There is hardly any digitally active business that doesn’t want to extend its digital presence with a mobile app. Established businesses and startups are already aware of the too genetic nature of the websites and the huge competition they face to gain visibility and traction through search engine ranking.
On top of that, custom android application development seems to get easier with every passing day. It is still a resource and time-consuming and challenging enough to deal with the competition across app stores, but there are easy-to-use technologies, tools, and simple development approaches that fuel the aspirations of many businesses to build apps.
Despite having a great app idea, do the arduous efforts and challenges still prevent you from taking the idea into execution? This is precisely why we are here to guide you to make things simple for the app you want to build. Here are some tips, practices, and steps to simplify the app development process.
Give attention to problem-solving
Instead of jumping straight into considerations like whether you need custom Android application development or build a native app for iOS, just clear the first and foremost acid test for validating the app idea. Since any app should be a solution to solve user problems, you need to evaluate how your app is offering a relevant and practical solution to any user problem. All the brainstorming around app ideas should be focused on user problem-solving.
Even if your app quite legitimately solves a relevant user problem, the idea still may not have enough competitive value as there are other apps from competitors to offer the same or better solution. So, you need to ask whether your app solution is unique or better to take less effort from users. If you have just extended an existing app idea with more features and capabilities, always ask how relevant they are in particular user scenarios.
Reach out to the audience for validation
However, focused on questioning the relevance and usefulness of the intended app idea, you are most likely to be preoccupied with some biases. This is why it is always important to reach out to the target audience and seek their unbiased opinions.
Google Keyword Planner is an excellent tool for a better picture of all people looking for similar services. You can also create a landing page showcasing the intended app’s critical elements.
Proceed to design steps
Once the app idea is validated fully, it is time to put it into a hand-drawn app layout describing the app’s flow from one screen to another. You can use a pencil sketch on paper or use some good wireframing tool such as Balsamiq. Whatever tools you choose to use, the objective should be to present the user flow with the layout of the different app screens.
When the wireframing is complete, you can add more detailed design attributes such as themes, colors, fonts, etc., to bring life to the app design, and you can use several mock-up design tools for this. This design step, known as mock-up, is an intermediate step leading to prototyping.
The final design step is dynamic prototyping which involves turning the visual mock-up into an interactive interface allowing users to navigate and interact. The dynamic prototype comes very close to the final look and feel of the intended app.
Choose OS platform and tech stack.
In which OS platform do you want to launch the app project? Well, this requires again taking a closer look at the target audience and understanding the devices and platforms they mostly use. Do you want to extend the app presence across both ios and Android? In that case, building cross-platform apps can be hugely beneficial.
Do you want to develop a quality app capable of running across all platforms? Then using React Native and Flutter can be considered the best option. Code reusability and modular component-based architecture are two aspects that make these two technologies stand out from the rest.
Build an MVP product
We have vowed to make the development process simple and effective for your app project. Hence, we suggest you create a Minimum Viable Product or MVP by following the incremental development approach. Building an MVP app means releasing a basic app with the core or most essential features and then adding more features or making changes through subsequent updates based on the user feedback.
The most prominent benefit of the MVP development approach is keeping complexity at a minimum level while building the first app release with a minimum investment. This also helps your app project to stay relevant to the evolving user requirements and market demands by rolling out important updates.
Scrupulously test the app.
An app development cycle is not complete until the app product is thoroughly tested and ready for launch in the market. After initial testing and debugging, releasing a beta version will also help you to evaluate how the app.
If you have embraced the agile development approach, the testing will concurrently run alongside development. But before the launch, the app should pass through usability testing, user testing, load and performance testing, security testing, and a few other testing cycles per the project requirements.
Don’t undermine pre-launch buzz.
Now when the app is market ready, and you have figured out a decent launch event, you must have at least the traction of a few hundred people. For a new app product, this requires pushing a detailed per-launch buzz campaign. Creating buzz about the “yet to be launched” app is essential through digital content publication. This is only possible when you have decided the launch date in advance.
Conclusion
We call these steps simple and effective because they helped many startups and small businesses to shape their dream apps. These time-tested methods help reduce complexity and all worries about the outcome to a minimum level.
Author Bio
Will Ben Sims is CEO of Cerdonis Technologies LLC ? A software development company that provides a wide range of app development services. Will ben and his team have developed a number of mobile application solutions for various business. Apart from his professional life, Will ben is very good at playing rugby.
