Whether you are developing a mobile app to provide for your company’s business needs or a product targeted at a wide audience, you will have to work hard to ensure the best chances of its success. To do so, It’s best to adhere to certain industry standards or so-called best practices.
If you are developing a mobile app, following these best practices, its operation will be more reliable and stable, it will be easier to maintain and simpler to make necessary changes. You will just save time and money, and users will enjoy the product, which is convenient to use.
Based on many years of my experience in implementing projects at Lvivity, I have decided to compile a list of the best mobile app development practices, following which you can create truly good products.
1. Don’t Skip the Discovery Phase
The discovery phase aims at defining clear goals for the project, drawing up all the requirements for it, and determining what resources you need to implement it.
Some people skip the discovery phase because they consider it a waste of time and money. However, everything is just the opposite: exactly due to this development stage, you can comprehend the best ways to organize the development process, as well as correctly assess the estimated deadlines and budget necessary for project implementation. This approach reduces uncertainty, manages risks, and improves teamwork efficiency.
To read more details, please proceed to the following blog post: “Why Discovery Phase Plays an Important Role in Software Development.”
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2. Break down a Large Project into Small Tasks
Mobile app development is a complex process consisting of many stages, each of which requires a different number of resources and has a different duration.
To mitigate the number of errors and to simplify achieving the goals set, it is crucial to control all these work processes. One proven way to attain that is to break down large tasks into smaller and more manageable ones, set requirements for each smaller task, and establish priorities necessary to accomplish all of them.
3. Create Technical Documentation
This stage is especially important when you develop complicated and large projects that are difficult to figure out. Good documentation covering all elements of the system can be an extremely useful source of information, especially for people who join the team at a later stage.
Besides, if you have to make any changes to the code in the future, it may prove quite difficult to implement them without detailed documentation. Even if you are the only engineer working on your personal project, you may simply forget about some important details.
4. Focus on User Experience and App Usability
The determining factors for your mobile app’s success are far more than just functionality or a good marketing campaign. Ultimately, it all comes down to factors like usability, operation speed, and general user experience. These are the things to focus on from the very beginning.
In short, the “usability” term implies the convenience of using an app. A widespread mistake is to develop a product overloaded with rarely used features, cumbersome navigation, and a visually cluttered user interface.
Consequently, if you want people to recommend your app to their friends and leave positive feedback in app stores, you should focus on user experience and usability.
5. Prioritize Security
Many apps retain and process sensitive data that could be of interest to hackers. Users want to be sure of their safety. The more popular a product is, the more specific threats its use brings. Therefore, security should be one of the key priorities when developing a mobile app (two-factor authentication, etc.).
Our blog features a detailed article on this topic. Please follow the link to read it — “Mobile App Security: 10 Best Practices for Developers.”
6. Testing is a Must
Preliminary testing of an app is the only reliable way to make sure it works as it should and meets the requirements set. You can also involve third-party users to carry it out. This approach will allow you to identify subtle errors missed by your internal team.
At the same time, you have to remember about one important point: you have to test your app throughout the entire development process. If you postpone this phase closer to the release date, you may have a much harder time finding and fixing bugs. Ultimately, testing will save your budget.
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Our team is ready to implement your ideas. Contact us now to discuss your roadmap!
7. Plan for Updates
After you released your product, you cannot stop working on it completely. You have to update it, and your updates have to improve product security, introduce new technologies, or expand functionality. That is an important part of the software life cycle.
You have to take care of regular maintenance and plan some future updates. Having compiled a roadmap of planned updates in advance, you can make your work on your mobile app more predictable and controlled.
8. Don’t Clutter Your App
That is not an obvious point, but I think we should also include it in the best mobile app development practices. Your app should be simple and coherent. In this context, it is worth paying attention to its user interface — its home screen should not show too much info or too many elements. Otherwise, users will simply get confused and want to stop using your app. Therefore, it would be best to make sure that your app screen is informative enough but not cluttered.
Final Words
Both software engineers and executives in this area should adhere to these best mobile app development practices and strive to follow them whenever it is possible. This approach will allow them to release a successful product meeting the customer needs and making its users happy.
Surely, the list of good practices is much longer than just the 8 points I have listed in this article. However, they will more than suffice to make the work on the project advance in the right direction. All parties will win from using these tips in practice.
Follow these development guidelines if you want your app to be successful. However, if you need help, please contact our team. We can become a reliable technology partner for you and help you achieve your business objectives.
