What To Do With Mobile App Design Ideas
The design and development of mobile applications require specialized knowledge and experience in the field.
The workflow of a mobile application includes several steps:
- Concept
- Design
- Implementation and testing
- Release
- Maintenance
- Concept
All applications start with an idea. This idea is usually an unrefined base of the application. It needs to be detailed, explored and validated. Based on this, a prototype can be created, which will be the basis of the next stage, namely the design. Doing a prototype is also a process, but a good planning will eliminate a lot of problems and changes during the development of the application.
For validating and detailing the concept, “Design Sprints” can be successfully applied. “Design sprints” is a framework for teams of all sizes and aims to solve and test design and concept issues in just a few days. This framework involves a few stages:
Understanding: What are the needs of the user, and what technical implications are there?
Definition: What is the key strategy and focus?
Pivoting: How can we explore as many ideas as possible?
Decision: Selecting the best ideas
Prototype: Creating an artifact that allows users to test ideas
Validation: Testing the ideas with users, customers and technical experts
- Design
This step consists in defining the user experience with the application (the way the graphical interface is going to look and function). The most important person at this stage is the graphic designer, and the result is based on the conclusions of the previous stage.
- Implementation and testing
Based on the initial concept, a time estimate is made, including a deadline and a release plan.
At this stage, the mobile application developer will write the code and implement the graphical interface of the application based on the design and the written specifications. This is usually the longest step and requires the most resources.
In the IT field, agile approach is very often used as a management methodology, but Waterfall is also quite common. Depending on the methodology chosen, implementation goes hand in hand with testing. For Scrum, testing is performed during each Sprint, while for Waterfall testing is performed once the entire application has been implemented.
- Release
Once the application has been implemented and tested, and the result meets the requirements and specifications originally set, then the application may be published for use.
- Maintenance
After the app has been published on the market, other operations will be necessary: solving various bugs, offering system updates or performing changes that the customer wishes. All these are parts of the maintenance stage.
If everything seems too complicated for you, but you still have some great app design ideas, you can choose a professional developer to collaborate with.
Professional app developers will analyze and identify the necessary resources, put on paper every detail of the project to be developed, and in the end, they will have sketches, logical schemes and full descriptions to base their work on. This way, they can focus on the implementation and the delivery of the project in adequate conditions.