Introduction:
On average, adults spend around 3 ½ hours on their phone every day and during this time they use various apps to assist them. These apps can be for social media, music, communication, capturing and editing photos and other applications. You must use various apps yourself but have you ever had the desire to build your own app?
Building a well-developed and well thought-out app can help you boost your brand name and reach more customers faster. In this article, we will be guiding you on how you can make your own app today.
How to Develop Your Own App:
1: Research your market
First of all you must know that the market has a lot of competition. You should research all the competitors’ apps and focus on their strengths and weaknesses. With the help of your market research, you can make more informed decisions while building your app and you could even make the best app on the market. During your research download the competitors’ apps and examine them, read reviews regarding them and see what the customers demand.
2: What challenges does your app solve?
Before you start building your app, you should know what challenges your app is aiming to solve. Keep a clear understanding of your customers’ requirements and the challenges they face and how your app could help them solve them. This will define what your app does. Sitting down with customers and asking them what features would differentiate your app from the rest can also help you in this.
3: Building your App’s wireframe
A wireframe is basically a two-dimensional illustration of a screen’s interface, almost like a blueprint. It gives a simplified visual concept of your app. Your wireframe acts a reference in the development of your app. There are a number of wireframe tools you can use to build your app’s wireframe i.e. InVision, Balsamiq, UXPin, Proto.io, Fluid UI, JustinMind and Prott etc.
4: Designing your app
Designing the app is a job best left to a professional graphic designer. Your app should be designed keeping a balance in the font, colors, and other elements. Choosing the correct design can make all the difference in the world. There are two options for working with professional designers:
- Hiring a freelancer:
Working with a designer can help you to develop the app you have in mind easily. You create the vision while they turn it into a reality. The designer will make sure your app should be user-friendly and rooted in reality and at the same time feasible.
- Hiring an agency:
If your app is more complex then you should hire an agency and they will build your app from scratch. This can be expensive but is also convenient as they take care of all the steps involved in the development process till launch. Keep yourself updated on the progress of your app to make sure your app is being developed as your vision.
5: Testing your design
After the design is complete, the next step is testing your design for errors. Look for any issues in your design so you can solve them before moving on to development. In order to determine whether or not your app is user-friendly, gather some participants and ask them to complete a set of tasks and observe. This will show you what your app is lacking in, whether it is functioning properly, does it fit the application, and is it user-friendly? etc.
6: Developing your app
After app passes the usability test, next you move on to development. A development team or a freelance developer will help you in the process. They will also try to solve issues they run into during the development process. Keep yourself updated on the entire process.
7: Testing your app
Now that your app is developed, it will once again undergo a usability test. Check for errors and bugs in your design. Look for ways in which you could improve your app or add tweaks here and there.
8: Launch a beta version of your app
You can easily attract early adopters by releasing a beta version of your app. It will help you get early feedback regarding your app and help you determine whether or not your app is ready for the market. Also, this will help you boost your apps reputation and acquire more customers.
9: Launching your app
After you have done designing, testing and developing your app now you must launch it. You can launch your app in the Google Play Store without any reviews; simply upload the app file into the store. The IOS has a number of guidelines you should check before you upload, they will also review your app before they pass it on to users.
Once you have launched your app, the last step is marketing. For this, you will have to spread the word of your app. Convince people to review them, advertise your app on social media and websites. This will help you attract early users and hopefully, your app will be successful.