Less than 30 years ago, the internet was still in its infancy. Since then, we now live in a world of ever-increasing internet application usage. As we speak, several entrepreneurs are actively working to create their own flagship product within Android’s Google Play and Apple’s App Store. If you are considering starting a new app or creating competition for an existing app, look no further. Here are the five steps you’ll need to begin and complete an app for your business or even personal pleasure.
1. App Research
If you do not yet have an app idea, take a look at your own personal interests. Let’s say your expertise is in horticulture. What is something that takes a long time to do in the garden? Perhaps it’s challenging to find plants native to your area or ones that grow well in your climate. Your app could provide recommendations for the best annuals and perennials for your region’s plant hardiness zone.
Try researching current business trends that you can include in your app idea, like artificial intelligence or augmented reality.
2. App Planning
The second phase of app creation is to determine your business requirements. What pages and features will the app include? Does it require a profile page or settings? Continuing with the plant app, let’s say you have a recommendations page. Will there also be a page to rate other plants in your climate? What fields are required in order to proceed and what is optional? The app planning phase will conclude with a list of business cases that your audience will encounter once they’ve accessed your application.
3. App Design
Next in the process of app creation are user interface and user experience design. These two subjects are sciences in and of themselves. The user interface should be easy to use for a variety of internet users. Not everyone accesses their browser the same way: some individuals require a screen reader. Others are using 3-D devices to access a website or mobile app. Therefore, this step ends with a designed user experience in the form of mockups or wireframes based on the business cases from the last step.
4. App Development
Development in the technical world means building. Here we will leverage the wireframes to manufacture the application from scratch.
This can happen in multiple ways:
- contracting with a freelance software engineer from Fiverr or Elance
- learning how to code the front end and back end yourself
- using no-code apps like Glide to build your customer’s experience
The simplest and most straightforward method is to hire a third party to complete your app. However, some app builders may feel that this takes away a bit of the ownership from them and into the hands of the contractor. Moreover, learning multiple coding languages in order to generate a mobile app can take months to years before the code is even ready to launch. Using no-code applications can provide a lot of the features without a lot of hassle, though there is a learning curve apparent with apps that code on your behalf.
5. App Deployment
In order to deliver your app to your customers, you will first want to completely test it end-to-end to determine that it works properly. There is not a single application that exists that is not thoroughly vetted to determine how closely it meets the business requirements. Here are the different tests required before launch:
- performance load testing
- systems integration testing
- customer acceptance testing
- regression testing
These tests were once performed exclusively by hand, with pre-written test scripts and human beings looking over each page. Today, there are many ways to automate this testing so that the computer will recognize the defects and send them directly to the web developers, or you as the product owner.
Those were your five steps to finalizing a web app idea. What is your idea that will alleviate some of the arduous or difficult tasks at your job? In what ways could an app improve your hobby and how will you bring it to life? Using the methods listed above is a surefire way to feel confident about building your own application software.
