From all the buzz and hype mobile app projects are subjected to, it may seem app business is pretty posh and reserved only for large corporations or at least for businesses who have a footfall outside of a region. However, many think if you have a countrywide or pan-continental presence or are regarded among the top brands, you deserve to have your mobile app.
But that’s not the case. Even a brick-and-mortar store run by a humble older man next to your house can develop a branded mobile app and take on the opportunities of reaching out to millions. Most importantly, without spending a fortune and without really being a tech expert, building a successful mobile app is possible.
The question is, where should one start from? How can an app project be an easy cakewalk? It will not be as easy and passive as watching a TV series or reading a newspaper article. Instead, you need to be disciplined in approach and pretty much follow some time-tested steps that most other successful apps followed.
Here we describe these steps in building a successful app.
Work On the App Idea
Make sure the app idea is relevant and valuable for your target users. Secondly, the idea must not be entirely similar to other apps in competition. You must provide some unique value propositions that other apps in the category don’t provide. Lastly, make sure the idea is practical, executable, and within your available means and budget. Figure out app features that are pretty useful but not too complex and heavier on budget.
Here, let’s assume that you already know your target audience and have a commanding knowledge base of all the competitor apps in the category, along with their pros and cons. Having this knowledge is a must to come with a great app idea that can be valuable for your audience and outshine the competition.
Prioritize the App Features and Build an MVP
Your desired app product may have too many features that you want to incorporate. But not all of them equally define the objective of the app. Therefore, in the beginning, it is advisable to start small and simple so that you do not go wrong in priorities while having complete control over the budget. This is why it is advisable to go for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development approach.
Build a basic app with the core and elementary features that define your app best. Based on the user feedback, add more features and bring changes to the user experience incrementally through small updates. This will help you roll out the app faster and on a small budget while offering total control and flexibility in improving the app over time.
Go Cross-Platform
It is said that there is nothing like native user experience, referring to the development of an app optimized every bit for one single OS platform such as iOS or Android. Well, it seems lucrative, but you not only need to develop two separate native versions of the same app but also need to bear the cost and responsibility of managing and maintaining them separately. So, unless you have plenty of budget and resources, going for native development seems completely impractical.
As for alternatives, it is advisable to avoid opting for hybrid development that ultimately ends up offering a “one size fits all” kind of compromising user experience across platforms. Instead, go for cross-platform development by using the latest technologies such as React Native or Flutter. This will ensure reusing maximum code while still ensuring a highly platform-optimized user experience. In addition, cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter will also help with many ready-to-use UI components and widgets and make app maintenance easier with the Hot Reload feature.
DIY Development vs Hiring Experts
Now that you have decided on the app idea, development approach and platforms, it is time to consider the most important aspect. Should you build the app from scratch with the help of expert developers or should you embrace DIY development? Well, there is nothing like hiring a reputed development service with years of experience for your app project. But if you have a shoestring app budget, hiring an expert developer can be really challenging.
On the other hand, a DIY approach can still be effective for an app project if your app doesn’t involve very complex and a lot of features. There are countless User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design tools, prototyping tools and drag and drop app development tools that developers can handle with ease. Moreover, you can hire developers from India to get onboard the best experts without really skyrocketing your budget.
In this respect, it is important to say that instead of hiring freelancers, it is always advisable to opt for development farms if the DIY approach doesn’t suit your project. There are too many great no-code and less-code development tools for DIY app development that allow you to shape an app product through simple drag and drop functions. Some of these tools include Swiftific, Appy Pie, Mobile Roadie, AppsBuilder and many others.
Embrace Best Development Practices
The last but not the least important consideration that any aspiring app project must consider is embracing best app development practices. By simply following the practices and principles followed by the leading apps, you can make things look easier and ensure your app project’s long-term success. So let us provide here some of the industry-acclaimed best practices for app development.
· Embrace a modular development approach that allows you to add new features and eliminate some features while the core remains the same.
· Ensure that the app user interface remains simple, instantly engaging, and users can smoothly get what they need from the app.
· Offer a great visual onboarding experience to instantly engage users and help them understand how the app functions without any scope of confusion.
· Build a lightweight app with compressed code, optimized visual and media resources and caching techniques that ensure faster-loading speed.
· Ensure the app goes through continuous testing and is subjected to rigorous user testing to ensure great usability and a smooth user experience.
· Emphasize best data security practices and provide multi-factor authentication involving biometric data. Follow best data security practices with proper role management to prevent unsolicited access to the app code and admin area.
Conclusion
So, building a great mobile app is not difficult if you know the right tools, techniques, best practices and practical development approaches and put them together in a concerted manner. These are the key considerations that made the foundation for countless successful app projects.