A Complete Guide to Mobile App Development Process

Introduction

In 2021, mobile application development is expected to generate $653 billion in revenue through app stores and in-app advertising, research says. Unlike the mobile app, enterprise mobility is expected to be worth $510 billion by the end of 2022. Nowadays, mobile apps are becoming an essential part of our daily lives. Whether it is a child, an adult, or old age people, all of us prefer to use mobile phones to stay updated and connect with our family and friends, and for relaxation.

According to a report generated by Statista, there are more than 2 billion smartphone users across the world. And it is claimed that we are on our phones for most of the day and 90% of this mobile time is spent using various apps. While many businesses are trying to take this trend as an advantage by creating a mobile app successfully.

Some of you might be wondering, is it that easy to build a mobile app? No, it is not easy to develop a successful mobile app, but by following amazing development and design tips you can easily create an app for your business. An effective and reliable mobile app development process passes through various stages regardless of the business size and scope of your project.

In this post, we’re going to have a closer look at the mobile app development process in-depth and assist you in how easily you can create an app keeping in mind all your project requirements and goals. So, without any further ado, let’s get started!

How to develop and design an effective mobile app?

1. Identify your Audience and project requirements

Before proceeding further and starting developing your app, it is important to know your target audience. It includes who your users are. By doing this, you can examine the business potential of your app design and know-how to interact with your target audience.

Make sure that you’re walking with the latest trends, conduct a poll, search for stats, do research, or build an MVP version of your mobile app to gather user feedback. Check every source of knowledge possible. Despite this, you can also collect demographic data such as location, know users’ motivations, their behaviors, age, and much more. After working on it, now you’re ready to share your thoughts with your team that you think highly of.

After knowing your audience, make sure to identify your project requirements and overall enterprise mobility strategy. By identifying your goals and needs, it will be easy for you to focus on your vision and have a clear picture of your app idea.

2. Analysis and Planning

After identifying your target audience and project requirements, make sure to prepare a product roadmap. In this phase, your mobile app idea starts shaping and turns into an actual project that you’re planning to expect.

Preparing a roadmap includes analysis and planning which is required to identify skills that you need to start your app development process. Apart from this, it also groups all the needs for delivery milestones. If you have limited cost and resources, then make sure to define your minimum viable product and prioritize this while launching your app.

The planning phase in the mobile app development process includes classifying the skills required. For example, different technology stacks are used to develop an Android and iOS platform. If you’re planning to develop a mobile app for Android and iOS platforms, then choose a software development team that includes iOS developers and Android developers.

3. Define your business model

Developers can monetize their mobile apps by implementing various strategies such as advertising-based business models. For revenue streams, video ads are one of the most widely used approaches by businesses. In-app purchases are also gaining traction amongst business partners.

Every mobile app business model that you choose has its own benefits and drawbacks. But if you want to choose a business model that suits your requirements, then make sure to analyze what your competitors are doing.

4. Choose the right technology

Are you planning to develop a mobile app for your business? If yes, then make sure to choose the right technology. You have three options to choose from.

Platform-Specific Native App is coded for a particular mobile platform, let’s say for iOS or Android. The programming language that you’re using to code your application is only supported by the OS of those platforms. It leverages your systems’ hardware and features to a large extent, which enhances the user experience.

You can also choose a cross-platform native app that uses shared SDKs, but they still run natively. There are two most commonly used technologies, React Native and Flutter that allow you to code cross-platform native apps. If you choose a native platform, it becomes a cost-effective solution if you have a tight budget and still need an optimized mobile app.

Lastly, we have, hybrid app. It is compatible with all OS and devices. You can also quickly deploy the app and it is a cost-effective and portable mobile app development approach. However, you’ll get various benefits if you choose a native platform, but you also have to sacrifice some best user experiences.

5. UI/UX Design

The UI/UX design of every application should be attractive and elegant as it engages the user with a polished look. Design is equally important as development. A successful mobile app has all the features that users can easily adapt and makes your app interactive and user-friendly. Elegant UI app designs will help with immediate adoption to keep your users engaged.

Nowadays people are looking for a mobile app having simple yet intuitive UI/UX that is easy to use and adds a good feeling while using an app. Despite this, if you plan to choose in-app purchases, then clarify the needs of users including what they’re interested in and what they’ll buy from virtual goods. It will help to increase the conversion rate.

6. Mobile app development

When you finally reach the development phase, make sure that you have to:

• describe the technical structure,
• pick the right tech stack, and
• determine the development milestones.

A simple yet elegant mobile app with all required features is developed in three main parts that include back-end technology, APIs, and the mobile app front-end.

The backend technology includes database and server-side objects that are required to support the functions of your app. An API is a bridge between an app and a back-end server that allows you to communicate. And lastly, the front-end is responsible to make a native feel in the mobile app that will attract the end-user to use your app.

7. Testing

After the designing and development phase, your product is ready to test. Make sure that your product has gone through the testing phase before launching it to the market. The testing process makes your mobile app secure and stable as well as makes your product ready to address all aspects of app testing.

Have you ever wondered why testing is important after app development? Testing is important to deliver a quality solution that should undergo the following testing methods including:

User experience testing: Testing is the final stage of the mobile app development process which is mandatory for every product to meet user experience and deliver error-free software. To impress and engage your user, the workflow and interactivity of your app should be attractive as heaven.

Performance testing: There are various quantitative principles to apply for estimating the app performance such as:

• Is your app responding well to the user requests?
• Does the app’s screen load faster?
• Are there memory leaks from your app?
• Does your phone consume more battery while using an app?

Security testing: Whether your project is small or large, security is always a major factor when it comes to mobile application development. So businesses choose to hire a remote team to perform thorough security testing on their applications to keep them safe. If any of your users want to log in, then the device should be tracked.

If the user is inactive for a long time, then the system automatically terminates the session for an extended time.

8. Deployment and Support

After successfully completing all the mobile app phases, you’re all set to submit your app to the app stores, iOS store, and Google Play for Android apps. One cannot directly submit their apps to the store, first, they need to create a developer account only then they would be able to launch your mobile app. You’ll need a developer account with Google play store and Apple App Store before launching your mobile app.

Final Thoughts

App development is a continuous process and will remain after the initial launch and create additional functionality. To make your journey of app development smooth and easy, don’t forget to follow these steps to build a successful app for your business.

If your dedicated development team has invested a good amount of time, talent, and ability in the project, then you’ll definitely get a high-performance app with all functionalities. A single app developer can handle the entire project, but you can also outsource your project to a remote team or hire a full-stack development company that can guide and support you by offering tech expertise that leads to successful project delivery.

If you’re planning to hire a software development company for your project development, then make sure the developers are skilled and they communicate effectively as a team to achieve the same goal.