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# The Advantage of Developing Near Me Apps
* Published on
  April 28, 2020
* Last modified September 17, 2021
* Tagged under
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 » The Advantage of Developing Near Me Apps
### Table of Contents
From delivery to on-demand services to travel to relationship building, location-based apps reach across verticals to make everyday life easier. And, even with scale, your users are always local to their location, meaning you shouldn’t underestimate the advantage of near me apps.
## Use Near-Me Searches to Your Advantage in the Marketplace
Over the past several years, “near me” searches have exploded on search engines, including Google and Bing, and apps such as Yelp, Groupon, and Uber. Local SEO has become an increasingly important part of most successful businesses’ marketing plans. To put a number to that claim,  in “near me” searches from 2013 to 2017 and that number has continued to rise.
To say that’s significant growth would be an understatement. It has changed the game in application development.
When users turn to Google, Bing, or even Facebook, they’re often looking for on-demand services and information near where they are in that moment. It may be their hometown or they could be on the road –– either way, their GPS or location services are likely turned on, and search is tuned in to find the answer where they are right now.
But, what does that mean for you as an entrepreneur when you brainstorm ideas to build an application to disrupt the marketplace? How can you take advantage of near me searches to put your app on the radar?
Think about a few of these household names: Uber, Waze, Foursquare, Hinge, The Weather Channel, DoorDash, Instacart, Groupon, Yelp. What do they all have in common? They rely on location-based data to customize their users’ experience. From services available to site-specific offers to personal connections, these apps rely on a users’ location to power the value they bring to the marketplace.
**The reality is, all users are local. When using an app to make life easier, simpler, or more efficient, users need an answer they can use now**. That means connecting them with a person, service, or information that finds them where they are. When a user searches for “food near me,” your food delivery app needs to populate on the first page of search results.
The more locations that an app can scale to, the faster it will grow and the more successful it will be. In a near me driven world, an app is only as good as its ability to find itself where its users are. **That accessibility is what Google *and* users value**.
## How to Build an App that Utilizes Near Me Searches and Location-Based Services
When it comes to the technicalities of building an app that utilizes location-based services and takes advantage of near me searches, we’re going to get into the step-by-step in a future post. Building and launching isn’t the hard part if you have the right skills or hire the right team. The key comes in having the right team or partner to help you handle the complexities of growing and scaling.
You need to bring someone on board with the strategic skills to see the big picture –– that includes the know-how to build not only an application that will resonate with users but a road map to scaleable, successful growth *and* experience securing the necessary funding. The right partner understands your vision, your target audience, and is capable of  that could mean the difference between a download of your app or one of your competitors.
Plus, this partner will have the ability to look at user usage behavior as your app grows and adapt the experience accordingly. What your users need today may not be what they want tomorrow. A good partner will have the know-how to utilize strategic thinking. And, they know when to utilize machine learning to make continuous, near real-time adjustments to the user experience.
**These qualities are the difference between an Uber or Lyft and the hundreds, if not thousands, of other apps that tested the market and got lost in the universe**. And, what startup founder’s goal isn’t to be the household name?
## Let’s Look at a Few Near Me Apps and How They Utilize Location-Based Services
As part of our work, we have created numerous location-based applications. Let’s look at a few near-me apps from our portfolio and how they utilized location-based services.
### : Illness Tracking Application
Trying to stay healthy is top of mind right now. Sickweather takes advantage of near-me technology to scan reporting and social media sites for mentions of illness. It works just as Doppler radar scans the skies for bad weather.
**Plus, Sickweather now has data on COVID-19 and cases that may be near you.**
Using your location, Sickweather lets you know when the chance of illness near you may run the highest. It also indicates what kind of illness is trending in your area. This health-focused app provides a 360-degree experience with the SickScore feature, a hand-washing timer, and more.
Sickweather has been featured on Today, Fast Company, NPR, Mashable, and more.
### 
On-demand food delivery apps are consistently ranked among the most-used in the app store.  This food delivery mobile app allows college students to earn extra money and hyper-focuses their location exclusively to their own campus. It allows university students to pick up food ordered by other students within their dorm. These students can access the dorm itself, rather than leaving the food at the front door.
This value prop capitalizes both on the focused student too busy to walk downstairs…and the student enjoying a lazy Sunday
### : Find Assisted Living Communities Near You
Silver Stay connects people in search of short-term assisted living space with the communities that have available rooms. This application enables short term rentals in assisted living communities while complying with HIPAA regulations.  This application functions like an Airbnb for short term assisted living communities.
This app is like a uber for voters. It utilizes location-based technology to connect voters with nearby volunteer drivers able to provide rides to polling stations and back home.!
## The Advantage of Near-Me Apps Is In Their Ability to Grow and Scale With Users
**When you look at the advantage of a location-based app, it’s the ability to grow and scale as it expands from city to city.** And, it taps into the experience of those hired to lead the process.
You need an idea that makes a bold impact in a saturated marketplace. You want to hire savvy developers with sharp creative thinking skills and a mastery of game-changing user experience. But, **the difference between an app that does okay and one that becomes the next Uber is working with a partner that can help you grow and invest in a vision that expands past your city, state, and maybe even country**. Your limit is as far as location-based services reach.
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#### Ghazenfer Mansoor
Ghazenfer Mansoor is the CEO of Technology Rivers. He has extensive experience in creating innovative and scalable software products. He helped numerous startups in their MVP, product development, and growth strategies.He writes on entrepreneurship, growth strategies, startups and technology.
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# How to Utilize Consumer Personas in UX Design (3 Important Steps)
  April 1, 2020
* Last modified September 14, 2023
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 » How to Utilize Consumer Personas in UX Design (3 Important Steps)
! 1")
As a designer, it’s your job to anticipate the needs and goals of your users –– utilizing specific consumer personas in UX design powers your decisions with a relatable name, face, and story.
You’re working on an exciting idea for a new app or . You have a vision for the difference it will make in people’s lives and how it could disrupt the marketplace. You have an idea of the users that could benefit from your work. But, before you dive into creating a flawless , your first step should be to *really* get to know the person on the other end.
To do that, you’ll launch user research that will help you develop consumer personas to utilize as you make decisions regarding the flow, design, and experience of your app.
## What are Personas? Let’s Talk About Persona 101
Persona is a buzzword that marketers, designers, strategists, and other professionals use to discuss the target audience for their campaigns and products.
This goes beyond something like a one-dimensional description of a 45-year-old female or 19-year-old male to create a full-circle snapshot of an actual person who could be your ideal end-user. It gives this person, or persona, a story with habits, preferences, hobbies, likes, and dislikes. This persona is a profile with a name, photo, geography, and occupation.
While the 360-degree view may be fictional, the specific attributes are grounded in audience data conducted during . The resulting persona acts as a beacon throughout the user experience design process. It lets you answer the question, “Who is going to use this?” and allows you to target all of your design decisions towards mapping out an optimal experience for a specific user.
## What is a Persona in UX Design?
Personas are a valuable tool for UX designers or the design team because they help to:
### Empathize with users
By understanding the user’s needs, goals, and pain points, designers can create products and experiences that are more user-friendly and effective.
### Make better design decisions
Personas can help designers to make better design decisions by providing a clear understanding of the target users.
### Communicate with stakeholders
Personas can be used to communicate with stakeholders, such as product managers and developers, about the target users and their needs.
## Create User Personas that Make an Impact
User personas let you get in the minds of your . They allow you to hone in on the goals, pain points, and habits of the people who you want to download and use your app on a regular basis. In order for you to create a successful user experience, you need to have a target. It’s not a one size fits all process.
But, how do you create successful user personas to utilize in UX design? This may be the point at which you  but, regardless of whether you go forth on your own or bring in the experts, here are the steps you’ll walk through.
## 3 Steps to Create Create a Persona for UX Design
1. **Consider the basic demographic information you have on hand**. What first-party data do you have regarding your ideal customers? Do you know their age, gender, occupation, income, or other general demographic information? Expand upon who they are, what they do, and what they enjoy.
2. **Think about your target consumer’s needs and behavioral actions**. What are they looking to accomplish when they download your app? Do you know their current pain points in the digital world? How about their goals today, tomorrow, and long term? You don’t just want to know who your target audience is, you want to know what will drive these consumer personas to interact and engage with you.
3. **Lastly, use the information you have to put into place to create your targeted consumer personas**. It does not have to be limited to one. Perhaps you have Mary, a 48-year old married mother of two. She works in public relations, enjoys dining at new restaurants, hiking, and looks for apps that help her run her busy life more efficiently. You also have John, a 32-year old single man running a start-up. He likes craft beer, traveling, and looks for innovative apps that save time, while also making him feel on the cutting edge of new technology.
Attach a biography and photo to these personas and imagine when and how they’ll use your program. You want to humanize the user as much as possible. Go the extra step and give each a name, “The On-the-Go Working Mom” or “The Tech-Savvy Start-Up Founder.”
And, don’t think that consumer personas stop with you. They can be utilized across teams, from product development to marketing to customer service.
## Utilize Consumer Personas in UX Design
With consumer personas in place, the UX design of your app or software has a specific and clear goal. You want the end user that the persona represents to be able to fully utilize your program in an efficient and beneficial way.
Personas are the backbone of the design thinking process. They enable you to walk through scenarios in which the consumer personas would look to your app to reach a goal or solve a pain point. They give you a window into empathy, or understanding the experience of the end user. Personas allow for concrete thinking about how your app will be used in the real world.
UX designers can find themselves so ingrained in the process that it’s difficult to step back. But, with a persona in mind, they can remind themselves that it’s the user that must be at the core of the flow, design, and experience of a program.
## Weave Customer-driven UX Design into Your App
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*Need help in launching a customer discovery program to develop consumer personas and power your UX design?  to learn how you can set your application up for success.*
#### Yousif Memon
Yousif works as a Marketing Lead at Technology Rivers. He writes blog articles on different topics including entrepreneurship, startups, marketing, and technology.
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