Today, creating and developing a mobile app is not as difficult as it was in the past. This can be proven by the number of mobile apps launched annually on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. But developing a successful mobile app that conveys your business ideas and is targeted at a specific audience is not a simple task. A successful app takes time to develop for the various app stores, and it needs marketing before it becomes popular.
There are many stages or phases in the mobile app development industry that helps developers to create and develop successful mobile apps. These stages have been designed to guide developers through their journey of creating a successful business app from beginning to end. If you are an app developer, study the following stages carefully, and apply them whenever you have a new app idea in mind.
First Stage – Research
Every mobile app journey begins with an idea. Once you have an idea for a mobile app that is meant to solve the problem of your audience, you are one step closer to having a successful app. Research is needed if you want to create an app that will be accepted by your target audience. You have to analyze everything from demographics, behavioral patterns, to the demands of your audience. You can ask yourself a few questions like;
- Who is your target audience?
- What does your app have to offer?
- Who are your competitors?
- How different or unique is your app from your competitor’s app?
- Which platform is the best for your app?
These questions help you to know how best you can modify your ideas to create a successful app. Researching helps you gather the information that makes the app better. It is important you also carry out extensive research on your competition. If your competitor has a successful app, you have to find out how they made that possible. If it is the other way around, you have to find out why their app failed, and how you can prevent that from happening to you.
Second Stage – Wireframing
User experience is one of the major factors that determine whether your app will be successful or not. A wireframe in terms of mobile app development is a simple sketch of an app’s features and functionalities. The sketch outlines the structure and layout of the app. Wireframe helps you to blend your ideas into a structure that is best for the user experience. It helps you overcome any technical limitation when it comes to how your app will be designed before you start working on the actual project. Having a storyboard that represents how users will navigate your app is not a bad idea to add to this stage. Wireframing also helps you to get the visuals of your app before you create a prototype.
Third Stage – Technical Feasibility Assessment
Technical feasibility assessment is one of the five major feasibility assessments in mobile app development. This type of assessment helps developers to determine the kind of technical resources need to satisfy the structure or layout of the app. This is why it is important to wireframe before you move to this stage. You can do this by sourcing public data from public APIs. Every app, depending on the platform or device it is being run on, has different requirements. A technical feasibility assessment helps you generate more ideas on how your app will function once it is launched for your target audience.
Fourth Stage – Design
Before you build a prototype, you can start working on your app’s User experience (UX) and User Interface (UI). UX and UI are both important when it comes to your app’s design. User Interface deals with the appearance of the app while User Experience deals with how the features of the app function interact with user actions. Depending on your budget, this should not take much of your time. The design is supposed to represent what the final app will look like. A reliable mobile application development company should have a team of expert designers for the UX/UI.
Fifth Stage – Developing a Prototype
A prototype is a simple representation of an app showing the features and functionalities of the app. Prototypes are usually built at a fast rate to check if the features and functionalities in mind can fit into an app. As a developer, you don’t have to waste all your time building a prototype because it will only make your work more difficult.
Prototypes determine whether your app is going in the right direction or not. You can install the prototype on your mobile device to see how well it functions. If it functions properly, you can use it to generate feedback from others. You can also show it to your investors to check if it is what they are happy with your progress.
Sixth Stage – App Development
The development stage begins immediately after you have an app idea, but you start to focus on this stage when you are done with the app design. This stage is usually divided into sections led by different teams. One team for coding and the other for testing if the codes work properly without bugs. Most developers prefer using agile methodology when it comes to developing an app.
Agile methodology is a management technique that divides tasks into short phases of work. It requires frequent reassessment as well as the adaptation of plans. The agile methodology makes the development stage easier. The outcome of the app is also adaptable even after launch. You can read about the Agile Methodology here.
Seventh Stage – Testing
Testing is very essential in mobile app development. You cannot launch your app for the public without testing. Testing apps help developers to detect bugs that can affect user experience. Apps are usually tested for their compatibility, usability, security, user experience, performance, and most importantly user experience. If you want to get feedback from actual users, you can release a beta version for testing. Users can then share their feedback on how to make your app better.
Eighth Stage – Launch
Once you are done with the previous stage and you believe your app is ready for the public, you have the go-ahead to launch. Most platforms require you to send your app for them to review before you can launch on their app stores. Unlike Android, Apple takes a long time to review your app because they check to make sure your app corresponds with their quality requirements. Once your app is approved, you can launch it for your audience. Make sure you choose the right app developer who can deliver a properly built prototype in a reasonable amount of time.
This does not mean you are done as a developer. You still have more work to do because users will provide feedback, and it is up to you to gather this information to make sure your app satisfies their needs.
About 5280 Software LLC:
5280 Software LLC, located in Denver, Colorado is a premier software development firm. We have worked with a variety of clients over the years. Our expert team of developers have helped small to medium sized businesses, startups, as well as enterprise level clients such as RingCentral. If you are looking to build a mobile app, we can deliver flawless apple ios mobile apps as well as android mobile apps. Our mobile app development agency designs apps for smartphones, ipad and android tablets, wearable such as smart watches, and even smart TVs.
The power of a well-designed app to gain new customers is key in today’s market. Our cutting-edge mobile app development solution is what your business or startup needs! Our developers are adroit with any mobile app development platform you need. We help execute your app development to perfection. If you need the best mobile app development companies, you have found them!
We offer a complete solution with the latest technologies to solve your obstacles and scale your customer base. From the start of any project (and at every stage, step, phase, and release) we focus on the client and always ask for feedback while we develop the project. Creating a quality solution for a business or startup is our end goal. Our strategy and processes are based on solid communication with our clients. 5280 Software LLC is one of the top mobile app development companies in the USA. We are far better than other mobile app development companies that charge more money for lower quality.
All projects are built according to a clearly defined scope of work. If you need assistance with scope creation, we offer this as a service. This scope of work will be used in the provided development contract. Make sure whomever you hire for your project provides you a development contract with clearly defined pricing, development timeline, payment schedule, and deliverables. We would like to learn about your project and help refine your scope of work. Our custom website, software, and mobile app development agency is here for you every step of the way.
If you have an idea for a mobile app, please emails us your full name or company name and we will send you a signed NDA. We send NDAs to all potential clients to guarantee your ideas and documents will be kept in confidence. Once an NDA is in place, feel free to book a free discovery call. You can also fill out our app development questionnaire to share the details of your project before your call. We are the leading firm specializing in building solutions for the web, iphones and other smart devices including IOT. Our company can create a custom solution on a variety of platforms using the most current popular programming languages. Weather it is a cross platform hybrid app or a natively programmed solution, we have you covered!
We look forward to speaking with you about your project. Learn why clients around the world trust working with 5280 Software LLC. We support our clients from mockups, sketch, wireframes, and graphic design, development, product launch and ASO when we publish your app, and even code updates at a competitive price point. Feel free to visit us on our social sites Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or send us a LinkedIn connection request to learn about our offers to get answers to your questions. Want to hear firsthand from our previous clients the superior service we offer? Check out our testimonials! Call us today at 888.510.0833 to learn about our mobile app development services!
