With 2.7 billion smartphone users across the globe, communicating and sourcing information has never been easier. Using mobile devices for a variety of activities, including checking through your favourite apps, is as much a part of the average person’s daily routine as brushing your teeth.
The best way to keep your business fresh and relevant is to adapt to the lifestyles and interests of your audience/customers. Reaching your target audience via a smartphone is an inevitable part of most business’s digital transformations. Having your own mobile app will give your business a competitive edge in the market.
Your business’s mobile presence can take several forms. For example, business social media accounts for easy access to an enormous pool of existing users (usually accessed via apps), and websites designed for mobile.
Better yet, building a mobile app will ensure you cater to your audience/customers and their specific needs. With your own app, you can make changes to content and features to continuously improve the user experience. In 2017, 90% of media time was spent on mobile apps, with just 10% on the mobile web.1
Although apps appeal to the average smartphone user and businesses should consider launching an app for this reason, the real logistical challenge is the process of building your mobile app.
Follow these steps to build a mobile app the right way:
Rushing straight into the development of your app could cause complications and uncertainty about the purpose of your app. So first, you should decide what features your app needs.
You could decide this by examining your website and determining which pages are most popular with mobile users. For example, if your contact page does particularly well, make sure to include this as a feature on your app.2
It is worth downloading several competitor mobile apps to get to know how they work and which elements you like and dislike as a user. You can also look at forums and reviews to see what users think about specific features to decipher what to include in your own mobile app.
Some market research will also help you develop a clear business model, decide on an appropriate price for your app, and identify certain trends and how to best futureproof your mobile app.
Not every business has a development or design department, but this does not mean having to miss out on the necessary expertise.
At Rank Your Domain, our mobile app developers have the knowledge and experience to build a flawless app for your target user. Whether you would like an iOS, Android, or cross-platform app, our team can meet your exact specifications.
Choosing your operating system is vital to determine how you will build your app.
For example, Xcode is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) developed by Apple for the creation of iOS apps, and Android Studio is the official IDE for Google’s Android operating system. So, in order to select the correct development environment, you need to have decided whether you want your app to work for Android, iOS or cross-platform.
Cross-platform mobile app development consists of creating a mobile app that can be deployed on several platforms using just one codebase. This is often a popular choice as developing the mobile app in a single environment like React Native means that you can launch the app on a variety of native platforms. The cross-platform approach often lowers costs and increases the speed of development.3
Using your research findings, the next step you should take is to create some wireframes to structure the appearance of the app. Your app should be mapped out in a way that makes user navigation a priority and helps them reach their desired content with ease.
Having wireframes will also help you present your ideas to colleagues or potential investors.
Once you have planned your features, carried out the research, have chosen your operating system and IDE, and you have a team of well-informed developers and designers on-board, the building of your mobile app can begin!
Before releasing your app, it is essential that you thoroughly check that it is working properly in order to protect your business’s reputation, save money in the long run, and identify bugs before users do.
You should review the user experience of your app, either by trying it out yourself or enrolling people to test it for you. It is also important to test on as many devices or mobile emulators as possible, using more than one screen size for ultimate assurance! 4
You can also use mobile app testing tools like Appium5 for Android and iOS to simplify the process. Or alternatively, you could contact our Quality Assurance Test team for a professional and highly experienced approach to testing that is sure to identify any issues, and with our development team on-board, we can also help fix any faults we find. Rank Your Domain is certified as an ISO 9001 agency working to industry standards to develop excellent end results for our clients.
1 Deyan G. (2019). 60+ Revealing Statistics about Smarthpone Usage in 2019. [online] Tech Jury. Available at: https://techjury.net/stats-about/smartphone-usage/ [Accessed 31 Jul. 2019].
2 Medium. (2019). HOW TO DEVELOP A MOBILE APP IN 2019. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-develop-a-mobile-app-in-2019-8010249cbfc [Accessed 31 Jul. 2019].
3Kony. (2019). Cross-Platform Mobile Development. [online] Available at: https://www.kony.com/resources/glossary/cross-platform-mobile-development/ [Accessed 31 Jul. 2019].
4Matas, N. (2016). 10 principles of successful app testing. [online] Infinum.co. Available at: https://infinum.co/the-capsized-eight/10-app-testing-principles [Accessed 31 Jul. 2019].
5Appium.io. (n.d.). Introduction - Appium. [online] Available at: http://appium.io/docs/en/about-appium/intro/?lang=en [Accessed 31 Jul. 2019].a
Digital Marketer
Amy joined the Digital Marketing team at Rank Your Domain in April 2019. Following graduation from University in 2018, she has accumulated experience writing content for social media and articles on subjects including AI, Smart Technology, Cybersecurity and IoT. She is interested in writing about a diverse range of topics and enjoys the versatility of her role at Rank Your Domain.
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