The talk can proceed to perpetuity when it comes to the app development process. Despite the magnitude of apps we have access to, plenty is surfacing each day. More than that, this sector has an unceasing growth dynamic, illustrating no visible endpoints. Analytics also has some fascinating findings that mainly link to app development. That is, the ever-increasing number of mobile apps usage and the number of downloaded apps has touched 258 billion in the last year 2021.
On top of that, the given figure is far from final. Meaning it still has the potential to grow beyond. And that is due to the affordable app development cost. With each passing day, more and more entrepreneurs emerge and their developed apps open for business.
Although we have countless accessible mobile apps, this sector still embraces blind spots for the new entrepreneurs and startups to fill – the industries lookout for it.
However, it’s not hard to fathom the constant innovations to the app development process, which solely aims to streamline the development process. Know that the app development process is a stepwise procedure methodically catering to the app development. A full-fledged or well-versed process can be nifty to eliminate various app development blunders.
Stuff That Matters Before the App Development Process
Although building a mobile app is a crucial task to perform, there’s even a bigger fish to fry when it comes to successful app development. Before the app development process, primarily the coding and designing segments, you need to endure certain stages that are equally important to app development itself. let’s call those essential steps ‘pre-development stages.’
The Brainwork – Ideation
Let’s face it… every stuff you see around you is nothing but an imaginary idea. And that idea shaped into a real-world object. But more importantly, the process of ideation includes specific paces that help decipher the whole app development process to the business roadmap. Thus, ideation is a vital process to go through. Here is why: exposes outline for the future app; enable you to brainstorm new ideas and much more app’s future aspects.
The ideation process includes:
- App’s Purpose
- Solution To a Problem
- Brainstorm Killer Feature
- Motivation For People to Use the App
After you figure out all the above-mentioned essential aspects, you can move on to the next stage.
Marketplace Analysis
Before you set sail into the market, it’s rather prudent to analyze your market competitors and target audience.
Competitor
In case of competitor analysis, you should follow the accompanying steps:
- Explore the app stores, search for similar apps, and improve yours.
- Pay close attention to user reviews – their problems with the competitors and fix them in your app.
- Take notes of every tiny detail of your competitors’ apps.
Target
Target analysis is as crucial as competitors’ analysis. So, don’t skip this part. Not to mention they’re the ones to use your app in the first place. The target audience is not that hard to find these days via social media platforms. Hence after seeing them, inspect their needs and integrate them into your app. Often, when it comes to the target audience, you only have to put your concerns over their age, location, income level, and interests.
Monetization Model – Be paid
Keep in mind people build apps only because of having a permanent income, and so do you. If that’s the case for you, too, you need to choose ahead of your app’s earning patterns or monetization. There’re four types of app monetization. In other words, four ways thru which you can make money from your app. They are:
- In-app advertising
- Freemium Model
- Subscription Model
- Paymium Model
- Pain Model
Brainstorm Functionality
Perhaps, this is the most essential pre-development stage that sets the app’s most influencing characteristics – App’s Features. In this stage, you need to brainstorm several exceptional features that must ensure the app’s success, although it’s a challenging stage to put up with. Not to mention coming up with an initiative features list is exhaustive. But on the other hand, with some inclusive research, you can easily pull this off. To ensure that, we highly recommend developing an MVP version of your app, spreading it out to your target audience, and taking their feedback. But even so, besides the collective features, you should also focus on the main problem-solving features. Because that is what your app will represent out there.
App Development Process
After having a foolproof mobile app in mind via pre-development stages, it’s high time the app awaits its digital construction. Here are the steps that you’ll be going through.
1 – Initial Contact
Know that your first interaction with a software development company has started when you first interact with their websites. In order to carry your app development proposal to a large firm, you need to make and descriptive document including all the nitty-gritty bits of your app. Another key to remember is to list all those features and workings of your app in the proposed document. With the help of that document, the software development firm can inform you of the development pipelines, time, and costs. Once you have made all those included and excluded factors of your app cleared with the company and got a satisfactory development price, it’s time to seal the deal.
2 – FindingPoint
In this phase, you’ll collaborate with your development team and explore the technical stacks used in your app development. Not only that, but you also get to make a series of meeting with the vendor, which lets you make modifications to the app’s document. Above all, this stage marks what’s actually needs to be built mainly from the vendor’s (developers) perspective.
What Can You Do in This Phase?
- Collecting App Requirements
- Specification
- Wireframes
- Quality Assurance
- Detailed Estimate
3 – App Design
Every app development starts with the design process, although it’s not the genuine UI design stage (that’s just a subset of this process). Nonetheless, this step aims at sustaining several stages to establish the whole vision of the future app.
The Design Stages:
- Immersion
- Research
- Concept
- Design
Later, when the app’s models are ready and approved by you, it’s time.
4 – App Development
In this section of the app development process, all those design models will turn into lines of code – rotating your app into existence. I can also say… it’s a fully functional digital solution building stage. In addition to this, this stage compasses systematization and a development methodology for streamlining. Additionally, the team composition for this particular phase would be Project Manager, UI/UX Designer, QA Designer, Developers.
5 – Quality Assurance – Built App
It’s essential to test the built app respective to the prior requirements in addition to testing its bugs and errors. The purpose of this stage is to settle the app for a long-lasting run in the market. Indeed, many result-driven development firms have high command over this stage, mainly as they aim to guarantee high-end products.
This step splits up into the following sub-sections:
- Requirement Analysis
- Planning
- Testing
6 – Release and Maintenance
Here we are, at the finish line. After months of planning and development, your app is finally set to thrive in markets. At this point, apps rights and source code are relocated to you for release. More than that, you should also make a timetabled contract for post-development and maintenance from your development firm. Not to mention, it’s the growing phase of your app, and when you find any risky aspects of your app, your developers should immediately fix them. That’s how it should be since it’s safe – post-development. Then again, after a certain length of time, when you find your app is doing fine, then release the contract from your outsourced development company.
Wrap Up
To sum up, mobile app development processes vary from company to company, although those mentioned above in this blog are trusted and result-driven steps. Mobile app development is a tricky business to dive into since many shrewd entrepreneurs and business people out there have already grabbed hold of this lucrative sector for themselves. But then again, once you know all the essential steps and techniques, then there is no way they can beat your mobile app. Simply follow our shared steps and strategies in your mobile app development then you’re all set.