Custom app builder for startups: 8 common stages should be focused on

With the booming of smartphone users, we currently work around mobile software, which presences in both business and private life. Do you know how custom app builds?

At the beginning stage, there were only 500 applications presented in the Apple App Store in 2008. After 11 years, this number dramatically increased, which is presented by 2.2 million apps currently appearing to download. Alternatively, the data for android is slightly higher, which accounted for 2.6 million apps available in the Google Play store. Currently, mobile app development services refer to be a vibrant market, generating enormous profit globally.

On the other hand, mobile apps could be a beneficial technique to approach customers quickly. Enterprises currently have an incentive to implement a custom app development since they believe that this app allows easily keep in touch with their users. The evidence is that users spent 3 hours daily on average for mobile apps in the US only. Furthermore, the total download volume of mobile apps will expectedly reach 260 million in the next two years.

As a leading custom software development company, Adamo Software has gone well several projects which help businesses to build their unique mobile apps. However, we did suffer many challenges during the development process that requires a comprehensive process to reduce uncertainties during the performance. We will introduce you to 8 stages commonly used in mobile apps builder below.

1. Research to light up the idea about custom app

Grab an idea refers to being the root of a mobile app. In cases of struggling with it, let do some research and analysis. Putting users at the center is one of the fundamentals of each mobile app development project. The extensive report focusing on your customers’ characteristics, including demographics, behavior, and purchasing patterns, will suggest the primary features of your upcoming custom apps.

The research phase creates a ground floor for the next step, making sure your final app will accommodate the users’ needs. Along with studying comprehensively your target customers, you can also look out for your competitor’s works, which help you strengthen the pros and reduce the cons.

2. Create an initial wireframe

When you have a realistic idea, it is time to specify the document of Software Requirement Specification and draw the details wireframing. This phrase focus on understanding the basic features and functionalities contained in the app. Whereas, you will get the original morphology of the app without starting any coding process.

The main result of wireframes is to create detailed sketches layout, which reveal the hidden usability issues by arranging the components following a certain standard. In other words, it provides a visual illustration of what will appear on the phone screen when users access the app.

Along with sketches layout, the wireframe phrase allows for developing a roadmap or user story, indicating how users will navigate across each app’s interface. A user’s experience is a sharp weapon, helping you fight with your competitors and the predecessors in the market.

3. Carry out technical assessment

This phrase does require practical experience and profound knowledge of coding. A non-IT company should consider the support and consultant of a professional mobile software development company before adopting this step

The back-end system refers to the core aspect, that should be checked whether it pursues the app’s functionalities. Depending on the platforms for building mobile apps, you should select the proper sourcing public APIs. The expected result of this step is the elimination of some unfeasible functions.

4. Create quick application prototypes

Designing a prototype allows developers, users, and owners comprehensive to imagine how the element linked and how the apps flow. In this phase, rapid application development (RAD) refers to a popular concept, which commonly applies to prototype creation.

In fact, the wireframe is static, which does not involve any transition when touching. A prototype is notably different, which is an interactive version of the Wireframe. Prototypes reveal to users the initial appearance of the apps that clients can handily give their feedback to make sure everything goes right.

5. Starting Design

Developers need a proper app design before taking their work. Currently, clients have conceded the importance of User Experience and User Interface (UX and UI design). While UX design indicates the relationship among design elements (text, button, navigation, etc…), UI design allows clients to authentically experience the app at a certain level.

The period for having the design done depends on the scale of each project. The more budget you spend, the more comprehensive design you get. A set of designs can consist of a few to a lot of screens. Designers will help clients to create multiple variations of an interface, generating the flow of navigation layout, buttons, or other visual elements. The ideal results would reveal a clear visual form of the final apps.

6. Custom app development

If you have available in-house developers, nothing can stop you from stating code now. In the opposite case, you should initiate by selecting an outsourcing mobile app development company with the proper experience to assist you. After that, you should consider what kinds of apps are suitable for your projects. Currently, there are three common types you can go with:

Native custom app

Native apps only run in a specific operating system (OS), either iOS or Android. These apps are commonly suitable for projects developed for internal use. The most prominent advantages of native mobile apps related to short development time and affordable costs. Additionally, many people believed that these apps perform more stable than cross-platform apps.

Hybrid custom app

In principle, hybrid mobile apps leverage the reusable code to reduce the app development process. As a result, the functionalities of hybrid apps might not be unique in compensation with a shorter launching time. You should choose hybrid apps for an urgent app development project, which includes tired time constraints. Furthermore, web technologies, including HTML5 and CSS, tend to be the fundamental basis of hybrid mobile app development.

Cross-platform custom app

On the contrary, cross-platform apps can work in multiple OS since it develops in a language supported by both Android and iOS (JavaScript in particular). Alternatively, react native and NativeScript are two standard tools for cross-platform mobile app development.

React Native apps: reducing time spent on development, while enabling full or partial reusable code among different OS.

NativeScript apps: including the apps developed by JavaScript, Angular, typeScript, and Vue, which offer full access to API.

Web application

Different from the above app, web applications run in browsers instead of the operating system. However, web applications development only delivers limited functionalities compared to other apps.

7. Testing

The testing process allows the dedicated development team to figure out whether the code contains bugs or not, while the client checks the level of the app meeting their goals and expectation. Regularly in the Agile and Scrum framework, development and testing phases should be executed simultaneously, which is proof to speed up the development time.

Alpha testing

Alpha testing suggests testing the apps’ functions as a regular user, which instantly detects the existed bugs. It can get the participation of QA testing for more obvious feedback. The development team then collects the note to report and solve the bugs.

Beta testing

As usual, beta testing refers to the last testing phase, requiring another closed tester team that does not contribute to the previous testing stage. In practice, beta testing can be widely done by a small group of real users. Feedback and suggestions are collected to come up with the final product.

8. Custom app deployment and launching

When testing has done, the apps got ready to launch in the market. Keep in mind that app stores work around their own rules and policies. Then, the pre-launch period might vary. After the app deployment, you should take care of users’ feedback to continually upgrade or offer further support.

In final words, the 8 phases of the mobile app development process above cannot be present to the entire projects in the market. In Adamo Software, after having done several projects of software outsourcing development in Vietnam as well as oversea, we realized that every principle needs creativity to be put into practice. Consequently, you might be free from the modification of the mobile app process to apply to your projects.