By: Steph Dlugon
There are festivals for everything from garlic to global music. A recent search on the iTunes app store revealed that organizations are slowly starting to churn out apps for their events. Several festivals for music, film, sports, food, and art are presented annually. It makes a lot of sense for the hosting organizations to create apps for these regular events. An app can connect patrons and fans to useful information like maps showing venue and parking locations, event calendars with detailed program descriptions, contact information, audio and video clips, social network links and much more. It just makes sense that having immediate access to all the information in one place makes it easier for people to plan. But too much information, or info presented in the wrong way can kill the effectiveness of an app. Here are some things to avoid.
Over-Reliance on Outside Links
It’s always best to build functionality into the app rather than clutter it up with links that take users from the app to outside websites. A lot of sites are not mobile-friendly, so navigating them can be a frustrating experience that will lead to users ignoring or deleting your app.
Slooooooow Looooads
Providing a lot of useful information within the app is great only if it doesn’t take forever to load. One work-around is to cache the data that gets served up. Cached data is stored on the user’s device, so it loads faster and is available even without network connectivity. If you’re thinking about working with a development firm to build an app, ask them about the performance of their apps.
Feature Overload
Don’t cram a million clever features into an app just because you think you can. The app is just one tool at your organization’s disposal. The features within the app should be intuitive and easy to use. Too many bells and whistles can actually be frustrating to a user.
