OR/14/073 Success of apps

Bell, P, Shelley, W, Smith, R S, and Tomas, R. 2014. Reusable tools for smartphone apps: innovative activities in the European geological sector. British Geological Survey, OR/14/073.

We wanted to assess how successful app development has been within European Geological Surveys and whether it should be encouraged more widely, including the interests of app users. An obvious metric is the number of downloads of the apps (Figure 17). Many apps are proving popular and successfully bringing the work of the geological surveys to a wide audience but many organisations were not recording or reporting download figures. Another outcome of this survey, therefore, should be to encourage the developers of these apps to collect such metrics.

Figure 17    Download figures for European geological survey apps.

App success is further backed up by some of the positive reviews that developers have been getting for their apps. Some examples are given below.

“I find this really useful in my role as an agricultural crops advisor… greatly assists with the fertility potential and physical qualities I am likely to encounter” “As geotechnical engineer this is priceless” “Very practical application in the field! Congratulations, keep going” “Well done for offering this app for free!!! Would have easily paid a few pounds for this!!!” “Wow fantastic solution, I hope that it will be further developed.” “Very cool application”

These reviews demonstrate apps are being used by professionals to conduct their work. They show that apps are being used when in the field, providing access to information on the move. They show that users appreciate the new ‘cool’, inventive ways of presenting information that can be provided via apps. Users are also acknowledging the increased amount of information that is available for free and that they would like to see further developments.

The survey also explored negative comments received about apps, which can be seen to fall into three categories:

1. The app does not work on my phone — this reflects the widespread decision to concentrate on Android development and the difficulties in supporting the almost infinite combination of different Android devices and versions of the operating system.
2. The app currently is not working — this demonstrates the need to maintain functionality once you have attracted a user base that has become dependent on your app to conduct their professional work or studies.
3. The app lacks a legend — this demonstrates the expectations of traditional map users moving to digital delivery methods. The need for a legend is arguably becoming redundant with the ability to tap on any feature to find out more information about what it represents.

Some of the released apps have also been successful in winning awards. The Swedish Geological Survey’s app Geokartan was rewarded with the Digital Map of the Year prize in 2012 by the Swedish Cartographic Society. The British Geological Survey’s iGeology has won awards for innovation in Central Government and was an ESRI International Community favourite winner for best mobile app. These achievements provide further evidence of the impact and high profile that an organisation can gain by creating apps.