Creating and developing a website or mobile app takes much more work than just a great idea. What will your app do? What is your development budget and your on going maintenance budget? What are the data security and privacy requirements?
In an effort to save you from some unnecessary work, Mobiddiction director, Mike Vasavada, shares five tips to consider.
(1) As the question and “Think Why?”
Why do you need to build an app? Would a website be able to achieve the same outcome as the app idea? Remember that building a good mobile app means you need to register for an Apple Developer account as well as a Google Development account (for Android). Once the app is completed, it would have to go through an approval process in these developer accounts before they’re released. Those apps that do not meet the quality, design, build, compliance or general standards set by Apple and Google, will be rejected and may not see the light of day. As scary as that sounds, it’s best to be prepared so you can thoroughly think about your application.
You can read about how to become an Apple registered developer here. And, Android too needs Developer accounts created which you can read more here.
Apps that obviously mimic a website may be rejected, as well as apps that do not provide an end user with a great user experience. Documenting your idea and its functionality is imperative before moving on to next steps.
(2) The 5D’s
There are five things you must consider when thinking of the entire process of developing an app. Define, Document, Design, Develop and Deploy.
Make sure you’ve thought about all of them!
(3) Budget
It’s no secret that developing an app can be quite costly. That’s why thinking about the budget and ongoing costs is really important. If you aren’t sure about your budget, when app developers start mentioning ideas, including various development frameworks, you may start to rack up costs without even realising it. These development decisions have both negative and positive points, but they also impact costs.
A lot of people start of comparisons with the big players like Air BnB, Uber and some other really nice website and popular banking apps etc. But one thing you must realise that designing the user experience, development with such high standards all needs time, money and working with some really good partners. There are many services who feature Top App Development companies that can help you. Do your research and then move ahead once you have established who would be the best partner for you to deliver your idea to market.
(4) Data & Security
Apps play an increasingly important role in our lives, but they also pose a serious security threat. When it comes to creating and releasing an app, developers must continually monitor, fix and prevent security vulnerabilities.
Ultimately, you are responsible for a user’s data when you release an app so it’s necessary to ask yourself questions like:
- Where is the cloud backend hosted and who is going to manage it?
- Do you have a global idea that is going to be impacted by privacy laws across the EU (GDPR etc)?
- Where will you host your app’s backend? (If there is one).
- Where will you store your users’ data?
(5) Ongoing Management
While it’s really exciting to have an app go live, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the ever competitive app world, making sure yours stands out can be challenging. Thinking about how to differentiate your application from the rest is something that should be thought about before you even start the process! There will also be updates that you will need to plan and think of well in advance. Keeping your app fresh and up to standard is also a must, you can do this by developing new features, improving the user experience and attending to crashes or user bugs.
And there you have it, 5 tips to think about before you even get started with that app. By considering these, you’ll be making sure all the time you’ve spent dreaming about that app does not go to waste!
