You’ve been told that in order for your business to be successful, it needs a mobile app. But not just any mobile app — you need a custom mobile app that is tailored to your business and your customers. Something that your customers will use again and again when they are looking for a particular product or service.
Mobile apps are projected to bring in $935 billion in US Dollars worth of sales, in-app advertising, and paid downloads. That’s an incredible amount of money generated from targeted apps that your company or organization could be missing out on if you do not have a mobile app.
Maybe it is time for your company to consider custom mobile applications and invest in custom mobile app development.
What is Custom Mobile App Development?
Custom mobile app development is where your company develops or hires a third party to develop a mobile app that is tailored specifically to your company’s and its clients’ or customers’ needs. Unlike generic apps that have the basics, your custom app will have features not found with other apps. Maybe it’s a special storefront, an estimate calculator, or even a game. Regardless, it’s important to have the app do what’s required to convince customers to contact you or purchase your products.
Why Custom Apps?
Your company most likely has a webpage. And the CEOs of those companies may think that is enough. But it is not. You see, by 2025, experts estimate that the number of mobile users will climb to 7.49 billion, up from 7.1 billion in 2021. Those mobile users have devices that require content that is built for the small screens of a smartphone or tablet. If your website’s layout doesn’t look right on a mobile device, chances are your potential clients are going to look elsewhere for a product or service.
But not all mobile apps are the same. If your mobile app is generic and clumsy to use, your clients and customers won’t use it. If it is complex and not intuitive, they won’t use it either. And then, you have to think about not just the customers in your country, but across the globe. Is your product only interesting to English speakers, or do you have a broad base in other countries? Your app will need to be available in different languages to ensure that your international customers are able to use it.
Checklist to Building Successful Apps in 2021
Now that you know you should have a mobile app, you now need to know how to build successful apps. Even if your business plans on hiring the job out to a custom mobile app development company, you should plan out your mobile app strategy to develop your app. Here are some basic guidelines that may help you get started.
- Define your mobile app strategy. What does it need to accomplish? Who will be the users? What mobile platforms will you support? What do your competition apps look like? All these are important questions that need to be defined.
- Develop your requirements for your mobile app. What must it do minimally? What are nice to haves? Will it be launched in phases, or do you want the entire app’s functionality to be present at the current launch?
- Plan your development and launch. Do you need to have it ready by next year? Sooner? Are you creating your app in-house or are you having a third party develop it for you? Come up with a flow chart of how you want the mobile app to work.
- Create a working style guide to maintain consistency. Like publications, your mobile app will need to use a particular style every time to maintain consistency. For example, you may want to use 10 point Times New Roman as the main font and the style guide should state that this should be the main text. That way, your app doesn’t jar the user with an unexpected font, such as 20 point Arial Black.
- Design the User Interface. Your users will first see the user interface, which is why this is a very important step. Choose the colors, layout, and other ways your app will appear to your customers.
- Design a viable workflow. Customers and users will have a variety of methods to interact with the mobile app. It is up to you to determine all the possible responses a customer may have in your mobile app and provide a response.
- Create a mock-up of your app. This can be a basic mock-up that gives you and your team an overall idea for what the mobile app looks like and behaves.
- Create a realistic prototype that can run similar to the final version. This allows testers and beta users to experience your app and determine if there are any changes necessary before going forward with the final design.
- Choose your API, backend/server, and frontend mobile interfaces. The backend or server handles the database and monetary transactions. The API allows the mobile device interface and the server to interact. The frontend mobile device interface is what interacts directly with the user.
- Develop your App. At this point, you are ready to develop your app using all the previous steps. You will need to choose the development languages at this time. In many cases it will depend on what you chose for your server, API, and frontend.
- Test your app. Your app will have to go through rigorous testing including: functionality testing, user testing, security testing, performance testing, device and platform testing, and more.
- Deploy your app. Now is the time for the release! That means you’ll need to release your app to the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Both have guidelines for releasing apps there, so be sure to follow their rules. You also must plan on support for your new app and be flexible enough to make changes to grow with your customers.
If your organization or business is looking to maintain and grow your customers, it’s important that you have a custom mobile app. Whether you choose to design and develop a custom mobile app, or whether you hire a third party to develop your app, you will need to understand the design and development that goes into creating a mobile app for your business.
Sunvera Software develops next-level software applications from start-to-finish. We are a premier software and mobile app development agency specializing in healthcare mobile app development, custom mobile app development, telehealth software, sales dashboards, custom mobile app development services, retail software development, supply-chain software, ecommerce, shopify, web design, iBeacon apps, security solutions and unified access software.
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Schedule a free 30-minute call with us to discuss your business, or you can give us a call at (949) 284-6300.
