Have you ever wondered how does mobile application work and what’s the process of building one? If you’re a small business owner or an upcoming entrepreneur without a tech-savvy background, but you want to understand mobile development process of building the app from the scratch - you are at the right place!
Before you dive into this rabbit-hole, I strongly suggest reading Quick Introduction In Mobile App Development that will help you to not get lost in fancy words you might find in this article.
- Step 1: Coming up with an idea
- Step 2: Defining Business Requirements (Application Features)
- Step 3: Design the app (UI/UX)
- Step 4: Develop the mobile app
- Bonus: How much does a mobile app cost?
- Conclusion
Step 1: Coming up with an idea
Step 1: Coming up with an idea
It might sound as a cliché, but it always starts with an idea, and it is important foundation. Yes, a lot of people have good mobile application ideas, but lack the entrepreneurial spirit to pursuit and build one. And, yes, we also have the other group of people who are ready to spend big amounts of money on building the mobile application while forgetting about researching their idea carefully – trust me, you do not want to experience this part as it is super costly time and money wise.
It is important to find a balance between both – spend considerable amount of time researching your ideas market before you move to the next step which is execution, but when the research has been done and you are believing your idea, it is time to be on the offensive.
Step 2: Defining Business Requirements (Application Features)
Step 2: Defining Business Requirements
When mobile application idea is clear, the next step is to categorize which application features are must-have and which are nice-to-have. A smart approach is to do an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that covers core functionality as you want to get confirmation from the market that your app is needed and have potential. A lot of time businesses want to deploy perfect application to the store only to realize that the app’s solution is not needed or used by anyone.
Define application’s core functionality, create a prototype (MVP) and get confirmation from the market that you’re on the right track before ironing out all the small bits and pieces of your application.
MVP (Minimum viable product)
is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development.
Step 3: Design the app (UI/UX)
Step 3: Design the app
While every app is different and some rely more on functionality than beautiful design, having simple designs for the application is a must-have. Not only will it expose missing business requirements and clarify how the app will look for the potential users, but it will also be needed for the developers when the application will be developed.
If you’ve completed MVP phase where you are confident that market is ready to use your application, hiring a UI/UX expert can take your application to the next level and make some serious troubles for your competitors. Even applications that have decent functionality will lose to competitor applications that have the same functionality, but better user-experience.
Keep that in mind…
For some reason, people think that designing application is part of mobile app coding. Remember, that you should never ask mobile application developer to design UI for your application, same as you would never ask accountant to fix your car.
When you need design – hire designers, when you need to code the app – hire developers.
Step 4: Develop the mobile app
Step 4: Develop the mobile app
When you have designs – be that your own drawing on a notepad or having it professionally designed by hired UI designers (I’d recommend the latter), next part is the one that will take most time and money – building your native mobile application.
Based on the experience, businesses and entrepreneurs usually have two options:
1. Hire a mobile application developer - freelancer
OR..
2. Hire a mobile app development agency
If the application is quite simple, then using the first approach can be good enough, but whenever project is more complicated and you care more about quality, hiring an agency is a go-to option. Don’t forget that if you want to build native mobile applications for Android and iOS – you will most likely need two developers to build your app for both platforms.
By the way, I’m not saying that there are no good freelancers out there – there are tons of them, but hiring the good ones takes time and experience. Even if you’re lucky enough to find a great freelance mobile app developer, the next hurdle you will run into is – how to manage him? Usually, that’s the job for a project manager… Do you have that skill set?
If you choose to hire an agency, you still must be careful to find a good one that is affordable and offers good quality work, as some mobile development agencies will send you an invoice that might surprise you (not in a good way).
Besides the risk of hiring agency, the rest is a lot easier with less room for error. Agencies have full in-house team of developers and project managers that will build your application from A – Z, more importantly they build seriously complex projects every single day.
BONUS: How much does a mobile app cost?
While mobile application development costs can vary on the complexity of project, usually a somewhat simple application for both platforms (Android and iOS) can start from 10’000 USD; medium complexity anywhere from 30’000 – 50’000 USD and very advanced ones can go up to 200’000 USD and more based on this case study. Yeap, not so cheap as you thought, huh?
Conclusion: How Mobile Apps Are Built In 4 Steps
While creating a mobile application for your business might sound super complicated and expensive at first, all you really have to do is just chop it into smaller tasks and follow 4 simple steps. Execution is the key here - at this point, you're far ahead of thousands of people who have billion dollars app idea, but get stuck in their own head and lose the direction after some time.
If you got scared by the mobile application development expenses, it might be a great idea to check out our agency - XYREZ, as we focus on helping entrepreneurs and small to medium businesses create their mobile apps that are affordable (we manage to be cheaper than 85% of our competitors).
John Plattera 
