Mobile application development has grown enormously over the past couple of years. As more and more people across the world have digitalized their daily tasks, the need for mobile applications has skyrocketed.
In 2020 alone, mobile apps are projected to generate $190 billion in revenue via app stores and in-app purchases and advertisements. And that’s not all, the enterprise mobility is estimated to be worth $500 billion by 2022.
Success in this extremely competitive landscape can be a reality depending on the support of a meticulously cultivated mobile apps development process. While hundreds of companies trying to take advantage of this evolution of the mobile app development industry, many do not know how to build an app successfully.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at an effective mobile app development process flow which is spread across six key phases. This is the process that we at FlutterDevs follow exclusively.
The steps we take to develop a mobile application in Flutter have proven to be the best, based on the feedback we received.
You’ve got an app Idea
As cliché as it may sound, all great applications began as an idea. But what if you don’t have an app idea, what do you do then?
If you don’t have an app idea, the best way to train yourself is to always think of things around you in terms of problems and potential ways to solve them. You want to train your mind to instinctively ask you “Why do we have to do any certain thing this way”, “is there a better way to do it?” If you have identified the inefficiency of the market, your idea is already halfway through.
The next thing is to understand the problem you have just identified. Think about why that problem exists and why hasn’t anyone build an app to solve it. Once you have an in-depth grasp of the problem, you can begin to think about the solution that you can provide to solve it.
If you are reading this because you want to build your app, let me tell you that you are going to invest a considerable amount of time and money into an app, this is the right time to check the viability and validity of your idea.
Conceptualization and Brainstorming
At this stage, your app idea starts taking its shape and turns into an actual project. The brainstorming begins with defining user cases, capturing detailed functional requirements. Once the identification of the requirements is done, the preparation of the product roadmap begins. The roadmap will include the grouping of project requirements into delivery milestones. If you have time or cost concerns, chose to go for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and build your MVP in Flutter for your initial Launch.
The part of this phase also includes a detailed study of your competitor’s app, which will help to figure out which features are absent in their app so that you could include in your idea to stand out.
Wireframing & UI/UX
The next big step is to wireframe the app, to understand future functionalities. Wireframes are conceptual layouts, also referred to as low-fidelity mockups. We start creating scenes and assigning each function and data. This process takes place on whiteboards or papers initially. You want to make changes here, rather than later in the process, as it is easier to erase some marks than to rewrite code. With wireframing, the focus is solely on user experience and aesthetics, not the color scheme and style.
Tools we use- Whiteboard, Pencil & Paper, Balsamiq, Sketch.
Then we move onto the UI/UX of the app. That is the User Interface and User Experience on the app. The whole purpose is to create a seamless design with a polished look. This is generally a multistep process with many review stages. What the UI/UX design gives you is the blueprint and visual direction to inform the engineer of the envisioned final product and about how it should interact, feel, and flow. Depending on the project size, scope, and budget, this design phase can be completed in a couple of hours or can take a team a whole lot of hours.
Development & Iteration
Mobile application development is an iterative process. We at FlutterDevs, personally use the ‘Agile Methodology’ that basically means that you break up the entire project development work into smaller milestones and complete the app in a series of cycles. Each cycle generally consists of four steps — Planning, Development, Testing, and Review.
A typical mobile app development project is made up of three integral parts — Backend/Server technology, API(s), and mobile app front end.
Backend
The Backend includes databases and server-side objects important for supporting your mobile app functions. The backend of your app stores and sorts the information that the end-user doesn’t see.
API
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a communication method between the app and the backend.
Mobile App Front End
The front end of an application is what the user will use. Mostly, an app has an interactive user experience that uses API(s) and backend to data management.
As each development milestone completes, it passes on to the testing team for Quality analysis and validation.
Beta Release
We at FlutterDevs, follow Beta Release of the app, in addition to, or instead of focus groups. Beta release involves getting a group of testers to use the app in the real world. They use the app just as if it had launched but in smaller numbers.
Also, beta testing is a great time to see how the app performs on various devices, operating systems, locations, and network conditions.
Deployment
Your app is now ready to submit. There are two main components of deploying the app into the world. The first is deploying your web server (API) into a production environment that is scalable. The second is deploying the app on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
The app’s release in the app stores require metadata, including:
- App’s Title
- Description
- Category
- Keywords
- App Icon
- App Store Screenshots
Once the app is submitted on both the play stores, it will be live on Google later that day and on Apple within a few days, as apple reviews the app before making it live on their app store. The process may take from a few days to several weeks, depending upon the quality of the app and how closely it follows Apple’s iOS development guidelines.
DevOps
In mobile app development, there are multiple team members working collaboratively, the app is moved to multiple servers along the way, which leads to additional development time, cost, customer dissatisfaction. DevOps bridges the gap between development and operations and overcomes the challenges that come with continuous software delivery. Through DevOps, it has become relatively easy to align business goals.
Tools we use: Jenkins, Codemagic
What’s Next?
One of the most important aspects which are mostly ignored by the development agencies/companies as well as app owners is the post-development Support. There are numerous vendors in the market like Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Vivo, Nokia, etc. who have customized their android OS as per their needs. Apart from different customized android OS, they have separate hardware and display resolutions. And not just Android, even iOS platform also has different devices and display resolutions. This entire web of different Operating Systems makes it impossible to test the app on every other OS in real-time.
The first two months after the app deployment are the most crucial in terms of app sustainability. For that, we use multiple tools for bug collecting, reporting, and eventually resolving. This entire bug life-cycle ensures the app is not Error-prone after published.
Conclusion
The entire mobile app development process might seem overwhelming. There are a bunch of difficult decisions and steps to follow during the process. But one thing that we can tell you is that this is an extremely rewarding process and can be quite lucrative. Once you have an idea for implementation, the most important factor is to check it’s technical and economical feasibility.
In technical feasibility analysis, your concepts will be analyzed by our technical experts to check if it technically possible or if it has some challenges.
In economical feasibility, the project is analyzed for its budget. A lot of times the complexity of the project can increase the budget which should be kept in consideration and the client should know about this.
At FlutterDevs, our expert team members Do Free Technical and Economical Feasibility Interactions, so that the client knows about the product before investing his money.
We also have a team of expert analysts, who will analyze and compare your product/project with your direct competitors in the market and help you define a better value proposition of the project so that you stand out among the crowd.
At flutterDevs we have a huge experience in all the processes of application development like conceptualizing, developing, releasing, marketing, and maintenance of the app. We have a specialized team to handle each process.
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