Did you know? There are about 2.8 million mobile apps on just play store. 2.8 ‘million’ out of which how many applications stand out? Applications like WhatsApp or Facebook or Instagram are widely popular everywhere. Why is that?
Well, a simple answer would be that they are built up to be user-friendly, easily usable, and flawlessly functional.
This is what it takes for your application to stand out; looks easy, right? It can be when you have the right team to guide you through it.
An application goes through many stages to achieve the ‘go-to app’ status.
Step by step guide of great mobile app development is:
The idea, research, and the right Tech Stacks:
You will have come this far because you have an idea in mind, so we’ll skip that part.
Now that you have the idea, it is a must to do your research, through research you can minimize future risks. It is essential to get answers to questions like:-
- What should the app accomplish?
- Who is your target audience?
- How do you want your customers to use your app?
- What platforms should you use?
- Which language and frameworks would you use to develop your app?
- Who are your competitors, and what are their strategies?
- What is your overall app development budget?
- How long will the app take to develop?
- Where would you market your app?
Gathering all the relevant information before you dive into developing your application is no doubt very crucial, your tech team with members specialized in different stages of app development can surely help you get answers to all these questions, hassle-free.
- Establish goals and objectives:
Now that you have answers to all your questions, you can start making attainable goals with set timelines. It is crucial to map out how you will get started.
You must figure out:-
- What problems should your app solve for its users?
- What features should it have?
It is vital to building an app that is engaging for its customers rather than focusing on exclusive services.
- Prepare storyboards and wireframes:
By this time, you must have an idea of how your application should look like, and what features it will possess. You should also develop the scope of work by now.
It makes this the perfect time to start sketching out your app and creating a storyboard.
The main goal at this stage is to get a clear idea of how your ideas and features will blend to make your app. Creating a storyboard can help you demonstrate the connections between screens and how your users navigate through your app.
- Define the backend of your app:
The backend structure that supports your app will use storyboards and wireframes as guides. In this phase, you need to think of all the technical aspects of your app developments, be it: API, servers, data integration, data diagrams, or push notification services.
Based on this, decide whether modifying your wireframes is needed if you encounter technical limitations in the backend.
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Test your Prototype
Since you figured out the technical limitations and modified your wireframes accordingly. You should now focus on building up the prototype of your application needs.
Prototyping is a crucial step in the app development process; it gives you a clear idea of how to evaluate design concepts, identify flaws in the flow and usability or your app, and how you should gather feedback. It is an excellent idea to let the people who are not in your team test the app. Through observing how they interact with your app and through their genuine feedback, you can decide what changes are essential.
Develop your app
Every stage of app development is crucial, and so is this, in an obvious way. It is essential to set up APIs, storage solutions, databases, and servers for the backend of your app.
Developers must set their developer accounts on app hosting portals to distribute your the app, decide which programming and coding you need for your application development.
Once you said through this, you will be ready to move further.
Testing
Go through every process before you launch your application, do not assume your app would work perfectly because it worked during the development phase.
It could give you better insights if you let users test your application, there might be some questions or suggestions that you could not figure out because you have been working on the app since day one.
Incorporate all the changes before you launch your app.
Prepare the launch
Now that you have an app to launch and you have put in a lot of effort into it, you must launch it in a way that it rocks the market.
Call your marketing team and figure out the keyword essential for SEO based on which you can name your app. You can maybe get a promotional video for your application or a demo.
- What you’ll name your app? And what would be its icon?
- Stores where your app is available to download.
- Mailing links or subscriptions (pre-launch) and download links (post-launch)
- Links to you social media accounts
- User reviews (post-launch)
Promote your application on every possible platform before you launch it.
Launch your app
Make sure your app creates a buzz even before the launch, advertising should be on point. Maybe get some influential personalities to promote your app, or promote it on the most used social media channel.
If you can make your app popular even though it’s not yet launched, it would be highly beneficial for you.
Even when your application is released, don’t sit back, keep making changes to keep your audience hooked to your app, announce offers or contests. Make sure your app is always trendy.
If you and your team follow all the above stages and give undivided attention to each step, mastering the art of application development won’t be a tough task.
