For many, the possibility of developing a smartphone app from scratch seems to be an intimidating challenge replete with complicated coding tasks and lots of market research. However, this does not have to be the case! So for simplification, you must first design a new smartphone app before creating it. It’s important to schedule every move, and you might want to take a break from time to time to reflect on what you’re doing.
If you’re in a customer-first company (which is any business), you need a smartphone app. It is no longer an alternative, but rather a prerequisite now. Global app installs are forecast to hit 258 billion by 2022. Businesses who made the error of not developing a smartphone app would struggle in the coming years as well. What reason would the company have for not offering a smartphone app because the regular person spends more time staring at a mobile screen than watching TV or using a monitor or a laptop?
Step from Market Research to Development: To Create an App
Here is how you should go about developing an app for your business.
1. Brainstorm for a Right and Workable Idea – Ideation Stage is Important
Anything begins with an idea. The first and most important step is to develop your idea into a solid foundation for the application.
- Begin by including the whole team in the process.
- Invite all staff members to a team workshop is an excellent opportunity to mix 360-degree concepts. In this plenary conference, app creators can take centre stage.
- The majority of the team can be highly innovative, but it is the programmers that have a special insight into app development.
There hasn’t been a team that hasn’t seen an anecdote regarding the gap in concept goals and facts from people who aren’t in the niche!
Ideation workshops stand out as unmistakably innovative gatherings. At the very least, you won’t see two-thirds of your coworkers with one leg out the door!
- Keep in mind that you would need to invest some time planning the workshop before running it.
- Concentrate on assisting the team in remaining focused on the job at hand and resolving the issue.
- Set up the room and include the analysis results.
- After that, you will continue the ideation phase by exploring some of the user personas and the issue in greater depth.
Set a time challenge to heat up the environment. If you haven’t learned of the Pomodoro method, now is a good time to start. Conduct 20-minute sessions and don’t waste too much time at the outset, searching for weaknesses. Therefore, simply kickstart the concepts and enable them to snowball into improved iterations in the subsequent timed sessions.
2. Market Research Thoroughly
Market research is often overlooked by app developers, despite it being an essential component of developing an app. By doing preliminary testing, you can save time and money later on.
Everyone wants to know if the app concept is feasible or not. So raise questions like:
- Who are the other players and applications in the market?
- What do prospective consumers desire?
- What are their wants and needs?
- How to make a successful business model?
- What price can I set for my app?
Performing market research before developing the app will help you avoid making costly errors early on because you validate conclusions and determine potential customers’ expectations.
Two forms of market research are particularly useful:
- Identifying the blunders that your opponents are making.
- Determining whether or not users are searching for an app close to yours.
You can predict the need for an app without even developing it. To gauge interest in your app, use Google Trends and Keyword Planner. To perform market research, use Google Trends.
Finding insights has another function as well; you ought to put yourself in the shoes of your consumers. You tend to go out there and speak to others instead of staying safely in front of your screen, evaluating needs and expectations.
- Who is your app intended for?
- What are their personalities like?
- How does the app affect a specific challenge that people are experiencing?
- How are they currently addressing the issue?
- What difference do you hope to create for your app?
Depending on your analysis, you should be able to specifically identify the issue that the app solves and who it solves it for. You can use these experiences to build a great app for your customers.
- Time: Spend a few days exploring to make space for proposals.
- Cost: You can do this for free or by investing in professional tools.
Often what you want to do is build an app for yourself. And that’s fine! You should conduct research for the sake of learning and practising your trade and then design your app as you see fit. But don’t neglect the value of planning, research, and insight.
3. Know Your Audience Well
A well-defined target audience is critical since it serves as the basis for your design, production, and marketing strategy.
Having a target audience entails investigating the intent of the app and the problem it is attempting to solve. Then, consider who will be interested in using your app. Having a good view of your target demographic helps you create user-centric features and designs. In terms of marketing, you’ll recognize how to hit your target audience. You must figure out what social networks they use, what subjects they look for on the news, and what publications or programs they follow based on the knowledge you’ve collected. The target demographic is an important consideration when it comes to attracting and retaining the correct audience for your app.
A target audience includes the following demographics:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Language
- Education
- Occupation
- Marital Status
- Familial Status
- Interests
- Devices
Psychological demographics for a user persona includes the following:
- Personality
- Values
- Behavior
- Habits
4. Do a Competitor Study
Conducting a competitors analysis aids in the creation of app project specifics that are more likely to be effective, providing companies with a good picture of the competitive environment. The market research through a comparative analysis enables wise, measured, and reliable app product choices. Thus, competitors analysis involves the following stages:
1st Stage: Determine your distinctive value proposition.
2nd Stage: Study the competition.
3rd Stage: Build a competitive analysis matrix for your app.
4th Stage: Investigate your competitor’s digital strategy.
5th Stage: Examine the app store ratings, rankings, and reviews of competitors.
6th Stage: Evaluate the needs of the target group.
7th Stage: Examine the app market.
5. Create Basic Wireframes
Wireframes are the foundation of every project, even mobile app design. Basically, wireframes work as a bridge between low-fidelity drawings and early immersive experiments. Therefore, the real method of mobile wireframing differs greatly.
Wireframing and its translation to hi-fi architecture were approached differently by various artists. Although certain businesses argue for moving straight to code from drawings, the standard design procedure includes the following steps:
1st Step: Sketch (Conceptual level)
2nd Step: Wireframe (Component level)
3rd Step: Mock/Mobile App Prototype (Styles level/Interactions level)
4th Step: Code
Steps for Wireframing a Mobile App
Follow these steps for creating the mobile app wireframes:
- Begin by visualizing the desired user flow.
- Create a rough sketch of the user flow.
- Begin wireframing by establishing a Mobile Frame.
- Using boxes, determine the layout.
- Make use of style trends.
- Bring in the actual copy.
- Check to see how the output scales well.
- Connect the pages to generate a flow.
- Put the design choices to the test.
6. Find a Development Partner
In an environment of fierce rivalry and fast market expansion, a strong app development partnership will save your life. Where can you look for a development partner? You should search for a development partner by doing the following:
- Analyzing your network
- Asking for recommendations
- Going online
- Visit an event – IT conferences or a startup meet
7. The UI/UX Phase
Often developers build an app that performs well but fails to concentrate on design, which contributes to the app’s demise. The compromise between an app’s functionality and UI/UX design is difficult to maintain; however, it is essential. When designing the UI/UX of mobile applications, there are a few main components to keep in mind.
a. Information Architecture (IA)
The aim of IA is to provide users with a simple way to navigate, regardless of which browser they are using. It largely revolves around supplying them with an excellent navigation experience.
b. Interaction Design
This is the process of developing a conceptual design that would allow consumers to communicate with the app. Colors, aesthetics, symbols, fonts, photographs, and so on are all part of it.
c. Usability
This section of the mobile app design principles is concerned with determining whether or not consumers are receiving the details they need by the usage of the application and whether or not the app provides them with a self-serving method to manage problems.
d. Wireframe
The development of an app’s demo for the purpose of checking functionality, performance, and the look of the app before it goes live in the market is all part of the user experience design for mobile apps.
e. Visual Design
It all comes down to defining the app’s brand in the eyes of the users. It is not only about selecting the right colors, icons, pictures, fonts, and so on, but also about its presentation, which can have an effect on users at various stages of their interaction.
8. Testing
You can’t wait to release the freshly developed app, but without checking its functionality is a no-go since the overall failure rate for app testing for Android is 16.4%. The aim of mobile application testing is to guarantee that there are no glitches and that the app functions as intended. Thus, an app testing phase consists of many phases. This sort of thorough monitoring would make sure that your app runs smoothly.
There are many types of mobile application testing, and a good solution is to screen with all of them.
- Functional Testing
- Memory Testing
- Performance Testing
- Security Testing
- Interruption Testing
- Usability Testing
The app may be reviewed internally, externally, or by the developers themselves. However, it is advised that the people who are testing the app shouldn’t be your developers or their collaborators.
9. Launch and Market the Product
A mobile app marketing strategy’s awareness stage begins before the application is released. This stage is intended to increase brand recognition and product exposure.
a. Choose a Release Date
Planning ahead of time will provide you ample time to prepare for your product’s hard launch and will help you to predict and plan for any contingencies that could arise. When deciding on a launch date, consider activities in your area that have the ability to overshadow your app’s launch.
b. Make a Website or a Landing Page
The most common source of app installs is mobile websites. Therefore, creating a pre-launch landing page or, at the very least, a promotional video for the product has become an industry norm. If you’ve created a video for your page, you can repurpose it by putting it in app stores, social media sites, or even paid advertisements. A pre-launch website is a perfect opportunity to do some early Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by beginning to create your domain authority, in addition to creating buzz about your app. Collect emails as you set up your website so you can keep your fans posted and let them know when your mobile app releases, as well as when you have new changes and features. It is also helpful to display 5-star ratings on the site; nevertheless, make sure the reviews are genuine; otherwise, the brand will seem insincere.
c. Outreach Initiatives
Outreach campaigns, such as targeting influencers, publications, and blogs to obtain backlinks and have truthful feedback, are one of the most underestimated facets of selling a new smartphone app. Make a list of friends in your business or niche who might be involved in writing about and evaluating your app. Keep your pitch brief and have a connection to your press kit or landing page.
d. Promote on Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social media enable you to broaden your web presence and engage directly with your target audience. Therefore, if your app is aimed at a particular age group, recognize and rely on the social media that are more common with this audience.
Conclusion
App creation is a continuous phase and can begin beyond the initial launch as you gather input from users and introduce new features. So, spend time checking the app’s performance, keeping your UI up to date, ensuring it supports the newest tech, fixing glitches, and introducing new functionality regularly to make it a success!
To build such quality apps with a lot of brainstorming and research work then Supersourcing can be the most appropriate platform for you. Therefore without much a do, share your business idea with us and we will help you to get the expert and experienced team in the respective domain to take your business live.
