The Step By Step Guide to Validating and Launching Your App Idea

You encounter an app idea and suddenly you start dreaming of all the endless possibilities and opportunities that you can embark on. That fleeting moment of spur empowers you to imagine the unprecedented success of your app. However, in the end, you find yourself in deep trouble, often wondering where did you go wrong?

Generally, app developers focus on providing the solution part and end up ignoring validating the problem they are offering the solution for. Validating your app idea is as important as launching it successfully, if not more. Moving on, seamless execution of your idea in tandem with robust marketing strategies helps to ensure your app’s victory. In our post today, we will discuss the various steps involved in validating your app idea and finally launching it on your preferred platform. Let’s have a look.

1. Determine the Business Model for Your App

You have an app idea which you believe is unique and great. That is for sure a good start; nevertheless, before getting into the design and development part, you need to determine your business model. Sans an operative business model, your idea won’t be able to materialize, or even if it does, it won’t bring you any success.

Read also: App Ideas for Mobile App Design

You need to carry out an exhaustive research to make sure that the demand for your product exists. Also, you need to address the subsequent queries to draw out a clearer picture.

• What is the purpose of your app?
• Who are your target customers? Do you want to keep your app local or go global?
• What platform do you want to use?
• Who are your competitors? Which significant features are they offering their app?
• Your mobile app development budget?
• What is your app development timeline?

Answering the above questions clearly will help you move a step further in the app design and development process. Additionally, you can figure out if there are a need and demand for your app in the market.

2. Research & Analysis- Part 1

A comprehensive market research and analysis is exceedingly crucial to understand who your target audience is and what kind of app do they require. While conducting a research, you can get in touch with your prospective clients, convey them your idea and gather feedback. You can create focus groups and ask them to fill surveys to know more about their preferences. You can also invite a few people out of your target demographic and indulge in a one-to-one conversation about your app idea.

This tactic is indubitably beneficial as you don’t have to rely on any second source of information. You can conduct a direct research and analyze the results.

• Research & Analysis- Part 2

Now that you have discussed your idea and heard from your target audience, it is time to take a step further in the researching part. You need to take to the internet to find out published reports about your specific industry and use this wealth to further refine your app idea. Through this research, you can identify the prevailing industry trends, your competitors and their product offerings, customer needs and choices, etc. with improved accuracy.

Fortified with all the necessary statistical reports, you can easily move to the next step, which determines the app platform.

3. Pen Down Your Ideas and Use Prototyping Tools

Putting your ideas down on paper is always a great idea to reduce mental clutter. You can develop a storyboard that will have the app’s wireframe sketches. Once you are done, take time to find yourself a good prototyping tool to create the initial mockups of your app. This will help you in discerning how your anticipated elements combine together to form a feature-rich mobile app. Also, you can see how the different screens will be linked to each other and the way your users will navigate through the app. But remember, while developing an app draft, concentrate on extending a seamless user experience.

There are a plethora of prototyping tools available, and the most of them are extremely easy and straightforward to use. You can choose from Marvel App, Invision App, UI, Flinto and Pop App.

4. App Development

A mobile app primarily consists of three integral parts which are as follows:

• Back-end/ Server Technology

Back-end or server-side development is what makes the front-end work. The structure consists of a database, a server, and an application. Data from the database is converted into functional gen that is then displayed on the front-end.

• API

Application Programming Interface (API) refers to the methodology of communication between the app’s back-end and front-end.

• Front-End

Also known as client-side development, front-end is the part of the mobile app that your users see and engage with. Always think of User Experience (UX) while developing the front-end of your app. If your users have to scroll down the entire page to find the “Search” field, it is most likely that you haven’t tested the UX properly.

There are several programming languages and technology stacks that you can use for developing the app. In case of native apps, you need to select the technology stack obligatory for the targeted mobile platform.

Note: You may be required to modify your wireframes or storyboards a little, in case of any technical restraint met in the back-end development process. Hence, it is enormously essential to stay little flexible.

5. App Testing

App testing process allows you to rigorously test your app in several real-world scenarios in order to track down any tech flaws and amend them prior to launching your app. Quality Assurance (QA) testing ensures that the app is secure, stable and fully functional.

If you wish to create a quality deliverable, make sure that your app undergoes the following tests:

• UX Testing

UX testing is a significant app testing technique that helps you to decide whether the final implementation is in sync with the UX created by the app design team or not. Remember, the most important way to increase the user adoption of your app is by offering engaging visuals, seamless workflow, and an unobtrusive design. Therefore, use consistent font styles, color schemes, icon design, style treatments, etc. throughout the app. Also, closely adhere to the original design guidelines to proffer a delightful user experience.

• Functional Testing

This ensures that your app is free from all glitches and is absolutely bug-free. You can bring different users together and make them operate your app. You might be amazed to identify errors even when two different users test the same feature but receive different results.

Functional testing can further be divided into two, System testing, i.e. testing the working of the app as a whole, and unit testing, i.e. testing the different functions of the app separately.

• Performance Testing

Well, for conducting a performance test, you need to address the following:

• How efficiently does your app address the user requests?
• What is the size of your app? Does it take too much memory?
• How much time does your app take to load the screens?
• Is your app draining too much phone memory?

Lastly, make sure that your app is capable of handling load and performs absolutely fine, even if the usage shoots up.

• Security Testing

Security is the utmost priority for all businesses. Your app should pass through all security testing procedures to certify that it is absolutely safe and protected from hackers.

If your app asks for user information, then using a trusted service becomes all the more crucial. If the user needs to login into your app, the login session should terminate after a specific time period if the user has remained idle for a long time.

Note: The APIs you use for communicating with the app’s backend should use “HTTPS” protocol. This ensures that the data transfer between the backend and frontend is fully secured.

6. Deployment & Support

Prior to launching your app, you need to create a developer’s account on the app store you wish to distribute your app on. This process is little long and may take up a few days. Additionally, you can refer to the app store guidelines to ensure that your app conforms to them and doesn’t get rejected during the review process.

After your app has been approved and it is available in the stores, it is significant to monitor its performance using KPIs i.e. Key Performance Indicators and other mobile analytical podiums. You can also entice the end-users in leaving a feedback to understand your app’s limitations and hurl out vital app updates. However, one thing to be noted that with native apps, any update you launch will have to pass through the same review process as the first submission.

Final Words

The above-mentioned guide is to help you grasp a better understanding of the different stages involved in the process of app development. But remember, app development is an ongoing process. You need to continually gather user feedback and stay on top of the technology to offer frequent app updates. This will ensure an optimal user experience.