You’ve taken the first small step on your iOS developer journey. It’s not an easy, but very interesting development path, and in the case of Apple technologies, it is also very profitable.
We wish you perseverance and may your enthusiasm not fade!
If you understand that it will be difficult to cope on your own, the Infoshell team offers affordable prices for the development of turnkey iOS applications. Contact our specialist for details!
Mobile Application Design
Introduction
It’s hard to imagine your life without a smartphone. With its help, we not only contact our loved ones, but also look for the necessary information, pay for a communal apartment, order goods. Now the presence of a mobile application for a company is almost a rule of good taste. In this article, we will talk about app development and show you how to understand if you need a mobile platform.
Stages of designing a mobile application
An app goes a long way from idea to release. Next, we will consider in detail all the stages of design.
First of all, you should decide: do you really need an application or are you just succumbing to the trend? There are several signs that will help you answer this question.
Your site has a lot of mobile traffic. If your customers often interact with your site from a smartphone, you should think about a more convenient tool.
The site has repeat sales. If customers keep coming back to your site over and over again, keep them with a mobile app. You can send messages about new promotions and unique applications to your phone, and users will have access to your services at any time from anywhere in the world.
You have a loyalty system. There is no need to spend a budget on issuing plastic cards: it is much more convenient to open the application and show a QR or barcode.
You want to use new features that are not available on the site. For example, using AR technologies, users can “try on” clothes or the interior of an apartment.
At least one of these points applies to you – you should think about developing a mobile application.
Analytics
So, there is still a need for a mobile platform. Before contacting developers, we advise you to understand for whom the application is being created, how it will be used, and most importantly, what problems it will solve.
The first step is to determine the target audience and the role that the application will play in business communication with customers. At this stage, determine:
● Features of the target audience and the possibility of its expansion;
● Goals that the customer will achieve with their application;
● Market competitiveness in this area;
● Budget.
You should also understand what applications are generally used by the target audience of the client and its competitors. This will help to understand whether the target audience will be able to make a choice in favor of the developed application and abandon analogues.
With all this information and idea, the client turns to the contractor. Based on the data received, the contractor collects its analytics on the market, competitors, existing analogues of the application, determines the behavioral models of users. This gives the developer an idea of how the software will be used and how to make it the most convenient and useful not only for the audience, but also for the client’s business.
As a result, both the client and the developer get a complete picture of what the functionality and design of the finished product should be.
Preparation of technical specifications for the development of a mobile application
The terms of reference formulate a description of the functionality, the design of the application, a set of technical requirements, ways to implement them, and the budget of the project.
It also determines which way to visualize the customer journey is used. There are two options:
User Story (user story) – describes how a person behaves when using the application – logs in, browses the catalog, makes purchases. Allows you to think through the details in advance and avoid problems at the design stage of the service;
Customer Journey Map – shows the user’s movement from screen to screen, which buttons he presses. The map helps you understand how to bring the functionality of the application to life.
In addition, the TOR should indicate the stages of designing the functionality – for example, the loading stage, the registration procedure, menus, etc.
prototyping
The designer develops a prototype of the application. There are two ways here – to create a static prototype made in the form of images (you can draw it in a program or even on paper by hand), or interactive – with the ability to navigate pages, simulate the work of elements – buttons, sliders, etc.
Through interactive prototypes, the customer can understand how the application will work and feel in the future, and the developer can predict and quickly fix errors.
The prototyping analyst thinks about how the application will work and how the user will act. After agreement with the customer, adjustments are made to the prototype, and the project passes into the hands of designers. Next, designers determine the style in which the application will be designed, according to the recommendations of the Material Design Guidelines or iOS Human Interface Guidelines. Or even lay down their own style or design code.
For interactive prototyping, as a rule, Figma is used. In this program, you can both work out the structure and design of the product, and view the application as if it is already ready for use and installed on a smartphone.
