Best Mobile App Development Principles | The Perfect Guide

Mobile app development can intimidate you, especially if you have never done it before.

Even if you have experience with this, there are still so many factors to consider. But nothing is worth well done.

Just like anything else, you have to do it if you want to be an expert developer.

But with that say, everything is easier if you have a guide or reference you can follow. Even though there are no black and white blueprints to develop mobile applications, there are still many resources that can help you.

As an industry expert who has experience as a developer, I have identified the best mobile applications’ best principles for you to remember when you are through the development process.

I will explain what you need to know about each of these best practices so you can manage yourself to succeed. Here are the top factors to be prioritized.

1. Do your research

Your application does not have the opportunity to be successful if you do not conduct previous research. There are many components that you need to analyze.

First, you must identify your application’s target audience. Understand who they are and how they behave will make your life easier as a developer.

After identifying who your customers are prospective, then you need to find out how your application can meet their needs. How will your application make their lives better? What value does your application offer?

Who else has an application that has features and functions similar to you? This means that you also have to research your competitors.

If you don’t do all your research before starting mobile app development, you have the potential to waste a lot of time and money to build an unnecessary or desirable application by anyone.

2. Select the development method

Not all applications are built in the same way. Before you dive, you must decide whether you want to build original mobile, hybrid, or web mobile applications.

 

There are pros and cons to each development method.

Part of this decision can be done with the type of application you wake up to. For example, for those of you who will build a game application that needs to have a user experience without defects, you might be better with the original application.

The original application is very good, but it will be more expensive to be developed and you can only develop it for one platform at once.

It’s not ideal if you plan to launch your application on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store simultaneously. Hybrid development is cheaper and gives you the choice for cross-platform development.

Web applications are for those of you who want to build applications that are not limited to application stores for distribution.

Making this decision will also depend on the type of skill you have. So make sure you get all this sorted before you start. Then you will be able to decide whether you need help.

Maybe you want to use special application builders, such as BanoStudio, as your solution.

3. Choose your platform

If you decide to go with the original route, you must choose between the development of iOS or Android.

Refer back to the research that you did before about your target market. Find out what devices have your prospective users. This will help your decision.

That’s because there are differences between Apple and Android users.

 

Looking for a platform where your target audience is active most active is a big decision. This is very important if you just launch a shop at first.

If you are going to develop both original applications yourself, you might bite more than you can chew if you try and build both simultaneously.

Finally, you definitely want your application to be available in both shops. But now you might need to decide between the two.

4. Prioritize security

Maybe it doesn’t seem to be a problem now, especially at the initial stage of development, but think about your final product for a while.

It will have a lot of sensitive data and information. Your application will host info about your company and your users.

Depending on your application used, you can even collect payment information, such as credit cards. You will have access to information such as home addresses, telephone numbers, and whatever is provided by your user base.

It is your responsibility to protect the data. That’s why you need to prioritize security from the start.

Users will hesitate to give you information if your application is not safe. If security is violated, it can damage your brand so it is difficult to recover.

As a developer, you need to take precautions and use encryption and other tactics, such as authentication of two factors (2fa), to protect sensitive info.

Make sure the user can delete all their data if their device is lost. Prepare automatic backup too.

5. Test, test, and test again

Tests need to be run throughout the mobile app development process.

Don’t just wait until the end to test the performance. At that time, it was too late. It’s much easier to test your progress along the way.

It will be much more difficult and more complex to identify and correct problems if your test is not done regularly. One of the best ways to test your application is with beta testers.

Try using online resources and platforms like a Beta family to contact you with testers.

 

Now you will be able to get feedback directly from the tester. You can identify bugs, crashes, and other error reports.

This will help optimize the performance of your application.

6. Maintain design in mind

Developers and designers are very different.

Mostly, developers tend to be more technical, while designers have a reputation to be more creative. But with that said, you cannot have an eye patch when you develop the application.

You need to understand how the design component will function so you can make the application code accordingly. To get designers and developers to work together effectively, your whole team must be on the same page.

Use mood boards and other tools to help get all your organized thoughts and elements.

This will make your mobile app development process easier and reduce the possibility of having to make many changes in the game to accommodate designers.

You still have to sort your design element in this early stage for those of you who know how to develop and design.

7. Build around a strong core

Build a strong core from the start.

Make sure you have a list of all the most important features for your application functionality. This will be used for your core coding.

Other features and functions can be built around the core. You can add this at the next mobile app development stage as a plugin, if necessary.

Using plugins at the end of your core code will help make your application lighter. This makes everything easier for maintenance and will help your application run faster.

8. Focus on user experience

Don’t develop with an eye patch. You must always have the final product in your mind.

Your application will eventually be in the hands of thousands or even millions of users (hopefully).

Look at the reasons why users prefer to use mobile applications through a mobile website.

 

Everything comes down to factors such as:

• Convenience
• speed
• experience

So, you need to ensure that your development time, effort, and funds are invested in these factors since the initial stages.

Prioritizing the user experience will help ensure that your application is successful and generate a lot of money, which I assume is your main reason for doing this from the start.

9. Request feedback

You will need feedback to develop your application correctly.

I briefly touched on this subject before when we talked about testing, but it needed to be discussed in more detail.

Yes, you will get feedback from beta testers. But this step is more advanced. You can reach other mobile app developers that you know for advice.

When you are working on a project for a while, it might be difficult to see your progress from a neutral perspective. You might not see anything clear that other developers will easily pay attention to.

It’s best to get a new set of eyes on your work. Other developers can help you identify things that the beta tester or on average are not noticed.

So don’t be afraid to reach out to people in the industry that you have formed a relationship. Who knows, maybe you can even return the favor for them someday.

10. Follow the App Store Development Guidelines

Previously you selected a platform. Now you have to follow the operating system guide to develop your application correctly.

However, you need to get used to the rules and best practices for the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, even if you only develop one of these now.

As I said before, you finally want to be in both. Even though you have to write a new code when you launch again on another platform, you will want to understand this guide now to make this as easy as possible in the future.

If you don’t follow their rules, you can be rejected from the App Store. So think about this time so you are not delayed or have another problem.

11. Add accessibility features

Your application needs to accommodate all prospective users. This includes people who have disabilities.

Focus on this during mobile app development and does not make everything too difficult for those people.

You need to add features such as sound assistance, information, the ability to enlarge the text, and things from that properties to help accommodate their needs.

12. Plan updates

The mobile app development process does not end after the application is launched. Your application will require constant improvement and routine maintenance.

 

As you can see from these numbers, this maintenance is not necessarily cheap.

Planning for this will now make your life easier and save money in the future. You want to make sure that it is easy for you to access and change different elements for updates.

It will also ensure that your application performs well at any time, which reconnects to our starting point about focusing on user experience.

13. Important personalization

Let’s continue talking about how users experience your application. You want to make sure that their experience is personalized.

So, you need to consider this during your development stage.

Write the code that will easily allow you to have analytics and other tools that enter your application. These tools can help you monitor the behavior and habits of your users. Then you can use this information to personalize their experiences.

For example, let’s say you are building a mobile trading application. You can use customer search behaviors to send relevant push notifications about their interests.

14. Teamwork

You don’t develop this application itself in a vacuum.

Part of being a great developer means that you must be able to work with others effectively. This will help you build a much better application.

I’m not saying that you have to be friends with everyone on your team and get along with them outside of work. But you must have a strong and professional work relationship with everyone.

It’s a bonus if you get along with enough people to take beer or coffee during your personal time. This helps form a stronger bond.

So do an effort to get to know developers, designers, and other managers on your team.

15. Continuous integration

Continuous integration will streamline the maintenance of your mobile application.

It returned to one of our previous points about testing. Applying CI to your coding process means that work will be checked by a different stage.

 

With sustainable integration, your application will have fewer mistakes and errors because the system will identify them before the code is applied to the application.

This is perfect for situations when some developers are all writing code simultaneously.

16. Build up with analytics in mind

You want to make sure it’s easy for you to analyze your application after being built.

Previously I talked about planning tools that helped you monitor user behavior, but you would want to remember other analytics.

Analytics can help make your application better and improve performance. But this is something you need to think about when you still develop it. Then it will be easier to add this plugin later.

17. Enjoy yourself

Just like any work or task, sometimes your emotions can be lost in the shuffle.

Take a moment to realize that what you do is extraordinary. You are developing a mobile application. It’s not something that most people can do.

So try not to stress, even though I know a few days may be difficult.

Sit, relax, and enjoy the journey. The feeling when you finish will be very useful.

Conclusion

Developing mobile applications is not easy.

You will find some speed bumps along the way. However, it must be very helpful if you have several guidelines as a reference.

So I hope you can use this guide to help make your life as a developer much easier.

Follow this best practice for development if you want your application to succeed.

What is the most challenging part of the process of developing your application? Comment us below!

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