How to Create a Mobile App in Several Easy Steps?

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The market may seem to have a lot of developers with at least one mobile application mentioned in their resumes. However, there is still a high demand for developers to create an application. This is not a surprise since the digital trend has evolved, leaning toward easy and more mobile-friendly.

Anyhow, this trend raises interest in app development, and some people are wondering if there are some easy steps to create a mobile app? Are those steps as easy as many have claimed? 

It turned out; it takes no more than ten steps to create an application. These steps are very easy to do and apply to your project, even if it is your first time trying to create anything.

Why Is It Important

You might wonder why you need to know how to create an application. Many people underestimate this skill and end up being scammed by not having the project the way they wanted it to be, or worse, the project took so many unnecessary extra steps and took a long time to finish. 

It is imperative that you also understand how to create a mobile app. It doesn't matter if you are not a developer or have any formal education to create an app. 

This knowledge will help you in delivering your orders, as you will be able to tell your developers how you want the application to be. Both in terms of work and look. In return, they will have an easy time and the ability to create something based on your directive. It is a win-win situation.

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Easy Steps to Create a Mobile App

Here are easy steps that can help you create your first mobile application.

Rest easy; you won't have any difficulties as these steps are easy to follow and work well to help you develop both your app and your business.

1. Do the necessary market research.

Research is important before you start working on any project, including an application. You have to put down all of your ideas and see if it's plausible to do.

The research must cover several items that are important for your project. It is best if you make a list consisting of what are the features you want to have. 

Do all the necessary steps on research by starting to identify your strength and the competitors in the same market. Once you have decided what do you want to create, you have to look for similar applications that are already available.

You still need to do the research even if you want to create something to fill an idle time. Many developers look for an easy way and skip the steps for research. They end up having their talents wasted in an unpopular mobile app.

Market research is important to see how well the app you create will do. If there are a lot of competitors with similar features, then you need to create something unique for your application. Of course, you can come up with a brand new idea, but that won't be easy since it will be very expensive and take a long time to create.

Another thing you need to do your research on is time. You need to measure how long the mobile app will take time to create, how easy it is, and how many steps you need to take to create the project from start to finish. Keep in mind that the sooner you can release the app, the sooner you can start receiving feedback and work on the important upgrades.

There is no easy way to circumvent these steps. What is at stake is your time and effort for the whole project you create. That's why you should do all the research steps, and the rest of the project will be an easy walk.

2. Create a sketch

It's best and also easy to start by sketching your idea down. It doesn't have to be a good sketch, but it has to be informative enough and easy to understand for everyone involved in the project.

The steps for sketching differ for everyone. Some may start from the list of features they want to have, while others start by drawing the user interface. Do whichever steps that is easy for you.

At any rate, make sure that the sketch has all of your ideas included. Start with the interface and go to each menu. Have everything you want to see included there. Go easy with the details. You can always explain the steps and any other details when you pitch the project.

Don't forget to include the steps of how you want the app to work. Ideally, the users don't have to go more than three steps from the dashboard to a specific feature. The shorter you can make the steps, the more popular it will be. It's as easy as that.

Another thing when you want a lot of features in your mobile app is the application size. Of course, it won't be an easy task. But that is one of the challenges when you create something like this.

Don't worry if the application you create doesn't have anything you sketched down. You will naturally edit the content and only have the ones that fit you better, whether it is because they have the easy code or have fewer steps to do.

3. Build the mockup

Building the mockup when you are working on an app is one of the necessary steps to test how the app will work. Some people choose to create an inactive mockup only to see how the UI looks. It is the preliminary test before the final product is released. 

However, some developers choose to skip these steps altogether. They went from sketching and designing UI straight to code programming with minimum time for a mockup. This is doable only when you already have a lot of experience or collaborate with other developers and share the responsibilities.

At any rate, it is best not to skip these steps and still make a prototype of your project. This mockup will be the product demo that you can show to your client and testers and have them experience the application you create.

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4. Design the UI

The UI (User Interface) is one of the most pivotal points to pay attention to when you create a mobile app. As you know, an app always has to show some screenshots to show their selling points. That way, the users can judge whether the mobile app is the one they're looking for or not.

Having the right design for the UI is not as easy as many people think. It takes more than taking the landing page you create and feature everything you have mentioned. There are two important things regarding the user interface; those are readability and the user experience (UX).

The whole UI must help the users to do what they want with ease. Do not make it more than three steps to do what they want. Of course, you can't fill the whole page with buttons and texts. But you can streamline the command by using the group or category menus for the steps.

Again, make sure that the categories you create are easy to read and understand. The users are expecting the mobile app to help them, not to confuse them. 

Another thing to account for is device compatibility. The UI must cater to users from various walks of life that came across the mobile app. It means the application must be easy to be accessible on various screen sizes as well as OS versions. Don't forget that a new OS update means that you have to double-check your app to see if it's still easy to use, just like before. Make sure that you have tried the application with the latest OS update and notice the possible bugs.

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5. Make the Landing Page

This is one of the steps that developers tend to forget. They choose to skip ahead and think that as long as it's released on the market, it's done. They can't be closer to the truth.

The landing page is necessary for you to introduce what kind of application you create. Even though the actual application is a work in progress, you can gauge the interest and surrounding hype it helps create. 

The landing page is one of the important steps because it's needed to measure the application performance. As part of the marketing strategy, the landing page acts as one of the first steps to measure the application performance.

The landing page must have all of the information about the app. That is why you can't take it easy. It needs to have several screenshots of how the app will look like and all of the features it has. 

When you create a mobile app, you should utilize the landing page as an introduction to both the application and you. If you already have a blog, then it should be easy for you to market it as part of your blog.

If you are new at this and don't want to start a blog, you can use a community forum and create a thread there to introduce the app. That thread will be the landing page. However, it is best if you have a simple web page specific to the app. After all, a website is easy to obtain these days.

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6. Create the App

Starting to create the app may sound like an easy one. But when you have done all the previous steps, you are ready to create an app the way you wanted it to be.

The easy way would be creating the app using the software you have been using from the design process. Some of them have the tools that can help you code or even create the application without writing a single line of code.

Most of the software has all the tools that you need, including wireframing and prototype building. And once you have done all the steps and finalized the project, you can release it to the market.

Anyhow, keep in mind that Android and iOS have different code bases. It's not as easy as copy-paste or importing a file. You may have to restart the development. Remember, you are the one who knows where your target audience is. 

The perk of having done the market research steps is that now you can rest easy when dealing with an issue regarding the project. You have already identified the project strength and competitors. This is when you decide whether you're going to develop an iOS or Android-based one.

Of course, you are allowed to be ambitious and create for both OS. But keep in mind that it won't be easy. You will have to double your effort and budget.

Most people start with an Android-based application, and mainly because it is easy and requires less complicated steps than iOS. Even though the competition is tougher in the Android market, it's an easy starting ground for the first-time developer. 

Creating a mobile app is community work. Writing the code for the whole app from scratch is not an easy thing to do. Therefore, you can rely on the libraries and communities that have written similar codes and gone through the same steps before. 

Some of these codes are free licensed, so you can adapt them into yours just as easily. Some others came as templates designs on the software that you use to create the application.

It is normal if you hit a roadblock and have to retrace some steps during this process. Again, building or creating an application is not an easy thing to do. And the difficulties are most often happen during this process.

What you have to do is to analyze the issues and the steps to solve them. Those steps may not be easy, but they are necessary. 

If you are hitting a roadblock on the design, you can always return to the sketch and see if you missed any steps. If the issue is that there is a starling competitor, and you can't think of a way to haste the project without making an easy sacrifice. Then you can take a couple of steps back to the market research. Along with the sketch, you will be reminded of the project's capabilities along with other ideas that you can now explore.

Whenever you hit any roadblock, you can trace back the steps you've done and see where you can make the adjustments. The answer for any of the issues lies in those steps you made. 

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7. Market the Application

You can't expect the app to just take off after you have registered to the App Store and see it on their page. You still need to make some marketing effort to help the mobile app you create to be one of the top picks.

Creating a mobile app is one thing; marketing is another. There is no exact rule on how you should market the mobile app. But at the very least, you need to share your app with the community that you know will benefit from it.

When you start to create the project, you must have some ideas on the communities or user targets. This is one of the steps included in the preliminary market research. Marketing will be an easy matter when you create an application for a specific audience. 

If the application you create comes with an easy UI for the kids, then you must make it look appealing for all ages. Show both the parents and children that your app has everything they've been looking for. 

One thing to keep in mind is to make your prominent feature as obvious as possible. When there are other similar apps in the market, you need to show why users must download your mobile app and not the other. Make sure that you mentioned the intention to create a mobile app that will fill in the gaps.

When the users recognize what they need in your application, they will make marketing easy for you. Since word of mouth is still one of the most popular methods of marketing, they will do all the marketing steps for you.

When you create a mobile app, you also must count the budget for marketing. It's easy to go overboard. But you can avoid the mistake by utilizing the marketing method that you have for the time being. And that is the user's comments and ratings. 

Many people forget there are steps to be popular and choose to splurge on advertising with the minimum result. They forgot that most users trust other users on what they say and think about a mobile app. 

And when you have the extra budget, you can spend some more on marketing the app to expand the target audience. You may need to pay a little extra to have the application featured on the top. But it is an easy answer to skip a couple of hassling steps for re-marketing the application.

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8. Always Improve 

By being one of the people who create a mobile app, does not mean that you're immune to criticism. Instead, you have to keep an open mind on any type of comment that comes your way. If your first mobile app, then you need to have extra patience and be ready for all kinds of questions and comments.

It's not easy to take all of their comments at first, but after time, you will get used to it. Taking constructive criticism is one of the important steps to improve your character as a developer.

You may not agree with all comments and suggestions from the users. But these feedbacks are necessary notes for your next mobile app. You already have a first-hand account of knowing and understanding what the users are looking for in an app. Pay attention to what the users are saying about the mobile app. Do they admire the fluidity and have been accessing the app at ease. Or do they prefer something else? Also, watch for comments that ask for more features to be added.

You have the option to ignore or comply with these requests. If you have moved on and simply don't have time, you can tell the users that you have a new project, and any upgrades will be delayed.

The easy way out for dealing with those requests is by mentioning that you don't have time anymore and won't be adding any upgrades for the time being. 

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Conclusion

As long as you follow these steps, you are guaranteed that any project you create with this guide will perform well in its category. Anyhow, as easy as they are, these steps are crucial to the process of creating a mobile app. You will be surprised when you realize that a high number of apps got canceled when they were close enough to be released because some issue happened during one of these steps.

There are many ways to create something. Some of them are easy, and the rest may not be so easy. Whichever path you choose to take, keep in mind that these steps will take you further to be a better developer.