For a startups - A complete guide on how to develop your mobile app

Introduction

Visionary entrepreneurs no longer spend money on equipment and structures in the twenty-first century. They take on other businesses in the digital sphere. And one such technology is mobile applications.

Do you frequently admire other prosperous businesses and ponder how they succeeded? Do you continually mull over a thought in your head, waiting for that turning point to make it a reality?

If so, think of exploring the space for a fresh idea or concept for a mobile application. For this, you’d need to connect with equally visionary mobile app developers who can turn your idea into reality.

The year-on-year rise in mobile application downloads and revenue generation is massive.

Consider this —

Android app development is in demand since current estimates suggest 2.65 million accessible applications in the Google Play Store.

Moreover, Apple’s App Store has over 2.2 million iOS applications.

As a budding entrepreneur, you may wonder — how to develop a mobile app.

Well…

“It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen.”

– Scott Belsky, Behance Co-founder

Therefore, if you've had that 'eureka' moment and are now struggling with how to put it into action or deciding whether to create a mobile app or a web app, you've come to the perfect place.

Let’s dig in deep to get started with developing your mobile app

Importance of having a well-designed & well-developed startup app

What comes to mind initially while you're creating a mobile application? Because there are many aspects to developing a successful startup app —

1. Coding standards
2. Language
3. Platform
4. Design
5. Application
6. UI/UX
7. Logos, etc.

You’d want your mobile application to have a feel-good factor. Custom mobile app development is a great alternative that helps design an app that matches your brand identity.

Since users always seek apps that catch their interest, think of creating a mobile app for your startup that significantly affects users through vibrant colours, ease of use, and secure functionality.

A successful startup app will aim to surpass its rivals by providing top-notch features, lucrative offers, and seamless design.

For instance, a mobile app can employ augmented reality to offer customers a closer look at its offerings and persuade them to buy a product if the business sells furniture or designs.

Also, a well-designed startup app will fetch better reviews across app stores (for Android and iOS). This encourages more individuals to choose your app, boosting sales and revenue.

How to define features for your app?

Start with an MVP development to decide on your mobile app's primary (must-have) features. Several elements affect the features your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) needs. Let's look at the steps to follow in identifying the features that satisfy users' expectations.

Know your target audience

One of the most vital phases for a business is determining the target market. Before developing a mobile app, create user personas based on the demographics of your target clients, such as gender, age, education level, and job title. Once you know your audience, you’ll be able to craft a product that matches their expectations.

Find the bone of contention.

When app users need to tackle challenges, they leverage mobile apps. Determine challenges they could encounter at work or in their daily lives. By reviewing professional perspectives, speaking with members of your target market, conducting surveys, and role-playing, you may determine issues and tailor your app offerings.

Conduct research on competitors

Find out which businesses cater to your target market and offer a similar offering. Examine their products and identify their advantages and disadvantages to learn what they lack and what you can include in your MVP to provide more value to customers.

Additionally, look for competitors providing different goods and services yet meeting the demands of your target market. Comparing their app benefits and drawbacks to their immediate rivals is a good idea.

Add top-notch features

Critically analyse your product's features, determine which ones set it apart, and offer value. For starters, you can check out some of the basic mobile app features to include in your startup app.

Have a unique value proposition

Your product needs to be unique to distinguish itself from competitors. Prioritisation can help you determine the appropriate functionality to build a unique offering. This will motivate potential clients to utilise your product exclusively. Uber can accomplish 14 million journeys daily thanks to the ability to hire a taxi with a single tap without making a phone call.

Keep a user-centric development mindset.

Always keep the end users in the back of your head while developing a great product that is helpful to customers and valuable for your organisation. This can help your team develop a valuable product and offer you a deeper grasp of the wants and problems of your target audience.

The process you should follow to launch your startup app

Many entrepreneurs would launch a business without much homework and eventually fail. Therefore, it's important to double-check everything before you headfirst into a new venture.

Start by putting your idea down on paper as clearly as possible. Look for prototyping tools on the Internet and create a detailed, screen-by-screen mock-up or wireframe of your app. Once you're clear about your requirements, speak to a mobile app development company that can help you launch a startup app.

Market research for your app idea

The best thing is to research the concept you want to pursue extensively. Even if you believe your app idea will revolutionise a market and is profitable, you must conduct market research to identify your target market. Make sure your concept offers value to people in general and, in particular, your target audience. It should also solve a real-world problem.

For this, download every app that provides similar products and services, analyse how it functions, and examine the user interface. Additionally, identify the flaws in the apps that fell short of users' expectations. Doing this ensures that you know what to include and exclude from your mobile apps that help to add value for your users.

Define the scope of work

The next natural step is to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that addresses the problem and the demand for a consumer once you have thought about the product concept and the market fit.

Creating an MVP requires knowing app features that frequently come with an attachment that deviates from the app's original purpose. The MVP should demonstrate your product or service's viability, distinctive offerings, and standards.

Defining the revenue

Choosing the ideal mobile app monetisation approach is one of the keys to building successful startup businesses.

After completing all you have done thus far, you must create a monetisation strategy for your new mobile app. This strategy guarantees the success of your mobile app launch. You have the following selections: it could be in the form of advertising, sponsorship, App store purchases, subscriptions or pay-per-download. Please understand the pros and drawbacks of each option before deciding on one so that you may be sure it will lead to your success.

Native app development or cross-app development

Native app developers may create software for certain platforms like Android and iOS using programming languages and tools. Or, you can opt for cross-app development, a single HTML5-based mobile application that works across several platforms. Similar to native software, they may be downloaded from all app stores.

The cost of developing a native application could be high since they cater to a single platform. However, the app will work efficiently to offer the best user experience.

Designing the app

Designing the architecture of your app is a part of this process. Think of questions like —

1. What are the key UI elements?
2. Does it include your branding elements?
3. Which domain would you like to use?
4. How are the hosting servers doing?
5. When your app is prepared to launch, do you need to add a Content Management System (CMS) to improve your online presence?

The future scalability of your app is based on the design architecture. This ensures you do not overload your users or distract them with images—instead, pivot resources to provide a clean, uncluttered design.

The mobile app design should score high on usability, security, and functionality while offering simple yet intuitive navigation. Including appropriate branding and attractive colour schemes in your app design can also benefit your company because it will help people remember your brand more readily.

Developing phase

This stage entails creating the mobile apps you came up with. You must assemble a skilled team of mobile app developers or hire outside professionals. The former ensures you and the developers have strong communication, while the latter enables you to work with excellent app developers.

In the development phase, create a list of possible partners and look over their portfolios if you wish to collaborate with partners through outsourcing. When you've chosen your developers, try creating an MVP that covers the essentials. Post that, continue adding additional features and evaluate the app's performance as it improves.

QA testing

Make sure to test your startup app before launching it in the market. This is your credibility, and a buggy app would leave a bad impression. Try fixing the flaws immediately as they arise to retain existing app users. You will accrue what is referred to as technical debt if you allow your mistakes to fester.

If you do not resolve the bugs on time, you will build up technical debt that will be hard to pay off later.

Launching your app

To give everyone access to the fantastic app, you have to offer, register as a developer and publish your Alpha version on websites like Google Playstore.

There are plenty of things to remember when doing this. Make sure your app has the visibility it needs and doesn't get lost among the thousands of other applications that are already accessible.

Make sure to follow the right App Store Optimisation (ASO) procedure and that your brand stands out. For customers to understand what they are signing up for, you will also need to include a few descriptive phrases regarding the features and functions of your app.

Post-launch

Releasing your startup app is just the beginning of the story. Post the app launch, you will continue collecting user input to determine what they now need and desire. Frequent updates and bug checks are necessary to gauge the need to implement new technology and its appearance. This helps draw in more users while retaining the existing ones.

Best practices to follow while developing mobile apps

Startups must follow a few standards to create a high-quality mobile app. This will ensure that your apps perform reliably and offer desired results. Hired developers may help you keep within your allotted budgets, ensure completing projects on time, and have a fully functional platform at the end if they stick to these rules.

Conduct solid research

There is a need to conduct robust research before planning the app development process. Only when you are aware of your market, users, and their expectations can you offer full advantages of your product to the target market. This also improves your chance to stay relevant to market demands by tailoring product that fits users’ expectations.

Pick the right technology and platform.

Mobile apps are developed uniquely. Before building the app, it must be chosen if it will be hybrid, native, cross-platform, or web-based.

Which platform the app will be built on is a different choice that must be made. The most well-known operating systems are Windows, Android, and iOS.

Security is the key

Most of the time, developers disregard the mobile app's security, endangering the consumers. The security of an app is equally as crucial to its development as any other component. Ensure following key security standards like OWASP, PCI DSS, MITRE, etc.

Follow development guidelines

Being a startup, you might not be fully conversant with all the rules and regulations governing app development. Specific rules for app creation must be adhered to for both the Play Store and App Store guidelines.

Do not clutter the app.

Creating an app that is straightforward but engaging is one of the finest strategies for application development. If the app interface has too much going on, the user will become disoriented and finally stop using the programme. Therefore, a clutter-free app can go a long way in increasing app stickiness, compelling users to come for more.

How to select the right app development partner?

It's an issue if you have a killer app concept that translates. Since not everyone is a qualified mobile app developer, there are app development firms, in-house teams and outsourcing companies that may assist relieve your worry.

It might not be easy to choose the best app development team, as many app developers are available. A good team must comprehend your needs and business model to design the right product. Therefore, it is ideal to consider the following aspects before choosing the app development partner —

1. Industry experience
2. Cost of hourly rates
3. The expertise of their team members
4. Collective experience

While an in-house team can offer more control over the project, it can be a pricey affair. Especially when you consider training and retaining costs, on the other hand, hiring a team of mobile app developers ensures quick access to top exports and quick project turnaround.

For most companies, big and small, outsourcing app development looks like a much better alternative because you can hire the team for the project's duration and fire them once your demands are satisfied.

This is very cost-saving and allows you to select from some of the greatest app development businesses worldwide and select the one that best meets your requirements. You have a choice of teams, ranging from the most seasoned to the most cutting-edge.

Final words

Shortcuts don't exist for startup success. There are no shortcuts to creating a successful mobile app that offers world-class UX. Think of apps like Uber and Tinder that redefined the world. They had unique ideas, but their design and usability matched the novelty of the ideas.

If you are ready for the next big switch, follow the above-mentioned tips and process to head in the right direction. And for the implementation part, reach out to Square Root in Ireland, the experts to start your project. Ciarán, our app development consultant, is waiting to hear from you :)