A custom app is not a simple piece of work. It needs a professional team following a defined process, because the order of the stages is what keeps the project from drifting. Here is what the process looks like, and what the product has to get right along the way.
The six stages
1. Requirements and market research
The developer starts by understanding the requirement, analysing the market the company’s product sits in, and producing a feasibility assessment. This is where a project either has a case or does not.
2. Development and operation plan
Findings from the research are taken back to the client, and the two sides agree a plan for both the build and how the app will be operated once it exists.
3. Interface design
Screens are designed to fit the company’s culture and the product’s character — visually finished, and genuinely usable rather than merely attractive.
4. Experience, effort and revision
User experience is refined, the remaining workload and timeline are estimated, and the app is revised and completed within the agreed acceptance window.
5. Feedback into the interface
Once the build is complete, feedback from test users goes back into the UI — small adjustments, made before the public ever sees it.
6. Release
After repeated testing with no outstanding faults, the app is submitted to the app stores for users to download and for the business to operate.
What the app has to get right
A product position that is actually distinct
Mobile is a crowded field. Before anything else, ask whether your idea has been built already. If something similar exists, go in knowing how you will beat it — and build the design decision that makes the difference into the product, not the marketing.
A design that stays simple
Position the product, then design the core functions around it: the situations it is used in, the icons, the display text. Simplicity is a decision made at this stage, and it is very hard to add later.
Data that survives a change of device
People replace phones and reinstall systems, Android users especially, and every reinstall puts your app in front of the choice again. Whether it gets chosen depends less on how useful it is than on whether the data survives: automatic backup to the cloud, private by default, protects the customer and protects the app. Do it properly and the app stays with them across devices.
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