Since technological advancements are rapidly taking over the conventional realms, it has become almost impossible to imagine a world without smartphones in today’s time. Research shows that about 90% of the time spent by users on smartphones, is on mobile applications. While we examine the utility of these mobile apps, it becomes important to bring into focus the process of mobile application development. Businesses are exploring the possibilities of developing mobile applications based on 3 aspects –
1. Convenience of End-user customers
2. Streamlining business processes to increase productivity
3. Monitoring business efficiency for better decision-making
The Google Play Store (on android) and the App Store on iOS, these platforms contain about 1.5 million applications each. A wide range of apps are increasingly becoming popular all over the world, making the usage of apps massively trendy.In order to build a mobile application, one has to take a lot of aspects into consideration. If you want to know more about how to choose the best mobile app developers for your project, you can read our previous blog on what to look for in a mobile app developer. However, before choosing the developer, we need to understand the process and efforts that go behind developing a mobile application. The aspects of this whole development process include duration, requirements, platforms, and technologies used.
The Google Play Store (on android) and the App Store on iOS, these platforms contain about 1.5 million applications each. A wide range of apps is increasingly becoming popular all over the world, making the usage of apps massively trendy.
In order to build a mobile application,one has to take a lot of aspects into consideration. If you want to know more about how to choose the best mobile app developers for your project, you can read our previous blog on what to look for in a mobile app developer. However, before choosing the developer, we need to understand the process and efforts that go behind developing a mobile application. The aspects of this whole development process include duration, requirements, platforms, and technologies used.
Primarily, the process can be divided into 3 aspects:
1. Basic requirements and skeleton work.
2. Platforms used and the mobile app development process.
3. Maintenance post-launch of your mobile app.
Let us understand each one of them further in detail:
UI and UX play an integral part in building a robust, user-friendly mobile app. After all, if customers don’t find the app user-friendly, there is a very good chance of the app not giving the desired output. The first and foremost step is to build the exact flow of the application, from its functionality perspective. The idea is to keep the user engaged within the app and make it easy for them to find what they might be searching for.
Once the app mockups, flowchart designs and methodologies are decided, it becomes easier for the development team to implement them in coding. If you have the required developers, you can collaborate with UI/UX designers or companies like Devnco to help you in the UX part. Building up an app requires deeply researching your ideas and planning out things accordingly. When you’ve accomplished that part, the next step you need to take would be towards actually designing your application. The flow of the app and implementation of features can entirely make or break the essence of an app and that is the reason that they are highly powerful aspects of any mobile application.
One of the major deciding factors that come up while developing an app is deciding on the right platform to build it on. Various factors come into consideration for this, beginning with the choice of platform – android, iOS or both. The selection process begins with deciding upon the target group that the app is directed to.
The second aspect that one needs to consider is the building platform of the application. Developers can choose between Native platforms, hybrid platforms or cross platforms.
1. Native mobile app development
Native app development is preferred when the application is to be launched on a single platform. These platforms have libraries and tools better suited for particular platforms. Some of the most commonly used are Android Studio, Java, Android IDE, Kotlin and Intellij IDEA for developing apps on the Android platform, while Swift, Xcode, Objective C and Atom are platforms for developing iOS apps.
2. Hybrid mobile app development
Hybrid apps are apps build on web platforms and linked to mobile applications through plugins. The development is done in web languages like HTML, CSS and Javascript and later on built for mobile experience through plugins, the most common ones being Ionic’s Capacitor, Visual Studio and Apache Cordova.
3. Cross-platform mobile app development
An application can be launched across multiple platforms by developing it as a cross-platform application. Cross-platform apps provide higher OS compatibilities, leading in generating access to platforms such as iOS, Android, and Windows. This is preferred if a particular mobile app code is to be duplicated and reused across multiple platforms. React Native, Flutter, Xamarin are all examples of cross-platform mobile app development platforms.
However, the platforms are chosen, not only on the cost aspect but also different inputs like the availability of development tools & library support, performance & speed, user experience & customization, as well as post-development app maintenance and security. In most of the cases, hiring a company like Devnco, which provides all three options under a single roof, helps in choosing the right platform to enhance the project and increase app life.
Based on the structure and intricacy of what type of application one plans to develop, developing mobile applications can take anywhere from three to nine months.
Simply developing the app is not where the process ends. Post-launch, the app needs to be properly maintained, with regular updates and resolving bugs. Many times, applications tend to run slow as the number of app users increase. Mirroring the sphere of platforms, it is empirical to look at the usage patterns of the target group in order to incorporate the right changes from time-to-time, as well as invest in proper maintenance of server as well. You would want to develop an app which the large audiences will fancy as well as something that will prove to be beneficial for them. In order to build a dynamic app, developers need to integrate both front-end and back-end services. As the name suggests, the front-end part is the one which interacts with the users, while on the other hand, the back-end part is for services like retrieving data and upgrading the app.
Alongside, it is also crucial to ensure that your mobile application is secure and well-protected. Instilling technologies pertaining to user-authorization and authentication have become extremely necessary especially in today’s uncertain times. Moreover, developers should thoroughly pay attention to the demands of customers so as to develop applications that suit the choices of people.
At present, the app market is flourishing with diverse kinds of mobile applications including music apps, food apps, photo and video editing apps, fitness-tracking apps and office management-related apps, to name a few. Hence, it can be rightfully said that the mobile application development industry is rapidly moving forward with new innovations and the future of this industry looks favourable for developers as well as users. This makes it absolutely necessary to have good IT support in your business team. With an experienced and professional team like Devnco by your side, you can be assured of a systematic and highly productive development process of your mobile application.
To know more about how your business can benefit from entering the mobile-application domain, talk to us at +91 83904 53545.