Mobile development is a quickly advancing field of ​​programming. The number of mobile devices significantly exceeds the number of PCs. Taking that fact into account, numerous large business owners decide to create their finTech application in order to get competitor advantage, increase customer loyalty and take the business to a new level.

Is it worth investing in the development of a mobile application? Firstly, you must weigh up all pros and cons and calculate the approximate cost of developing your company’s app. To do this, you can use, for instance, https://sumatosoft.com/whitepapers-software-estimation-process.

Stages of Mobile App Development

Let’s say you have already clearly decided that your company needs an application. Now you have a choice — to entrust the design to the internal development team (if there are specialists on the staff) or to contract some company.

Moreover, we recommend you consider the advantages and disadvantages of in-house development and outsourcing. The point is that the presence of appropriate specialists among your employees doesn’t guarantee the project’s success, especially if they don’t have the relevant experience.

However, regardless of whether you choose your developers or outsource a banking software development company, you, as a business owner, need to know the key points of the software development process.

• Application idea

You need to highlight the main idea or concept of the future application — developing something unique or improving an existing one. At this stage, the analysis of the market and existing products is conducted as well.

It’s imperative to describe the business requirements in detail — business goals, target audience, competitiveness, indicators of success — before proceeding to the next stage.

Clients are also important — their motivation, needs, goals, triggers.

• Basic functionality

When ordering a mobile application, you inevitably choose which features you are willing to pay for and which ones are better left for the future or even exclude.

Sometimes companies want to get the most perfect and excellent product right away. However, in practice, many functions may seem redundant, especially at the initial stage of development and testing. Therefore, it’s better to release services with minimal basic functions, collect feedback from users, and add new features to the service at the next update.

• UI / UX design

At this stage, work begins with specific functionality, and with a clear understanding of what the users’ steps will be. It concerns the information architecture, that is, the basic structure of the application’s navigation system.

The designer must think over the entire user journey from the start page to the implementation of targeted actions  (there may be several in the app).

It should be noted, that we are not talking about the design of the application itself. The specialist works with prototypes or with simple layouts only.

• Usability testing

This stage also applies to the designer’s responsibilities. Do the users understand the application and how to use it? It often happens that the functionality and interface are obvious to the businessman and contractor but completely incomprehensible to the user.

Based on the test results, the designer makes changes.

• Direct development

Everything is simple here. Any app is regularly tested and improved during its creation process. Furthermore, you may have new ideas, suggestions, or desire to make some improvements at this stage. Discuss them with developers.

• Promotion

You must inform the world about your application before release. Use all methods here — banners on websites, advertising in search engines, SMM, newsletters, SEO, posts in the media and on news portals, and so on.

 

It’s crucial to determine your loyal audience’s location and which communication channels react best. Then, prepare the main marketing part for the launch immediately after the release.

• Final test and release

At this stage, everything is directed on the long-awaited release, testing, and fixing bugs. When improvements are completed, and everyone is happy with the result, the application can be uploaded to the app stores.

However, the developing process doesn’t end here. Next, you should provide constant technical support for its performance, improve and expand the functionality.

As you can see, the design of a mobile application is a rather lengthy and laborious process. There is no ready-made script if you want a high-quality and unique service.

Well-developed software isn’t only a program that works without errors. It’s a user-friendly interface and a well-thought-out design and logic of work. Before signing a contract, be sure to consider whether you are ready to invest in this experience.

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