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Mobile app market is on a rise these days. As a result, more businesses are venturing into mobile app development and you may be one of them. Wondering what goes into the development of a mobile application?
Well, here are the steps:
Determine What you Want to Do
Before beginning mobile app development, you have to decide upon the purpose of creating the mobile app, the techniques that will make your app successful and the platforms your app will work on. This will help you to determine the user interface design needs for your mobile app. Also, analyse the problems or needs of the audience that your app intends to solve.
Research
Do a little research to understand where you stand in the market. Analyse the success of other mobile app development companies that have created apps similar to yours. This will help you to understand the mistakes they have made and then, you can try to make it right in your app. Also, know who your potential customers will be based on research and real customer feedback and try to determine why they will be interested in your app.
Bring in the Technical Team
Hold discussions with all technical teams involved in the mobile app developmentprocess. This will help you to determine whether your idea of the mobile app is practical and whether it will be a success. Also, the discussion helps you to have an idea about the time within which the app will be completed and the budget.
Sketch your Ideas
Depict your ideas in the form of rough sketches. The visual representation of your concept will help you discover usability issues if any.
Determine if your App is Technically Feasible
It’s now time to determine whether your app will function well with back-end systems. Decide upon the devices and platforms your app is going to work on.
Review the Changes Made
By now, you may have made many changes to the initial strategy. It’s time to hold discussions and review the changes.
Create a Prototype
Use wireframe tools like Balsamiq and Visio to create a prototype of your mobile app. You can then bring in real-users to test run your prototype and collect their feedback and suggestions. This helps you to have an understanding of the working of your app and what needs to be included in it.
Start Marketing
Find a place in the market right from the beginning stage of your mobile app development. This will make the job easier for you later. You can start a landing page for your app, start a blog, use social media platforms, post videos and use any media possible to let the audience realise your presence.
Design
This phase of mobile app development begins before you start coding. At this stage, the interactive features and other aesthetic features in terms of colour scheme, style, layout, fonts etc. are designed. Despite having great features, a poor UX design alone can lead to the failure of the app. Therefore, it is important to test run the designs before you fix upon a design. At the end of this phase, layouts are created to let the development team know that this is how you want your app to look, feel and interact.
Build
It’s now time to build your app. The tools and software development kits used for the mobile app development are chosen based on the platforms the app will work on and the skills of the developer. Usually, the Agile approach is used for mobile app development as it gives importance to collaboration, clarity and easy adaptation to changes.
Test
The testing process is usually done simultaneously with the coding process to determine bugs and other defects at the earliest. This can help to fix defects itself, thus saving time and unnecessary expenditure.
BETA Testing
BETA testing is a type of user acceptance testing where the app is tested among real users. It is important to perform BETA testing and garner feedback from the users. It will help you to understand what features of your app works for the targeted audience and what doesn’t.
Launch
This is the day you have been waiting for. If you are happy with your final product, wait no longer. Choose an app store and make your app’s presence felt there with screenshots, app description and title.
Maintain
Your job doesn’t end with the release of your app. It’s also important to upgrade it with new features to keep the users interested.
