An innovative app improves users’ experience and engagement with your brand and is one of the most valuable assets you can have. But the process of making an app a reality from a drawing board can be a long one. When you start the process of developing an application, management of development timelines can help you forecast how much you will be spending during the process of app development,
The mobile app development process steps can be broken down into the following phases.
Conceptualizing the App
While you have a broad idea of what you want your app to do, it is extremely important to understand if your audience needs such an app. If you have a clearly defined target audience, it would be advisable to conduct a thorough market research to understand their pain points and then see if there is an app that addresses the pain points. It would also be useful to analyse competitor apps that are similar to yours and are being used by your target audience.
You can identify the shortcomings of these apps and look for ways in which your app can overcome it. This will encourage users to use your app instead of your competitors’.
This stage can last for around 30 days but can extend to longer depending upon how in-depth you want your market research study to be.
Planning the Development
Once you finalize the app concept, you need to decide the features your app will host. The complexity of the features to be included will determine the cost and the time needed to develop your app. The more features your app has, the more it will cost and the longer it will take to develop. Hence, it is important to fix a budget for the development of your app. This way, you will be able to include only the features you need so as to not overshoot the budget.
If you are planning to outsource the development, then you will need to research the best app development companies and finalize on the one you would like to partner with.
This stage can last for about 21 days on an average.
Designing the UX
The UX (User eXperience) is the most important aspect of your app and is the deciding factor behind people either loving the app or uninstalling it. Experts will first create wireframes that will give you an idea of what the app interface will look like. This will include all the elements of the app, including how a user will navigate through the app and what the screen will look like. This will be the base on which the final app will be designed and developed.
Creation of the wireframe can take anywhere between 15-20 days depending upon the functionality and complexity of the app.
Development of the app
This stage will take up the maximum time. The two facets of app development (the front end and the back end) will be done simultaneously. The front end is what a use can see when they use the app. The back end development is the server-side development of the app. This is what the speed of
the app, server hosting, and data transfer depend upon. Simultaneous development of both the facets saves a lot of time.
The amount of time this stage will require will depend upon how complex the app is. This stage can last between 4-6 months, but can extend longer if there are a variety of features on the app which need to be integrated.
Testing of the App
Once the development stage is over, your app needs to go through rounds of rigorous testing to find out and remove any bugs before they make a mess of the users’ experience. This testing will also check whether all the features are working, and whether the app works uniformly on all devices and connections.
The total time taken for testing the app and resolving errors can range between 3-4 weeks.
Launch of the App
Once your app is ready and issue-free, you can officially launch it on both the app stores. You can implement App Store Optimization (ASO) strategies once your app is Live.
Launching your app will require only about one week.
The time to develop your app can be reduced significantly if you select the right app development company. With an extensive experience of creating a wide array of apps, we, at WeSquare, have the required processes in place to speed up the development process.
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