Engineering mobile applications is a long, meticulous process, and not necessarily an easy one. There can be a series of pitfalls and blind curves involved in putting something together that does things better than the rest. Today, we see mobile apps everywhere. Be it B2B or B2C companies, mobile applications are used extensively across all channels religiously, from eCommerce to exclusive employee communication in an organization. But, there’s one element that has the same weightage across all domains: Reliability.

It is one thing to come up with a groundbreaking app idea, and another to have trailblazing performance as well as security. Then, of course, there’s the peaking competition in the market that’s bringing in a trend of developing complex, multi-functional apps that can do a plethora of tasks in a single click. Such intricacies would require an app developer to step up their app development game and string things up with lots of effort. In the end, it’d be absolutely worth it.

• Step I: Analyze Your Market

Needless to say, the market and the target group play the deciding factor in the development of your application. Be it understanding the current deliverables of pre-existing products, to discovering loopholes, and building upon them, is why it holds water. Therefore, before you can even get your development team started on this, you’d need to identify your competitors, their strategies, strengths (in terms of the product), and their USP.

Credits: Statista

All of the above would help your product to stand outside of the box and may give your customers a better chance to revolutionize their ways.

Step II: Developing Wireframe and Selecting Development technique

Just like the rough sketches to a painter, your wireframe would help your app idea to come out clearer and have a better definition. The design elements can be further tweaked to give it the recommended flow.

On the other hand, you’d need to make the final call to develop the application with the right method based on your budget and technology.

If you’d need a heavy-duty application that would perform several functions based on the user device’s native capabilities, then native apps would be the right choice. Or if you’re looking to build an app that takes in easy updates without depending on the user’s device, developing a web-app would be a wise call. Moreover, the type of app (react, native, or hybrid) would govern several factors of your application like its distribution method, timelines, as well as your budget.

Step III: Work on Measurable Milestones

Now that your legwork for building a wireframe is complete, it’s time to find out the technical limitations of the elements and sort it out with smaller solutions. You can also weigh in your options that could make your app durable and meaningful, instead of coming back after a few months of wear and tears.

To do this in a faster way, you’d need to set daily goals, analyze your progress, and break down comprehensive work routines into smaller, time-bound projects. Optimizing your development work can best utilize automation every step of the way to reduce any chances of errors

Step IV: Build an MVP and Take it From There

Instead of working on the whole product, you can focus entirely on the development of the Minimum Viable Product, or the stand-out features of the app. So, in this way you’d have it out of your way, and get plenty of time to extrapolate things out as the rest of the app comes about.

Sometimes, the core features that make the MVP can be the perfect way to test multiple functionalities and test cases.

Step V: Consider the Bandwidth of Devices

Generally, developers miss out on taking care of such little details as they work on mobile architecture and therefore may undermine its role. While the application might itself work seamlessly, because of the availability of varying internet connections, the user experience, and app performance may be affected.

Step VI: Fortifying Backend and Limiting Data Storage

Developers often undermine the need to keep the client-server system at the backend of the application safe and secure too. Why? Because there are a lot of things that come into play when it comes to API authentication and transport mechanisms, which can vary from one platform to another.

To restrict the misuse of sensitive, crucial user data it’s always a good step to store data into a keychain or encrypted datasets as a complex security guideline. You can also integrate an auto-remove attribute to data stored as per its date of storage.

Final Words

Remember that with every passing second your application gets outrun by some other developer trying to develop a bigger and better version. That doesn’t mean all your work is insignificant, in fact, it opens up new opportunities to keep your application sleek and updated with the newest features. Over the years, security measures have risen in their significance because of the malicious activities online, and therefore, as a mobile app developer you need to double-check everything.

Following industry best practices for mobile application development can ensure maximum reliability for the applications.
Our recommendations for a mobile developer who will set you on the right path:

• Hedgehog Lab, who’s located in the United Kingdom, and its primary service is developing mobile apps!
• Sonin, also located in the UK and offers excellent iPhone and Android app developers.
• CodeClouds, who’s a larger global agency that offers expert iPhone app development services