Mobile Application Development Process And Design Stages

The development process of a mobile application consists of certain steps depending on the functioning structure and the services it provides to the user. In addition to the completion and test times of these steps, the total time is determined by including the general test period after the application occurs.

Server-Side Software Operations

If the mobile application has a scenario that requires communication with a server over the internet, the server-side transactions must be performed. After the software process on the server-side is finished, the mobile application can communicate with the server thanks to the API (Application Programming Interface) created by the software developer.

Member registration, member login control, transactions that create up-to-date data that cannot be accessed from the mobile application (e.g. news, newly added books, announcements, current articles, etc.) must be performed on a server and must access these data instantly through mobile application APIs.

After the processes on the server-side are completed, the stage of determining the APIs to be used in the application, ensuring the security of these APIs, and creating usage documents comes into play. After these stages are completed with the tests, the design process for the mobile application can begin.

Making Screen Designs for Mobile Application and Writing Operational Explanations

At this stage, detailed graphic designs as possible are produced for each screen of the desired mobile application, whether you want to create an app like WhatsApp or an app like Facebook. These designs can be made in any graphic design program if programs produced specifically for this purpose are used faster and more convenient results can be obtained.

Writing a detailed description of each screen along with the designs will also contribute greatly to the application development process. For example, if a warning window will be displayed during the time when data is taken from the server in the application, what kind of design should it have, which animation should be displayed, and what should be written in the content of the warning text, or whether the visuals on the screen of my list will be presented to the user in a synchronous or asynchronous structure.

Adapting Graphic Designs to Mobile Applications

It is the stage of saving the drawn graphic designs in appropriate formats with information, such as color codes, fonts, and submitting them to the developer in order to be used in the application.

Creating Mobile In-App Screen Designs

It is the step of starting the creation of the screen designs for the mobile application using the graphic elements created in the previous step. In fact, this step can be considered as the first stage of mobile application development. Completing screen designs requires the necessary optimizations for different devices, different sizes, and different operating system versions.

Determining the Libraries and Services to be used in the Application

The application development specialist analyzes the information received up to this stage and determines the libraries, local databases, auxiliary and main services to be used in the application. Application performance should be considered during this process. Errors such as using old libraries or using the same services together may cause application performance to decrease.

Mobile Application Software Development Stage

If the software to run on the server-side, the auxiliary API layer between the application and the server, the application screen designs, and the application development algorithm is ready, the application can now be coded. Software development specialist programs the application in the most appropriate way at this stage. It is quite normal for this phase to take longer than other phases. All other stages should actually be completed in a way that helps shorten the software development time.

Application Testing Process

After the application software development process is completed, the final stage, the testing process, is activated. In this process, the more different testers use different test devices, the better feedback will be received. According to the feedback received, revisions are made in the design and software parts and it becomes easier to determine the features for future versions of the application.

Presentation of the Mobile Application to the User

The software and design phases need to be tested a lot to determine that each is functioning correctly. The issues to be considered here are the correct operation and the processing time in the second stage. The bug that is not seen in the software stage can be clearly seen here. Depending on the project method, this stage can be used throughout the development process.

It is especially valuable to make final evaluations before the parts are assembled and released to the user. It can even be sent as a demo to a small audience of users and evaluate the errors that may appear. In this respect, the test phase is very important for the application. Because even the slightest mistake that the user will experience can cause customer and reputation loss. The last stage is to present the application to the user. Later, with the feedback from the user, improvements for the next version continue.