What is the Process of Mobile App Development?

Are you still confused about opting for app development for your business? Interested in knowing how your competitors rule the industry with the Mobile app development process? 

Well, it all started with Angry Birds in 2009, but the development dynamics have changed significantly with the advent of new technologies. 

Mobile apps are leaving their mark in every sector, simplifying human life. That is clearly evident from the 230 billion mobile app downloads in the past five years.

With the latest advancements, mobile apps are continuously evolving. People have become accustomed to personalized experiences, easy purchase decisions, and fast mobile apps.

The result is the app market is expanding in leaps and bounds. Let it be fintech, education, retail, fashion, or banking; mobile app development has become the need for all.

Although many innovations keep coming and user behavior changes, the mobile app development process remains with little tweaks here and there, like a few additions or skipping of the process.

This blog will include the exact mobile app development stages we follows at APPWRK for building mobile apps. Without further discussion, let’s dive into the step-by-step guide to the mobile app development process.

Step 1: Project Requirement Discussion

The initial stage of the mobile app development process involves discussing the project. We will have a typical phone call, casual and short, just to identify if we can assist you and if we can take this project forward.

It’s nothing much but an overview of what you desire to build. We’ll discuss and clarify key details about the process of mobile app development like

• What is the underlying goal of your app?
• What do you intend your mobile app to do?
• What is the audience segment you want to target?
• What are the problems that you’re trying to solve?

What Do We Expect From You, From Our Clients?

These are the parameters that we anticipate from our clients.

What kind of application do you want to develop?

Sometimes, you may have basic ideas or have done complete research about the app development process prior to approaching us. 

From the project discussion, we’ll be able to assess what sort of mobile app you want to develop. It will better equip us to figure out:

• What could be the best technologies to use for your project?
• What are the most appropriate databases that’ll accommodate your users?

What is your app development budget?

 Indeed, the next crucial aspect of the mobile app development process is budget. Now, it depends.

You’ll come to know about what are the things that you’ll get under your set budget. Besides this, we’ll discuss where we can make tweaks to

• Enhance the desired features.
• Optimize the vital parameters.

Also, we’ll inform you of the changes you can visualize in your mobile app by lowering or increasing your budget.

What is your timeline?

The project timeline gives clients insights into what will follow to track the tasks and sprints. 

We’ll establish the deadlines and milestones as per your business needs and app development time. It’ll help you comprehend your project is moving through which phase under the process of mobile app development:

• Planning
• Business Analysis
• Design and Pre-Development
• UI Design 
• Development
• App Testing and Launch

Do you have any other apps similar to your app concept?

If yes, then do let us know. It will help us reasonably understand what mobile app concepts you’re referring to:

• How must the application perform?
• Its design, UI, and UX.

30-minute Free Consultation

Also, we provide 30 min consultation without charging a penny. 

In this, you can ask our mobile app experts any question regarding the development process like strategic goals, audience insights, trending technologies, etc.

Step 2: Business Insight and Estimation

At this stage of the development process, we delve deeper into the mechanics of your mobile app business. Let’s see what these are.

Competitive advantage

Many businesses could have similar mobile apps in the market as you desire. So, it becomes necessary to evaluate your competitive advantage.

First of all, we research who your competitors are. Next, what are their strength areas? We govern how to boost these areas and make them even better. It saves your app development time considerably while giving you maximum returns.

Obviously, it’s time to determine the loopholes. Are users satisfied with your competitors’ mobile apps? If not, we explore what their complaints and pain points are. It paves the way for business opportunities.

Once we know the crevices, we can fill them up. With this, you can leave an indelible impression on the customers. 

Ultimately, our app development professionals decide how to address these areas. And we include the list of desired features for your mobile app development.

Market research

Indeed, market research is a crucial component of the mobile app development process. It clearly shows the real interests and demands of the market. We prioritize the work according to market requirements. The steps in market research involve

• Creating the customer’s persona.
• Finding areas of user engagement.
• Identifying ways to communicate with the target audience.

With this, we better assess your customers and different means to reach them. This qualitative and quantitative market research acts as a reference for further steps in the mobile app development process.

Building revenue strategy

No app development process is complete without estimating the revenue generation areas. It could be

• In-app advertisements
• in-app purchases
• Paid apps

We take your ideas and approaches that you want to get implemented. After getting the complete business insights, we move toward legal documentation.

Step 3: Signing NDA 

How could the mobile app development process be complete without signing an NDA? Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is crucial for your business and for building trust between our clients and us.

Why NDA for your app idea?

Without any doubt, every company wants to keep its business information safe.

Signing NDA ensures that both parties will not disclose confidential information to anyone else shared during the mobile app development process.  

What will you get in the project development agreement?

The project Development Agreement will include

• Approximate expenses.
• Estimated timeline.
• NDA.
• Project termination conditions. 

Step 4: Wireframing of the App

After the strategy is ready, the app development process moves toward laying out the basic structure of the mobile app.

What is the wireframe?

A wireframe is an accurate illustration of your mobile app structure and functionality. It visually represents how your mobile app solves customers’ problems.

Some consider wireframe to be how an application will appear, but actually, it is how your product works. Wireframing is an essential step in the mobile app development process. 

At the bare minimum, wireframes include

• Different phases of the user’s journey and possible actions
• Put key features, main objects, and page elements on screens. 
• Create surface content and establish a content hierarchy 
• The transition between app pages and place navigation buttons.

When wireframing is ready, it becomes easier for you to pitch in front of investors. In other words, it brings team members and stakeholders on the same page.

Why do we need a wireframe? What is the importance of a wireframe?

Basically, the wireframe illustrates how your application will help the target audience. Also, it enables you to recognize the pitfalls before the actual development starts.

With wireframing, stakeholders can clearly visualize where exactly the mobile app development process will lead.

These are the irresistible reasons why we create wireframes for our clients.

#1 A visual guide to understanding your application better 

Having an app idea is good. But, wireframe gives you something constructive to see what you have imagined. 

It transforms an idea into what will be a series of actions. Also, you get effective market breakthroughs and how to proceed further. 

With this, you can answer how my product will solve the user problems. It gives you clarification on creating use cases and seeing points of users’ interaction with the app.

#2 Easy iterations and avoid falling trap into the possible mistakes

Creating wireframes is way faster than completing the entire mobile app development process. 

It eases the iterations and makes your app perfect before digging into the mainland:

• Display wireframes to investors and get their feedback.
• Add required features into the app with the collected response.
• Discuss with the team members about the desired modifications.
• Repeat the process as many times as it seems to reach your intended goal.

No doubt, the wireframe is a ready-made material for right away giving presentations and pitching your product. 

Furthermore, we show you the content elements and features while creating a wireframe. That helps you in content prioritization. 

For example, you can decide whether the user must go through a particular screen or not. Otherwise, it may not distract the user from moving along the purchase journey. So, it is a big savior from falling into the pitfalls. 

#3 It saves design and development time

As said earlier, wireframes are a direct route to avoid mistakes. In the long run, it has even more advantages. 

Firstly, it enhances the UX and UI considerably. Second, you get all the modifications at this stage. With this, you need not start development all over again.

So, it saves design and development in many ways:

• Your team gets a clear vision and understands how the application will address the target audience.
• Content creation becomes more streamlined without questioning where and what to place.
• Instead of explaining everything verbally, a wireframe is visual proof of how to execute the mobile app development process.  

Tools our business analyst team use for creating a wireframe

Tools that we use to create wireframes:

• Figma
• AdobeXD
• Webflow
• Sketch

Step 5: UI/UX Design

With the UI/UX design, the tangible mobile app development process starts. It gives life to your ideas collected in the above four steps.

It is an essential step that keeps users on your mobile app for a long. 

What do we deliver during this stage?

User experience and user interface work hand in hand with each other. We ensure the highest customer satisfaction and more conversions. 

Here’s what you get as improvised UX/UI:

• Highlight the most important information and make it easier for users to click on CTA.
• Simplify design patterns for users to make quick decisions.
• Create a visual hierarchy and keep elements where users expect them to be.
• Users can easily remember the design that avoids rethinking.

How much does it cost to design an app?

To design a mobile app costs around $10000-$30000. The development cost depends on the desired features, UX/UI choice, and the number of team members going to execute the mobile app development. 

Step 6: Developing Your Mobile Application from Scratch

Planning remains the necessary component in the mobile app development process. Now is the execution time. Here, actual development starts in which technologies play a pivotal role.

For Android development, we use the following technologies:

We use the following technologies to develop complete iOS apps.

Basically, a mobile app consists of two integral parts: front-end development, API, and back-end development. In back-end development, we work on databases, API, back-end logic, and server-side objects for websites to perform efficiently. Further, our front-end developers create features and elements visible to the users.

Step 7: QA Testing

Our quality assurance specialists check developed mobile apps under the following standards:

Performance testing:

We test if your mobile app works well for a high number of users and peak demand times. It is to ensure that:

• Your mobile app screen loads fast.
• App responds satisfactorily to user requests. 
• Mobile app making the best use of available network bandwidth.

Security testing

Indeed, security is the most critical aspect of the mobile app development process. Our security experts protect your mobile app from any potential vulnerabilities. 

We test every entry point, whether at the back-end or front-end, like APIs, login places, etc.  It protects your mobile app from hacking and data leakages.

UX/UI testing

 UX/UI testing matters the most to leave a lasting impression on the users, make them repeat visitors, and get maximum conversions. We confirm to fill in any loopholes in the mobile app design and give your users a flawless experience.

In this, we match user interactions with the intended design by the team. It covers visuals, color schemes, navigation, highlighting essential elements, etc.

Cross-platform testing

As mobile devices keep changing every other day, testing your mobile app with device compatibility is vital. Our mobile app professionals test your app for the latest feature additions in the industry. Not only this, we test the finally developed app for existing platforms, Android and iOS.

Step 8: Launching Your Application

The last but deciding step in the process of mobile app development is the final launch of your mobile app. 

How to publish the app on the App Store and Play Store?

Don’t worry. We assist our customers in uploading their applications on Appstore and Playstore without charging additional costs.

What do we need from your end?

We only need developer account credentials from the customers to upload it.

Is it easy to publish the application?

Absolutely yes, our team will help you publish the application till the end and make it fully operational.

Step 9: Post Production Support

In case you face any issues even after launching the application, we’re always available to help you out. 

What do you get from this free support?

After the mobile app launch, the first few weeks are crucial. A lot of changes and improvements in your mobile app may be required.

In the free support, we collect data insights and learnings to set your mobile app on the growth track. For this:

• Track user engagement rates.
• Improve the least used features.

• Fix any glitches and bugs.
• Address gaps in the app leading to user churn.

Ready to Turn Your Idea into a Live App?

Having your live app and seeing your ideas properly shaped is indeed a relieving experience. 

It is only possible when your mobile app undergoes the correct development process. In other words, it will add to your development time and costs even if you miss a single step.

But, it is not difficult. We have an expert mobile app development team who execute every step with the utmost care to create high-speed, secure, modern, and innovative mobile apps.

Let’s discuss your project to turn it into a reality.