Mobile apps are improving our day-to-day lives. We have apps to order food, pay bills, and even hire taxis, among others. If you have an idea for a mobile app, you are probably wondering where to start. Here are the four stages of app development.
This is the first step of app development, where you take your project from the initial brief to a complete workable strategy. This stage focuses on the products, target audience, and the technology it will use.
The first step in this stage involves identifying the objective and the main concept of the project. To achieve this, you will require a workshop. Here, you have the opportunity to access the expertise of your team before the project starts.
After the workshop, the next step is the research and analysis phase. Here, you get to come up with user personas that will help in understanding the goals and obstacles of people who will use the app.
You can also compare with other apps that already exist in the market.
Creating the app design is one of the steps of developing an app that will help you reach your business goals. During this stage, technical documentation and project requirements are used to come up with a prototype.
To come up with a prototype, the following has to be done:
- Create a sketch
- Create wireframes
- Create clickable prototype
- Create final design
Using the prototype, you can now come up with the design of every screen for your project. The app design may take weeks or months, depending on the complexity of your project. However, you will receive the following at the end of this stage.
- UX wireframe
- Separate designs for Android and iOS platforms
- An interactive design prototype
During this stage, your team will create:
Front-end development- This involves the tools and techniques for creating a layer where the user will interact with the app.
Backend development- It involves coding and maintaining technology that will link the front-end layer with the data access layer.
To develop iOS apps, developers use Swift, Python, and Objective-C. For Android apps, they use Java, Kotlin, Android Native Development kit, Firebase, and React-native.
After developing the app, the development team has to test it. The following tests are carried out.
- Compatibility testing- Involves running the application on various devices and different screen sizes
- Interface testing- Involves testing navigation, button performance, and menu.
- Device compatibility testing- The appearance of the app and its performance on different screen sizes are tested.
- Low-level resources testing- the app is tested while running on a slow internet connection, low battery, among others.
- Security testing- this testing involves assurance of the safety of sensitive data.
- Beta testing- Involves getting feedback.
It is now time to release the app after it has passed all the tests. The application has to be submitted to the right app store where the target audience can find it. This may take time because the app has to be reviewed before it is published.
In conclusion, app development is more than the design and the coding steps. At the beginning of the project, your team has to create thorough functional stories, technical documentation, and user stories.