Questions to ask before building a mobile app
During the year 2020, everyone has seen a massive explosion of Mobile Apps and Web Apps hit the market. This has been due to various global trends and factors including COVID19.
Mobile Apps have assisted everyday life by providing various delivery methods from medical appointments to food delivery. Digital One Agency has been able to help businesses in many sectors change the way they do business and keep their businesses running by going online with a Mobile App, Web App or Website.
There have been some amazing start-up projects in 2020 with new and innovative ideas solving everyday common problems which have really taken off.
Digital One Agency works with start-ups, existing businesses of all sizes including ASX listed companies to design and build solutions that work.
What do you need to consider when you have thought of a great idea for a Mobile App?
- Are there any Apps or solutions that are similar to your idea?
- Have you thought about how your App will make you money?
- Are you selling the App, or is it a monthly subscription and In App Purchases?
- Should you have the App built as a traditional Mobile App or a Web App?
- Should you build and release your App in stages?
- Budget planning and financing to build your App?
- Naming, Branding and overall look and vibe of your App
- Should you just get your App prototyped first and then show potential investors?
- Do you have a marketing plan to launch and keep marketing your App?
All of the above are important questions in which Digital One Agency can help you with, we provide advice from start to finish as well as ongoing enhancements and marketing.
At Digital One Agency, we provide complete solutions to ensure your success. All of our divisions are in house from discovery, helping with or creating your business plan with you, to all design aspects, branding, prototyping, coding, to launching and maintain your app and helping you grow your app user base.
Tips:
NDA: Ensure whichever company you talk to in regards to your idea that they provide you with a Mutual Non Disclosure agreement. This is to protect your idea.
Company Location: Deal with an Australian based company, many people fall for cheap overseas prices, they end up sending money overseas and either ending up with a solution that is very poorly coded or does not work at all. There is no recourse for this, with an Australian company you are able to take legal action if something was to go wrong with your app development.
Progress Payments: Never pay for the full app development cost up-front, this is a major red flag if a company is asking for full payment up front. As we have seen over the years companies can go bankrupt, you can loose that money. Any professional development company will provide you with a time frame to build your App solution, they will also provide a payment schedule which is broken up over multiple progress payments. As your solution is being built, the development company will provide installable test builds so that you can see where your app is upto.
Get Agreements: Confirm everything in writing, ask any questions that you are unsure of. If you are unsure get a second opinion, confirm how long the warranty period is for the App solution the average is 90 Days from launching your solution, this is for bug fixes and any mistakes made by the development company.
What technology should my Mobile App be Built on:
There are a few factors to consider in regards to what “Tech Stack” should be used to build your solution, the first decision should be discussed with your development company.
There are benefits to building a traditional Mobile App, then there are benefits to building a Web App. Both have Pros and Cons, the development company should be going through the benefits of your App Idea and what functions it uses and needs and it may only work as a traditional mobile app and not a Web App.
Once decided on building your Idea into a traditional Mobile App, then there are options which need to be discussed or provided by your development company such as building the App in “Native Android” and “Native iOS” or building the solution in a Hybrid solution such as Flutter, Ionic or other hybrid solutions.
In Mobile App Development at Digital One Agency, depending on our clients requirements for their applications Flutter Mobile App development has become very popular as it enables development of mobile applications to be built on the one code base which saves development time and costs as well as long term costs to maintain and continue adding to your Mobile App.
In some instances, Flutter may not be a viable solution and your Mobile App will have to be built on Android Native and iOS native due to either hardware or software limitations.
Web App Development:
If your idea is best suited to a Web App which is built to be optimised for mobile and desktop, Digital One Agency will recommend the most viable programming language, to suit your App’s requirements for now and the future.
Digital One Agency has specialist programmers for all the top Web App programming languages.
Wireframe Importance:
Having a perfect wireframe built and designed by yourself or a development company is extremely important. This allows you to plan the app out in detail, with this both you and your development company can see all functions, abilities and perfect how the app will flow for your users.
This is also important to make sure that the development company has all of the agreed features in the App and the app will work as you planned. Once the Wireframe is correct, then the design, branding and refining should be perfected before the App is built.
App integrations:
Depending on what your App does you may want to connect or integrate Third Party services like Instagram, Facebook for social media connectivity.
SMS, email, WhatsApp or other external communication services can be integrated into your app.
Payment Gateways, In App purchases for subscription services. Stripe Connect for service based Apps automating payments.
There are many other services to consider for simplicity and convenience for your users.
App Backend Control Panel:
All mobile applications require a backend control panel, this allows you to have control over your app, push notifications to users, monitor usage of your app, generate reports. Depending on your app the backend control panel may need a lot of features and functionality or just the basics. It is particularly important to have this right from the start.
If you have an App idea or have an existing business and would like a Mobile App or Web App built, contact us at Digital One Agency for a obligation free 1 hour discovery call. Contact Us
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