What do I, an aspiring app developer, think makes a good mobile app?

I think fundamentally, a ‘good’ app is just easy to use. It does it’s job and it does it’s job well. It doesn’t try to be anything more than it is: a mobile app with the mission of helping you complete a specific task.

A good app is more than just easy, it’s intuitive. When you load it up you aren’t left thinking “WTF am I supposed to do now?”. If an app is just a portable version of a popular web service it should be immediately obvious how to use it compared to it’s bigger brother (I’m picturing the Facebook or Twitter apps here).

Personally, I like an app to look good. I can’t be alone in this.. I’ve seen some plain ugly apps in my experience. I don’t think it’s difficult to make an app look good. A barebones beginner iOS app can look good if you don’t try to go overboard with fancy graphics and a weird colour scheme. In addition to looking good, it should follow and implement common UI/Interface patterns. Why re-invent the wheel when you can lean on built in UI frameworks?

Lastly, and if at all possible, I think an app should be fun to use! A good (or great) app will make you say “Whoa, that’s cool!”.