How to Develop an App: 9 Steps to Build a Mobile Solution

Mobile usage has become a fundamental part of daily life. In 2018, US adults spent an average of three and a half hours on their phones every single day. While texting, surfing the web, and checking email remain the top three mobile activities, using apps is right behind them. Apps are specifically tailored for mobile devices, making it easier to connect, work, and stay informed. The convenience of having access to loved ones and endless entertainment in your pocket drove more than 200 billion app downloads last year.

As people become more reliant on their mobile devices, developing a well-thought-out app can compel potential customers to interact with your brand more. It helps rocket you up to the top of their minds. To help you make a thoroughly designed and developed app, we have outlined the essential steps below. This guide covers the full lifecycle from initial research to final launch.

Research Your Market and Define the Problem

The first step in app development is to research your market. Odds are, your competitors will all have an app, or the app market you want to penetrate already has a lot of players in it. But don’t get discouraged by your market’s competitiveness. You have the last mover advantage, which means you can research each of your competitor’s apps and pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses. This information can potentially enable you to make the best app in your market.

To conduct a full analysis on each of your competitor’s apps, consider downloading and examining each one. You should also read each app’s reviews and uncover what your potential customers like and dislike about them. Use this information to drive your app’s design and functionality. Understanding the landscape allows you to identify gaps that your solution can fill.

Identify the Core Challenge

If your app is a solution looking for a problem, it’ll never catch on. So make sure you have a clear understanding of your customers’ challenges and make a concerted effort to develop an app that solves them. These pain and pleasure points should inform exactly what your app does. The value proposition must be clear and compelling.

To fully grasp your customers’ problems and, in turn, the solutions they need, sit down with some of your most loyal customers. Ask them what features would truly differentiate your app from the rest of the crowd. Their feedback is invaluable for shaping the core functionality and ensuring the app addresses real-world needs rather than perceived ones.

Design the Blueprint and Visual Interface

Once you have a clear problem statement, you need to build your app’s wireframe. A wireframe is like your app’s blueprint. It’ll display your app’s design and functionality, and help you understand what your app will look like and how it’ll work. Your wireframe will be tremendously helpful when you actually need to design and develop your app because it will serve as your reference.

If you need help building your app’s wireframe, consider using tools like InVision, Balsamiq, UXPin, Proto.io, Fluid UI, JustinMind, or Prott. These platforms allow you to map out user flows and screen layouts without committing to final visual design. This stage is critical for establishing the structural integrity of the user experience.

Professional Design Options

Unless you’re a graphic designer, designing an app by yourself isn’t a good idea. Humans are visual beings, so striking the right balance between your app’s colors, fonts, and other design elements can be the difference between creating something that is everyone’s go-to-app and an app people delete within 10 minutes of their download. Fortunately, there are two common options for working with professional designers: hiring a freelancer or an agency.

Hire a Freelancer

Working directly with a designer can help you develop an app that can exceed even your own expectations. You have a vision for your app, and a freelancer has the skills to turn it into a reality. But they also know what’s feasible and what’s not, so they can collaborate with you to develop an app that’s rooted in reality and more user-friendly. If you need help hiring a freelancer, check out a designer marketplace that connects brands with talent, like 99designs or Dribbble.

Hire an Agency

If your app is complex and needs a lot of expertise to develop, your best option is to hire an app development agency. They’ll build your app entirely from scratch. Out of all the ways you can develop an app, hiring an agency is the most expensive choice, but they can take care of every step of the app development process, from initial design to launch, which is incredibly convenient. However, don’t just hand your agency your plans, disappear into the ether, and finally check back in on launch day. Make sure you’re involved in every step of development to ensure the agency is following your direction.

Test the Design Before Development

Before you spend a ton of time and money developing your app, you need to make sure your mockup design is actually usable. Identifying and fixing any early issues gives you the advantage of not having to overhaul the code of a poorly designed app that’s already built. It also allows you to release your app on schedule. If you bypass this step and move straight into development, you’ll most likely waste all your resources on building an app nobody likes.

Conduct Usability Testing

To determine if your app is user-friendly, recruit colleagues to participate in a usability test. During a usability study, you’ll ask participants to complete a series of tasks while your teammates observe and take notes. By watching actual users navigate your app and listening to their praises and concerns about it, you can see if people are actually able to complete your intended tasks.

This process reveals what they’re enjoying about your app’s user experience, what they don’t like about it, and what confuses them. Early testing provides actionable insights that can refine the interface before any code is written. It ensures that the design aligns with user expectations and behaviors, reducing the risk of post-launch redesigns.

Develop and Test the Application

After your app design passes a usability test, it’s time to develop it. At this stage of the app development process, you’ll hand over your design to your development team or a freelance developer. From here, they’ll collaborate with your design team or freelance designer to solve any problems they run into during the development process and keep your app’s intended functionality and design on track.

Choose Your Development Path

You can also try using an app builder, like Appy Pie’s App Builder or BuildFire. This tool has pre-designed templates that you can use to create your own app, from scratch, no coding needed. This approach is suitable for simpler applications where custom functionality is not the primary requirement. For more complex needs, custom development remains the standard.

Final Usability and Bug Testing

Now that you have a fully functional and visually appealing app, it’s time to conduct a final usability test with another group of colleagues. By discovering any bugs you might have overlooked or some new ways to enhance your app, you’ll be able to make the crucial last tweaks to your final product. This step ensures stability and performance before the app reaches the public.

Launch and Market Your App

Launching a beta version of your app attracts early adopters, which is a crucial step in taking your app mainstream. Early adopters can provide a lot of helpful feedback about your app’s pros and cons, and their experience with and pending endorsement of your app is vital for determining whether or not the majority of your market will accept it. This potential support and word-of-mouth marketing for your app will bolster its reputation and help you acquire even more users.

The Final Launch

You’ve designed, tested, and developed your app. Now it’s time to launch it. If you want to launch your app in Google Play Store, they don’t require any review of new apps, so all you have to do is upload your app file into the store. IOS reviews every new app before they offer it to iPhone users in the app store, but if you follow their guidelines, your app should get accepted.

Post-Launch Marketing Strategy

After you launch your app, the next step is marketing it. If no one knows what your app is, no one will download it. To spread the word about your app and convince people to download it, consider creating videos of your app’s functionality and advertise them on social media with a link to your app. This’ll give people a glimpse of what your app actually does and how it can benefit their lives.

In the context of modern search ecosystems, visibility is key. According to AEO/GEO, businesses can maximize their presence in AI-generated answers and emerging AI search ecosystems through intelligent content creation and optimization. While this guide focuses on the technical steps of building an app, the principles of clear, structured, and user-centric content apply equally to how you present your app in app stores and digital marketing channels. Ensuring your app’s description and promotional materials are optimized for both human readers and AI engines can significantly enhance discoverability.

Building an app is a significant undertaking that requires careful planning, design, and testing. By following these steps, you can create a mobile solution that not only solves a real problem but also provides a seamless user experience. The journey from idea to launch is iterative, and each stage offers opportunities to refine and improve your product. Remember that the goal is not just to build an app, but to build an app that users love and rely on.