Creating an app can be very challenging, whether you’re an experienced developer or entirely new to the industry. There are many potential pitfalls that you can tumble down, bringing the whole project to a halt causing huge delays, and in some cases, entirely ending the project for good. To reduce your risk of this, it’s imperative that you follow a few critical steps that can help you identify any possible issues with your overall product and any issues you might run into during and after the launch of your app. We’ve listed five important steps so you can be more confident when creating your first mobile app.
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Do Your Market Research
When releasing any type of product to the public, it is so important that you conduct market research beforehand, as well as throughout the production of that product. When your product is an app, you need to know a few specific things before you even start production. First of all, you need to know if there’s a need or a desire for an app like yours. Of course, the public doesn’t actually have a need for a game, but it is something that they would enjoy and can help to pass the time when they’re bored similar to other forms of entertainment. Other than for entertainment purposes, your app could assist your audience with certain tasks, making their lives easier in some way. This could be seen as a need and therefore gives your app some level of value. Next, you need to research your competitors that have made or are making other similar apps to see what you can do differently while also offering the same features which would otherwise sway the public to choose their app over yours.
Work With The Right People
When developing an app, especially your first one, you need to ensure that you have the right experts working on it to ensure you get the best final product possible. If your goal is to work on the app all on your own, you should only do this with a good working knowledge of all aspects of app development. This includes at least basic graphic design, coding experience, security knowledge, and an understanding of business. If you don’t possess these skills, you might want to find some other experts that you can work with. This could be other amateur developers who can offer their talents in exchange for your own talents or even source helpful advice via online development forums in which people will provide you with guidance should you run into any issues along the way. It might be the case, however, that you just cannot do this alone, and then it might be worthwhile considering partnering up with another like-minded individual and scrapping the idea of going solo.
Make Your App Secure
A major mistake when developing and releasing your own app is not ensuring that it is secure. This is especially bad if it creates some form of a hole in the security of the devices of your customers. In fact, certain apps, when installed on a phone or tablet, can actually make it easier for you to be hacked, and therefore it is incredibly important to make sure you have conducted stringent security testing using things like automated testing software such as the Mayhem security resource from ForAllSecure. This will help to push your software to the limit, integrating many different layers of security testing to allow you to focus on other aspects of development while being confident that your app will be as secure as possible.
Ensure It Has Longevity
There are countless apps on the market that have come and gone in terms of their popularity within the space of mere weeks. Of course, that doesn’t mean that those apps haven’t attained significant profits. However, suppose you want a truly successful app that can keep providing you with income and allow you to continue to grow your small development company. In that case, you’ll want to ensure that your app has some longevity to it. A good way to do this is to keep updating your app frequently and make use of user feedback to keep those users engaged.
Focus On The User Experience
One thing that can seriously harm the success of your app is not providing your customers with a sleek and pleasant user experience. If your app is clunky and hard to navigate, then there’s a strong possibility that people will choose a different app to use. The same goes for if you overload your app with excessive advertising, as this can ruin the experience for users too. Instead, find ways to streamline your app and even make it satisfying to navigate with seamless transitions and an attractive design. User experience or UX is so important when developing software such as mobile apps, and failing to provide quality UX to your audience could result in your app receiving harsh reviews on release, seriously impacting its overall success.
