No wonder if the surveys suggest that mobile apps can generate up to $693 billion in revenue via app stores and in-app advertising. Everyone is taking advantage of this growing popularity of the usages of mobile apps, still many are there who are untouched with this trend. There are many who don’t even know that how to create an effective mobile app for the growth of their business and use it successfully.
Mobile apps have very quickly taken over of our lives with the advent of smart phones and other hand held devices. The mobile apps are always designed to take benefit of the unique features of a particular mobile device.
The process of an app development flows over many crucial steps. We will take a look on all of them to understand the entire process:
Strategy: Like any other project strategy is an integral part of the app development. A correct strategy plays a significant role to make any project successful. This step may include a thorough research on your competitions, identifying your users, establishing app’s objectives and goals and choosing a mobile platform as per your objectives. A clear strategy helps you giving a clear vision of your idea.
Planning and Analysis: This is the stage where you identify the requirements related to your app. You prepare a roadmap after identifying the requirements such as prioritizing them and aliening them into delivering milestones. At this stage you will also have to analyze if you are building the app for iOS and Android mobile platforms or the both. It understood that they both use different development technology stacks.
If you haven’t selected the name for the app it’s the time to make a move. The mobile app name has to be unique in each app store just like the domain names. Check all the app stores thoroughly if you have decided doesn’t exist already.
UX or UI Design: It should be always on your top priority that the app is designed with a purpose of delivering effortless and seamless user experiences. The UI or UX always has an objective of making your app interactive, intuitive, and user-friendly while creating excellent user experiences. The app must be able to engage the users with the help of polished UI designs. A few points of your mobile apps designing process are given below:
Architecture of Information and Workflow: In this step you are likely to settle on the data the mobile app will present to the users. Workflow diagrams are helpful in figuring out all probable interaction a user has with the app and also the navigation structure of the app.
Wireframes: In simple terms, wireframes can be described as digital sketches made using a wireframing tool. However, this can be done using pen and paper and most of the designers prefer so only. These are not finished designs but concepts which give you an understanding of the visual structure of your app’s features. At this stage you don’t need the design elements and color palates. It mainly help you to understand how your design should be.
Style Guides: Style guide help you choosing fonts, color palates and right place for icons including other important issues related to designing. The mobile app designing can include many elements such as:
- Graphics
- Fonts
- Layouts
- Colors
- Components
- Menus and Bars
Mockups: Mockups are using for building the final version of the mobile apps development. Mockups are the high-fidelity designs unlike wireframes which considered being the low-fidelity designs. It’s a combination of style guide and wireframe which is used for making the final version.
Prototype: With the help of prototypes you turn wireframes into ready designs. The ready designs can be shared with team members or clients seeking their feedback or suggestions. With the help of tools like Invision and Figma you can turn static designs into click-thru prototypes. It is also essential for pitching your app to the investors.
App Development: Back-end/server technology, API(s) and the mobile app front-end are some of the integral parts which are used to make any typical mobile app
Back-end/server technology: Database and server-side objects come under this part for supporting the functions of your mobile app. To support the expected mobile functionality, there may be need of modification if you are using existing backend platform.
- API: It’s a way of communication used between a back-end server/database and the mobile app.
- Mobile App Front-End: The front end is what user will get to see. It’s a kind of mix bag of technologies. The APIs and backends are needed for some applications while others may need to work only with local databases presented by the platform.
Testing: once the application is developed, it’s the time to ensure the quality of the app. A number of aspects have to be addressed for a complete testing cycle subjective to each application. There are some of the major testing methods that are a must-do for all the mobile applications such as:
- Functional Testing
- Performance Testing
- Documentation Testing
- User Experience & Interface Testing
- Security Testing
- Configuration Testing
- Platform Testing
- Recovery Testing
- Beta Testing
- Certification Testing
Deployment & Support: It’s time for app launch which is also known as mobile app deployment after it passes through all the testing. Google Play for Android apps and Apple App Store for iOS apps this where you submit your app for releasing a native mobile app. You will also require a developer account with the app stores before launching the mobile app.
Once submitted to the Apple App Store for iOS apps the mobile app goes for a review check which may take a couple of days. The app store reviews if follows the given guidelines. The process for the android apps is different there is no such review check and the app is available in the store after few hours of the submission.