10 Proven Steps Of Mobile App Development Lifecycle By James Tredwell on December 29, 2021 Are you interested in developing an effective mobile application for your business? Want to know how? When you begin thinking about creating a mobile app you will come across a lot of questions Questions like: What are the things to know before you start developing an app? What a successful mobile application looks like? How much time do you need to spend to get the final result? What are the steps required in the lifecycle of a mobile app? And many more… To answer such questions, we have come up with this effective guide of 10 proven steps of the mobile app which will give you a clear understanding of the mobile app development lifecycle. So sit tight and grab a cup of coffee because it will take you a while! Mobile Application: Need of the Hour The proliferation of e-commerce websites has resulted in a significant increase in competition within the existing players. With the help of e-commerce mobile apps, small- and medium-sized businesses can change how they connect with their customers. The various statistics about mobile eCommerce indicate that the e-commerce market will pass $3.5 trillion by the end of 2021 and that over 72% of all e-commerce sales will be generated through mobile devices in that year. Seeing such stats, even the most traditional companies are switching to mobile applications for their business. So, there is no doubt that the mobile app is the need of the hour! Although many companies are trying to capitalize on this trend, most do not know how to create apps successfully. It is recommended that an app development process flow be broken down into ten key phases. In this blog post, we will take a closer look at each of these phases. 10 Effective Steps Of Mobile App Development Lifecycle Step 1: Develop your Idea and Market Research As a first step, you must have a clear concept and a definite idea of what kind of app you want to develop and what kind of services you want to offer to your target audience. Ask yourself questions like: Why am I making this app or how can I make it so it solves a problem? What gaps in the market are you looking to fill? The first app of its kind may not be unique, but you should always keep in mind that some of the most successful apps are those that solve real problems for customers. It is at this stage that you should visualize your mobile app development concept. Sketch a series of interface designs for your app, noting all the details on paper. Moreover, no matter how useful your app is, you also need to consider how you’ll earn money from it. You may choose to include ads, or charge for the download itself. For this reason, determine your monetization strategy and visualize the appearance of your design in advance. Step 2: Analysis and Planning The next step in mobile app development is to identify the various elements involved in the planning of the app once the core idea has been clearly defined. Invest some time in researching why similar apps performed well, why some are more successful, and so on. Please check to make sure that your app is compatible with different platforms, devices, and mobile operating systems. Your research should be around the following four questions: How do I design an app that best suits my needs? What are the required technical specifications? How can I make my app more profitable? Planning your mobile app development process includes deciding which skills your team needs. For instance, when developing for both iOS and Android—a common case for many apps—different development technology stacks are used. After you’ve done the necessary analysis, tweak your app idea and incorporate elements that will appeal to users. Step 3: It’s time to design UI/UX Designing a mobile app is essential to creating an efficient user experience that’s also visually appealing. When designing mobile apps, seek to surprise and delight users with an interactive, spontaneous, and user-friendly experience. As a UI/Ux designer, you need to focus on the following: Information Architecture & Workflows The first step in your mobile app design process is to figure out what information your app will show, collect, or gather from its users. Your app’s tech architecture and tech stack need to be decided before you begin making design decisions. It is important to keep business rules in mind when designing an enterprise mobile app. Style Guide A style guide is a crucial part of your mobile app development strategy. By establishing a style guide as early in the process as you can, you maximize productivity and stability. A style guide details all the parts of the app – without it, building an app can be less efficient and more resource-full. Mockups A mockup is a visual representation of your app. Working in collaboration with the design team and developers, you will produce these images by applying the final visual style to your wireframes. When your app’s design is finalized, expect further refinements to its workflow, information architecture, and aesthetics. Step 4: Wireframing or Prototyping of App Before you build or develop your app, it is a good idea to develop a working prototype or wireframe your app. This can help you pitch your product to investors, potential buyers, obtain any licenses, define the APIs & databases, and also the storage needs. Wireframing helps you map out the functionalities of your app. It lays out a blueprint for your app and helps you begin development. It works as a guide through each step of the project, and you can use wireframe tools like HotGloo, Balsamiq, Gliffy, and Moqups. This step helps you understand how all the screens seen in the app are related to each other and how they relate to the app’s navigation. Step 5: Building the Mobile App Now it is time to start developing your app. The goal is to create the best possible version of your product while staying within budget and on schedule. Mobile App Platforms To begin, choose your mobile app development platform. Here are the key platforms: Native apps: These apps work only on specific platforms. They provide the best user experience, but their creation requires a high level of skill Web apps/ single page web apps: Web apps built with the help of CSS, JavaScript, HTML5 is cheaper and faster to build, and are easily compatible with multiple platforms. Hybrid apps: This is a new era of mobile application development. New mobile app development tools, such as NativeScript, help you write and deploy high-performing applications using native components. Step 6: Add Analytics Building analytics into your app can help you study how users interact with it. Here are a few to consider: Google Analytics, Localytics, Flurry, Preemptive, and Mixpanel. They will tell you how people are using the app Step 7: App Testing When you create a mobile app, it’s important to keep testing it. This will keep the cost of building your app low and produce a high-quality app. As you go deeper into the app development process, fixing bugs becomes more costly. Before a company reveals its hybrid app or native mobile apps to the public, it must make sure that an in-house Quality Assurance team runs tests to check that the app is free of issues. Here’s a glance at the different testing involved in developing a mobile app. Functional Testing: By making use of this type, the app is tested against the client’s functional requirements. The application accepts input, produces output, and tests the UI. In other words, all of a client’s requirements are satisfied by the program. Non-functional Testing: Nonfunctional testing is a part of software testing that focuses on the quality and performance of an app rather than its functionality. It is essential that you have a comprehensive mobile testing strategy in place to deliver a quality mobile app. Step 8: Release the App After a successful testing phase, you’re finally ready to release your app to the public. To publish an app, you’ll need a developer account with Apple or Google Play. The process is similar at both app stores, but Google Play allows you to publish your app for Android instantly, then review it later. Apple’s app store, however, requires every app to be reviewed and approved before it goes live, a process that can take up to two weeks even when no change is required. Step 9: Track the Metrics Now that you’ve launched your app, you can monitor its users via the analytics tool we added. Make sure to track your app’s performance and look at any failures users might have experienced during specific actions, like sharing a photo with social media sites or creating a profile. You should also look at emergent behavior, like places where people are hanging out or which features they’re using most often. Step 10: Keep Upgrading If you don’t keep up with upgrades, your app will become obsolete. So make sure you continue adding new features and functionalities so your app remains appealing to users. Wrapping-Up A successful launch of your app will be assured if you follow this mobile app development process. However, developing your app is an ongoing process, and you will continue to do so after the initial launch as you receive feedback from users and add new features. After reading this guide, if you still have any doubts or queries, then drop your questions in the comments section below. We would love to answer your questions! About the Author:- Naveen is the marketing and product head at JoomDev. He loves to convert his ideas into reality by developing products to make your online business successful with his WordPress plugins and mobile app development services.
