Today we will discuss a simple guide to custom app development. In the past years, mobile usage has exploded across the globe. According to statistics, there were about 3.5 billion smartphone users in the world by the end of 2020. Also, about 1.4 billion smartphones were purchased in that year alone.
With the ever-increasing number of people using mobile devices these days, more and more businesses are investing in custom app development. If all of these sound new to you, this article shares everything you need to know about the development process of custom mobile apps.
Custom Mobile App Development: What Is It?
Different businesses have different needs. And it’s not just businesses across different industries. Even two close competitors can have different needs. Based on your business’s specific needs, the way your mobile app feels, looks, and functions will vary.
As a good definition, custom mobile app development is the process of building and developing apps specifically tailored to the requirements and needs of your business. Almost all apps on the market are custom-made. However, most have off-the-shelf features integrated from third parties. By making a few customizations and adjustments to these off-the-shell app templates, you can soon deploy them, and the overall cost may be more affordable.
The problem with this is that ready-to-go features can only cover your business’ basic needs. In terms of usability, security, scalability, and other factors, custom apps are still superior over off-the-shelf apps, ensuring that all your requirements and functional targets are met and supported.
But how exactly are custom apps developed?
6 Steps of The Guide to Custom App Development Process
Since it’s adjusted to your business’s needs, a custom app development process can go in different directions. That said, it still follows a general outline like the one discussed below.
1. Brainstorming
The first step starts with you. You want to have a clear vision of what your mobile app will be. You need to produce a strategy to determine how your company can improve and grow through a mobile app. You also need to consider how a custom app will benefit your customers, employees, or business partners.
Since an app’s objective will differ from another, you want to have a well-defined strategy to help address the why for your custom app development initiatives.
At this stage, you will need to:
· Define The Mobile App’s Purpose
Establish the mobile app’s objectives and goals. Why do you want to build the app? Is your idea appropriate or can fit your business’s needs or your target audience’s wants? You should have a list of core features for your app.
· Research Your Competition
A comprehensive study of your competitor’s mobile app can help figure out what features are missing in their app so you can include them in yours and make them stand out.
· Understand Your Target Audience
A big part of your brainstorming session is to identify and understand your target audience. To develop the right app for your business, you need to know who will use it. This stage is most important since, without a proper understanding of your target audience, you won’t be able to create an app that answers and resolves their pain points.
2. Finding A Mobile App Development Company
Unless you have the knowledge and skills to develop a custom app from scratch, it’s best to seek help. In general, it’s easy to find a reputable custom app development company. A quick Google search can provide you with a long list of custom mobile app development firms. The issue is how to choose the right one for your needs.
So, before partnering with the first company you find online, it’s best to check their credibility by looking up past client reviews. Or you can also ask for customer referrals who can vouch for their expertise. Make sure to check their portfolio and any apps they’ve created to get an idea of their designs and work.
You also need to consider each professional in their team and whether they have the necessary skills. Depending on your project’s goals and ideas, you want to look for an app development team with vast experience in developing both Android and iOS apps.
3. Wireframing And Designing
App developers use wireframing to design your custom app’s front end. Think of it as a mock-up or a blueprint that finalizes how your app will look while outlining the user’s journey. Developing a wireframe allows you to get an accurate estimation of the development timeline.
After building a wireframe, the developer now creates the UI/UX (user interaction/user experience) design. This will be based on your preferences, branding colors, and other design elements you want. In general, your developer can create sample UX/UI designs using tools like that from the Adobe suite.
4. App Development And Testing
Once you’re satisfied with the overall design and function, your developer will start working on your app from scratch. A project manager defines and assigns tasks to the appropriate developers and sets milestones to achieve.
In general, the process of mobile app development is categorized into three parts:
· Front-End
This part designs the interactive UI, containing all the designs, features, and functions of your app.
· Back-End
Back-end app development involves storing all relevant data to your app, including customer data. It includes the database and server-side objects that support your app’s features and functionalities.
5. Testing And Deployment
Testing is a critical step in custom app development. Your developer will test your app in various aspects and parameters to understand how sustainable, functional, and robust the user experience is.
App testing also checks for any errors in the code that may be causing issues so developers can tweak and resolve them before the app goes live. After completing several developer testing and ensuring that it’s 100% efficient and bug-free, your app is set for deployment.
Deployment is a type of testing where your mobile app is packaged and prepared as a beta version to install on several test devices for further analysis.
6. Launch
When all app testing returned positive results, it’s time to publish your app. Your developer should help in uploading your custom app to the respective app store, primarily Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. Once launched, your app can now be downloaded by your customers.
Takeaway
If you want to engage your customers and grow your business, having a mobile app is no longer an option–it has become a necessity in this modern age. And a custom-designed app can help focus on the needs of your customers while streamlining your company services.
This article has provided you with a general idea of how custom mobile apps are developed. This way, you’ll know what to expect when it’s finally time to invest in a custom mobile app for your business. Hope this guide to custom app development was useful to you.
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