8 Steps to Understanding The Mobile App Development Lifecycle | Mobile Applications remain the ever-growing trend in the technical era. Today, every business no matter how big or small are prompted to have them improve the growth of their business. However, most businessmen are not aware of their development process and how they are built.
Anyone who is considering building an application for their business should learn about the development and execution process.
Here we have mentioned 8 basic steps that everyone should be aware of about the mobile application development process.
Discovery and Market Research
Researching is the first basic step in step in the process where you discover new ideas for your business. Establish who you are targeting and what is the purpose of your app development. Researching what your competitors are doing is also an important part of the step.
During this stage, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
Who is your target audience?
What mobile app development platform will you be using?
How will you market and promote your app?
What is your app development budget?
What purpose will it serve for your business?
Which development language and framework you would be using?
What is the timeline of your app development and when are you planning to launch it?
Establishing Goals and Objectives for Development Process
It is very important to establish the goals and objectives of your mobile application during the development process to achieve them. This will also help you set your budget and assess the capabilities of your in-house step.
What features would you like to add to your application?
What problems will your application solve for your customers?
What will be the core appeal of your application?
Wireframes and Storyboard
During this stage of your process, you will be finalizing the sketching and creation of the storyboard. You can use various tools for wireframing. At this point of the process, you should be clear about how your ideas are being incorporated into the applications.
This step will help you get an understanding of how the features run in the application. After this, you will also be able to create a roadmap of the application. It will give you an insight into the user experience.
Defining the Backend of Your Application
After establishing how your wireframes and storyboard will work, you need to think of the backend structures that will support your applications, such as push notification services, APIs, data diagrams, servers, and data integration. Most of the time, businesses opt for mobile backend as a Service, also known as the BaaS platform for dealing with the challenges such as lack of in-house talent and scalability of your application.
Finalizing Wireframe and Testing Prototype
This stage will help you nail down any changes that you identified in your wireframe during the backend process. Once you have finalized your wireframe and storyboard, the team should focus on building an interactive prototype. With its help, you will be able to evaluate the concepts of your design and identify flaws and dead links in the usability and flow of the application.
You can use several prototyping tools available online to make the process much simpler for you. It is also wise to test the application and work on the feedback. With the help of UI/UX, you can also overcome the shortcoming that you identified with testing.
Mobile Application Development Process
This step included the programming and coding phase of the process. First, you need to decide on which mobile operating system your application will work on. For Android applications, you have the Google Play Store and for iOS developers, your application can work on the Apple App Store.
It is highly recommended by Atimi Mobile App development company to go for cross-platform development so that your application can work on multiple platforms.
You will be presented with two options for the development of your mobile app development, either to hire outside talent or to utilize your in-house team. Based on the capabilities of the developers you have in your in-house team you need to decide if you will be needing an outside hire.
While hiring an outside hire you need to get signed a non-disclosure agreement as well as establish the timeline for the deliveries.
Testing Stage
Once the development process of your mobile app is finished you need to test it again and again to find any bugs. The testing stage should be followed rigorously in a variety of real-world scenarios and the technical flaws that you may notice after that should be corrected.
It is also a great idea to test it among users and observe what they feel is missing in the app. You can also make use of some online mobile UX testing tools to get real-time feedback and analytics.
Make sure you are testing your application for the cross-platform compatibility of user experience, graphics, and images.
Preparing for Launch
For the launch of your mobile phone, you will need a website or at least a landing page so that you can support and market your application to your target audience. Creating brand awareness among the users and facilitating search and discoverability is an important part of preparing for the launch of your mobile app.
Official Release
Now that everything is done, it’s time to launch your application officially. You should start making announcements prior to the release and set a date for the app launch. Finally, after its release, encourage people to use it and leave feedback on your platform. You should be paying attention to the analytics of your app and focus on improving them for the success of your app.
