The use of smartphones has transformed the way in which business is done at a much faster pace than it was ever anticipated before. Regardless of whether it is a travel ticket, accommodation arranging, food ordering, grocery buying, or something as simple as paying the bills, everything can be done with a smartphone.
Mobile applications created by following a detailed
app development process make the tasks simple and effective. This is the reason why the popularity of mobile phones is increasing at a quick pace. It is estimated that mobile apps will generate close to
$188.9 billion in 2020 through app stores and app advertising.
Many app development companies are on the verge of taking advantage of this projection, and rightly so. However, it must be noted that success within the competitive landscape of these estimations can turn into a reality, only when the
app development process is planned, implemented, and executed properly.
The app development process includes over six important phases. In this blog, we will take you through all of them one by one in complete depth. Irrespective of the size and the scope of this project, following this app development process will help in making your enterprise mobile app development initiative a success.
Devising Strategy:
The first and foremost stage of the mobile
app development process is defining the strategy for evolving your idea into a successful application. You can also include a relatively important part of this in an overall enterprise mobile strategy.
As one app development objective might differ from another, there can be an app-specific impact on the mobile strategy for addressing at the time of the development process. In this phase, you can identify the app users, research competition, define the app goals and objectives, and select a mobile platform for your application as well.
The cost and time taken to develop the application vary from four to six months. Your strategy can help you in focusing your vision on a rather clear picture of your application idea. Keeping this in mind, you can go for the next step of the mobile application development process.
Analysis and Planning Stage:
This is the stage where the app idea takes the shape of a real project. While analyzing and planning, it is important to begin with defining use cases and capturing detailed functional requirements. Once you have identified the requirements for your application, prepare a product mind map.
This can include prioritizing the mobile app requirements and grouping them into app delivery milestones. In case THE time, resources, or the costs are a concern for you then define your minimum-viable-product and prioritize this for the initial launch. An important part of the planning phase includes identifying the skills needed for the
app development process.
For example; Android and iOS platforms use different app development technologies. In case your objective is to create an application for both the platforms, then the mobile development team should include both iOS and Android developers. Also, make sure that you have selected the name of your application because the mobile app names are like domain names and they must be unique with each app store. It is important to make sure that the app name that you have thought of is not in use already.
UI/UX Design:
The entire purpose of an application’s design is to deliver a seamless and effortless user experience with a great look. The success of a mobile application is determined by the way in which the application benefits the customers from its features. The goal of UI/UX design of a mobile app is to create the best possible user experience while making the app functional, intuitive, interactive, and user-friendly at the same time.
- Information Architecture: The first step of the mobile app design process is to find out the data your mobile app will display to the users, the data it will collect, user interactions, and the user journey within the application.
- Wireframes: The mobile app designers often start the app design with detailed sketches on the paper. Wireframes are basically the digital sketches that are used as the conceptual layouts and are also referred to as the low-fidelity mockups because they give visual structure to the functional requirement of an application.
- Style Guide: Style guide is like living documents where app design is used from a company’s branding rules down to the navigation icons. The style guide includes parameters like font, color scheme, brand reflection, etc. These things basically help in contributing to the design strategy of an application. Defining the style guide during the early mobile app development process enhances the productivity of mobile app developers.
- Mockups: Mockups are actually the high fidelity designs that are like final renderings of an app’s visual design. They are created by applying a style guide on an app wireframe. Once the app design is finalized, further changes to its information architecture, workflow, and aesthetics.
App Development:
The planning remains an integral part of this phase in the mobile app development process. Much before the app development process begins, it is important to define the technical architecture, choose a technology stack, and define the development milestones. A detailed
mobile app development process is made up of three parts: Back end/server technology, API(s), and the mobile app front-end.
- Back-end: This part includes the databases and the server-side projects necessary for supporting the functions of an application. In case you are using an existing back-end platform, then the modifications may be needed for supporting the desired mobile functionality.
- API: A way of communication that takes place between an app and the back end server is called an application programming interface.
- Mobile App front-end: The front-end of a mobile application is like the native mobile app that the end-user will be using. In many cases, the mobile applications consist of interactive user experiences that use an API and a back end for managing the data. In most cases, when an application enables the users to work without internet access, the app may use the local data storage.
Testing:
It is always good to begin the
mobile app development process as early as possible because doing that keeps the final costs low. The farther you go into the development cycle, the costlier it will become to fix the bugs. You can refer to the original design and the planning documents at the time of building numerous test cases.
The method of application testing is vast, so it is important to ensure that all the important facts are covered. After the development stage is over, the application must be tested for compatibility, usability, security, stress, interface checks, and performance.
During user acceptance testing, you will discover whether the mobile application works for the intended use or not. To test this properly, give your application to some people in your target audience while asking the important questions. Right after your application passes the user acceptance test, it will be obvious that the solution works properly.
Furthermore, make your application available for a beta trial, either through an enrollment of a previously identified group or an open solicitation for participants. The feedback provided by the beta users will help you in finding if the app will function well in the real world.
Deployment:
Once your application is ready to be submitted, fix a day, and a formal launch. For the different application stores, the launching policies are different, so it is important to be aware of them. Also, keep in mind that app development does not end the launch.
Once an application is in the hands of a user, feedback will start to come in, and it will become important to include that feedback into all the future versions of the application. Every application will need an update and new features along with it. As soon as the first version of the application gets released, the development cycle will begin again.
Make sure that you have the resources needed for maintaining the product. Other than the money invested for building a digital product, keep in mind that this is a long term commitment, and you are up for it.
