5 Essential Elements of Mobile App Creation Process

Mobile apps development market is witnessing a huge growth, as customers tend to consume digital information more on smartphones and tablets then computers. In fact, according to research2guidance, the mobile application development market will reach the $100 billion mark by 2015. Now, that’s a whopping increase! Businesses have started realizing the power of having a mobile app, which allows customers to access information on products and services in real-time. Today, it’s more like of a necessity than luxury. However, building mobile apps is not a cakewalk. One needs to weigh carefully various nuances when it comes to designing and developing a mobile app. So, if you are contemplating to build a mobile app, here are most important aspects you should not overlook. Understand Your Objectives  Take considerable time and effort to gauge the objective behind creating a mobile app before actually you start developing it. Though mobile app does boost your business, it is important to analyse whether your business really needs a mobile app or not. Just because other businesses are joining the mobile apps development bandwagon, it does not necessarily mean you also have to. In case, you decide to build a mobile solution, step back and think over these points –

• If majority of the business comes from your website, consider building a mobile website which runs on all kinds of hand held devices instead of an application.
• In case your solution doesn’t require internet connection (such as note taking apps), then a mobile application makes more sense.
• If your app needs GPS, mail and client integration, building a native application is a better option.

Know Your Target Customer It sounds obvious but many app developers ignore the importance of understanding their end-users requirements. Analyse their problems and try to solve them with help of a handy mobile application. Get insights into the kind of devices your end-customers use for their different set of needs. Ultimately the success of app is highly dependent on the user experience and not just on the so called cool features you try to offer to your customers. Screen Size is vital Screen sizes and resolutions vary depending on the device type. Hence, it is very essential to ensure that your app is consistent across a variety of devices. Also, the user interface along with graphics have to be scalable. We recommend you to go through various app development guides provided by Android and iPhone both. It helps you develop awesome mobile applications that are screen independent. User Interface matters There are certain user interface elements we need to take care of while developing web applications. Similarly, it is advisable to follow specific user interface conventions when you are building a mobile app. Because, it helps make the app more consistent with other applications on a various hand-held devices.  For instance,

• Apple has laid down detailed iPhone Human Interface Guidelines with details of standard UI conventions to help developers build better applications.
• Android, too, has laid down its own User Interface Guidelines. This lists down the overview of widgets, menus, icons including task design guidelines.

Pay attention to ergonomics Today, most of the smart phones have touch screens and hence it’s important that you do not neglect this aspect while creating a mobile app. You need to think from the user’s perspective while you are designing and developing the app. This means you need to understand how exactly users hold smartphones and where their finger lies when using a particular app etc. For instance, apps designed for touch screen devices have menus, selectors and content at the top screen. Apart from this, you also need to consider gesture advantages, zoom pinching, refresh pulling-down, swiping backwards and forward etc. It has become extremely challenging to build a mobile app and announce it as a success in this competitive market place. Hence it’s recommended to keep your end-users in mind before actually you start your app creation journey.