It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. What can I say, Mrs. Blue and I have been very, very busy. I have been occupied with a bunch of stuff, including mobile application development.And yes, this points to the obvious fact that I love apps! I will tell you more about it, but in case you have an app idea and you are searching for a way to have it built, marketed and sold, then let me share with you this article, republished with permission from iUNIQ.com:
7 Things to do before Presenting your App Idea to a Mobile Application Development Company
by Arcee A
Have you ever found yourself looking at your smartphone or tablet, seeing all the icons which can only do one thing at a time? You know there must be a better way to do what you want. You can combine the best features of many apps into one so you don’t need to close one, open another, and then switch back.
Or, perhaps you are using this one particular good app but you feel restricted. Maybe it only supports portrait view but you use a large screen tablet and are accustomed to using it on landscape view. Maybe you are accustomed to swiping apps horizontally and this app only lets you navigate by swiping vertically. This gets you into thinking you can have a similar app developed that looks better and has way better features. Having to reorient the screen 90 degrees each time you use the app and with no option to customize swiping gestures is getting on your nerves! This gets you into thinking, why not have an app developed that has the features you want it to have.
Now you have an app idea! This is where it all starts. The question is how to translate that idea into a tool, free or otherwise, and share it with the world. Or more importantly, share it and have it be successfully received. If you do not have the skill or the time to build the app yourself, you should have it outsourced to a mobile application development company. However, before you go and contact a mobile app developer, be sure to cover all your bases so you can quickly get your app published. Here are some tips:
- Choose which platform would you like to launch your app first. Assuming of course you want your app available on all mobile operating systems, it would be wise to start with either iOS or Android and then expand later to others. The most popular of course is iOS which currently dominates Android in market share. Android is not far behind though and is predicted to outdo iOS in October 2013. Note also the playing field will likely shift as iOS is primarily an entertainment platform while Android and Windows are gaining strength in business.
- Determine what your app will exactly do. Your app will be categorized primarily on what it does so it follows that it must have one basic thing that it does well. This will be its core feature – the functionality that you will use to market your app. All other features will be subordinate to it, mere icing on the cake. So in simple sentences explain what the app will do and why. This will help you predict its success. Remember that the larger the market and the bigger the problem it addresses, the greater potential for success.
- Establish sub-features. Chances are there is already an app out there with your app’s core feature. Unless you have a truly revolutionary, one-of-a-kind app, having extra features that other similar apps do not would make your app stand out. Do not overdo it though. An app with lots of features would take more time to develop and would cost more. Simple apps also are better received by users. Complex apps that make people work or take a long time to learn are not as successful, so focus on user experience when you look at sub features.
- Create mock up screens. To give the mobile application development company a good idea of what you would be asking them to do, use your favorite drawing software (or pen and paper) and draw the screens. This will help you visualize what your app would look like and would further help the developers design and build your app. Your mock up doesn’t need to be in great detail but picture and description are important.
- Prepare use case scenarios. Once you have the mock up screens, start to write down some steps on how the app would function when a person starts to use your app. For example, what would happen if a user changes the orientation of the mobile device from portrait to landscape orientation? What would happen if he taps on a certain button or swipes a finger from left to right? And though the mobile application development team would undoubtedly ask you specifics on the apps’ user-interface (UI) and functionality, it would save a lot of time if you are painfully detailed with your use case scenarios. Example: “Here is the opening screen; the user will select which data they will use for this execution of the app. Check boxes remember last run. Clicking on the ‘Run Now’ button will save the results and allow users to go back to run again with different options.”
- Prepare a budget. A simple app costs around $3,000 – $5,000 to build. Prices will vary of course, but most app developers will charge you somewhere between this range. If you really have a very good idea, you should not be having any problems investing this amount. However, this is just the cost of development. It does not include marketing costs and expenses to further upgrade your app with additional features or to fix some bugs. We will tackle more about budget and expenses in another article.
- Look for a mobile application development company and present your project. There are a lot of mobile software developers out there. Look for the one you can count on to build your app on time, on point and on budget. Many people building their app wrongly assume that all developers are the same and they buy using the ‘how much per hour’ criteria. This will often end in disaster as development is often slow and product does not perform to the vision. Overall it can cost many times the initial bid price in bug fixing and very late deliveries.
iUNIQ.com is a mobile app development company that employs the best professionals who are modestly priced and can help you design, develop and market your app. Get a quote or contact us for more information.
This article originally appeared here.
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