Understanding the Mobile Application Development Process – PART I
Thousands of Mobile Apps are launched on Apple App stores and Google Play stores. The top app categories include Games, Social Networks and Ecommerce. The mobile apps are professionally developed and follow s standard app development process. At Brainfuel Solutions, we have developed many web and mobile apps and this blog outlines the strategy, design approach and development process
Concepts and research
The first step to conceptualize an innovative and unique concept for a new app, which leads you to make it popular and successful and lends a hand to your brand to stand out from the competition. The first step of our mobile app development is of great importance as it is associated with your target demographics. There are several metrics and data that is needed to start the mobile application development cycle. We come with a list of questions and we must find answers to our application to get a definite outcome.
- What is the purpose of your app?
- What end game you are expecting from your app?
- Who and What are your target demographic/end users?
Opposition research is also an important part in this first step, we list out your potential competitors, we research to see how they are offering services to the end-users and what users are expecting more from their app?
This is again important as this gives us an idea for an option or feature which could be deciding x-factor for the users to choose you instead of the existing option. The next part in step is to decide on many technical aspects of your mobile application
- Choosing the right platform for the mobile app
- How much time do the developers have to develop to an app?
- When will you expect to launch your app?
- What is your budget for developing the app?
Once answers to these questions are once finalized, we go to step 2 which deals with end user’s expectations, market demands, and how your application is different than the ones already existing in the environment.
Precise intentions and objectives
As mentioned before here is where our developers and you come to an agreement about your expectations, demands, and the level of the feasibility of your requirements. This is the initial planning phase of your application’s lifecycle, which is very significant as this will cement the fact that developers and clients are on the same page. Decisions about all features and functionalities of the mobile app need to be finalized at this stage.
This can be done by agreeing on answers to questions such as
- What unique features will your mobile app have to attract users?
- What features make your app more advanced than the existing ones?
The ideal consensus should be that the app does not have a bunch of common features, there has to be a couple of unique features to attract them to use your app. While developing a mobile app, developers and clients always have to be on the lookout for new technologies and trends as It helps to get an excellent user experience to your target demographic.
Wireframes & Prototyping
This stage is quite important as it gives you our initial idea about the look & feel of your app.
There are several metrics our developers need to consider before start wireframing such as placements of key objectives on the screen, the screen orientation itself, representation of your content, usage, and placement of blocks, and many more nuances of developing a mobile application, a wireframe can be an effective way to communicate the complex and complicated ideas.
With the help of a well planned and detailed wireframe, developers can make the mobile application’s design and development process much more productive and fast. The primary objective of a wireframing process is to gauge the user experience of the end-user. Our developers tweak the application to be more responsive or to be easier to use during this stage.
Beyond the front end of the application, a wireframe helps our developers by being a guide for the backend structure of the application, a wireframe can work as checklists for APIs, servers, data diagram, data integrations, push notifications and other technical aspects associated with mobile application development.
The App Prototyping process helps our developers to make the mobile application development process uncomplicated as it offers a space to assess design ideas, go through feedbacks, realize dead links, and more
Read Understanding the Mobile Application Development Process – PART II for the next phase of the application development process.
