7 Questions to Ask in the Mobile App Development Process
“There’s an app for that” is no longer just a catchphrase in the age of mobile technology. The mobile application development market is clearly booming, with over 6 billion smartphone users spending 88% of their time in apps and a predicted $613 billion generated in app revenue by 2025.
When deciding whether to develop a mobile application, it’s important to consider the unique challenges of the medium. Mobile applications are different from traditional desktop applications in terms of usability, functionality, and development costs, so it’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into when you decide to get into mobile application development.
The process of creating a mobile application is similar to that of creating a website but with some key differences. Mobile applications use advanced programming languages and tools, including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and SQL.
In addition, mobile applications have their own design and development considerations that aren’t present in web design. For example, users tend to interact with mobile applications through touchscreens instead of keyboards or mice (although many apps support these controls). Designing for touchscreens requires a different kind of thinking than creating for desktop computers does.
Why Businesses Decide to Build a Mobile Application
The digital transformation era and innovative technology age are here, and it’s time to ensure your team is keeping up with the times. The old way of doing things — whether you’re talking about designing a website or creating a mobile application for your business — is no longer enough to keep your organization relevant in today’s marketplace. In an industry where it’s getting harder to stand out from the competition, building a mobile application is one tool that can help gain an edge over the rest.
Businesses are investing in mobile app development because they recognize that staying connected is more than a convenience; it’s a necessity. In the digital age, companies can no longer afford to ignore the market of internet-connected customers or the potential for added revenue through increased accessibility to their products or services. Mobile applications have become the most convenient way for people to access information, and consumers expect businesses to be accessible at all times, from any location.
The benefits of having an application on your smartphone aren’t just for your customers. Your staff can benefit as well.
For employees, instantaneous access to the information they need (especially if they’re working on the go) means they’ll be able to get more work done without having to return to the office. And for customers, being able to access your services or products at any hour of any day means there will always be someone around who can help them with whatever needs fixing. No matter when a problem arises, the solution will always be just a click away.
7 Questions to Ask to Ensure You Launch Your Mobile Application Successfully
Is your business considering building a mobile application? Ask yourself whether you intend to build your application internally or hire a third-party vendor to guarantee a successful platform launch.
1. What is our overall strategy?
You must understand your overarching strategy for launching your mobile application. Your strategy should be based on your business goals, the purpose of your application, your target audience and the platform you’re building for.
When you know what you want to achieve, you can set benchmarks for success. You’ll want to ensure your application is doing what it was designed to do as efficiently as possible to deliver value at a reasonable cost. You don’t want it quickly burning through money and having no impact on your brand. It would help if you also considered how this application will assist your business in growing or changing in the future.
Applications are a huge commitment, with even more potential for growth than a one-time creation because they require ongoing development and maintenance.
2. What is our budget?
Building a mobile application is no easy feat. There are many moving parts, and the process involves these various facets coming together cohesively. As a result, building an application can be costly and time-consuming, and it’s essential to approach the process with foresight and planning.
Therefore, estimating how much money you’ll need to spend on developing your application is crucial, as is leaving some room in your budget for unforeseen costs.
3. What does our application need to be compatible with?
You need to know exactly what your mobile application needs to be compatible with. Do you want it to run on both Apple and Android devices? Does it need to integrate with other software or data channels? This will help ensure your application is well-received by the most significant number of users.
Be sure to capture what things you need your application to do that could be impacted by compatibility issues, like:
- Location tracking
- Social media sharing buttons
- Payment processing
- Calendar accessibility
- Push notifications
4. What do UI/UX design stages consist of?
Your mobile application’s UI/UX and overall design should be clear and straightforward. Likewise, the user experience should be as simple as possible.
Your mobile application needs a style guide covering everything from navigational patterns and content hierarchy to colors, fonts, and layout. This will guarantee uniformity across the board for the application.
This style guide will need to have mock-ups created before the team as a whole can approve it. Other staff members will use these mock-ups to design any new screens or other assets needed for development.
5. What does our technology stack look like?
The first thing you need to do is decide what technology stack you will be using. Next, you will need to consider the tools and resources you would like to use.
For example, if you are developing an application for iOS devices and want to use Swift, then you should choose Swift as your coding language. On the other hand, if you are developing an application for Android devices and want to use Java, then Java would probably be a better choice.
If you are developing an application for both iOS and Android operating systems, consider using a programming language like Kotlin or Swift that is cross-platform compatible. In this case, choosing a development kit (SDK) that supports both platforms would be best.
6. What is our development plan?
Development is the most critical piece of launching a solid application. But, unfortunately, it’s also where most companies get into trouble.
You need to know who will help in the development and testing process, how long it will take, etc. What’s more, you need to ensure that all your developers are familiar with your platform, in sync about the overall project plan, and can work efficiently together.
7. What do deployment, ongoing support, and preventative maintenance look like post-launch?
After your mobile application is launched, you’ll need to consider additional services that will help keep your application running smoothly. These include deployment, ongoing support, and preventative maintenance.
Deployment means putting the application on all your mobile devices and simulators, but it also means updating the application when new versions are released. Ongoing support means providing technical support to help users with any issues they might have with the application. Finally, preventative maintenance includes ensuring that you have all the latest versions of your application and that your code is up to date.
Consider an Offshore Partner Like KMS for Mobile App Development
Now you know what questions to ask when building a mobile application. But with so many software developers, how do you know who to choose? Here are a few benefits of working with an expert in the mobile app development process like KMS:
- Lower cost. An experienced development team can create more efficient and cost-effective applications than those from smaller companies or individuals. This will help you save money on labor costs, recruiting, and reduce the total development time required for an application.
- Bigger talent pool. When you hire a mobile application development partner, you can tap into their network of specialized skill sets that they have built over the years. These include experience in web design, user experience design, and Android programming, among others. Unfortunately, sometimes these skill sets are hard to find when hiring full-time employees.
- Decreased time spent on training and recruiting. Hiring an experienced team will reduce the time spent training and recruiting new employees and reduce the overall cost by eliminating hiring mistakes made by new hires (or even by current employees).
- Experts in mobile app development life cycle. An experienced team will get your application out to the market faster. Having a professional team means they know the ins and outs of development and testing, what works best for you, and how long it will take them to build your application based on those requirements.
It is important to remember that creating mobile applications is a continuous process. Your mobile application will need to be updated over time, so you’ll need a trustworthy partner who can see your project through to completion.
An excellent mobile application development partner will be able to provide a variety of methods for creating mobile applications. In addition, they can offer guidance on your concept and goals, assist with creating a new application from scratch or optimizing an existing one, perform software integration and testing, and maintain your mobile application to keep it error-free.
