How to Develop a Mobile App

By Yogesh

Building a high-performance mobile app that too from scratch is on the priority list of most businesses these days. And why not, as it offers unparalleled customization and caters precisely to their needs.

However, mobile app development is fraught with many complexities. It demands a clear roadmap and a methodical approach and the specifics may vary from project to project. What you need is a proven process that takes your concept through stages that convert it into a viable product.

Then, how to create an app that best meets your needs?

There needs to exist a strong pipeline for building applications, where technological expertise blends with project management principles and design best practices to produce an outstanding product. We cover all these technicalities through a sequential process, and provide the direction right from start to finish. Let’s start.

How to Make an App: 10 Steps to Build an Application that you must follow

These 10 steps that we are going to discuss at length will serve as a blueprint for developing mobile apps. Peruse through them to develop a comprehensive understanding of what all it takes to develop an application.

Step 1:Idea Validation and Market Research

Before embarking on any mobile app development project, first develop a holistic understanding of your product’s concept and its unique value proposition. Delve deep into understanding the core functionalities that the app will offer and how it will address the needs of your target audience in a distinctive manner.

Next, conduct a thorough competitive analysis of the market, where you scrutinize existing solutions, dissect their strengths and weaknesses, and identify possible whitespace opportunities where your app can make its mark.

Dissecting competitors’ strengths and weaknesses is equally important. So, as a next step, carry out a thorough examination of competitor apps, dissecting their features, user experience (UX), and performance metrics. Then gather quantitative data on competitors’ user engagement metrics, such as active users, retention rates, and in-app behavior. By comparing these metrics against your own benchmarks, you will gain insights into areas where your competitors excel and areas where they fall short.

To gather valuable insights, leverage tools like interviews, surveys and focus groups and solicit feedback on your app idea. This way you will engage with potential users and unearth pain points, preferences, and desires. These inputs from market research will enable you to refine your concept iteratively and allow you to better align with user expectations.

With insights gleaned from user feedback and competitive analysis, proceed to conceptualize your app idea. Here, synthesize the gathered insights into a coherent blueprint, envisioning the user journey, interface design, and feature set that can offer a seamless user experience.

Now, validating your app idea before diving into development is paramount, because it mitigates the risk of investing resources into a product with uncertain market viability. So, proceed to validate the defined idea, and ascertain that you are walking on the right path and building a product that resonates with your target audience and addresses their needs effectively. In essence, these steps constitute your preparatory phase and using them you will build a strong foundation.

Step 2: Understand the Target Audience

Start by leveraging demographic data sources such as census data, market research reports, and public databases to gather insights into your target audience’s characteristics. These data sources will provide you with quantitative information about factors like age, gender, location, and income level, and aid in market segmentation.

Then make use of social media monitoring tools and web analytics platforms to monitor online communities and track relevant discussions. Some steps you will have to take here will include setting up custom alerts and keyword trackers to monitor conversations, hashtags, and mentions related to your app or industry.

Furthermore, employ text mining and topic modeling techniques to analyze large volumes of unstructured data from online communities. To map out the network structure of online communities and identify influential users or opinion leaders, use social network analysis. This is how you should extract key topics, sentiments from user-generated content, trends and insights so as to more accurately understand the preferences and pain points of your target audience.

Next comes creating user personas, for which use data-driven personas based on the insights gathered from market research, competitor analysis, user feedback, and online community monitoring.

Once the data-driven personas are developed, validate and refine them using iterative testing and feedback loops with stakeholders and end-users. Through this process, you will filter the personas that accurately represent the diversity and complexity of your target audience.

Step 3: Choose the Appropriate Platform (iOS, Android, Cross-Platform)

Against the type of app you are developing, initially, delve into the fundamental disparities between android Vs. iOS ecosystems, elucidating key technical differentiators such as programming languages, app development tools, and design paradigms.

Subsequently, carry out a comprehensive assessment of the client’s project prerequisites, meticulously scrutinizing factors like desired functionality, performance benchmarks. So, dive deep for the identification of platform-specific capabilities and limitations that may impact development feasibility and user experience.

If you are outsourcing mobile app development, then ideally the partner should advocate for a pragmatic evaluation of resource constraints and time-to-market imperatives. In this process, they will weigh the trade-offs between native vs cross-platform mobile app development, elucidating considerations such as development overhead, code maintainability, and platform-specific optimizations.

Step 4: Define the App’s Features and Functionality

Next, prioritize the features based on their importance, feasibility, and potential impact on the user experience. Weigh factors such as technical complexity, resource availability, and time constraints. The aim is to strike a balance between must-have features for the core functionality and nice-to-have features that can be added in later iterations.

Once the feature set is finalized, proceed to create detailed user stories or use cases for each feature. The process involves breaking down the functionality into smaller, manageable tasks that can be implemented by the development team. Develop clear and concise user stories that serve as a blueprint for development.

Simultaneously, design the architecture of the application, considering factors such as scalability, security, and maintainability. The intended functionalities will offer an idea on the technology stack, database structure, and system integrations required to support the planned features, which we will discuss at length in further stages.

Throughout this process, maintain open communication channels with the client, soliciting feedback and iterating on the feature set and design as necessary.

Step 5: Build UX/UI Design

Every dollar invested in UX fetches 100 dollars, but only when wisely invested. You must rightly devise the UI/UX strategy. In terms of performance, a good UI improves conversion rate by up to 200% to 400%. As a result, focus on laying a strong focus to wisely design an app, because you cannot have an app without a good design.

Understanding UI/UX Design is integral to your app development process. It is where technical proficiency converges with user-centric design principles. To build the best design, dissect app design principles, analyze user interaction patterns and gauge the impact of visual aesthetics.

You should incorporate UI/UX best practices to build designs that are not only visually captivating but also ergonomically optimized. For that, employ techniques like grid systems and layout frameworks to achieve visual hierarchy and alignment, so as to offer a comfortable readability and usability experience. Additionally, use design systems and component libraries to maintain consistency across different screens and interactions.

User feedback is critical so use it and iteratively refine the designs. Identify pain points and optimize user flows, by employing usability testing methodologies such as A/B testing and heatmaps. Further, microinteractions and animations, implemented using technologies like CSS transitions and JavaScript frameworks, should be thoughtfully integrated to provide feedback and guide users through different tasks.

As each platform offers a different set of challenges for implementing design, successful mobile UI design necessitates a deep understanding of the intricacies of different mobile platforms. To optimize designs for touch interactions, employ touch gesture libraries and touch event optimizations and improve responsiveness and accuracy of navigation.

Last but not the least, from typography to iconography, every attribute of the user interface is meticulously crafted, for which implement techniques like font loading optimizations and icon font usage. Accessibility is another focal point, and for which adhere to accessibility standards such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) so that designs are inclusive and cater to users with diverse needs.

Also Read: Challenge in mobile app development strategies

Step 6: Proceed with Prototyping and Wireframing

Next, move to wireframes that serve as the blueprint for your application, where you map out each element. Wireframes are crucial because they provide a visual guide for everyone involved in the project. Developers can see how the interface will be structured, designers can start thinking about the visual elements, and clients can get a clear picture of what the final product will look like. It’s the first representation of your product, and involves the use of various tools such as Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, Axure RP, and Balsamiq.

Once you have wireframes in place, it’s time to bring them to life through prototyping. First produce a rough draft of the software – something you can interact with and test out before committing it to building the real thing. Turn them into clickable, interactive models that allow you to simulate how the software will behave in real-world scenarios.

Offer this prototype to users and stakeholders, get their input, and make any necessary adjustments before you invest time and resources into building the final product. You are actually transforming static representations into interactive mockups that simulate user interactions and functionality. Use platforms such as InVision and Marvel to imbue your prototypes with dynamic elements, including clickable buttons, form fields, and rudimentary animations.

Step 7: Select the Right Tech Stack

An application needs to be sturdy, adaptable, and tailored to the specific needs of the business, which is where the technology stack you choose makes the difference. When choosing one for a project, meticulously assess the application’s requirements, both present and foreseeable future.

For backend technologies, scrutinize factors such as scalability, performance, and ease of maintenance. Whether it’s a monolithic architecture or a microservices-based approach, the choice hinges on the complexity and expected growth of the application. For instance, for real-time applications requiring high concurrency, prefer technologies like Node.js coupled with frameworks like Express as these tools are best-suited in such cases due to their event-driven nature and non-blocking I/O operations.

Database selection is another crucial aspect, where factors like data consistency, scalability, and query flexibility have to be strictly considered. Options range from traditional relational databases like MySQL to NoSQL databases like MongoDB. Each offers distinct advantages depending on the nature of the application’s data and access patterns.

When it comes to choosing frontend technologies, the focus should be on user experience, because apart from functionality, responsiveness, interactivity, and aesthetics are equally important. Vue.js, React, or Angular are common choices, as each comes with its own set of advantages. Furthermore, evaluate the compatibility of frontend technologies with the chosen backend so that the integration works.

A secondary aspect in this process is that of aligning the chosen tech stack with the skill sets of the development team. As mismatch can lead to inefficiencies and hinder progress, try striking a balance between adopting cutting-edge technologies and leveraging familiar tools to expedite development without compromising quality.

Step 8: Leverage The App Development Process

Set up the development environment, which includes installing the necessary software tools and frameworks. Set up an integrated development environment (IDE) such as Xcode for iOS or Android Studio for Android apps and start using the chosen technology stack, as discussed previously.

Next, organize the project structure, where you have directories for different components such as UI elements, data models, controllers, and services. An important step, it will allow you to maintain a clean and organized codebase. Now with the project structure in place, start implementing the features outlined in the design and planning phase. The process involves writing code to create UI elements, handle user interactions, and manage data flow within the app.

As you develop each feature, conduct testing to test its functionality and compatibility with different mobile devices and screen sizes. Both manual and automated approaches must be used to conduct testing. Since testing is a separate process in itself, we shall comprehensively deal with it in the upcoming step.

Next, develop a MVP (Minimum Viable Product), where the primary focus should be on delivering a functional version of the product with essential features that meet the core needs of the users.

Throughout the development process, regularly review and refactor the code to improve its readability, maintainability, and performance. The process of optimization involves refining algorithms, removing redundant code, and adhering to best coding practices. If the app requires integration with external services or APIs, implement the necessary code to handle these interactions, where you perform tasks that include making HTTP requests, parsing JSON responses, and managing authentication.

As you progress, continuously refine the UI/UX for a smooth and intuitive user experience. And as needed, make necessary adjustments by tweaking layout, colors, fonts, and animations to match the design specifications.

If the app targets a global audience, incorporate localization support to provide translations for different languages. Though a secondary consideration, it is an important factor in the entire development process that decides the long-term usage of the application. To track changes to the codebase and collaborate with team members, throughout the development process, use Git or other version control systems that best suit the project’s needs.

Step 9: Test and Launch Your App

Quality assurance in app development is a systematic approach to ensuring that the app meets the desired quality standards and delivers a seamless user experience. Handle the QA process by following these steps:

Requirement Analysis: Start by thoroughly understanding the app requirements and specifications. Develop a complete understanding of functional requirements and non-functional requirements.
Test Planning: Based on the requirements, create a detailed test plan outlining the testing approach, test scenarios, test cases, and testing techniques to be used. Aimed for comprehensive coverage of the app’s functionalities, the test plan serves as a roadmap for the QA process.
Test Environment Setup: Set up the testing environment to closely mimic the production environment, by keeping configuring devices (physical or emulated), operating systems, network conditions, and backend services in ideal state.
Test Execution: Next, execute various types of tests, including functional testing, usability testing, performance testing, security testing, and compatibility testing. Each of these testing mechanisms take the application through different checks to validate that the application has been successfully developed to meet technical and functional specifications.
Defect Tracking: Track and document defects or issues encountered using a defect tracking system and issue tracking tool. Each defect is categorized based on severity and priority so that they can be promptly addressed.
Regression Testing: Whenever changes are made to the app, perform regression testing so as to keep the existing functionalities intact and automate these tests to maintain consistent results across iterations.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Once the app passes internal QA testing, involve stakeholders or end users to perform UAT. UAT allows real users to validate the app against their expectations and provide feedback. Any issues identified during UAT are addressed before the app is released to production.

Also Read: Factors to consider when choosing pricing model for your app

Step 10: Follow these Post-Launch Tips

Even after the product is developed and launched, there are many elements that you must keep in mind so as to derive a long-term value from the software application. So, the work is partially done, and for sustainable performance of the application, follow each of these steps post-launch:

Performance Monitoring and Optimization: Use tools like Firebase Performance Monitoring or New Relic to continuously monitor the delivered app’s performance in real-time. Identify areas of improvement such as slow loading times or high resource consumption and optimize them to enhance user experience.
Crash Reporting and Debugging: Implement a robust crash reporting tool like Crashlytics or Sentry to track app crashes and errors. Next, analyze crash reports to pinpoint the root causes and prioritize fixing them to ensure app stability.
A/B Testing for Feature Optimization: Conduct A/B tests to experiment with different features, layouts, or user interfaces, and gather data on user engagement and satisfaction to determine which variations perform best and optimize your app accordingly.
Implementation of User-Centric Updates: Base your updates on user feedback and behavior data rather than assumptions or trends and prioritize features and improvements that align with user needs and preferences.
Localization and Internationalization: If your app has a global audience, tailor the content, user interface, and app marketing strategy to cater to the cultural preferences and norms of your target markets.
Accessibility Compliance: At every stage, ensure that your app complies with accessibility standards such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). Conducts accessibility audits and implements features such as screen reader compatibility and high contrast modes to improve accessibility.
Data Backup and Recovery: Implement robust data backup and recovery mechanisms to protect user data from loss or corruption. Take regular backup of user data to secure cloud storage and implement recovery procedures.
Version Control and Release Management: Establish a disciplined version control system using tools like Git to manage code changes and track versions. Next, implement a structured release management process for smooth and reliable app updates without disrupting user experience.
Security Audits and Penetration Testing: Conduct regular security audits and perform penetration testing to identify and address potential vulnerabilities in the application.
Optimize Store Listings: Optimize your app’s presence on different app stores including the Google Play Store and Apple App Store by employing strategies such as keyword optimization, compelling app descriptions, and eye-catching visuals.

To Conclude

Understanding the stages and specialists involved in software development is crucial for building a successful application for your business. With this knowledge, you can make informed decisions about costs, timelines, and the overall development process.

But as we saw, whether it is creating iOS apps or Android apps, the process to build an app is a complex journey that demands careful planning and expertise. It is always a wise decision to invest in app developers from a professional app development company.

At Finoit, we will guide you from the inception of your idea to its full realization. If you have any questions or need guidance, feel free to reach out to our experienced team.