One consistent fad I noticed through the entirety of working on app projects is that mobile application development is similar to a black box, particularly if you’re not conversant with coding.
If you are thinking about creating a mobile app for your SMB (small to medium-sized business), you have to be aware of precisely what it takes to implement. A study conducted recently suggests that around one in five small to medium-sized businesses have developed a mobile app and around that many actually launch one. That’s a small percentage but it also contains lots of success case studies showing the benefits of app development done correctly, as some android app development agencies found out.
1. Market Research, Discovery and Mobile App Development Tech-stack
You may have a couple of viable mobile app ideas for your enterprise, and that’s not a bad place to begin. However, before moving to the design and development stage, the first thing you should do is conduct extensive research – into your target and business audience, not forgetting your competitors. So, you’ll have to answer some of the following queries:
- What exactly do you want your mobile app to achieve? Is it suitable for your mobile advertising plans?
- Who is the audience you are targeting?
- How do you want your clients to utilise your mobile app?
- What platform(s) will you make use of?
- Which mobile app development framework and language should you use?
- What about your competitors? Are they using apps? If so, what features are they providing?
- What is your mobile app development budget?
- What is your timeframe for development? When will your app be launched?
- How will you advertise and promote your mobile app?
2. Establishing Mobile App Goals and Objectives
This is an integral step in the planning stages of your mobile app. Once you have ascertained an app will drive important goals in your mobile advertising scheme, you need a roadmap showing how your app will attain that objective. You need to answer the following questions:
- What type of problem(s) will your mobile app resolve for your clients?
- What type of features will it cover?
- What is the key appeal of your app?
In most circumstances, establishing your app’s benefits and features is a balancing performance between your mobile app development budget and in-house abilities. But when it comes to prioritising functionality, studies suggest that app design should focus on customer engagement rather than exclusive services.
3. Defining Your Mobile App’s Backend
Your storyboard and wireframes will function as a guide for the backend structures you will require to support your mobile app – think data integration, servers, data diagrams, push notification services and APIs. In most of the cases, SMEs find selecting a mobile backend as a platform (BaaS) makes more sense because they resolve common issues like lack of in-house talent and scalability.
4. Developing the App
The development of the app actually entails various processes and steps. If you aren’t utilising a mobile BaaS provider or app development platform, your app developer will need to build the actual storage solutions, APIs, servers and databases for your app’s backend.
If you don’t have developer accounts, don’t forget to create them for the app stores you plan to distribute your app; this stage can take multiple days to finish and is pretty easy to go unnoticed. It can also prove to be prudent reading the app store regulations to make sure your app isn’t disallowed during the evaluation process.
5. Test and Test Again
This is the most exciting phase in the app development cycle, where you finally have a finished app concept with ideally placed text and exciting graphics. All you need to do is thoroughly test your mobile app in various real-life situations to identify and correct any bugs.
6. Official Release
The official release date should be a representation of your app’s advertising efforts. Now is the time to make some buzz with articles and write-ups by influential journalists and bloggers and announce to everybody that showed some interest before the launch date is announced.