Developing a mobile app in 2019 is not a big deal anymore. Almost all the businesses are going mobile and if you are thinking about the same then you are in the right place.
So, if you are wondering how to develop a mobile app in 2019? A step-by-step guide has been laid in this blog just for you.
Step 1: The discovery stage
Diving into the app development without any plans and strategies has to be the biggest mistake anyone can make. At the end what most people realise is that their app didn’t turn out the way they wanted it to. The initial stage of app development is all about the research done for a project.
In simple words, the goal in this stage is to do proper research and set the project’s time and cost estimates. The weaknesses and strengths of the market are also discovered in this very stage.
Step 2: UX designing of the app stage
Majority of the apps do not succeed in the market because they fail to impress the users. This means that not only the idea of the app has to be brilliant but also the visuals of the app have to be appealing.
But this does not mean that your app should only ‘look’ good. The interactiveness of the app has to be a priority as well. The user should feel the app as well rather than just seeing the great visuals. Glitches, poor functioning buttons and slow app performance are some of the biggest turn-offs for a user and its best to avoid them. Another great way of checking the UX of the app is by creating clickable prototypes. This will help in providing a mock-up of the final product.
Step 3: UI designing of the app stage
Like we said before, the visuals of the app are very much important. When the app appeals the eyes of the users then the chances of success also increases. Stats show that 94% of the first impressions of a mobile app comes from its design. This is a huge number so it needs to be taken care of.
An app’s design should be simple yet elegant, interactive but not complicating. The last thing you wanna do is confuse your users with too much activity on the screen. Both the UI and UX of the app is important as one provides a smooth experience and the other offers usability.
Step 4: Designer and Developer handoff stage
If you think that laying down plans and just forgetting about it is going to get you a great app then you might be very wrong. The most important and the most difficult part of the app development process is bringing the design and development together. The design and development handoff is quite infamous but the most essential part of the process.
In this stage, proper communication between the designing team and the developing team is crucial for best results. To do so both teams should share their goals and other such details. The designing team should share the design specs with the developers for a smooth communication of what they are trying to achieve.
Step 5: Deciding the technical aspects of the app
This stage includes very technical parts of the entire app development process. The decisions taken in this stage influences the whole outlook of the app. Basically, you have to decide what platform the app will be built on, the programming language that will be used, which technology will be suitable for the app, etc. These are some very technical decisions and need proper attention.
Also, these decisions vary from person to person and developer to developer. Whatever you decide will also affect the app development cost so keep in mind the budget while making these decisions. Most of the time these costs depend on the developers as well considering how they are hired.
There is a misconception that the front-end and back-end are not equally important. People think users interact only with the front-end but the truth is users also indirectly interact with the back-end. So make sure you focus on both.
Step 6: Actual development of the app
Up until now, we were seeing the planning and strategizing stages of the app development process. Now we actually will go into the development process. Following the steps involved in the actual development of the app.
- Planning
Even though the planning has been done already, it is again done before the actual development. In this stage, the big tasks are broken down into smaller sub-tasks and then divided among different team members. This allows proper distribution of work while maintaining the focus on each task. - Development
The actual development of the app is done in this stage. The developers start using all the planning and strategies in this stage to create an amazing application. - Testing
After the app is developed, the testing of the app is important. Rigorous testing of the app is done in this stage to find any errors, mistakes or gaps that have been introduced during the development of the app. It is a great practice to test the app in the initial stages to avoid any embarassment in the future. - Functional tests
The functional tests are run to check the functioning of the app. In simple words, this means that the app must do whatever it is being commanded to do. Users might get annoyed when a particular button on the app does not perform its task. It can also result in creating a negative image of the app. - Performance tests
The performance of the app is testing in this testing process. It is very important to see if the app is working well under stress. The whole idea of development is testing in this testing stage as the user’s likeability highly depend on the performance of the app. This test tells whether the app is fast loading or slow loading and if its responsive or not. - Edge case testings
Edge-case testing is done where the app is put on extreme cases to test its durability. The reason why this test is run on newly developed apps is that there may be a chance that the app will be run with multiple apps opened on the device which can cause the app to crash. To prevent that from happening, the edge-case tests are done. These tests include functional regression, performance testing and unit testing. - Device specific testing
It becomes important to test the app for each device and OS out there. Various tests are run on the basis of the type of development. Android app development and iOS app development have different tests that should be run on different screen sizes and OS versions. - UT and UAT
The Usability Testing (UT) and User Acceptance Test (UAT) are two different tests that are run on the app. The UT makes sure the features meet the expectations from a users perspective whereas UAT makes sure the features meet the functional requirements. - Review
The last step is to review the app and see if there are any other mistakes. Usually, there are some minor mistakes and sometimes even major and these can be taken care of after the reviewing is done. The same step is repeated until the app is ready to be deployed.
