It’s 2020 – we are in the fast lane in IT and Technology with mobile apps ruling how businesses work. In today’s world, it’s all about connecting with the audience and mobile apps help in bridging the gap between you and your target audience. More so, a perfect mobile application built on a viable mobile app idea, is your gateway to showcasing and selling your products.
The essence of your business depends on what your mobile application is about. This is the crux behind the need for taking up the Mobile App Development route to make the most of your business growth potential.
The whole mobile application journey undergoes the following phases.
- App Idea Generation
- App Idea Validation
- Mobile App Planning
- Mobile App Execution
- Mobile App Launch
Let’s examine the different stages of mobile app creation; from ideation and validation, to planning and execution, to ultimate market launch.
App Idea Generation – Or the lack of proper App Ideation
The starting point for most businesses and companies is to think of an idea behind mobile app. If you are a retail business, it’s just natural to move ahead with a mobile app that pertains to your products. However, if you are looking for a way to start or venture in a new direction; then brainstorming for a mobile app concept can be the most difficult part.
For some entrepreneurs, the idea comes naturally – they could be eating a pickle, gardening, browsing through a magazine or just woken from a nap and the idea came to them. However, most of the app ideas requires extensive thinking and consulting various stakeholders.
For example, you might want to work on a game mobile app. But you’re not really sure on which direction to take? Would you rather make a puzzle sort app, or the one with shooting balls or bullets or just a battlefield kind?
The best bet is to have a team of people – your trusted circle or even hired resources to work on developing the idea. This is called as the refinement of your initial thought. If you are worried about your idea getting stolen on this stage then you should probably get non disclosure agreement (NDA) signed by the relevant people so that your idea stays yours. We all know what happened with Facebook at time of its inception and we all know where Mark Zuckerberg is now.
Does anyone else remember others? Err, no! So be smart and wise from the very start. Best thing to do at this time is to go for patenting the idea and making sure it stays yours for good.
There are many ways of refining your app idea with various type of techniques such as mind mapping, brainstorming, decision tree analysis, and score cards etc. The primary objective of all these techniques is to help polish your idea and add substance to it. The more you are able to groom it, the higher chances of it being in a shape that’s more prone to deliver the successful results you want in the market.
App Idea Validation – Ensure the App Concept is really Viable
The next question after your app idea generation is to check its market viability. After-all, an idea that looks good on pen and paper may not be awesome in practicality. That’s why it’s important to question whether its lucrative enough or not.
That’s when a lot of companies turn their heads towards the experts and their opinions for judgement. Usually, consultants are the masterminds behind such decisions as they already have an idea about market and similar products available in the market. You take expert level help by hiring a consultant for app idea validation.
However, not all companies have a budget to hire an expert for the job. In fact, if you are looking for something simpler, then you can also take a look around by just glancing at your competition and checking out if they have created a similar mobile app or not. You can also conduct search online and check if someone has already gone through something similar.
This is the make or break stage for convincing yourself whether you want in or out. Because, if you are confident of your app idea, it’s only then that you will go further in hiring mobile app development services for creating your mobile application.
Mobile App Planning – Design & User Experience is Everything
Once you are completely onboard, then it’s time to move ahead in executing the mobile app idea. The first step is to get the mobile application design, by creating mock screens or wireframes for your mobile app. A lot of amazing products are mostly drawn first – be it storyboarding or rough mock screens. It has to be perfectly visualized so that the relevant stakeholders are able to envision it.
With small screen in the hands of consumers who will be tapping away; mobile apps have a very small window of opportunity to be user friendly, appealing and have a fluid flow all at the same time. You want users to own the app and probably use it again which is why you want minimal clicks for performing various functions, an end-to-end seamless experience and fluidity in the way actions are performed through it. That’s why mobile application development has to be taken up seriously and the wire-frames are the foundation on which the mobile app is built.
This is also the best time for hiring graphic and UI/UX designers for giving you an entire layout of your mobile app including the screens, fonts, color schemes, icons, graphics, and theme. There are so many things that together assemble create a holistic look and feel of your mobile app. It’s important to pay attention to even the slightest details.
Consider these examples to understand the perspective. You may have some typos in the push notifications sent out to users that may completely put them off. Or your mobile app theme is way off from your existing branding and logo. Maybe you forgot to consider your audience while creating the mobile app which is why the flow of certain features is very hard for users to follow and they decided to move onto your competitors.
These are some of the pitfalls to avoid which is why design is such a crucial element in app idea execution. In today’s world, a lot of emphasis is put on this aspect. As a result, Agile methodology is even used in design by having special design sprints or marathon for coming up with design flows in a series of sprints. This helps the design evolve and refine before the actual development takes place.
Mobile App Execution – Making it Right the First Time
Once you have completed your mobile app design, then it’s time to assemble a Development and Quality Assurance (QA) team for the mobile application project. Hiring the right team to help in executing the mobile application assignment is an important stage. There are many types of mobile app developers available; you could hire a full stack developer who has expertise both in back-end and front-end technologies or you could hire backend and frontend developers separately.
The advantage of hiring a full stack developer is that you are able to carry a “one-man show” with higher expertise and output in lesser cost. However, hiring separately would ensure more output in lesser time frame but higher cost. Again, this decision depends on your mobile app’s delivery date as well as your total budget for the app. If your mobile app launch date is right around the corner, then it’s best to go for separate resources but in case your budget is limited; you should consider a full stack developer.
Similarly, it is also important to hire QA personnel for validating the developed product. QA resources usually test the product flows against test cases to ensure that the developed product has no errors, bugs or defects. This helps in fool proofing the product before its commercial release after which any defect can cause loss of revenue for the company.
Mobile App Launch – Gearing Up to hit the Market
Product launch is a crucial stage which means that the mobile app will be commercially released in the market. Once it’s open in the public, there is no turning back. But before this, you have to create some traction either through social media platforms, or some online marketing so that your respective audience is aware of the app.
After-all, even if a mobile app is great and no one even knows about it then there is no point in ever going through the mobile app development life cycle in the first place. Your money, time and efforts all go down in the drain, if there no proper market launch.
Before, a public wide release; you can always do a beta test run with a smaller audience to capture their response. This should also help you in understanding what you can add in the later on features and get you noticed in the market as well.
At this stage, its wise to spend a little on grabbing attention of your market segment. there are several ways of social media engagement, ad campaign tools and software, etc. to get noticed as a starting point for allowing users to know you have arrived in the market.
Conclusion
Mobile apps can help catapult you towards higher success and gaining a larger share of market, only if done correctly. This is the reason majority of companies usually hire expert mobile app development services for creating app for your company or business.
As already explained, there are various stages of mobile app development including idea, validation, design, execution and launch. All of these stages require you to pay close attention to the end-users and latest trends in tools, technologies and industry-wide best practices.
If you have a mobile app idea but not sure where to begin; then it’s time you let the experts take over. Talk to Techliance today to help your mobile application concept turn into reality.
