Developing a mobile app is a great idea! The mobile app market is outrageously expanding and highly competitive. But why do you want to build a mobile app? The answer to this question can determine whether your app will be successful or not. To ensure excellent visibility of your app, you need to resolve a problem for your target audience. It will help if you are particular about the approach followed for the mobile app development.
With a clear strategy for targeting the right market and audience, you can get started with a mobile app development company to develop your first mobile app.
To create a successful mobile app, we have summarized 12 vital steps to help you out.
1. Get an Idea
Getting an idea is nothing but finding a problem you can resolve. If you are looking for problems, they are everywhere!
If you want to be successful, solve problems in a way no one could have ever imagined. If you note carefully, every business services and products are created to solve a problem. Your thoughts should revolve around, making others’ life more comfortable to grow faster as a mobile app.
2. Do Market Research
Before you get into development, it is essential to be specific about your niche. Do in-depth research on your competitors, what are they doing, market trends and strengths, weakness, mistakes that occurred in the past. To ensure that you don’t take the same road with a lot of many hindrances. Analyze and evaluate how your app is different from your competitor’s app. what are the mobile app platforms you will be focusing on for development, identify your target audience, marketing strategies, ways to monetize your app, and so on. Proper market research can help you form a strong foundation of success in the future.
3. Design your Concept
Transform your abstract app ideas into visuals. Get your insight into the paper with rough sketches and sample interface layout to transfer your ideas of design to the development team or UX designer to help them understand your expectations of the app. Illustrations can help you enhance your interface layout and opens space for improvements.
4. Layout Flow and Features
Once you have the concept of the app, validate your idea, which will be used by your target audience. Use a wireframing to detail your product. A wireframing is a visual mockup of your app concept. Put every aspect of your idea on paper and include the flow of navigating your users, useful features. Wireframing will help your mobile app developer to understand your expectations clearly. Also, consult with an experienced developer to sort the features that can be included or removed, which will offer a core value for your app idea. Having sufficient features also helps you get to the market quicker and add updates later after the app launch.
5. Define your Backend
Based on your expectations of features, design, and wireframe, you can define your backend structure. It gives a clear view of your server and database, etc. If you’re not familiar with the backend, you can ask your development team to help you define the app’s backend structure. Additionally, with professional help at all these steps can lead you to avoid mistakes and get nearer to success when your objectives are conveyed.
6. Hire a Development Team
Once you map the functionalities, it time to build it. You should hire an app development company with excellent interface design talents and a skilled development team. While hiring a developer, make sure you check the credibility of the company and ask for the portfolio to check, they could find the right one to develop your first mobile app.
7.Create a Prototype and Get Feedback
Create a prototype of your actual app and share it with experts, friends, and family to review the app. Ask and take only honest feedbacks. Note where the problems are and resolve the problem while developing the app. It’s essential to solve all the issues in the prototype to avoid any corrections in the designing stage. Making changes in the app design might consume more time and effort to change.
8. Create your Developer Account
Once the backend structure of your app is ready with the server setup, database, API, and cloud storage of your app, etc., you must register for a developer account with the respective app stores such as android, iOS, and other app platforms. You have the option of registering as a company or an individual. Creating a developer account in android and iOS platforms requires several days to approve your account.
9. Start Designing your App
At this stage, your designer should start designing your interface screens. It is a high-resolution format of the prototype which you have already created with the help of wireframing. Make sure you incorporate all the feedback and corrections provided by the users of the time of prototype testing. Taking all the negative feedback into account, you can create a better user experience with a better end user-friendly interface.
10. Test your app
Testing your app on the technical and end-user side is an efficient way to make the app is a successful one. Giving an app multiple rounds of testings helps you identify the crashes, bugs, and missing features where you can later fix. The issues at the next development phase. Testing is to find how the app works when end users use/download it.
11. Do Beta Test
Review the testing continuously, and you should keep improving the app to attract and retain users. Do beta test once again before launching the app. Implement the comments from the users, remove or add features if necessary. Beta testing is an essential step in every mobile app development process.
12. Introduce Features
Keep building your app. Create a version one with limited features and only the core offerings. Evaluate the features that are missing in the initial version and introduce the advanced features later. Make your app is relevant to the users and trends with the help of feedback and analytics.
Next Big Step!
App development is a smart game! Unless and until you know your objectives and strategies clearly defined, it’s not going to be easy. After all these steps, your very first mobile app will be all set to release in the app market. Submit your app before 3 to 4 weeks of your launch to app stores; they all follow different publishing policies; keep in mind to have everything is aligned to the start.
Congratulations on your first-ever mobile app! Still, it’s an ongoing process, and you need to deploy effective marketing strategies to make your app visible on the app store. Based on the feedback and trends, keep building new updates, and increase your downloads to make your audience use the app.
Guest article written by: 
Mariappan Rajendran. Founder and Director of Agira Technologies. He is an enthusiastic entrepreneur leading a dedicated team of developers. He is helping businesses across the globe build scalable tech products with a great passion for software and app development.