Mobile App Development Process in 8 Essential Steps

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Published September, 25 2019

Mobile App Development Process in 8 Essential Steps

Smartphones and mobile apps have redefined the way people acquire information from across the internet. With every passing day, they are getting inclined and dependent on apps for their daily tasks starting from managing finances to booking travel tickets and ordering food online. Apps have truly made life easy for us. The convenience of its usage and faster processing are responsible for the growing app dependency amongst people.

Currently, Apple’s app store and Google play store each contain more than 1.5 million apps which makes it imperative for you to go through the entire development process to understand how it will fit into both your marketing objectives and your marketing niche. Take a look at the crucial phases of an app development lifecycle.

1. Research

Every app development procedure needs a solid idea, to begin with, and this idea will build the base of the application. This initial analysis should be done considering the nature, behavioural pattern and goals of your buyer persona. At every stage of the process, the end-user should be kept in mind.

The next step is to think about turning your prospects into your customers. Only reaching your target audience is not the end of the story, they need to be converted and retained. The final step is to think about your user experience with your app.

Do proper research and brainstorming before proceeding to the next step. Another aspect of this phase is keeping your eyes on the competition. Go through your competitors’ apps thoroughly to see what features they have added and whatnot.

2. Wireframing

When you have a proper plan and idea for the app, you can head towards the next phase of the development procedure which is wireframing. In this phase, you need to document the requirements for the design team.

Based on that, the team would develop wireframes- blueprints, digital sketches showing how the app would appear once it is made. The rough sketches will help you discover the usability issues.

When you are done with the sketching part, wireframing will help nurture the ideas and synchronize all the components of the design in the right way. In this initial stage, you can work out any limitation in the backend development process.

3. Technical feasibility assessment

Now you can already visualize how your app would look like. Your next step is to see whether the backend system will be compatible with the app’s functionality. In order to make sure that your application is technically feasible, you need to get access to the public data by sourcing public APIs.

Apps have different requirements based on their format and platform. At the end of this phase your team might have different ideas for the app or find out that some of the initial functionality is not feasible.

4. Prototype

Building a rapid prototype is helpful in this phase as you can not exactly comprehend the touch experience until and unless you use the app and know about its functions. Rough wireframes instead of comprehensive ones can be used for this phase.

This will determine whether you are on the right track of the development or not. Involve the stakeholders in this to get their feedback and implement it into your work. Different stakeholders will get to the app for the first time through the prototype.

5. Design

After completing the above-mentioned steps, you can step into the coding phase. This is known as the designing phase which is the heart of every app developing process. The overall user experience and your app’s appearance depend on this stage.

The main objective of designing an app is to make it attractive and easy to navigate. While your user experience (UX) designer conducts user research and testing, the user interface (UI) designer works on the appearance and feel of your app.

6. Development

At this stage of the app development process, your development team will start implementing the styles and functionalities of your app. When they are done, they are given to the project manager for review.

An efficient project manager has the ability to completely optimize a developer’s workload at the time of the process by properly allocating assignments throughout the sprint. Your developers should be well aware of the requirements and goals of the application as a whole.

7. Testing

In a mobile app building process, early testing is a good idea as it can reduce your final expenditure to a great extent. If you go far in this process without testing it will be costlier for you to fix bugs later.

Application testing is a lengthy procedure, so you need to ensure that your team covers all the important aspects of it. An application should be tested on the basis of its usability, compatibility, security, interface checks, stress and performance.

8. Deployment

Different application stores follow different launching policies. When your application is finally ready to launch, choose a day and organize a formal launch. You must bear in mind that launching does not indicate the end of the procedure.

Once you make it available for users, you will be flooded with its feedback and you need to incorporate the feedback into the advanced version of the app. After the release of the first version, a new cycle begins where you need to gear up for the next.

Today app development, whether it is IOS app development or Android app development is no big deal but building a successful app requires proper planning and execution. Though it might seem to be easy it involves multiple steps and decision-making throughout the procedure.

If you wish to build an app for your business you should be aware of the procedure. If you still have any doubt about the process you can always contact a mobile app development company for your business in Canada for further evaluation.