STEPS TO START MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT

The app market is simply too competitive and hard to stand out. It requires large investment, time and budget. Going into  start mobile app development stage unprepared can cause risky and costly consequences such as frustrating and brand-damaging mistakes. Here is a guide to get you started

Step 1. Sketch Your App Idea

Every app starts with an normal idea. It doesn’t need to be big, ground-breaking or smart.  When you make an app, you want the app to be as lean and mean as possible. That’s called a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and it’s the first, simplest version of your app. A few questions you can ask yourself: What features can you bring out? Which feature is a unique selling point? Are there any features that make your app bloated, or slow building it down?

Step 2. Do Some Market Research

Doing market research before making your app can save you from making a lot of mistakes early on. You validate assumptions and also assess the needs of potential customers properly.

At first, you should understand the field you’re going to work in. Finding out what mistakes your competitors are making and also finding out if people are looking for an app like yours. Based on your research you can clearly realize the problem your app solves, and who you solve that problem for. You use these insights in order to make an app that serves its users much better.

Step 3. Create Mockups Of  Your App

It’s better to make mockups before building the app. A mockup is a rough sketch of your app’s layout, user interfaces (UIs) and flow. A mockup shows you what an app looks like, without distracting you with unnecessary details. It’s a functional instead of aesthetic approach to your app’s design.

A mockup also show the flow and interactions of your app. What happens when you tap on that button? How do you get from screen A to screen B? What is navigation flow of your app? It’s also a great idea to create a functional-technical design next to your mockup. You can also create annotations in your mockup software, or just create a text document which explains how the app works.

Step 4. Make Your App’s Graphic Design

Design is not just about how your app looks, but it’s about how a user will experience the app. So look for a developer who puts design (user experience and graphics) first.

Seek a development company which has great design talent and a solid development team. While hiring a developer, you can go online to check on their credibility and the apps that they have created before. If you really liked an app they created from their portfolio, chances are, they could be the suitable one for your product.

Step 6: Create developer accounts. 

You must register for a developer account with the respective app stores to be able to sell and promote your app through their platform. You have the option of registering as an individual or as a company, if you already have one formed.

Step 7: Integrate analytics. 

Analytics help you track downloads, user engagement and retention for your mobile app. Make sure you use tools such as Flurry, which is available for free, and Localytics, which has a free and paid version.

Step 8: Get feedback quickly and improvise

When your app goes live on the app store, setting of customers’ usage and behavior will give you insight into how to improve your app. Enhancements and changes develop constantly, so keep an eye on user feedback and continue building.

Step 9: Introduce features.

You built version one with limited features and only the core offering. Now is the time to estimate, evaluate and introduce the remaining features which were left out in the initial version. You will probably know through analytics and feedback whether the features are relevant anymore.

These steps are guidelines to help you to build and develop your app in proper and effective way.