Mobile App Development Process | Lifecycle by Wowit

1.  Ideation & discovery phase

 Ideation

The driving force of everything is a concept. Like anything else, apps start with an idea. An app’s foundation is formed from a seed called an idea. Research and planning in-depth are used to support ideas. The foundation of the app will be built by certain key questions that you must ask yourself. 

Research

This stage of formation of ideas and discovery involves research also. You should not only concentrate on your own ideas but evaluate the products offered by your competitors.

• Are they offering a better solution?
• Are they more feasible?
• Is your app better than theirs?
• Are they paid or free to use?

A careful evaluation will provide you with a deep insight and open up several other aspects of app development that you overlooked. It will give you some insight into the ROI (Return on Investment), budget, resources, and funds that will be used in implementing the app, etc.

2 Initial designing

Give your web project a distinctive look at this stage. To distinguish your app, the designers employ three distinct approaches.

After selecting the app you want to create and conducting all necessary primary research, the following step is to create the app’s initial visuals. You can draw a rough draught of how the app will seem or list its main features. At this point, the main features of the app start to emerge in more detail, and all of your concepts for mobile apps start to take on a visual appearance.

• You start to clearly picture features of the software like:
• The user will see several screens after clicking a button.
• What design components to use in your app.
• What should appear on the app’s home page in terms of features, buttons, and content?
• Design pages, text, and navigational buttons for the app.
• The app’s frontend and backend operations.

3 Initial development

real creation of the app will begin at the following stage of the process. It is at this point that the programmers enter and code all required functionality.

You modify your prototypes throughout this stage to produce the finished app. When developing the app, your team of software experts should take into account all the working prototypes, the app’s functionality, sketches, storyboards, and workflow diagrams.

There are two stages to the development process.

4 Initial testing

App development typically goes hand in hand with app testing. At this step, bugs and faults are found and fixed. The app is put through a number of tests and quality control procedures.

Early and frequent monitoring of mobile app development is a method that can ultimately help you save money. The expense of correcting mistakes increases as you move further along in the lifecycle.

Make sure your team tests all relevant functionality; application testing is broad.  You may determine whether your mobile app is usable by your intended audience by doing user acceptance testing.

Show your app to a few members of your target audience and test it by asking them specific questions. You’ll realise your strategy “works” once your app passes the user acceptance test. You can verify whether the app’s features operate properly in a practical setting by reviewing the comments provided by beta users. At wowit (a digital marketing agency) we believe that this stage of the app development lifecycle is one of the most important.

5 Prototype for a touch experience

An app gives a feel of its functionality only when it provides a tactile experience to users. the stage is the first stage where the app design takes shape in the minds of the consumers, and they actually can use the app. Their feedback will help app developers in fine-tuning the app with regards to:

• Interfaces and Platforms.
• Testing on various screen resolutions and sizes.
• Buttons and navigation.
• Privacy of user data.
• App platforms.
• Beta testing.

6 Final coding and design

The next step is to actually code the app and deliver the UX (User Experience) interface after you’ve really tested it with people. To construct the app at this point, you will require the assistance of UX designers, programmers, coders, and designers. The UX Designer will produce the app’s displays, buttons, connectors, and other design elements.The app developers will benefit from having a general understanding of how the process works.

7 Final testing of the app

After developing your software, it is always a good idea to test it. Typically, it entails letting a small number of your target users test your software independently. Then, you’ll be able to tell how people are using your app and whether they can utilise it effectively. It entails evaluating an app’s functionality, simplicity, user experience, interface design, and UX layout. It entails:

During UAT (Use Acceptance Testing), a small sample of the target market receives the app for evaluation. In this kind of testing, consumers learn about typos, design faults, usability, security holes, layout changes, etc. Developers of apps may conduct surveys, questionnaires, or polls to find out how users feel about the app’s functionality.

Beta testing: In this case, the software is available to all users, and their feedback is extremely valuable. The app’s creators give users access to a beta version of the app during this testing period. The customers give the developers thorough input. 

8 Deployment and publishing

Customers will offer comments after using the app. Future iterations of the product must take into account this feedback. Any software product will need updates and the addition of new features. The development cycle often resumes after the mobile app’s beta release. Make sure you have the resources you’ll need to keep your project going. 

The completion of the app development process that you started is publishing your app. It comes before the final stage of developing an app. will need to hire marketing and advertising teams, organise social media campaigns, rely on word-of-mouth advertising, or send emails to several individuals or groups who expressed a keen interest in your programme.

9 Maintenance & updates

However, maintaining and updating the software is where app development really ends. You enhance the app by adding sophisticated features from the backlog of the project. Every self-respecting developer guarantees technical support for any further issues that could occur.

This phase requires you to be proactive and connect user engagement with frequent app updates. User comments must be considered. Frequent updates are required for the application to include new software features, bug fixes, design alterations, and other things.The process of creating apps then becomes dynamic. Only after this last stage does an app truly begin to take shape.

Modern business owners should carefully plan their projects, manage the app development process, and maintain the finished product because the app industry is frequently quite competitive. Recognize the stages of the app development process in advance and be ready to make mistakes.

These are the steps we follow in wowit a digital marketing agency for the app development process.