Getting users to download an app

As a web developer, getting someone to check out your app is as simple as dropping them a link and asking them to let you know what they think. You might even get onto a Skype call with them, get them to share their screen with you as they go through the app and observe their interactions.

A significant hurdle for mobile apps, on the other hand, is getting users to go to the store and download your app. You can send them the link, but they then have to follow it to the relevant store, go through the downloading process, and then access the app to test it out. And iOS makes the process even harder by requiring a password for you to be able to download the app.

Irrespective of how you recruit users for your experiments, making the series of steps as seamless as possible is important. In Chapter 11, Onboarding and Registration, we will discuss how to streamline the onboarding and testing processes in order to reduce such friction, using services such as TestFlight, HockeyApp, and the PlayStore's Alpha/Beta channels:

These tools will help simplify this process, but it's still not quite as smooth if your target audience isn't tech-savvy. Targeting early adopters, which will also be discussed later in the book, is one way to help you find users whose need for your app can be enough to push them past the onboarding friction.