The usage of mobile phones is no longer limited to just making phone calls and sending messages rather it has spread its wings in a bigger world.
The invention of smartphones has changed the concept of mobile phones in many ways. Since the advancement of these smartphones in the modern world, the usage of mobile apps has also increased simultaneously.
In various surveys, it has been seen that most Smartphone users spend their mobile-time on several apps like socializing apps, gaming apps, shopping, lifestyle, and many more. As a result, the world of mobile apps is also growing and developing rapidly with the flow of increasing smartphone users. The apps have undoubtedly made our daily lives more comfortable in presenting everything starting from cab booking, socializing, and shopping to banking and studying, into our small grips.
It is difficult to imagine life without mobile apps as people use the apps more than directly approaching and communicating with each other these days.But have you ever wondered how these apps are built? Every day the market witnesses hundreds of mobile app launches that bring innovative ideas, architectures, and designs with unique objectives. However, as Rome was not built in one day, the mobile apps also are not built in one day – all they need is enough time, in-depth market research, smart app design, and smooth performance along with many other vital things.
Every mobile app builder aims to make his or her app to be on the top list in the app stores and surpass the other competitive apps to earn enough success as well as a good market reputation. The more successful your app is the more people will use it to meet their daily needs and the more profit will be stored in your bag. To make the apps successful enough, the developers need to follow some step by step simple yet essential proceedings.
Let us now move on and explore the mystery of building these smart and swift mobile apps because every mobile app is built following a few of the best development strategies and steps –
Building The App Concept And Detailed Market Research
This is the most brainstorming phase on which the next steps of app building are based. As the first step in the lifecycle of the development of mobile apps, it is important to make a draft of the app’s purpose and comprehend the concept. It is the time to complete your homework and make a list of questions-answers like who are the targeted audiences? Is the app going to be free or paid? How do you want your customers to use the app?
What is the overall budget for developing the app? How do you want to promote your app? Therefore, understanding your business and what the customers want is also necessary. Spending time researching the extensive market is much more vital than deciding the app design and presentation firstly. To make the app precise and unique, it is crucial to closely analyze the market competition, position, and other important factors. After the research and planning are done it is time to decide the timeline and a targeted date for launching the app.
Establishing The Objectives Of The App
After approving the basic idea and completing the detailed market study, you should focus on setting the goals and objectives of the app. This is the phase where you need to decide the unique features following the current technology trends that will differentiate the app from the rest in the app stores. Using the pre-researched market insights and other important data, to make the app more focused and clean. Without proper goals and objectives, there is no point in developing an app and investing money and effort into it. Before jumping into the designing and marketing phase, it is important to have a clear idea of how you want your app to work and serve the users, what will be the objectives and what will be the purpose of the app?
Prototyping
Once you have completed establishing the keys goals, you can move on to sketch the design and draw a detailed idea on a white paper or board to get the idea of the basic look and feel of the app. In simple terms, this is the very first visual presentation that unveils your mental ideas and shows how the app is going to look and perform. This is the phase where all the co-developers discuss the various perspectives of the design and idea, modify the areas which need some changes, bring out the technical faults, interface error, and other drawbacks to revise. The prototype should be tested in some cases by the potential users so that there will be no flaws in the UI/UX.
Designing And Developing The App
Once the design is validated the entire game of building the app turns to the professional mobile app developers who use various app developing platforms like GoodBarber, Shopgate, APIs, and other databases and servers to develop and set up the app. This step is important as it gives a visualization of the final product and its interaction flow. Most of the mobile app developers prefer to use agile development methodologies during developing the app. This particular technique helps to evolve and implement the new changes and features as per the current market trends. However, this entire app development procedure progresses through a few more steps like –
- Alpha phase: This is the step where the functionality is checked but not tested.
- Beta Phase: Then comes the beta phase where the app goes through a few bug fixing and other tests. The developers sometimes release the app for a group of potential users to test whether everything is in order.
- Release candidate phase: Once the beta phase testing is done the app is ready to make its debut in the app stores.
Test And Test Until It Is Perfect
No app can be released in the app stores without proper and detailed testing. Therefore various types of testing are mandatory for every mobile app. The mobile app developing companies build a well-planned testing strategy that reduces the time and cost during the entire app developing journey. Starting from interface and performance testing, compatibility matching to usability checking, security capacity, service facility checks – the developers and testers check and deeply analyze everything before releasing the app for the external users. There are even some tools like Appium, Bugsee, and Testflight to test the apps apart from testing them on various devices manually.
The App Launch
At last, when the app is ready after so many tests and evolvements, the time to launch the app arrives. It is the most critical and exciting moment for the developers. One small mistake can ruin all your effort and money that you have invested for so many days. The main purpose of releasing the app is to let people know about the app and reach the app in the hands of the users to make it more successful.
It is more like entering into the real-world examination hall after a lot of preparations. Therefore, you must be well-prepared for the app launch to bring the ultimate success. Now the expert marketing professionals enter into the scenario. They will help you with the app store optimization and SEO management – the two primary keyword research techniques that will reach your app to the potential users who are searching for apps using particular keywords. A promotional video and advertisement might be necessary at this moment to promote your app on various social media platforms and other servers.
Developing a dedicated website or a landing page for the app can also be a part of the branding and promoting the mobile app after its glorious launch.
Promoting the app on your social media pages and account and the primary business website is also necessary throughout the app development process to make it interesting and engage the potential users.
Conclusion
However, developing a mobile app is quite common and easy enough if all the important steps are followed in the right manner. The entire lifecycle of mobile app development does not end by the app launch. Once the app makes its debut, people will start using the app on their devices and as a result, the negative and positive feedbacks from everywhere will start filling your comment boxes. It will be your responsibility as the app developer to incorporate all the feedback and release future versions with added modifications and evolutions.
So, do not worry if you are a newbie in this world and still in doubt whether you should reveal your innovative app ideas in the real app store market. Every well-reputed app on the app stores like the android play store, iOS app store, or windows were also released after much preparation and planning. A well-structured, smart, and precise app developing strategy can give your unique ideas the real-life wings to fly into the world of modern technologies and networking.
Arun Goyal, founder, and CEO at Octal IT Solution, a prominent name in the province of IT consulting and software solutions provider with a presence in the UK, USA, Singapore, Italy, and India. He excels in Mobile App Development, Web development, Open Source development, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Enterprise Solutions. We are appreciated by hundreds of clients on AppFutura, Clutch, GoodFirms, AppLancer, Appdexa, and Extract, consistently being among the Top-10 Mobile App Developers on these platforms.
