Jelena Cekic
App development can be a very lucrative niche to do business in if you can manage to retain a high level of quality.
Coming up with a cool idea is not too hard – if you put your mind to it, you can come up with at least five good ideas per day. The difficult part of app development is realizing a particular idea and monetizing it. Luckily a lot of app entrepreneurs have already paved the way for future development, as there are a lot of products now that have been proven to work, and there are app building tools that can make your job easier.
In other words, if you do your homework, you can focus on the field of certainty and start developing an app that is highly likely to succeed. The following guide is here to help you in these endeavors by giving you a summary of the development process through nine essential steps.
Before you start coding, or typing anything for that matter, you should take a step back and think about your goals, or what you app needs to achieve. Even better, take a pen and paper and jot it down. Basically, these are the questions you need to answer before you start designing your app:
If you do not have good answers to these questions, then you do not have a viable idea, it is as simple as that.
Well, now that you have answered the most crucial questions and the first step is all taken care of, you can start working on your app, right? Wrong! You are still missing something, and that’s a visual representation of your application and your plan in general.
You are going to need a map to your successful app, and it should include the design of its base layout, accompanied by creative variations of the interface, and a well-defined test plan.
Before you begin to work on your app, show this plan to someone you trust and who can provide you with unbiased feedback. Truth be told, you are probably the worst jury possible for your app, especially since it is made for other people and not you specifically, which is why you need to hear what an ordinary user might think when presented with your product.
The last thing you need to do before you officially begin to work on your app is to research your competition. The most important features of your app need to stem from the flawed design of your competitors, as you will have a competitive advantage to rely on when marketing your product.
So, go over what users had to say about these apps, and what the developers failed to deliver, in order to find out how to make your product better.
You need to start with building a foundation for your app, also known as a wireframe. Now is the time to take the sketch you made during the second step and expand it into a storyboard for your app. The wireframe should give your idea more clarity and elaborate its functionality. You can use wireframe tools or platforms to help you out in this phase, as they can do an amazing job of bringing your sketch to life.
Once you have your wireframe, you can easily lay out your APIs, data diagrams and servers, and there are app builders that make this part of the job easier, so feel free to utilize them. The idea is to get a service that can not only provide you with hosting, but with features that enable data gathering related to app usage.
When this initial model is complete, you can seek out people who are able to provide you with constructive criticism, in other words, brace yourself for a few home truths. Do not go for people who are likely to give you compliments, seek out the most hardcore cynics or critics.
Closely observe how they navigate the interface and take notes if you need to make some revisions and adjustments. The idea is to cater to the users and their way of thinking to ensure successful execution.
Now your developers can set up servers, APIs and database, and you can use your app building tools to start working, taking into account all the feedback you got at this point. Moreover, if this is your first app, you can create accounts on online stores like Google Play or Play Store. Setting up these accounts may take a few days so, you can start doing this during the development phase.
UI is the core component of your app and its design is going to have significant impact on user experience. If you are working with a graphic designer, you can collaborate on creating high resolutions skins and screens with high graphic fidelity and visual appeal that are based on the wireframe you drafted.
In the event you are relying on WYSIWYG editor, you will be able to select layout and screens on your own, just take into consideration what you have learned from the testing phase.
Now that everything is done, the beta testing can begin. You will need a more objective feedback, which means that a handful of friends or acquaintances won’t do. You can rely on user testing services, and find numerous users who can test your app while in beta and provide you with valuable feedback.
The input obtained in this fashion can point to some common problems that slipped through during the design stage, and help you modify the app to make a significantly better first impression upon release.
Finally, release your app, start sharing it on social media pages, relevant groups, and if needed, pay for services to be marketed to your core customer group. If you have done everything right and really outperformed the competitors, chances are you will be featured on the store itself, and such exposure can result in a ridiculously high number of downloads.
These were the nine essential steps for developing a quality app, so stick to them as closely as possible, and learn from your experiences.
Jelena Cekic is a creative writer and blogger at Podroom Creative with a Master’s degree in Serbian Language and Literature from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad. She is passionate...
