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Profitable Mobile App Development
-The Process
Each day thousands of mobile apps are published to

the Google Play and Apple App Stores.

Some of these mobile apps are games, others are

social networks, and many are e-commerce apps.

All of these apps, if professionally built, should follow a

similar mobile app development process.

At ONECALL Business Solutions, we have built over 100

web and mobile apps and in this E-book I will outline

the strategy, design, and development processes we

follow.

Each app is different and our methodologies are

always evolving, but this is a fairly standard process

when developing mobile apps.

This mobile app development process typically includes

idea, strategy, design, development, deployment, and

post-launch phases.

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 Idea
As trite as it sounds, all great apps began as ideas. If you

don’t have an app idea, the best place to start is to train

yourself to always think of things in terms of problems

and potential solutions. You want your brain to

instinctively ask “Why do we do things this way?” or “Is

there a better way to solve this problem?” If you can

identify a problem or market inefficiency, you are half

way to your idea!

The next thing to do is understand why this problem exists

and think about why nobody else has made an app to

solve this problem previously. Talk to others with this

problem. Immerse yourself in the problem space as much

as possible. Once you have a complete grasp of the

problem, begin to evaluate how a mobile app could solve

the problem.

This is where having some understanding of what mobile

apps can do is extremely valuable. We are frequently

asked, “Is this even possible?” Fortunately, the answer is

often yes, but it is imperative that this answer is sound.

You are about to invest a considerable amount of time

and money into an app, now is the time to challenge your

idea’s validity and viability.

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 Strategy

Competition
Once you have an idea, you need to plan for your app’s

success. One of the best places to start is by

identifying your competition.

See if any other apps serve a similar purpose and look

for the following:

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Number of installs - See if anyone is using these apps.

Ratings and reviews - See if people like these apps and

what they like/dislike about them.

Company history - See how these apps have changed

over time and what sort of challenges they faced along

the way. Try to see what they did to grow their user base.

There are two main goals of this process. First, learn as

much as you can for free.

Making mistakes is time consuming, frustrating, and

expensive.

Often, you have to try a few approaches before getting it

right. Why not save yourself a few iterations, by learning

lessons from your competitors?

The second is to understand how hard it will be to

compete in the marketplace. Are people hungry for a new

solution?

Is there some niche not being filled by the existing

options? Understand what gaps exist and tailor your

solution to meet them. If your idea is completely new, find

other “first to market” apps and study how they educated

consumers about their new product.

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 Monetization
Unless you just enjoy building apps for their own sake, you

are probably hoping to make money on your mobile app.

There are several methods of monetization that could

work, including: in-app purchases, subscription payments,

premium features, ad-revenue, selling user data, and

traditional paid apps.

To determine which is best for your app, look to see what

the market expects to pay and how they expect to pay for

similar services.

You also need to consider at what point you begin

monetizing your app. Far too many apps (particularly

startups) skip this step and have a hard time later turning

a profit.

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 Marketing
This step in the mobile app development process is all

about identifying the biggest challenges you will face

when marketing your app.

Assuming you have a reliable app development and app

design team, your biggest hurdles will likely be driving app

adoption.

There are thousands of beautiful and quite useful apps on

the app stores that simply go unused.

At this point you need to understand what your marketing

budget and approach will be.

In some cases (like internal-use apps or B2B apps) you

might not even need marketing.

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 Road Map (MVP)
The final stage of the strategy process is defining your

app’s roadmap.

The goal of this process is to understand what your app

could one day become and what it needs to be successful

on day one.

This day one version is often called your Minimum Viable

Product (MVP).

During this process, it can be helpful to write on a

whiteboard all of the things you want your app to do. Then

begin ranking these items by priority.

Consider what your app's core functionality will be, what

is needed to gain users, and what can be added later. If

there are some features you think users might want, they

are likely great candidates for later versions.

As you gain users with your MVP, you can solicit feedback

on what additional features are desired. App monitoring

(covered later in this article) can also assist in this process.

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User Experience Design

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 User Experience Design

Information Architecture
Information architecture is the process in which you

decide what data and functionality needs to be

presented within your app and how that data and

functionality is organized.

Typically, we begin this process by writing down a list of

features we want the app to perform and a list of what

needs to be displayed somewhere in the app. These are

the basic building blocks with which we will build the

wireframes.

Tools we use: Whiteboards and Pencil & paper

functions and data. It is ok if somethings live in multiple

places, but you need to make sure each item has a

home.

This process often takes place on whiteboards or paper

initially. You want to make changes here, rather than

later in the process, because it is much cheaper to erase

some marks than to rewrite code.

Once you have several screens drawn up, begin

considering your app’s workflows.

Tools we use: Whiteboards, Pencil & paper, and Sketch

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 Workflows
Workflows are the pathways users can travel within your

app. Consider each of the things you want your users to

be able to do and see how many clicks are needed to

complete that action.

Make sure each click is intuitive. If something takes a few

clicks to accomplish, that might be fine, but it should not

take a few clicks to perform common tasks.

As you find problems with your workflows, update your

wireframes and try again. Remember to run through all of

your features in each iteration, just to make sure you did

not increase the difficulty of one action in an attempt to

improve another.

Tools we use: Whiteboards, Pencil & paper, Invision

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 Click-through models
Click-through models help you test your wireframes and

workflows.

They are basically a way to experience your wireframes

on a phone for more realistic testing.

For example, our clients simply receive a link, which when

opened on their phone allows them to click through the

wireframe.

Although the app has no functionality at this point, they

can click on each page in the app and begin testing the

app’s navigation.

As you find issues in this step, make changes with your

wireframes and iterate until you are satisfied.

Tools we use: Invision

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User Interface Design

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User Interface Design

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User Interface Design

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 Styleguides
Style guides are basically the building blocks of your

app’s design.

Having a sound style guide will help tremendously with

your app’s usability. You don’t want your call to action

button on one screen to be at the bottom and blue, but

green and in the header on another screen.

By having a consistent design language, users are more

likely to be comfortable within your app.

There is a lot that goes into determining an app’s style

guide. You need to consider who you are and who your

customers will be.

Is your app going to be used at night? Then maybe a dark

theme will work best, as to not blind your users. Will it be

used mostly by busy employees?

Try to keep clutter to a minimum and get your main point

across. An experienced designer or design team has a

wide range of output and can deliver an app that is a

great fit for you and your customers. The output of this

phase is a set of colors, fonts, and widgets (buttons,

forms, labels, etc.) that will be drawn from in the design

of your app.

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 Rendered click-through models
Once you have all your screens rendered, return to your

click-through model application and test your app again.

This is the step in the mobile app development process

where you really want to take your time.

Although a considerable amount of effort has already

gone into the app, after this point changes can become

increasingly costly.

Think of this as reviewing a floor plan before your home’s

concrete is poured. Fortunately, mobile app development

is a bit more adaptive than construction, but thinking of it

in these terms can be the most cost-effective.

Tools we use: Invision

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Design-to-Development handoff
After having put in so much effort into the form and

function of your app,

it is imperative that this vision is properly realized by your

development team.

It always amazes me how often this step in the mobile

app development process goes poorly.

Perhaps this is due to many organizations and agencies

only providing design or development services or the

sometimes combative relationship between designers

and developers.

Whatever the reason, I highly recommend finding a team

that can provide both design and development services

and can properly handle this step in the process.

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Design-to-Development handoff
Part of what helps ensure a smooth transition and exact

implementation is the proper use of the available tools.

We like using an application called Zeplin, which helps

developers quickly grab style guides for the design. But,

this is not foolproof.

Zeppelin is a great tool, but sometimes its guides are not

exact or not the best implementation (it can use explicit

dimensions, rather than dynamic ones for example).

In those situations, it is immensely beneficial if your

developers can also use design applications (such as

Sketch or Photoshop).

The important thing here is that your team does not

simply best guess at dimensions, hex values (colors), and

positioning.

Your design team put in tremendous effort to ensure

things were properly aligned and positioned. Your

development team’s goal should always be a pixel-

perfect implementation.

Tools we use: Zeplin

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 High-level Technical Design
(Tech-Stack)
There are numerous approaches, technologies, and

programming languages that can be used to build a

mobile app.

Each with its own strengths and shortcomings. Some

might be cheaper to use, but are less performant,

whereas others might take longer to implement and be

overkill.

The worst possibility is building on a dying or unreliable

technology stack. If you make this mistake, you might

have to rebuild your app or pay a premium for developers

moving forward.

That is why having a trusted development partner that is

seasoned in making these decisions is vital in this

process.

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 Front-end (the mobile app)
For front-end development, there are basically 3

approaches.

They are platform-specific native, cross-platform native,

and hybrid.

Here is a brief overview of each approach and some

articles that delve into each with greater details.

Platform-specific Native - Apps built with this approach

are written separately for each mobile platform. Code

can’t be reused between Android and iOS, but these

apps can be fully optimized for each platform.

The UI can look entirely native (so it will fit in with the OS)

and the app should work fluidly. This is often the most

expensive approach, but is very tried and tested.

Cross-platform Native - Apps built with this approach

have some (or entirely shared) code, but still run natively.

Common technologies used for this are React

Native, Xamarin, and Native Script.

This is a nice middle ground between the various

approaches in that it is more cost-effective, but can still

be optimized and styled for each platform.

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 Front-end (the mobile app)
Hybrid - Hybrid apps are built using web technologies

(HTML, CSS, Javascript) and are installed via a native

wrapper.

This can be done using technologies such as Cordova,

Phone Gap, and Ionic. This option can be the cheapest,

but also presents some very real difficulties.

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 Back-end (web api & server)
The server is responsible for much of your app’s

performance and scalability.

The technologies used here are similar to those used to

power web-based applications.

Here are a few things you have to decide before writing

code:

Language - There are dozens of languages that can be

used to build your API.

Common languages used are Java, C#, Go-lang,

javascript, PHP, and Python.

Most languages also have numerous frameworks that can

be utilized.

Database - There are two main types of modern

databases. SQL and noSQL. SQL is more traditional and

the best choice in almost all cases. Common SQL

implementations include MSSQL, MYSQL, and

PostgreSQL.

In addition to selecting a database engine, you have to

design your particular database schema. Having reliable

and well organized data is crucial to your long term

success. So, make sure this is well thought out.

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 Back-end (web api & server)
Hosting Environment (Infrastructure) - In this step you

need to decide where and how your API and database

will be hosted.

Decisions made here will help determine the hosting

costs, scalability, performance, and reliability of your

application.

Common hosting providers include Amazon AWS and

Rackspace.

Beyond picking a provider, you need to plan how your

system will scale as your user base grows.

Cloud-based solutions allow you to pay for resources as

a utility and scale up and down as needed.

They also help with database backups, server uptime,

and operating system updates.

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 Development & Iteration
Sound mobile app development is an iterative process.

You have likely heard the term “sprints” or “agile

methodology”.

This basically means that you break up all development

work into smaller milestones and build your app in a

series of cycles.

Each cycle will include planning, development, testing,

and review.

There are entire books written on this process, so this

article will just provide a brief overview of each step.

If your company elects to use another process, these

steps will be quite similar, but the order and length of

each might vary.

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 Planning
The planning phase of a sprint involves dividing up the list

of tasks to be implemented during the current iteration.

Each task needs clearly defined requirements.

Once these requirements are understood by developers,

they will often estimate the time needed to complete

each task, so that the tasks can be evenly distributed to

ensure a balanced workload during the sprint.

Developers also begin planning their approach to solving

their assigned problems during this phase.

Skilled software developers find ways to intelligently

reuse code throughout an application.

This is especially important for implementing styles and

shared functionality.

If a design needs to be changed (believe me, something

will change), you don’t want to have to go and update

code in numerous places. Instead, well designed

software can be changed in select places to make these

sorts of sweeping changes.

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 Development
During the development phase your development team

will begin implementing the styles and functionality of

your app.

As they are completed, they are assigned back to a

project manager or QA tester for review.

Good project managers are able to fully optimize

developer workloads during this process by properly

redistributing assignments throughout the sprint.

It is important that your development team fully

understand the goals of the application as a whole and

for the specific feature they are working on.

Nobody is more in-tune with that particular feature than

the assigned developer.

They should understand the intent of the requirements. If

something starts to not make sense, it is often developers

who will be the first to let you know.

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 Development
During development, we use a platform called Hockey

App.

It allows us to privately and securely distribute the in-

development version of the app to testers, clients, and

other developers.

Hockey automatically notifies users of new builds (so

everyone is testing the latest & greatest), provides crash

reporting, and can ensure only approved testers have

access to your app.

It is a great way to keep everyone up to speed on

progress. During development, we try to update Hockey

once or twice a week.

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 Testing
Most testing should be performed by non-developers or

at least people who are not your app’s primary

developer.

This will help ensure a more genuine testing experience.

There are several types of testing that should occur

during each sprint.

These typically include the following:

Functional Testing - Testing to ensure the feature works

as described in the requirements. Usually, a QA team will

have a test plan with a list of actions and the desired

app behavior.

Usability Testing - Testing to ensure the feature is user-

friendly and is as intuitive as possible. Often it is helpful

to bring in new testers for a “first-use” experience during

this step.

Performance Testing - Your app might work perfectly, but

if it takes 20 seconds to display a simple list, nobody is

going to use it.

Performance testing is typically more important in later

sprints, but keep an eye on the app’s responsiveness as

you move along.

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 Testing
Fit and Finish Testing - Just because the design phase is

complete past, doesn't mean you can lock your designers

in a closet. Designers should review each feature and

ensure that their vision was implemented as described in

the design. This is another reason why having one agency

for both design and development is so beneficial.

Regression Testing - Remember that one feature from the

previous sprint? Don’t assume it still works, just because

you tested it last month. Good QA teams will have a list

of tests to perform at the end of each sprint, which will

include tests from previous sprints.

Device-Specific Testing - There are tens of thousands of

device and operating system combinations in the world.

When testing, make sure you try out your app on

numerous screen sizes and OS versions. There are tools

that can help automate this, such as Google’s Firebase,

but always test the app on at least a handful of physical

devices.

User Acceptance Testing - This is testing performed by

either the app owner or future app users. Remember who

you are building this app for and get their feedback

throughout the process. If a feature passes all the above

tests, but fails this one, what use is it?

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 Testing
As problems are discovered in this phase, reassign tasks

back to developers so that the problems can be resolved

and the issues closed out.

Once testing has been completed and each task is done,

move on to review.

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 Review
At the end of each sprint talk with each of the

stakeholders and determine how the sprint went.

If there were difficulties, try to eliminate similar issues

from future sprints. If things went well in one area, try to

apply them elsewhere.

No two projects are the exact same and everyone should

always be advancing in their roles, so aim to improve,

while you iterate.

Once review is complete, begin again with the planning

phase and repeat this process until the app is done!

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 Extended review
At this point your app should be fully testable and

feature complete (at least for the MVP).

Before you spend a sizable amount of time and money on

marketing, take the time to test your app with a sample

of your potential users.

There are two main ways to go about this.

Focus Groups: Focus groups involve conducting an

interview with a tester or group of testers who have never

seen the app before and conduct an interview.

You want to understand who these testers are, how they

learn about new apps, and if they use similar apps

already.

Try to get some background info out of them before even

getting into your product. Next, let your testers begin

using your app.

They should not be coached during this process. Instead,

let them use the app as if they had just found it in the

app store. See how they use the app, and look for

common frustrations. After they are done using the app,

get their feedback. Remember to not be too strongly

guided by any one tester, but combine feedback and

make intelligent decisions using all available feedback.

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 Extended review
Beta Testing: In addition to, or instead of focus groups,

you can do a beta launch of your app.

Beta tests involve getting a group of testers to user your

app in the real world.

They use the app just as if it had launched, but in much

smaller numbers.

Often these beta testers will be power users, early

adopters, and possibly your best customers.

Make sure they feel valued and respected. Give them

ample opportunities to provide feedback and let them

know when and how you are changing the app.

Also, beta testing is a great time to see how your app

performs on various devices, locations, operating

systems, and network conditions.

It is imperative that you have sound crash reporting for

this step. It does you no good if something goes wrong,

but is not discovered and diagnosed.

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 Deployment
There are two main components to deploying your mobile

app into the world.

The first involves deploying your web server (API) into a

production environment that is scalable.

The second is deploying your app to the Google Play

Store and Apple App Store.

Web API (Server)

Most mobile apps require a server back-end to function.

These web servers are responsible for transferring data

to and from the app.

If your server is overloaded or stops working, the app will

stop working. Properly configured servers are scalable to

meet your current and potential user base, while not

being needlessly expensive.

This is where the “cloud” comes in. If your server is

deployed to a scalable environment (Amazon Web

Services, RackSpace, etc.), then it should be able to

better handle spikes in traffic. It is not terribly difficult to

scale for most mobile apps, but you want to ensure your

team knows what they are doing or your app could fall

apart, just when it gets popular.

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 Deployment
App Stores: Submitting your apps to the app stores is a

moderately involved process.

You need to make sure your apps are properly configured

for release, fill out several forms for each store, submit

screenshots and marketing materials, and write a

description.

Additionally, Apple manually reviews all apps submitted

to their app store. It is possible they will request you

make changes to your app to better comply with their

regulations.

Often, you can discuss these changes with Apple and get

them to accept your app as-is.

Other times, you might have to make changes to be

granted entrance.

Once your app is submitted, it will be live in Google later

that day and in Apple within a few days, assuming

everything goes smoothly.

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 Monitoring
It would be incredibly naive to think that the mobile app

development process ends when the app is shipped.

Go look at any even moderately popular apps and you

will see a long history of app updates.

These updates include fixes, performance improvements,

changes, and new features.

Thorough monitoring is essential to best understand what

sort of updates are needed.

Here are a few things you should be monitoring.

Crashes: There are numerous libraries that can be used

to reliably track app crashes.

These libraries include information about what the user

was doing, what device they were on, and plenty of

technical info that is crucial for your development team

in resolving the problem.

Apps can be configured to send an email/text/alert

when crashes occur. These crashes can be viewed and

triaged accordingly.

Tools we use: Sentry and HockeyApp

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 Monitoring
Analytics

Modern app analytics systems are are treasure trove of

information.

They can help you understand who is using your apps

(age, gender, location, language, etc.) and how they are

using it (time of day, time spent in app, screens viewed in

app, etc.).

Some even allow you to view heat maps of your app, so

you know what buttons on each screen are clicked most

often.

These systems provide an invaluable glimpse into how

your app is being used. Use this information to best

understand where to invest future efforts.

Don’t build onto portions of the app that are seldom

utilized, but invest where there is action and the largest

potential for growth.

Tools we use: Facebook Analytics, Apptentive, Google

Analytics, and Appsee

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 Monitoring
Performance:

One vital metric not covered by the previous two

monitoring categories is your apps technical

performance, i.e. how quickly it works.

Any system we deploy has extensive performance

monitoring in place. We are able to track how many times

an action occurred and how long that action took.

We use this to find areas ripe for optimization. We also

put alerts in place to let us know if a particular action is

slower than expected, so we can quickly look to see if

there are any issues.

These performance tools typically have dash-boarding,

reporting, and alerting functionality included.

Tools we use: Prometheus

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 Monitoring
App Store Management:

App store ratings and reviews are extremely important,

particularly for newer apps.

Whenever a new review is left on your listing, make sure

to engage the reviewer.

Thank users who give you great reviews and try to assist

those who were frustrated.

I have seen hundreds of poor reviews changed to 5-stars

just with a little customer service.

Users don’t expect app developers and owners to

provide a hands-on level of service and that help goes a

long way in boosting your online reputation.

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Further Iteration and Improvement
The purpose of all this monitoring is to know what you

need to do next.

Most apps are never really done. There are always new

features that can be added and things that can be

improved upon.

It would be incredibly wasteful to blindly build on your

app. Use the information you have received from your

users and your monitoring platforms.

Then repeat parts of this mobile app development

process (don’t worry, many steps are much easier each

after the first pass).

Continue to improve your app, your conversion rates, your

install base, and of course your revenue.

Mobile apps are fluid.

Take advantage of that by continuing to grow and

improve.

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 Conclusion
The mobile app development process might seem

overwhelming and involved.

There are a lot of steps and difficult decision making is

required along the way.

But, it is an extremely rewarding process and can be

quite lucrative.

Also, there might be some temptation to skips steps in

this process, but this guide is built upon years of

experience working with app owners that chose to skip

certain steps.

If you are looking to build your next (or first) mobile app

and need help with one or more of these steps, you’re in

luck!

ONECALL Business Solutions welcomes app owners at

any stage in this process. Whether you are a startup or

Fortune 50 company, we have the team and knowledge

needed to deliver a fantastic mobile app. Please don’t

hesitate to contact us today.

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 Contact
Email

[email protected]

WhatsApp

+91 - 9987908969

Website

www.onecallapplications.com

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 Umran Nayani
Umran Nayani, Founder & CEO

Umran serves as the primary point of contact for many of

ONECALL Business Solutions clients.

He assists app owners in making high-level decisions and

guides them through the design, development, and

deployment processes.

As a solutions strategist, Umran has worked on numerous

web and mobile projects, including several of ONECALL

Business Solutions flagship applications.

When not at the office, he can often be found at the

studio; either spitting Rap tunes or recording Podcast

episodes for his '60 Day Startup Launch Blueprint' Show.

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 60 DAY STARTUP LAUNCH BLUEPRINT
- GO FROM IDEA TO 1ST PAYING CUSTOMER IN 60DAYS

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