With the growing use of smartphones and the Internet, people are becoming mobile-friendly and prefer to do everything right from their mobiles. Be it shopping online, finding info online, or searching for local service providers, it’s the mobile phone they often use to browse things. As a result, it has brought major changes in the business industry forcing them to build mobile applications for their products and services.

As reported by Statista, the app stores and in-app advertising revenue from mobile apps are predicted to reach $693 billion by the end of 2022. In addition to this, the enterprise mobility market is projected to reach $510.39 billion by the end of the year. Many businesses have already used mobile applications to improve their customer service, drive more customers on mobile, and bring more sales to the company, while others are gradually moving towards mobile app development.

When it comes to mobile app development, it becomes a bit challenging to build a successful mobile application that meets the unique requirements of your business and customers. It requires an in-depth understanding of mobile application development with proper planning and strategy for creating a successful mobile application from scratch.

Well, in this article, we’ll be talking about mobile app development with step by step process to build a successful app for your business. Let’s know what is mobile application development and its platform first.

What is Mobile App Development?

Mobile application development can be defined as the process of designing and developing software applications that can be run on multiple devices and platforms, a typical mobile application uses a secure network connection to work with remote computing resources.

Whenever you develop a mobile app, there are myriad factors to consider, such as the size of the app, its features, the platform to develop it in, its design, and so forth.

This is where you should hire a mobile app development company that has a team of experts to achieve your goals. We will examine the various app development platforms used by mobile app developers and their processes for creating native, hybrid, and web-based mobile apps.

1. Creating a successful strategy
Defining your strategy for making your idea into a successful app is the initial step of the mobile app development process. In your enterprise mobility strategy, you may want to include this more prominently.

Due to the fact that one app's objective may be different from another, the mobility strategy should be tailored to meet its specific requirements. Try to determine the following things during this stage:

  • To examine the app users
  • To do competitor research
  • To set clear goals and objectives for the app
  • To choose the right platform for your mobile app

2. Analysis and Planning
In this phase, your app idea takes the initial shape and is turned into an actual project where use cases are defined, functional requirements are captured, and analysis is completed. Now that you have determined the application needs, it is time to create a roadmap.

When time, resources, or costs are a concern, prioritizing your mobile app requirements and grouping them into milestones is very important. Then, you can further identify your minimum viable product (MVP) and prioritize launching it first.

For example, iOS and Android platforms utilize different development technology stacks, so the planning phase includes identifying the skills you will need for your app development project. If you aim to build a mobile application for both Android and iOS, then you need to involve both Android developers and iOS developers to get the job done seamlessly.

In addition to this, make sure to choose a unique name for your mobile app do more research, and verify it on each Play Store to see if your app name isn’t already there.

3. UI / UX Design
A mobile app's design should provide seamless and effortless user interfaces with a polished appearance since the success of an application is determined by how well users adapt to all its features and use them effectively.

App user experience (UI / UX design) aims to make your app more interactive, intuitive, and user-friendly so your app users remain engaged all the time. While polished UI designs will aid in early adoption, you must also create intuitive experiences for your app users to remain engaged.

Creating Wireframes
Wireframes are the digital form of sketches created by mobile app designers on paper. Wireframes are types of conceptual layouts also known as low-fidelity mockups that offer visual structure based on the functional requirements of your application.

When working with wireframes, the focus is less on color schemes and styles, and more on aesthetics and user experience. When it comes to designing and reviewing app layouts, using wireframes is a quick and cost-effective method.

Keeping devices in mind is important when creating wireframes. It provides intuitive and device-specific user experiences, so no matter what device your app is run on, it provides a smooth experience.

Prototype
Prototypes are extremely important for simulating the user experience and the workflows of the finished app. Invision and Figma offer click-through prototypes of your mobile app, which can allow you to simulate the user experience and workflows of your product as well as record the user experience. Mockups present your mobile app's functionality using static designs; these can be turned into click-through prototypes with tools like Invision and Figma.

Developing a prototype can take a lot of time, but the results are well worth it. Prototypes enable early testing of your app's design and function. They may also identify changes that should be made to the proposed functionality.

Preparing Mockups
The final mockups of your app's visual design are composed of wireframes with your style guide applied. High-fidelity designs are created using mockups that correspond to your style guide. The information architecture, workflow, and aesthetics of your app, along with its design, will continue to be modified as the design is finalized. Adobe Photoshop is the best-fit tool for creating high-fidelity mockups.

Style Guide
An app style guide is a "living document" that documents your organization's brand guidelines, from the navigation icons to the app's look and feel.

Style guides should include the following things:

  • What font family will you be using for your app?
  • What color scheme will you be using?
  • How will the app design reflect your company brand?

Establishing a style guide early in your app's development process will increase your developers' productivity when building your app. Style guides play an important role in an app's design strategy.

Keeping your app's design consistent is equally as important as following a style guide; what you can do to make your app's design consistent is to take note of Apple's iOS app guidelines, as well as Google's Android app guidelines.

4. App Development
Prior to the development/programming phase of mobile app development, there is still a great deal of planning to be done. Here are some essential steps to do:

  • Determine the technical architecture,
  • Choose the right technology stack, and
  • Identify the development milestones.

There are three major components that make up a typical mobile app project: back-end or server-side technology, application programming interfaces (APIs), and the front end (your app).

Mobile App Front-End
The front end is a native mobile app that end-users will see and use. Sometimes, mobile apps include highly interactive user experiences that make use of an API and the back-end for handling data. A native mobile app may rely on local data storage when it needs to function without internet access. You can use any web programming language and any database for the backend.

The technology stack you select for native mobile apps is determined by the mobile OS platform you are targeting. Objective-C or Swift programming languages are often used for building iOS apps; Android apps are mostly developed on Java or Kotlin. If you are not sure which framework is the best for your mobile application development, then check it out here.

You can develop mobile apps on a variety of platforms using a wide range of programming languages and technologies - the key is finding the one that will best suit your mobile application. Mobile platforms are evolving much faster than mobile technologies.

The development of mobile apps within defined timelines and budgets is increasingly difficult with new platforms and devices arriving every few months. Choosing an agile development approach is a priority if timelines and budgets are a focus.

With an agile development strategy, you will be able to release the software more frequently with completed functionality. Setting up clear milestones can help you better plan out your mobile application's development in iterations. As each development milestone is achieved, the mobile app is then tested further by the QA team.

Application Programming Interface (API)
An API stands for Application Programming Interface which is used to communicate with servers and databases of an application.

Back-End Technology
This part includes the database and server-side objects needed for the mobile app to support its functions.

In case you are using an existing back-end platform, then you may be required to do some modifications to support the respective mobile app functionality.

5. Testing
During the process of developing mobile applications, quality assurance testing provides stability, usability, and security. Preparing test cases that address all aspects of app testing is the first step to ensuring that your app is thoroughly tested.

Mobile app testing is driven by test cases, just as use cases are the basis of app development. In test cases, testing steps are executed, results are recorded for evaluating software quality, and retesting is tracked after fixes are implemented.

Using QA as a part of the design and analysis process is a best practice. You will be able to construct accurate test cases if you know your app's objectives and functional requirements. For a quality mobility solution, your app should be tested using the following methods.

Functional Testing
It is difficult to predict every end user's behavior and how they will use the app. Accurate functionality is important for the success of your mobile app. It is important to test the functionality of your app as many times as possible so that as many test cases as possible are included. When two users test the same feature but obtain different results, you might find that there are bugs.

The purpose of functional testing is to ensure that users can use your app’s features and functionality without any issues. It can be broken down further into system testing (the app working as a whole), and unit testing (individual functions of the app operating correctly).

Functional testing should include comparing the features of your iOS and Android apps if you are building an app for iOS and Android mobile devices.

User Experience Testing
The final implementation of a mobile app must match the user experience created by the design team. This is a fundamental part of mobile app testing. Visuals, workflow, and interactivity of your app are what will give your end-users a first-hand impression of your app.

Maintain consistency in fonts, style, color schemes, icon design, navigation, and padding between data within your app. You'll have a positive impact on your app's user adoption by following the original design guidelines!

Security Testing
Every enterprise mobile application should be highly secure because any potential vulnerability can be exploited. Many companies hire outside agencies to perform thorough security tests for their application. A few simple steps can be taken by your QA and development teams to make your application more secure.

Login sessions should be tracked on both the device and the server if your app requires users to sign in. Typically, the system should terminate user sessions when a user remains idle for longer than a certain period of time (ten minutes on a mobile app) if you store the user credentials on the device in order to make it convenient for the user to log in again, you must use a trusted service.

A developer's iOS app can store an account's details for a specific app by using the Keychain feature. Ensure that no data leaks occur when entering data on your mobile app.

Performance Testing
For measuring the performance of your app, you can use a variety of quantitative criteria:

  • Your application responds well to users' requests, how?
  • What is the loading speed of the app's screens?
  • Are you experiencing memory leaks or a battery drain with your app?
  • Are you making efficient use of network bandwidth?
  • Do you think that the size of your app is too large?
It is always a good idea to simulate the maximum number of concurrent users even if your app passes basic performance criteria. Even during spikes in usage, make sure your application is able to handle the load efficiently.

Platform and Device Testing
Approximately every 12 months, a new mobile phone is released with updated hardware, software, and design, and the new versions of mobile operating systems are released every few months. During the app development process, testing plays an important role in ensuring the app's future success.

In order to deliver a quality mobile application, a comprehensive testing strategy is essential. There are multiple mobile device manufacturers using the Android platform since it is open-source, but they are customized only for specific mobile devices.

These mobile devices are available in different sizes and shapes. Apple, on the other hand, has a much more controlled environment, since they own both the OS and the hardware.

There are several iPhone & and iPad (Apple iOS) devices available in the market today. Tests during the development of mobile apps differ drastically from those conducted for web apps in this respect. Test your web application in a Windows environment using only the Chrome browser. In order to ensure the seamless operation of your app for all users, it must be tested on both real and simulated smartphones.

It is unnecessary for companies to build their enterprise mobile apps for multiple mobile platforms (and typically provide mobile devices to their users) because testing on multiple mobile platforms is complex, maintenance is expensive, and mobile device management is a headache.

As we have seen, most companies use Apple's iOS mobile platform first to develop their enterprise mobile apps and only use the Android platform if necessary.

6. Launch & Support
For iOS and Android mobile apps, you may be required to submit your app to both the Apple App and Google Play Store. You will need to create developer accounts when you wish to launch your app in Google Play and Apple App Store.

In order to release an app in an app store, the following set of metadata is required:

  • The app title
  • App description
  • App Category
  • Selected keywords
  • Launch icon
  • App Store screenshots

iOS apps go through a review process in the Apple App Store after they have been submitted, which varies according to how well an app is developed and how closely it follows Apple's guidelines. In order to release your app, Apple will require you to provide a test user account if your app requires users to log in.

The Android app store doesn't have any review process, and apps appear immediately after submission. Track your app's performance by looking at mobile analytics platforms after it is available in the app store and tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge its success. Be sure to review crash reports on a regular basis.

Make sure you ask for feedback from users and encourage them to make suggestions for your app. Keeping users engaged will require quick notification of changes to the app and frequent updates with improvements.

Mobile apps must undergo the same submission and review process as web apps if patches are to be released instantly to app users. Additionally, you need to continuously update your native mobile apps to ensure they work on the latest mobile devices and operating systems.

Final Thoughts
Therefore, the development process of an app continues after its initial launch and may include adding new features based on feedback from end-users.