Today, the development of mobile applications is vital for any business. Amongst more than 2 millions applications on the stores, every new app needs to find its place. That’s why you need to prepare it well. You need to define a mobile strategy to analyze, create, develop and test before launching it on the stores. From the first idea to the launch phase, discover 10 steps to follow for your mobile app project.

 

1)      Define a strategy

To define a strategy you need to find an answer to the following questions :
– What are the mobile app objectives ?
– Who is your target ?
– Smartphone or tablet ? both ? iOS, Android, Windows ?
– What is your app added-values compared to existing apps ?

 

2)      Describe your app concept

Describe your mobile app concept and don’t be affraid to go deep into the description. For that, you can use brainstorming/workshop tools to define your concept and the functionalities to integrate.

 

3)      Think UX/UI

Imagine how people will use your app and define the best User Interface and User Experience. Based on simplicity and speed, this interface needs to respect specific guidelines.
1 – Detail workflows for the UX
2 – Draw wireframes for your app screens

 

4)      What is the budget ?

Based on the number of features, on the UX, on the complexity and the platforms, a budget estimation can be done. This will allow you to define a roadmap for the app evolution and spread your budget into different phases.

 

5)      Design

Bring your app to life respecting the specific OS guidelines. The design part is really important to bring your app into a new dimension. People have their habits because they use apps every day as common things. So your app needs to be a pleasure and not a disappointing experience.

 

6)      Measure app performance

Define KPI before the development in order to measure your app performance and gathering statistics from your app usage. How many downloads ? how many pages visited ? how many returning visitors ? … such questions that will build your dashboard and help you to define the strong and weak points of your app.

 

7)      Development

Everything is set for the technical development. Native, hybrid or web, your app is now in development mode. Some frameworks might be used to help the cross platform development.

 

8)      Test, Test & Test !!

The development phase is now done ! There is still one more step before launching your app. You need to test your app. The testing is done on different OS, different OS version, different brand of devices, different screen sizes, … to maximize your app success.

 

9)      Launch your app

Your app is ready to be published on the stores. Therefore your need to prepare your communication around your app. Use communication tools such as a specific website, social networks, specliazed blogs, … to promote your app and reach a large target of potential users. The App Store Optimization is also key to present your app on the stores in a efficient way.

 

10)      What’s next ?

In the best case your app is a success and you accumulate downloads. It’s now essential to analyze your app performance and try to find how you can improve your app by changing or adding functionalities. This is part of the roadmap you have to follow in order to keep your app on the top.