The New Phase of Mobile App Development for Digital Business
If you look at the world around you, you will see millions and billions of people glued to their smart devices. Mobile phones have become one such trend that rules the lives of people. Started on the most elite level, it has now rooted its necessity to a niche audience as well.
Who would have thought the mobile device would become a place to perform daily necessities transactions? Shopping, payments, transfers, booking, earning and many other things that is really going to take time to mention are all efficiently performed by a single device i.e. mobile.
With the popularity and looking the growth of usage of mobile phones, there had been a proportional increase in the development of mobile app too. Why do you ask? Because it's the app that makes a mobile app worthy enough for users daily transactional needs. Today, it's quite easy to say that smartphone users spend almost about 90 per cent of their mobile time over apps alone.
With changes in time and trends, there had been changes in the development of a mobile app as well. Let's take you through some new phase of mobile development that is must for digital business.
1) Analyze the Need of Mobile App
Before you get into the actual development, you need to analyze the need for a mobile app. There are certain aspects like demographics, motivation, need, behavior pattern and goal of your buyer that you need to research on. This is needed because the app is developed for the user and it's important to consider them at each respective stage so as to introduce them with an app that actually benefits them.Also, a detailed analysis of your competitors’ app would give an extra edge in understanding your user needs and offer extra than what your competitors already offer.
2) Storyboarding and Wireframing
Once you are ready with your research, the next step is to document and wireframe your app. It's important to draw detailed sketches of your app so that it could be used in any future usability issues. Sketching is a powerful tool for communication as it gives an overview of the base structure of your app to developers and designers.Once sketching is done, wireframe comes into the picture. It helps in refining the ideas and arranges all the components to be embedded in app design in the right order. Also, wireframe helps to overcome any technical limitations which have a chance to be found in the backend development process.
3) Application Type
While you have decided to create a mobile app, you need to decide on the application type of mobile app too. Today, there are 3 types of applications available based on which a mobile app is designed. Those are native apps, web apps, and hybrid apps.- Native Apps: These apps are platform-dependent apps. Developing such apps require effort, cost and time. Coming at a higher price, such apps provide the best user experience.
- Web apps: These apps are cheaper compared to native apps and can run on multiple platforms. But, web apps prove to be less powerful in comparison with the native apps.
- Hybrid apps: As the name suggests, these apps are the amalgamation of native and web apps which combine the web code with the native language.
4) User Interface Design
The UI design is one of the most important phases of mobile app development as its the design, look and feel of the app that user first interacts with. Sketching and wireframe help in managing the UI design of the app very well.There are three things that comprise of the entire UI design and those are-
- Information structure and representation
- Interaction design
- Visual design
When a designer considers all the above-mentioned aspect of the mobile app design, then it becomes easier to design the app as per users’ expectations.
5) Build a Prototype
When all the planning, analysis, sketching, wireframing, designing is completed, it’s time now to build a prototype to test the actual representation of the app. A prototype model is actually built to test the platform to check if the design meets the requirement of the actual planning and expectation.Having a prototype model created before launching the app to users helps in monitoring the test model and rectifies any unwanted challenges or issue. This is must step to be taken since it given a preliminary view of the mobile app.
6) Develop & Test
Once all is done and assured on, it’s time now to develop and test the mobile app. This is the last and crucial step in the entire mobile app development cycle. Basis the planning, budgeting and the costing, developer needs to create the app. Agile methodology is often preferred when mobile app development is considered. It allows developer or development companies to make changes, add features and evolve as per the trend.Post-development; even while app development, testing is necessary to keep a check on the quality assurance of the app. You cannot introduce an app that is not bug-free, crashes a lot, hangs too and etc. The tester can go for 2 types of testing to make sure the app is free of errors.
- UAT testing: Introduce app to the user and let them explore it to know about the app
- Beta testing: Open participation of users to test the app a suggest
Conclusion:
To mark the end note, mobile app development phase is a marked trophy if you want to get the outcome effective. Without planning, analysis, budget allocation, strategy, development, testing you cannot produce an app that is acceptable to users. However, if all the phases are followed ethically, it’s sure to have an app that proves to be a long runner in the market.About The Author-
Siya Carla, she is an Solution Consultant at Finoit Technologies, a leading mobile app development company which turns ideas into reality by providing unique web design and mobile app development services.