The mobile app market is expanding more than a beanstalk. The industry is expanding at an accelerating pace. SensorTower predicts that the app revenue will reach $156 billion (iOS App Store and Google Play), based on a CAGR of 17%. The growth is not over yet. The latest figures from SensorTower Store Intelligence on forecasting consumer spending on mobile apps as says,
“The total spending on mobile apps through Apple’s App Store and Google Play will close to $171 billion globally in 2024, which is double the amount spent in 2019.”
After reading these statistics, if you want to enter this marketplace, all you need to make sure the application should build professionally to stand out from the gazillions of apps on the App Stores.
With this blog post, we’re here to guide you to a few important steps for the mobile app development process. We’ve outlined the following steps:
- Problem Statement & verify your idea
- Market research
- UX Wireframing
- Design
- Development
- Testing
- Release & updates
Let’s dive right in.
Statement a Problem & Verify your Idea
It all starts with an idea. Wait! Before investing in your idea, the first step is to solve a problem. It means that successful businesses or apps are thriving – they solve genuine problems for customers.
The very first step of any mobile app development company is to define the problem and how to solve it for the market. It is called a problem statement. Once the problem statement is defined, it’s time to verify your mobile app idea. This analysis includes demographics, behavior patterns, and the objectives of the buyer persona.
Market Research
Why is it important to do market research? Since it is vital to check the similar apps or solutions already available in the market. If it is there, it is all-important to know how your application works and provides different results. Here’s how you can do your research better by asking yourself the following questions:
- What is your targeted audience?
- How can you reach your audience?
- Does your idea identify opportunities and increase profits?
- How do you want your users to use the application?
- What are your competitors doing? What kind of features do they offer in the app?
- What do users like or dislike about your competitors’ app?
Market research is undeniably a crucial step. The more you know about the problem and find out its solution, the more you will be able to develop a mobile app to meet the requirements of your clients.
Let’s not forget to mention Uber, an excellent example of how careful choices can impact consumer brand awareness and positively impact brand lift. Before diving into the ability of success and establishing the degree of requirement for transportation services in a particular area.
Uber is already recognized as a successful tech giant. On top of that, all we can say market research can make or break the launch of a new product or application.
UX Wireframing
This process is known as creating the general structure of an application. The main goal of this stage is to set a clear and orderly structure of all the layout, transitions, and interactions based on the users’ problems and pain points. This is what the product is going to solve.
You must be wondering why this step is important to follow in the mobile app development process as the wireframing stage serves as the bridge between research and design. It generally takes place on a whiteboard or with paper and pen and lets you visualize your app’s user flow.
The best part of the UX wireframing stage is you can make any new changes as it is much simpler and cheaper to eradicate a few strokes of the marker than rewrite code again and again during the development process.
Application Design (UI Design)
This stage is a finalized interactive field in which users interact with the product. It embraces all the essential tools for enhancing usability and satisfying users’ requirements.
Generally, both research and wireframing stages are all about how the application works, while UI is how it looks. However, both stages include work on successful interactions, but UX design deals more with logic, connections, and user behavior while the UI stage lets visual representation of all concepts.
In an ideal world, designers should start working on UX parts, including layout and making it clear and easy to use. Without considering this, you must be at high risk.
Indeed, it is a crucial stage in which you need to take care of the following things. Let’s check them out.
- For beginners, it is vital to ensure the designs should be suitable for the targeted group; for instance, your app is targeting teenagers or older people, men or women.
- Second thing, consistency is essential. All views must follow the same style of principles. For example, if the main theme is white in color, it should be used as many views as possible.
- It’s also vital that the user flow must be easy and consistent. Thus, navigation should be simple and predictable. In short, users should know intuitively where the button will take them when clicked.
It also recommends being aware of the official guidelines of the platform which you are targeting. For example, Human Interface for iOS and Google Material Design for Android ensure you design your interface properly for the respective platforms.
App Development
As the name implies, mobile app development refers to the work, which goes into developing an app for smartphones. So, in this phase, your development team will start implementing the styles and functionality of the app.
Once they are completed, they will be assigned back to the project manager or QA tester for review. It is also significant that your development team thoroughly understands the objectives of the app.
In this stage, it is clear that iOS/Android developers only think over the architecture of the app, write the code, integrate functionality to create UI, edit source code, debug, and export the app to the App Store or Google Play Store.
Moreover, writing unit tests and running integration testing are relevant steps in this stage. Once this stage is completed, you’ll come to the next stage, i.e., testing. We’ll discuss the next step.
Testing
That being said,
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives”
William A. Foster
This is true when talking about digital product testing.
Being a developer or an app owner, you should never underestimate the power of testing since it is the only way to ensure a robust and high-performing mobile app. Quality Assurance specialist ensures that the app is unit tested.
Unit testing is performed for usability, compatibility, security, and performance of the app. Additionally, automated testing has also become popular because of its effectiveness, affordability, and reliability.
Release & Updates
Now, here comes the big moment – when your app is alive and has been rigorously tested, and now it is ready to be launched. All you need to ensure that the app is properly configured for release. Along with high-resolution images for the app store and high-quality written descriptions.
Once the app is released, it does not mean your responsibility has been ended. Because the process of mobile apps does not end at release. After releasing the app, feedback will start rolling in and you’ll need to take into consideration the future versions of the app when you release updates.
What’s next?
After going through the above-listed essential steps for the mobile app development process, are you ready to step into the real world of creating an app?
Still in confusion? You should get in touch with any leading mobile app development company in Miami, which can help you to seamlessly walk through the different stages of the mobile app development process.
Moreover, if you want to share your valuable thoughts on this blog post, do comment on your views and confusion, we’ll strive to get you with optimal solutions.
