In the past weeks and months, I have been working tirelessly on developing some brand new web and mobile applications. Throughout the process, I have gained some great insight into the process behind making a great app. By no means is application development rocket science or an impossible feat, however there are definitely many pitfalls you need to be aware of that I encountered in the creation of my electronic room condition report application called uCondition.
5 Steps to Designing an App
- Strategize: The most successful apps are developed by careful and methodical planning. When casting your vision for your new mobile application, you need to understand the exact functionality and features your tool will need to be successful. It is so easy to continually add features because it might enhance the app. However, the more you add, the clunkier the app can get.
- Design: What separates an average app from a great app is its design. Take time to study similar apps and see what they’ve done right and see how they could improve and then take your research and apply it to your app. Go to iOSpirationt.com to get inspired.
- Break: Testing your app is crucial. Intentionally go through the app and find bugs. Try different combinations that you think may not work and see just how good your app is. Give your app to a few other people and see what they can do. Make sure that every corner of your application is tested thoroughly so that it will never fail.
- Slim: Your app needs to go on a diet. I think Apple does the best job of slimming down products to make them extraordinary. After reading the biography of Steve Jobs, my eyes were opened to the power of slimming down your product to make it ultimately beef up your wallet. Jobs constantly revised his products taking a minimalist approach so that anyone could use Apple’s products and applications because they were simplistic and straightforward. Slimming down your app and removing clunky or unnecessary features is crucial in successful app creation.
- Polish: Once you have come up with a great design that implements all the features you strategized and planned for while still being slim, it’s time to put on the finishing touches. Go through and double and triple check to make sure everything looks amazing and everything runs smoothly. Don’t let your app be released until your app is virtually perfect. Once you have followed the steps, it is time to put your newly created app out there on the market for all to use.
Satisfaction of Having an App
Publishing an app could very well be one of the most satisfying rewarding feats. When you search your product’s name in the App Store, you see it appear and you can count the downloads. Or when you tweet about it, you can see your app icon appear with a download link.
Good luck as you and your team venture out to create an app! Hopefully these steps will help you be successful in producing a revolutionary application!