you can make an app that lets people use your software’s features on their mobile devices. We are constantly working on making our clients feel more connected and productive on the go, and we don’t mind sharing some examples with you!

    • Deliver security alerts when customers experience a security breach.
    • Let your readers select only the newsletter topics they want to learn about.
    • Create an HTML code generator for a novice to figure out how to code their next email campaign.
    • Let customers calculate the ROI of features their consumers are requesting.
    • An app alerts your sales team when a new prospect needs to be contacted.

Many innovations come from the desire to create something fantastical or revolutionary. Sometimes, however, innovations may come from observing the most subtle ways we interact with the world and are driven to make things easier incrementally, faster, or yield better returns.

To sum it up, here at ATI, we innovate by listening to the minor details our clients bring to us, understanding their market, and envisioning every use case being made more accessible and faster, leaving everyone feeling more connected. With the correct feature set and our attention to user experience, developing the right app has proven to increase customer retention and revenue for our clients.

If you or your organization are looking for a mobile, web, or software solution, our team of veteran developers is ready to hear from you!