How Mobile App Development Works For Startups

Today, people are increasingly favoring mobile apps over websites. It is very convenient. A mobile app opens faster, you don’t have to wait for it to load, and in most cases, you can use it offline. So the entrepreneur also needs to invest in developing a mobile app for their business.

This is especially true for startups — young, fast-growing companies with an innovative business idea at their core. A startup can quickly promote itself, attract more customers, gain user trust, and get feedback with a mobile app.

All this is necessary for a young company’s fast and effective growth. Specialists who provide mobile app development services for startups divide the creation of a mobile product into stages. For example, Fideware uses the following stages for app development:

Preparatory.
Creation of a layout.
Direct development.
Testing.
Launch.

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Ways To Create A Startup App

There are two ways to develop a startup app: independently and by ordering it from specialized companies. The first method involves the use of designers. This method is quite simple — you can create the app alone in a relatively short time. But the efficiency is low.

The product will turn out to be a template and differ little from hundreds of other similar apps. Then the program will not perform its marketing task — to attract customers, position the company on the market, etc.

The second way — treatment in specialized companies — will cost more, but the efficiency is high. Specialists will consider all marketing tasks, characteristics of the target audience (people who will eventually use the app), etc. Therefore, the program obtained in this way will effectively attract customers and position your business in the market.

Conclusion: if you need to get a mobile app that will perform all your marketing tasks, you need to order the development of a startup app for specialized companies. Creating an app is a complicated process that consists of several stages and requires the involvement of specialists in different areas: marketers, designers, programmers, testers, etc.

Preparatory Stage

This stage includes communication with the customer to clarify the needs, analysis, and drawing up a requirements’ specification. These processes allow you to understand how to make the app most beneficial for users, which business solutions need to be implemented.

Market Research

At this stage, the marketer conducts the necessary research in the following areas:

Peculiarities of the target audience: who will use the app, what they are interested in, what their income is, what their needs are, etc.;
Which tasks should the app solve: sale of goods, provision of any services, etc.;
What is the competition in this area;
The size of the budget allocated to launch and promote the mobile product.
As a result of such marketing research and communication with the client, specialists understand what kind of design the app should have, what type of functionality, etc., is needed.

Writing The TOR

The requirements’ specification reflects the requirements for the app (its functionality, design, etc.). Further, all the work on implementing the digital product will be based on this requirement specification. The terms of reference in a simplified form contain:

The list of functions that should be in the app;
Requirements for the interface, performance, design, etc.;
Which platform (Android, iOS, etc.) the app is designed for;
Requirements for the server part, etc.

When drafting the TOR for developing startup apps, experts also consider concepts such as the User Store and Customer Journey Map. The first describes how a person will use the app to reach their goal: they will need to log in, browse the catalog, etc.

And the second one — the Journey Map — shows where the user will go when clicking on particular buttons, in other words, how he will navigate the app. All of this is written in detail in the TOR and is considered in the development process.

Layout And Design

The design helps create the app’s logic: the transitions between screens. This is very important for startups, where uncertainty is exceptionally high. The result of the design is a layout or prototype.

A designer-analyst creates the prototype in a specialized program (usually Figma is used). The prototype shows precisely what will happen when you click on a certain button, which window will open, which buttons will appear, and how you will load the next page.

At the same time, in the prototype (in the interactive variant), there will be buttons that will perform the “embedded” functions when clicked. This allows you to use the app as if it were already running, even before writing the code. Finally, the prototype is coordinated with the customer and then sent to the designer.

Design

The designer thinks through the animation elements, fonts, indents, and sizes and decides how the app looks. Then, he selects the colors, shades, and overall style. If the startup already has a corporate identity, the latter needs to be incorporated into the app. This is what the designer does.

Creating The Digital Product

This is probably the main stage in the creation of a mobile app. It is the direct writing of code using frameworks, libraries, etc. The development is divided into two phases: frontend and backend. The first stage is the “frontend” of a mobile app, i.e., the user’s interface directly interacts with: clicks buttons enters data, etc.

The backend is the “back” part of the program, the part that is hidden from the user’s eyes. It is also called the server part. It is used to store information about users, their accounts, and the store itself (stock levels, etc.).

If you compare a mobile app to a car, the front is the vehicle’s body and the internal controls (gear lever, steering wheel, etc.), and the backend is the car’s inner workings (engine, transmission, etc.).

Testing

Testing allows you to detect bugs and errors in the mobile software early in the development process and quickly fix them. Unfortunately, some clients often ignore this stage, wanting to launch the product as soon as possible. This doesn’t seem right — if end-users detect bugs and errors, the customer may lose confidence in potential customers.

Launch And Support

The release is the final stage in the development of a startup app. After that, specialists add the digital product to specialized stores: Google Play and App Store, from where users can download it. Subsequent support is also essential.

For example, it is necessary to monitor servers’ performance to ensure that there is always free disk space, etc. Also, based on user feedback, you need to improve the app, add new features, and improve usability.