Development of an app is a comprehensive task involving various steps, a brief of all the important steps which needs to be followed while developing any app is described below:
Defining Mobile App Objectives
To clearly set and define the objectives for which App is being made is an important part of the App making process. Following points are important to consider before App designing is defined -
• What is the main purpose of making App?
• What are the main features of App that will be useful for customers?
• How this App will be useful in solving problems of the customers?
Predefined App features are very useful in assessing the total development budget of the App. However, research indicates that app design should prioritize user involvement over proprietary offerings when it comes to prioritizing features.
Preliminary Design
Deciding about preliminary design is the first step of an app development, it is important to take time to design an app's fundamental structure. Before the next step, it is always advisable to spend enough time to design the App preliminary. The concept building for production of clear understanding of each and every small element of the app is important. This phase does not take much time for simple app design, but will take time in case of complex applications design.
Market Research
There might be several innovative apps to start various business projects, but before you move into design and development, it is always better to do research work in terms of market requirement. A small research project with the following questions can support the project much before planning and development work begins -
• What are marketing plans for this App?
• Who are target audience for this App?
• How do you want your customers to use your app?
• Which software platform and framework will be used to make it?
• Which mobile app development language will be used?
• Who are your competitors and what is their strategy? Do they have apps?
• If so, what features do they offer?
• What is overall app development budget?
• What is timeline for development? When will App be launched?
Details on research should also be shared with distribution, product creation Application and IT managers including the Software development team. Feedback from all departments concerned is necessary before the App development work begins. But the key issue behind evaluating the marketplace is to obtain a detailed understanding of why and how. How did you say that you would sell one million apps? You can answer the question quite clearly if you have done your market research. Wild assumptions find no place.
Market Analysis
A market analysis is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of a market. It looks into the size of the market both in volume and in value, the various customer segments and buying patterns, the competition, and the economic environment in terms of barriers to entry and regulation. The market for mobile apps is growing rapidly like never before. Due to the pandemic, the number of apps downloaded has increased a lot.
Collection of Users Feedback
After the App is ready, share it with friends and relatives and co-workers to get their feedback and modify the App accordingly. Following questions may be asked during this feedback -
• Is this app useful?
• Will this app be used?
• What is the tentative cost of this App?
• Is there anything which can be added to it to make it more useful?
Another essential aspect of market research is the discovery of existing applications in the same category to improve the novelty of the product and to make the new app better appreciated by the consumer. Apps performing any related role must be studied and evaluated to understand where the behaviours are wrong and what others are doing right.
Financial and Technical Feasibility
It is always necessary to check the financial and technical viability of the entire plan before developing app. It is required to verify whether this software can be developed and whether existing technology funding is available to develop this application.
Financial Feasibility:Financial analysis is an essential activity in order to achieve financial viability. It is important to understand App's fixed cost, to estimate profit from consumers. The financial plan should also cover publicity, advertisement and web hosting expenses. Rental fee for App Store should be included as well. A balanced financial plan must be established in advance
Technical Feasibility:Technical feasibility means checking the possibility if App can be developed by using the latest technology or not. It is important to check if organization is capable enough to use the latest technology or not. After the financial evaluations, there may be some technical questions to answer as well. It is better to discover these aspects before investing significant time and money into a project. You might not be able to find definitive answers to every technical question, but if you do your homework you will at least be able to intelligently discuss technical concerns with the programmer/ expert selected/hired to ensure expected outcomes.
Testing of App Prototype
This is an important stage in the lifecycle of app development. After completing the App with exciting graphics and text, it is important for the app to be thoroughly tested and corrected under a range of real-world scenarios. Link to your original records of design and planning and check all functions.
When checking the Software, take feedback from other users. Mobile online research tools can also be used to collect feedback and analysis in real time. Tests for image, graphics and user interface compatibility across the platform are also needed. When app provides the desired output in all scenarios including appearance and usability of the interface, it is time to make the final preparations to launch this mobile app.
Launching the App
The process of releasing an app in the market is extremely critical, as it is largely dependent on the success of this application. For branding and marketing the App, it is always advisable to hire a good marketing agency who will make efforts to launch the App in a very professional manner. Marketing is also one of the most critical activities to get involved at an early stage in the process. The Digital Marketing Team supports keyword analysis, important for SEO and App Store Optimism (ASO), both crucial to discovery. The next step is the submission of the mobile app for sale in different markets. Before starting this phase, high-quality screenshots of the application and promotional video and/or demo must be ready for better results.
In order to promote the app, a website would also be important. This is important for branding and recognition, as well as for searching and finding. Promotion of App should be done through organization’s website and social media accounts, blogs etc. to target niche market, e mail campaigning can also be done. To increase awareness of the App to target audience, App Analytics of Google Analytics can also be used in the beginning.
Official Release
Up until this point, App's official release date should be the climax of app marketing efforts. Influential bloggers and journalists could write some papers and articles to apprise the people who showed interest in the App before the launch. There could also be a promotional e-mail drive to attract downloads and raise momentum. If the app is published, try keeping user of the app committed by announcing a special deal or promotion using push notifications so that users open the app. Consider having rewards for consumers to download App, such as a single discount, or free product or service. App marketing has never been stopped and needs new technologies every day.
Build a simple collaborative feedback channel and respond to users' comments and concerns. Updating your customers quickly will work wonderful. Make sure you evaluate and track those KPIs that identify your marketing goals effectively.
Mobile Development Frameworks
Over the last few years, the number of smart phone users around the world has grown enormously. There are various types of Mobile Development Frameworks as discussed below:
Native mobile app development
The majority of mobile frames are for cross-platform construction. Generally, the development of a mobile app utilizes frameworks developed by the mobile platform company. We generally use the iOS SDK for iOS—the IDE, i.e., the development software pack. For the development of an Android app, Android SDK is the choice. The frameworks are in the SDKs, each of which has the programming languages. SWIFT or Goal-C are used for iOS and Kotlin or Java for Android.
Typically, native apps are fast. They are fully compliant with the hardware and native functions of the computer, such as camera, accelerometer, etc. They may be very costly, on the other hand. A business or company must concentrate on all major mobile platforms, especially Android and iOS. This means that a separate development team is required to develop an app for their business. It is necessary to maintain the app after deployment which makes the process of setup very expensive.
