Apps Development
1. Strategy
The first phase of the mobile app development process is defining the strategy for evolving your idea into a successful app.
You may include a more significant part of this in your overall enterprise mobility strategy. As one app’s objectives may differ from another, there is still an app-specific impact to the mobility strategy to address during the development process.
In this phase, you will:
- Identify the app users
- Research the competition
- Establish the app’s goals and objectives
- Select a mobile platform for your app
2. Analysis and Planning
At this stage, your app idea starts taking shape and turns into an actual project. Analysis and planning begin with defining use cases and capturing detailed functional requirements.
Part of the planning phase includes identifying the skills needed for your app development initiative. For example, iOS and Android mobile platforms use different development technology stacks. If your goals are to build a mobile app for both iOS and Android mobile platforms then, your mobile development team should include iOS developers and Android developers.
Have you selected the name of your app yet? Mobile app names are like domain names and have to be unique within each app store. Research each app store ensuring your app’s name isn’t already in use!
3. UI / UX Design
The purpose of an app’s design is to deliver seamless and effortless user experiences with a polished look.
The success of a mobile app is determined based on how well users are adopting and benefiting from all its features. The goal for mobile app UI / UX design is to create excellent user experiences making your app interactive, intuitive, and user-friendly. While polished UI designs will help with early adoption, your app must have intuitive user experiences to keep app users engaged.
4. App Development
Planning remains an integral part of this phase in the mobile app development process. Before actual development/programming efforts start, you will have to:
- define the technical architecture,
- pick a technology stack, and
- define the development milestones.
A typical mobile app project is made up of three integral parts: back-end/server technology, API(s), and the mobile app front-end.
Back-End/Server Technology
This part includes database and server-side objects necessary for supporting functions of your mobile app. If you are using an existing back-end platform, then modifications may be needed for supporting the desired mobile functionality.
API
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a method of communication between the app and a back-end server/database.
5. Testing
Performing thorough quality assurance (QA) testing during the mobile app development process makes applications stable, usable, and secure. To ensure comprehensive QA testing of your app, you first need to prepare test cases that address all aspects of app testing.
6. Deployment & Support
Releasing a native mobile app requires submitting your app to the app stores, Apple App Store for iOS apps, and Google Play for Android apps. However, you will need a developer account with Apple App Store and Google Play Store before launching your mobile app.
An app’s release in the app store requires preparing metadata including:
- Your app’s title
- Description
- Category
- Keywords
- Launch icon
- App Store screenshots