Currently, millions of apps are available in different online stores to smartphone users. The most successful mobile applications have been downloaded over a billion times and each day new applications are launched to the mobile market,making it extremely attractive both for companies and indie developers to invest their time and money. Such demand has often led mobile software (SW) developers to adapt established SW development methodologies or submit new proposals thatfit the constraints related to mobile SW development.

The mobile SW development particularities are diverse, but surely include short and frequent development cycles, frequenttechnological changes (platforms, operating systems, sensors, etc.), limited documentation, specific requirements andresources of the development team and the client, among others. In addition, all these possible factors are prone to constant innovation.

Steps Involved in the process of developing a Mobile Application

Concept Development

Start by finding the problem in the workplace and solve it in a mobile-first way. This is the fundamental difference between a good app-that solves a problem and a great app-that solves a problem in mobile-first way. More often, the focus is on number of data collected rather than its availability on a mobile device. This will result in a data-centric app but not a user-centric app. Next, the features of your app must be decided. The more features and benefits it provides, the more likely chances of users getting intimidated by the application and using it more frequently. Do not build a mobile app just to please the eye of the user. It must do something else it will become forgotten eventually.

DESIGN OF APP

Design is a principal factor for success of an app. It is proportional to the usability of the app.The UI design should catch the attention of the user. Multi-touch gestures for touch-enabled devices andinclude platform design standards can be enabled as well. It creates an instant impact in the mind of theuser. What an app looks like is the first aspect people look at before even downloading and testing the app.Creative Design is a sum of User Interface(UI) and User Experience(UX).

UX/UI must have-

  • Specific mobile-only functionality – Make sure that the product will fulfill the user‟s mobile needsand functions. Also, the end experience should be commensurate to the function.
  • Design core features for target audience- Design features by keeping the target audience in mind.For example, if it is shoppers, modules such as display of items and payment should be carefullyimplemented. Nevertheless, all features must be provided.
  • Use and Control of Multimedia- Presence of multimedia such as image, audio and video enrichesdesign. Also make sure user has control over the media and don‟tinclude many to avoid taking up lotof memory.
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DEVELOPMENT OF APP

After the prototype approval, the next phase is to development the app in different platforms with the apt technology. Some of the common used platforms in mobile app developments are Android, iOS and Windows.

Some of the technologies used for mobile app development are

Ionic

Ionic is HTML5 mobile app development framework. It is widely used for developing hybrid mobile apps. It is a useful tool to build mobile apps using web technologies like CSS, HTML5, and SASS.

Features
  • Ionic Framework is a 100% free and open source project
  • Build progressive web and native mobile apps for every major app store
  • It offers great tools and services to create highly interactive apps
  • It allows web developer to create apps for all major app stores with a single code base
  • It comes with many CSS components and JavaScript components for developing mobile apps
  • Ionic emulates native app UI guidelines and uses native SDKs
Xamarin

Xamarin is the preferred mobile app development tool for native applications. It reuses business logic layers and data access across platforms. It is widely used to build apps for iOS, Windows, and Android app development.

Features
  • It is a mono framework which allows communication with the API of mobile devices
  • Xamarin Component Store includes UI controls, cross-platform libraries, and third party libraries
  • It tends to produce fewer bugs and thus provides faster time to market
  • It allows application Indexing and Deep Linking
  • Platform-specifics allow to consuming functionality that's only available on certain platforms
Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is a mobile app development framework. It relies on rich libraries like overthrow.js and fastclick.js to provide the better mobile experience.

Features
  • With Mobile Angular UI it is possible to design a responsive, mobile user-interface. It also allows converting desktop web applications to mobile apps
  • Allows to create awesome Mobile Components
  • Bootstrap tailored according to development needs
  • Stretch and squeeze your browser window to see both mobile and desktop versions
  • Allows to test responsiveness and speed
Firebase

Firebase is another mobile application development platform. It supports the web, iOS, OS X, and Android clients. It can significantly cut down development time and avoids messing with servers and data storage.

Features
  • It provides cloud service, so there isn't any setup required
  • Data is stored as native JSON, so users can see what they stored
  • Data is safe because Firebase requires 2048-bit SSL encryption for all data transfers.
  • File storage backed by Google Cloud Storage
  • Treat data as streams to build highly scalable applications
  • Data is reflected and backed up to multiple secure locations, so hardly any chances of data loss
  • It integrates nicely with frameworks like Angular JS. So it allows creating an app in a very short time

Mobile Application Steps

  • Concept Development
  • DESIGN OF APP
  • INTEGRATION OF APPROPRIATE ANALYTICS TOOL
  • DEVELOPING A PROTOTYPE
  • DEVELOPMENT OF APP
  • DEPLOY/RELEASE THE APP
  • UPGRADE THE APP
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Integration of Appropriate Analytics Tool

It is necessary to have appropriate analytics tool to give a detailed picture of how many visitors use the application, how they ended up to the application and the possible ways of making them to keep coming back. Mobile analytics will help you calculate the number of downloads, the amount of money the application has brought you and even the most recent opinions of the app. Few of the basic metrics for mobile apps are-

  • Activation- It refers to initial experience with your app
  • Acquisition-It refers to channels the users came from
  • Retention- It refers to number of users opening the app repeatedly after download
  • Referral- It refers to users who share the app experience with friends, family and acquaintances and encourage them to download it
  • Revenue- It refers to money generated from the application

DEVELOPING A PROTOTYPE

After deciding on the approach, a prototype must be developed. It is process of turning your idea into anapplication with some basic functionality. It gives the users to visualize and see the benefits that your appoffers rather than just reading the descriptions of it. Prototype allows you to show and test the basicfunctions of the application using the least cost and time possible. It is like Minimum Viable Product(MVP)but you won’t be able openly test your prototype intended market especially if you are designing for iOS,where Apple must review and approve your app before it can be circulated.

Mobile apps today are more difficult to make than websites and there is heavy competition. To have hopeof success, phases must be gone through in professional manner starting from prototype to final product.Moreover, building a prototype and testing it will make you identify the flaws in your design and whetherany improvements can be made to have a better design. Users can play with the application and give youvaluable feedbacks before beginning development. It will save considerable amount of money and time asthe flaws and improvements can be identified in the early stage itself rather than in the final stage of theapplication where making changes will be a tedious task.

UPGRADE THE APP

Upgrade the app periodically to include new innovative features and improvements. A mobile app without upgrade loses its usability in the long run.

Update of app focuses on 3 aspects-

  • Bug Fixes :- Apps need to be updated on a regular basics to fix the bugs of the existing application. No user wouldlike to continue using an existing application with lots of bugs. To keep the user engaged and increasethe usability of the application, updates with bugs fixed needs to be released more often.
  • Performance Improvement :- There are various aspects related to performance such as speed, memory and UI responsiveness of theapplication . Memory is essential as the mobile devices have limited memory and users would notlike the application to take up lot of space. UI responsiveness enables the users to perform desired tasksquickly rather than constantly wait for one long task.
  • New Features :- Introducing new features will greatly increase the scope and usage of your mobile app. Forexample, if you‟re building a unit converter app, more number of country conversions in theapplication can be included. Also provide a feature for user to store conversions performed previouslyto save the wastage of time to perform the same conversions again.

DEPLOY/RELEASE THE APP

It is imperative to plan properly before release of the app to the live and testing environments. Some of the points to be considered by the application owner with regards to release of the app are-

  • Goals of First Release :- The main goal of first release should be to optimize customer experience. There might be issues facedby the customer not involved in testing. Capture them using proper tools such as proper crash reporting or performance monitoring. Failing to do so will increase the customer acquisition charges as users will be reluctant to try your application again. Pay attention to metrics such as app load time, crash rates and UI latency.
  • Release approval :- The mechanism of dealing with compiled code and mechanics of approval process is disparate to webbased peers. Though continuous integration is possible for builds of a new app, continuous deployment to end users is not possible due to the way in which the app store operates. Every app release is versioned so you need to pass the approval process for a new release. And finally, the mobile users may not upgrade to a latest version.
  • Geographic Launch Regions :- Identify the scope or region targeting your application. Everything from design to testing strategy will be affected as hardware and software configurations vary from region to region. Proper plan must be in place to make sure specific devices and operating systems are supported. Service providers like Content Delivery Networks(CDNs) can help to test the app in proper constraints. More importantly most users focus only on localization regions but neglect internationalization. The user experience also needs to be altered to support the target regions.