Mobile developers for iOS platform are always holding their breaths when Apple is releasing a new guideline. This controlling mechanism of Apple is superb, but it seems overwhelming when developers don’t find any logical clue behind it.
Fortunately, in a recent move Apple has broken its silence and revealed the logical reasons behind imposing such hard guidelines for iOS developers to follow affecting their next iOS application development, designing, and programming projects.
Let’s check those reasons one-by-one with the logic behind each.
Lack of Essential Info:
Your app will be rejected if:
- You miss entering any details needed in the App Review Information section of iTunes Connect. Such as contact info and so forth.
- If your app has some features that demand a valid demo account, you must create one and provide username as well as its password.
- If your app needs set up of special configurations, you must include its specifications.
- In case your app requires a unique environment that is tough to replicate, you should provide a demo video. The same is true when an app needs specific hardware, you should provide it upfront.
- Provide crystal clear app description and screenshots or images you want to place in iTunes store. With app description you have only one chance to do effective marketing of your app so be careful and utilise professional writers if needed. Therefore, placing placeholder content is nothing but foolishness.
- Always avoid providing any false information because Apple cross-check everything before approval. If you promise some features and functionality, it should be there otherwise, you will lose the favor of Apple as well as your potential customers and become victim of negative reputations.
- In short, you should not provide anything half-baked otherwise you will lose a good opportunity to get quick approval and the good wishes of your target audience so check everything before final submission.
Design Guidelines:
Apple is fully devoted to provide excellent user experiences in all its products. Therefore, it also expects the same from its developers. Thus, your app should have:
- Clean, Refined, and User-friendly Interfaces
- Intuitive User Experiences
- Great In-App Purchase Experience
- Great First Impression with Strong Onboarding Design
In due course, you should read following documents on the Apple Developer website as Apple wants its app developers to strictly adhere to them and offer seamless user-interface on its platform.
- UI Design Do’s and Don’ts
- iOS Human Interface Guidelines
- UIKit User Interface Catalog
- iOS 7 UI Transition Guide
Relevant App Advertisement:
Since app advertisement is a big monetary issue and needs many technical standards to follow, you should use the Advertising Identifier (IDFA) to serve advertisements. Therefore, your app should have Ads running properly, smoothly, and accurately. Thus, checking it on a real iOS device is a must QA activity. Of course, you should remember to mention that whether you are using IDFA or not honestly in the submission process and should follow their guidelines for Ads and its displays. If you are telling any lie knowingly or unknowingly, your app will be put into the “Invalid Binary” status.
User Experiences:
Apple knows you are investing heavily on app development in terms of time, money, and resources. Therefore, it never like to have any substandard product from you that just dump the marketplace. In due course, it checks the user experiences of your app thoroughly and its some criteria are:
- Your app should have all required security features relevant to the theme or nature of the app
- It never likes any broken link that distracts the users and user experiences. For instance, if you have app designed in the kid’s category, you must have accurate link to its privacy policy.
- You must check your app for any bug and potential crashes using appropriate best testing methods and tools.
- You should check smooth flow of screens, rapid interactions, app loading, connectivity issues if your app uses web services or cloud services, the app should be intuitive and engaging by design and programming. In due course, you should check web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links like issues upfront.
Usability:
As we have mentioned above in the user experiences section, the same is true for the usability. Thus, if your app has limited scope for its users in sense of its content and performance, you have meagre chances to get approval.
Moreover, your app should have some long-lasting values by providing enough features, functionality, and content. In the same way your target audience should be vast and in sizeable numbers so offering for small niches only is not up to its mark.
Conclusion
Conclusively, we can say that Apple is expecting excellent user experiences using best designing and programming techniques available in the present market. Your app should have been created keeping the best usability for a big audience and should add some values in the life or businesses of the target audience. If you have any bad intention to draw money or personal/business data from the users of your apps, Apple will put a stop on it before you reach the market. Thus, be honest and professional to achieve desired success in the App store of Apple.
Images: ”CIRCA MARCH 2014 – BERLIN: the logo of the brand “Apple App Store”/ Shutterstock.com“
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