You have an awesome idea for a business app that you know could revolutionize the way companies communicate, fulfill orders, or just get to know their customers.
You’re confident that it’ll be a serious moneymaker, too.
The only problem?
When it comes to how to create an app, you’re a little short on information.
Don’t worry — this guide will tell you the basics of business app development. Read on to understand the most important steps to take to bring your dream app into reality.
1. Define Your Target Market
The first step in business app development is less technical — but also the most important.
Now is the time to decide who exactly your app is for.
Define your niche industry, and then think about who within the company will use your app. For example, maybe you work within shipping fulfillment.
Your app idea is to create a secure messaging system between delivery drivers and consumers. This way, the person getting the package and the employee delivering it can communicate — without the need of exchanging personal information. Plus, the shipping company will be able to better monitor their employees through the app.
So, your market is nation-wide shipping fulfillment centers — but you have to get more specific. What’s your average customer’s client volume? What sort of goods do they ship? How many delivery drivers do they have? How many deliveries do they make a day, and in what range do they make these deliveries?
Study up on the pain points of your target market, and be able to prove that you’re starting an app business that will help to address them.
2. Make Some Mock-Ups
Now is the time to start sketching your app.
This will help you to get a better understanding of what the overall layout of your app will look like. The focus here isn’t on explaining the finer points of all the things the app can do.
Instead, it’s about showing how your app flows. It’s about how, depending on the buttons a user presses or the option they select, the next screen shown to them will look.
You should also design each internal page of your app. This means your landing page, your contact forms, any chat features you have, what your push notifications will look like, and more.
If you’re not exactly the most talented designer and artist in the world?
We suggest hiring a graphic designer to help you in this phase of the Mobile App Development lifecycle.
A professional will have the design tools and software to make your app not only stand out visually, but also to improve the overall user experience. They can help you to understand how to optimize your buttons, your menu options, and even your interface as a whole.
3. Build Your App
So, what are the must know app developments tips you should understand when it comes time to actually bring your app to life?
First, if you’re on a budget, it’s completely possible for you to build a beta version of your app on your own. It might take some time, but programs like Swift or Xcode make it pretty easy to understand the basics of the process.
Remember that app development has two main parts: front-end development and back-end development.
The former refers to everything that a user actually sees when they use your app. These are things like graphics, other users, navigation tools, the layout, and notifications.
The back-end is more the technical side of your app, and is hidden from users.
This is all about user data, data storage, networking, and more. We suggest giving cloud-based backends, like Firebase, a try to keep it simple.
4. Test, Test, and Test Again
Before you send your app out into the world, you need to make sure you’ve tested it appropriately.
After all, you don’t want your first round of users to have to deal with tons of bugs — leading to bad reviews. We suggest hiring a few people to try out your app for you, in addition to giving machine/automated testing a chance.
Yes, the machine tests will be able to quickly identify problems. But you also want specific feedback from your users themselves.
Remember the golden rule: even once your app is in the store, never stop testing it.
5. Release the App
Now, you’re ready to release your app into the app store.
Remember that you should aim to have both an Android and a Mac version to help you reach the biggest number of people. Encourage those who download your app to leave you reviews.
You’ll also need to develop a strong marketing strategy for your app. We suggest starting an app blog, creating a website about your app, and even getting on social media.
After all, you want to spread the word about your app and how it can help businesses.
Use These Business App Development Tips to Succeed
We hope that this guide has helped you to realize that business app development isn’t the impossible challenge you likely feared it would be.
It takes patience, a strong attention to detail and design, and rigorous testing to get it right. It also requires that you pay close attention to current trends in the app and tech world.
We can help with that.
Keep coming back to our blog to get the latest information on all things apps, technology, business, and more. We even offer tips on how you can raise funds to get your app off the ground.
We can’t wait to see your app in the store soon — we’ll be sure to give it a download.
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