Why should IT industries invest in mobile app development? The mobile app development is having a resonating phase in the IT industry. It is one of the reasons that keeps them going with a high ROI. The microprocessing technologies are so progressing that the scope of running mobile applications on various platforms are also progressing parallely.
What is Mobile App Development?
Developing applications that run on mobile devices is what mobile app development is all about. The apps are either pre-installed in the devices or installed by the user as and when required. Using the internet connectivity, these apps process remote computing resources.
The mobile app development is about enabling the backend data fetching functionalities through APIs alongside developing the front-end face of the software for installing in devices. These applications are then finally tested in target devices before pushing to market.
What are the factors to consider for developing scalable mobile apps? Screen size, hardware and software requirements are some of the factors to be weighed in.
To develop scalable mobile apps, you also need to consider screen sizes, hardware requirements, and many other aspects of the app development process.
Which are the Mobile App Development Platforms?
- iOS for Apple devices
- Android for OEM/Google manufactured devices
Different SDKs are used for different platforms. While iOS is Apple’s exclusive platform, Android is for companies that meet the specific requirements of Google.
Which are the App Development Alternatives?
To develop Mobile Apps, you have the following alternative approaches:
- Native Mobile Applications
- Cross-platform Native Mobile Application
- Hybrid Mobile Applications
- Progressive Mobile Application
Mobile App Development Process:
To build a Mobile App, following are the steps involved:
- Strategy
You have to define the objective of developing an app. A strategy properly formulated will save time and money for the company. Hence, following are the questions that are asked during strategy formulation:
- Brainstorming session with your team for app idea
- Do thorough market research and technology stack planning
- Define Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for primary feedback of your product and necessary feature upgrading
With these stages answered, we transit to the next stage of mobile app development process:
- Analysis & Planning
Use cases and functional requirements are defined during this stage. Once this is done, product roadmap and delivery milestones are set. On analysis, if you feel concerned about the time, cost or resources, then you can define MVP and make necessary changes before the initial launch.
Based on the app development initiative, you have to set up the team. For instance , based on the platform on which the Mobile app is built, your team should have iOS and Android developers.
Select an app name and make sure it is aligned with domain names. Make enough research to ensure that your app’s name is not already in use.
- UI/UX Design
Users have to benefit from different features of mobile apps. In order to create outstanding user experience, mobile development companies should have unique UI/UX design. Your app has to be interactive, intuitive and user-friendly. For a mobile app, UI design will facilitate early adoption of your app and UX design will facilitate user engagement.
Information Architecture and Workflow:
The primary stage of mobile app development is to frame the data your mobile app will display to the users, the data it will collect, user interaction with end-product and user journey within the app. The user roles and privileges are vital information of the mobile app’s information architecture. Through workflow diagrams, you will have a clear-cut idea of user interaction and user journey within the app.
Wireframes:
The app designer team comes up with conceptual layouts to generate a visual structure of the mobile app’s functional requirements. During the wireframing stage, emphasis is given to user experience rather than the visual features (colour, style etc.) of the mobile app. In the design review process, wireframing has profound importance in determining app’s design layouts in an iterative manner. Another factor to take into account while wireframing is the device specifications to make the app all the more attractive with respect to user experience.
Style Guides:
The design standards on par with company branding principles are documented in Style Guide. This includes text font, color scheme, app design that will reflect company brand etc.This documentation can boost the productivity of the mobile app developers as they are certain of what they should do. To make your app look consistent, it is important that you follow Apple and Google guidelines for iOS and Android apps respectively.
Mockups:
Design team develops a high-fidelity visual design for your app. Mockups are created by applying the style guide on the created wireframe. During the progression of the designing stage of the app, the team will face necessary modifications essential for its information architecture, workflow and other technicalities. At Webdura, we use photoshop for creating mockups for our mobile app development projects.
Prototype:
What is expected from the finished product is what Prototype is all about. It can be very helpful for enhancing User Experience and application workflow. Even though Prototype can consume lots of time, it can enable early testing and validating of the app. This way mobile app designers can make necessary upgrading to the app’s functionalities.
- App Development
In a mobile app development, there are three important parts namely Backend technology, API and Frontend
Backend Technology: Choosing database and server technologies that supports the mobile application functionalities is important. If an existing backend platform is chosen, then appropriate modifications are required to achieve the desired mobile functionalities.
API: Certain applications need to communicate with other servers or databases to accomplish functionalities of various mobile features. This is set up through APIs.
Frontend: Frontend is all about what users see and is set up using miscellaneous technologies. Certain mobile applications need API and backend while certain other applications need only databases offered by platforms to function.
We have projects that have various programming languages for building mobile apps. Our team researches the programming language and supporting technologies apposite for each app. Webdura has mobile apps like Lyringo, Wuyers, CurlIQ, Trova and Eat It In built on native apps. We deploy Flutter, Swift programming or React Native for iOS apps and Java, Flutter or React Native for Android apps.
- Testing
Our team tests the app to check the responsiveness of the app to user requests, loading time of app screens, battery consumption and memory leaks if any, network bandwidth leveraging capability etc.
Our team performs testing on various aspects like:
- User experience testing
- Functional testing
- Performance testing
- Alpha-Beta testing
- Certification testing
- Security testing
- Device and platform testing
- Automation testing
- Deployment and Support
Once the development is done, the apps need to be submitted to the Play/App stores. For this, we create developer accounts for launching the mobile apps. App’s metadata like App Title, Description, Category, Keywords, Launch Icon and App/Play Store screenshots are submitted.
iOS takes a few days or few weeks for reviewing the app submitted. Android will get the review done in a matter of a few hours.
Once the app is live in stores, the performance analytics and KPIs are measured for reviewing the app’s success. To ensure user engagement, we prompt end-user support and frequent upgrading. Mobile applications have to go through the submission and review process each time they release new versions unlike web applications. Our projects are all built on Native Mobile Apps and it is very important for us to stay on top of technological advancements and update our app for new mobile devices and OS platforms to stay ahead.
For mobile app development projects, we follow the Agile model of software development. This can enable the incorporation of changes in the scope of the mobile app in an iterative manner. This way the mobile app development process can keep up with the rapidly changing expectations and standards.
Conclusion
Webdura has always advertised React Native and Flutter based mobile apps pretty much. We have food delivery app ‘Eat It In’, language learning app ‘Lyringo’, online gig platform ‘Trova’, AI-powered beauty care app ‘CurlQ’ are all outcomes of our interest and investment in mobile app development. Our apps can function on iOS/Android mobile devices and websites.
Each of these apps are made with the intention of making the efforts of businesses and its target audiences simpler and smarter. In the coming days, we hope to give our end users an upgraded version of our mobile apps that run smoothly on both mobiles and desktops.
Mobile app industry is growing and it is important that entrepreneurs, industries, developers and all stakeholders understand the process thoroughly. At Webdura, our mobile app development has certain set goals like minimal uninstalls, delivering best user experience, outperforms the competitors, and attaining financial benefits in the long run.
Our team puts in every effort to keep our mobile apps meet the industrial needs and ensure customer engagement in every phase and we have a satisfied and growing customer base in the aftermath.