We are a well-known company that develops mobile apps in the USA. They offer robust apps for affordable prices. As with any software development, mobile app development has its own challenges and issues.
In the ever-growing ecosystem of apps, its important that developers know what works and what doesn't. This blog will assist you in understanding major issues and challenges faced by developers.
Mobile app development is undergoing a transformation. You will be able to run mobile apps on multiple platforms with the advancement of microprocessor technologies.
In the future, mobile apps will be able to run on desktops. Mobile apps created with Flutter and React Native work on Android Phones as well as iPhones, Macs and PCs. Before we go into detail, lets look at the statistics of mobile app usage to see how people use their phones and what opportunities there are for building your own application.
What is Mobile App Development?
The process of developing mobile apps that run on smartphones is called "mobile app development.
These programmes can either be downloaded by the user and installed later or come pre-installed. The network capabilities of the mobile device are used to access computing resources remotely. The creation of software that is installed on the device and the activation of APIs for data access are both steps in the development of mobile apps.
It also entails evaluating the program on the intended gadgets.
In order to develop scalable mobile applications, you must also consider screen sizes, the hardware requirements, and other aspects of app development.
It is important that entrepreneurs, startups, and developers understand the process of mobile app development, as the industry is growing.
Mobile App Lifecycle 2023
Over 3.5 billion smartphones are in use worldwide. This industry is booming and healthy. The statistics are steadily increasing, and there is no sign of a slowdown.
The average American uses their mobile phone every 12 minutes. Over 10% of this group use their phones every 4 minutes. Here are some other statistics that you should keep in mind.
- Mobile is where people spend more than half their time with digital media.
- Mobile apps account for 90% of the screen time spent by smartphone users.
- More than 85% of consumers prefer mobile apps to cross-websites.
- By 2023, revenue from mobile apps will reach $613 billion.
- On average, consumers have over 30 applications installed on their devices.
- The average mobile app user spends 35 hours a month on their device.
These statistics should motivate anyone who wants to create or develop a mobile application. Before we make any decisions, lets first understand how mobile app development works.
It may sound very profitable to create a mobile application to grab a slice of the billion dollar pie, but the decision requires careful planning and strategy. Your app will also be competing against over 1.5 million apps on Apples App Store and Google Play Store.
Mobile App Development Platforms
Apple Inc.s iOS and Googles Android are the two major mobile platforms. iOS is Apple's mobile operating system, designed specifically for iPhones.
Android runs on devices made by a variety of OEMs including Google.
Although there are similarities, the SDKs used by each company differ. Apple only uses iOS for its own devices. Google makes Android available to other companies that meet certain requirements.
Over 1.5 million developers have created applications for both platforms.
Four Common Problems With Mobile App Development And Their Solutions
Developers are in the middle of everything. They are always on top of the latest industry trends and test their products for bugs.
Apps That Do Not Specify Their Target Audience
Most developers create an app because they have a eureka-moment, without first confirming that there is an audience for their product.
If there isnt a market for the app, no matter how brilliant an idea, it will fail.
A winning strategy is to create an app that solves problems people dont even know they have. Its not always easy to draw the line between a need that isnt recognized and one that you assume people are experiencing.
Developers need to work with brand strategists and market researchers to determine their products niche. There are already over 6.5 million apps available in the app stores.
They require strategy sessions in order to visualize the app idea and create an average user portrait.
The strategy will let teams know whether the demand for their products is enough to generate revenue. This will ensure that their apps are not among the 80-90 percent of apps that users abandon once they have tried them.
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Communication Breakdown
People often overlook the importance of communication in mobile app development. There are cases where developers do not follow the requests of project owners because they did not receive the memo.
Communication breakdowns during the development of a mobile application can have devastating consequences. Often, they are not apparent until it is too late.
They can delay the release of an app and leave stakeholders unhappy.
To avoid missing deadlines, developers should communicate with UI/UI researchers, managers, and designers. Communication tools such as Slack, Trello, and G-Suite can be used to keep everyone in the development process up to date with roles, deadlines, and unexpected changes.
Compatibility Issues
Two major issues are compatibility and mobile apps. These include:
- Platform Compatibility
Many developers struggle to make their apps compatible across different platforms. Android app developers typically use Java, Ruby on Rails or PHP to create apps.
Swift or Objective-C are required for the creation of iOS apps. To create apps that integrate both platforms, you need a developer with experience.
If developers want to develop apps that run on other mobile OSs, such as Windows Mobile OS or Huaweis Harmony OS, the process can be complicated.
You can also make your apps work on multiple platforms by using cross-platform mobile application development frameworks. This is a cheaper option as it provides native-app-like performance. It also simplifies the task by allowing developers to reuse code.
- Compatible Devices
The app must also be compatible with a wide range of devices. For example, Android devices had 16:9 screens a few short years ago.
Phone manufacturers are now producing slimmer and taller phones. The average aspect ratio is 20:9 as seen on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.
App developers need to be aware of these changes, and they should optimize their apps so that they work on multiple devices.
Apps can be designed to adapt to the size of the device using adaptive and responsive app design. These strategies enhance the UX when using apps on different smartphones and tablets.
Planning And Strategy Are Often Poor
Many mobile app developers work alone, based on an idea.
The serenity that comes with working alone may also make developers blind. They may be left chasing their own tails if they dont strategize and use frameworks such as SWOT analysis.
A well-planned app will provide a clear direction for the project and ensure that all stakeholders are aligned with the goals of the app and the vision of the brand.
This will reveal the tools that are needed in the future, resolve naming problems, and save resources.
Teams can define a minimum viable product and create a roadmap during strategy sessions if time is running out. The data from market and design research can be used to determine which features will make their app successful.
When you hire mobile project managers they can also direct the strategy, and give the design and development teams tools such as Sketch to plan out the app flow.
Mobile App Development Process
You need a process that will help you create mobile applications quickly. Three steps are important:
- Understanding the requirements
- Develop the Product
- Test the product.
Read More: Mobile App Development Process: A Step-by-step Guide
Develop an App Development Strategy
It is important to define why you want to develop a mobile app before starting the process. What is your apps goal? What industry problems will your mobile application solve? What is your business plan? What is your investment plan for this app? What is your revenue plan? What is your marketing strategy for your app? These questions will help you to understand how you should proceed with the development of your mobile app.
Start by defining your user persona. Suppose, for example, that you plan to create an eCommerce application. You will then define your persona by analyzing your users age, mobile usage habits, preferences, and why they will use your app.
You can then create an MVP.
Brainstorm Your App Idea
The first step in building a mobile application is to have an idea. You will need to do a lot of brainstorming in order to come up with a list of all the features that you want your customers and clients to have.
Start with the most important features and add other less crucial ones as you discover them. You might be surprised by ideas that you didnt know you could implement. Ask your team for any and all ideas.
Market Research
Here are some questions to ask yourself before you begin:
- What is your target market?
- What will your customers do with the application?
- Existe any other alternatives exist?
- What can your application offer that other applications cannot?
- What business model do your customers follow?
- What languages, frameworks and technologies are you going to use?
- How many users are paying for the mobile application you have?
- What is your budget for the year?
- How long will it be before you can build your app?
Define your Minimum Viable Product
You can then define your minimum viable product once you have a clear idea of all the features you want to include and the ones that your users would like from the beginning.
Minimum viable product is a version of your application that contains enough features for you to show it to your first customers and get feedback about the product.
You Create A Minimum Viable Product For The Following Reasons
- Test the market for your product with minimum resources
- Investors want to know the vision behind your app
- Learn what works quickly and what doesnt
- Waste minimum engineering hours
- Early customers can get the product fast
- Use it as the base for other products
- Test the developers capability to build and scale a product
The key elements of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Functionality - provide clear value for the users
- Standard design with minimal detail but high quality
- Make sure the production quality is top-notch
- Make the user experience intuitive, refined and easy to understand
Analyze And Plan Your App Development
All project development begins with a strategy. Once you have your strategy, begin to turn those visions into goals that are achievable.
To begin the planning and analysis, you should clearly define how to use the functionalities in order to create use cases. Create a list with functional requirements.
You can use this to create a roadmap for your product. This will allow you to turn your strategy into a step-by-step process, which can be turned into priorities and then grouped into milestones.
It is important to define your minimum viable product, as this will allow you to cut costs and prepare for an initial launch.
Different operating systems demand different technology stacks. Your requirements will determine the tech stack you choose.
You will need to create a list with the technologies you require, depending on whether youre building a native app, cross-platform app, or hybrid app. Then, hire developers who are experts in your preferred mode of mobile app creation.
You will also need to choose a name for the mobile application. You can think about the features of your app, use wordplay to differentiate it, make it easy to remember, searchable and possibly include an action word.
App developers often use obvious names. They may also try to appeal to consumers by varying their approach. App Store Optimization is also important to keep in mind if you wish to be found when users search for similar apps.
Build UX/UI Designs
Your users will be influenced by the look and feel of your mobile app. You must ensure that your design is of the highest quality and offers the best user experience, whether its a fully-fledged app or an MVP.
Understanding the user experience and user interface are essential to designing mobile apps.
Mobile App Design Process
Learning how to design is more than just learning how to use a design program. You can design your own mobile application or get someone else to do it for you.
Above all else, design is about knowing the product, its features, capabilities and functionality. Always keep the end user in mind when designing. OpenXcell follows the following design process.
- Build a User Flow Diagram for every screen
- Create Wireframes
- Choose your design patterns, palettes and elements
- Create mockups
- Asking testable questions and creating an animated prototype
- Finalize the mockup using user feedback
Wireframes
The majority of designers begin by sketching rough ideas on paper. Wireframes can be described as digital sketches made with a wireframing software, but they can also be done on paper and pen.
Wireframes, however, are not final designs. They are conceptual sketches. These low-fidelity mockups help you to understand the visual structure and features of your app.
Wireframes should be designed with an eye towards aesthetics and the experience of the user in mind. Now, color palettes and other design elements arent required.
Wireframes help you quickly grasp what you need to design. You should design a product-specific design. It should be easy to use and intuitive no matter what device youre using.
Read More: List of technology used for mobile app development?
Style Guides
A style guide is an organized set of design rules. Interfaces for users can be tricky. Wireframes are often misunderstood.
If you provide a style guide to your mobile app designer, they will know what fonts to use, what color palette to choose, where to place icons, and other important questions before designing.
Style guides are a foundation for long-term development, allowing for design and development to be switched between parties and adjusting for platform differences.
This also allows for the sharing of topics. Style guides for mobile apps can include the following elements:
- Fonts
- Colors
- Layouts
- Graphics
- Components
- Menus and bars
- Dialogues and Alerts
Begin App Development
App Development Has Three Main Aspects:
- Architectural Technology
- Technology stack
- Milestones for development
The Majority Of Mobile App Development Projects Consist Of Three Parts:
- Mobile Backend Server Technologies
- Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
- Frontend development
Test the App that You Have Developed
It is important to ensure that, after successfully developing an app, the quality is on point. The quality assurance phase is crucial in the development of mobile applications as it determines their reliability, stability and usability.
To ensure a comprehensive testing process, a full testing cycle that is specific to each application must be followed.
Manual testing and automated testing can be grouped together. It depends on what type of application it is, whether manual testing or automated tests can provide accurate results.
To create a perfect app, any application must be tested in a variety of ways. Testing is a major part of any mobile application.
Functional Testing
This method allows you to check if your application behaves as it should, and if all specifications are met. Functionality testing plays a vital role, as every user behaves differently and uses the app in different ways.
You need to ensure that the app works as expected for all possible test scenarios. Functional testing includes:
- Installing and initializing the application across all distribution channels
- Tests of business features and functionality
- Test fields, parameters, and user feedback fields
- Test for any interruptions.
- Test the necessary device resources.
- Test possible updates for every distribution channel.
Performance Testing
Your application should be able to perform as intended. With performance testing, you can also check for consistency of performance, even when there are exceptions or the load changes.
It includes.
- App performance is tested by volume testing.
- Test the performance of your app under normal and extreme loads
- Test the stability of your app to ensure it behaves as expected under any conditions
- Test the response time of your app in all conditions
- Test concurrency to see if the apps performance is affected if multiple users log in
- Test the battery usage to make sure there is no memory leak or battery drain.
Best Practices for Mobile App Deployment
After the user has installed the application, it is important to minimize uninstalls, provide the best possible user experience, stay competitive, and maximize financial gains over time.
Maintaining your mobile app regularly will help you create a lasting brand image among users. This is a list with best practices for app development.
#1 Monitor Your Mobile Apps Performance- Watch for loading issues, any lags or responsiveness problems.
You will be prepared for your analytics report. Analyze retention rates, churn rate, and usage patterns.
#2 Updating Your User Interface- can also help you maintain your mobile app. The customers are able to adapt themselves to the changing styles, habits, trends and other features that must be constantly updated.
Your customers may gradually prefer other apps that have similar features if you maintain the same interface.
#3 Ensure Your App Is Compatible With The Latest- software updates and hardware upgrades. Every year, a new version of mobile operating systems are released.
Consider how many devices could be upgraded to that latest version, and therefore your app.
#4 Fixing Bugs Is A Great Way To Win New Customers- Software applications are never published without proper testing.
Bugs are a part of the mobile app development process. You can show your dedication and faith towards your users as well as your mobile phone by fixing bugs.
#5 Add New Features Regularly- to your app. This can be done by watching how users interact with your app.
You can use the insights you receive to discover what works for your users and what doesnt.
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To End This
As you enter the mobile app market, there will be many obstacles in your path. The number of competitors is high, money is always an issue and a successful app is all that matters.
You must strive to succeed as a business leader, no matter the obstacles that come your way. To grow as a mobile app agency and to make your mark, you need to push yourself and follow a plan.
If the challenges above are not fully addressed, it will affect the popularity of the application. Many businesses failed because they could not address the challenges or offer something new to their audience.
