#Appdesiging Archives - Page 2 of 2

Firebase for Startups: Is it a Must-Have or a Bonus?

Posted on 15/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

There’s no secret to a mobile app that rules million hearts that goes beyond how well its Backend and Frontend is developed.

And the presence of well-structured frontend and backend, or their lack thereof, is what leads to a rise or a steep fall of any mobile app and ultimately the startup backing it.

While Frontend in itself a lot sorted in terms of it being a mere ‘the-step-ahead’ on the efforts put in by the Backend team, it is the Backend development process, particularly one involving Mobile app backend database, that needs some extra eagle-eye attention.

Backend Development, as we have already established in our Guide on Mobile App Backend Development is what powers the effortless experience that mobile app users swoon over and decides the future of a startup. And to achieve something so crucial the industry has offered a number of development tools and platforms.

One such tool that we are going to discuss here at great lengths is a powerpack offered by Google that goes by the name of Firebase Backend-as-a-Service – a platform that has over time created a lasting impression on both developers and startups, establishments around the globe.

Here’s an infographic showing the market of Firebase and enlisting the companies using Firebase in their processes…….

Now that we have seen the market that Firebase has captured, let us now look at what is Google Firebase and what does the term Firebase for Startups entail –

What is Google Firebase?

Firebase Backend-as-a-Service which started off as a YC11 Startup grew into a next-gen mobile app development platform for Google in no time.

The platform that gives developers two options – Realtime and Cloud Firestore – frees Firebase developers from the need to manage servers, write APIs or simply manage their datastore and focus on something that really matters – Curating amazing user experiences.

Let us look at everything that Firebase for web apps and mobile apps is –

List of Firebase Features

A. It is Real-Time

Most of the databases present in the industry today makes you do HTTP calls to gather and sync your data. But, when you connect to Firebase, you make a connection via WebSocket and not HTTP.

Now, the case with WebSocket is that they are very fast and you are not required to make specific WebSocket calls as only one connection is enough to sync all your data through the single WebSocket.

Firebase web app sends over new data instantly as it is updated. When the client saves a change in data, all the connected clients get the updated data in real-time.

B. It Stores Files

Firebase offers an easy way to save the binary files to Cloud storage straight from the client. The storage comes with its own security rules system for protection of your GCloud bucket from masses while giving detailed writing privileges to the authenticated clients.

C. It Authenticates

Firebase auth comes with built-in email and password authentication system. It supports OAuth2 for Twitter, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and GitHub.

Also, since Firebase OAuth2 is mainly copy/paste, developers can finally bid adieu to the difficulty that comes tagged with Custom authentication coding.

D. It Hosts

Firebase comes with easy-to-use hosting service used for all the static files and serves them via global CDN having HTTP/2.

And to make the whole development process completely painless, Firebase host makes use of Superstatic, which you can run locally for all the testing needs. The Superstatic + BrowserSync development environment that Firebase comes with is very neat. While BrowserSync handles all the reloading of development app across the connected devices, Superstatic copies Firebase mobile app hosting in a way that developers can deploy straight to the Firebase for production use.

E. It is Fully-Featured App Platform

Firebase developer team has made it possible to integrate a bunch of existing and new Google products with your Firebase mobile app. A number of these features can be applied to Android and iOS but not Web –

Remote Configuration
Crash
Test Lab
Dynamic Links
AdMob
Notifications

Now that we have looked at what Firebase is and what it stands for, it is time to look into the reasons that make Firebase for Startups ideal for those who are just starting with the mobile app development domain and are looking for a platform that would help them concentrate on creating real value for the users, instead of dealing with the time-taking backend tasks.

Why Should Your Startup Use Firebase for Apps?

For the Amazing Analytics

What is Google Firebase if not a product that offers a series of insights and analytics? One of the most preferred features that come tagged with a Firebase mobile app is its Analytics dashboard. The dashboard is free and comes with a capacity of reporting over 500 different event types with each of them carrying over 25 attributes.

The dashboard helps give a clear picture of the user behavior and in measuring the different users’ attributions. Lastly, it helps businesses in understanding how users interact with their app, giving them ways to optimize it better for the future.

For Sorted App Development Process

For the companies using Firebase, the platform takes ownership of a number of processes that are otherwise known to take away a major part of the developers’ time thus keeping them away from developing quality apps that offer unprecedented user experience. The features that Firebase web app comes with, make it possible for developers to focus on what is important –

Cloud Messaging
Hosting
Authentication
Test lab
Remote Configuration
Realtime Database
Crash Reporting
Storage

For Heightened User Engagement

No matter what category your mobile app belongs to, the ultimate aim that all businesses wish to achieve is high revenue and popularity – both that comes as a result of positive user experience.

Firebase web apps and native apps come with a number of in-built features that not just give you insights into the users – how they are interacting with the app, the stage where they are leaving the app, the part they are engaging with the most etc, but also give you measures to correct declining engagement.

For Increasing Your Revenue Count

Firebase is more than a mobile app backend database. Firebase prepares you to earn high revenues on your mobile app. The AdMob Firebase feature enables you to monetize the app even when you are at the stage of thinking about giving a pleasant experience to your users.

With Firebase, you can show your ads to millions of the Google Advertisers in the real-time, select the format that suits your mobile app, and work with over 40 ad networks with AdMob mediation.

For Knowing What Went Wrong

The feature that comes with Firebase for web apps and mobile apps helps in the creation of a detailed report of error which is categorized in groups having comparative stack flows chosen according to the seriousness of the impact that it has on the users. Other than that, it also gives businesses the ability to register to the custom events which helps in identifying crash before it even occurs.

For Becoming Searchable

The only direct route, besides advertisement, that will make your brand a known name in the world of millions of prospective users is through mobile app indexing – a process that will place your application on the top fold of the search engine when a user enters a query seeking solutions that your app offers. Firebase for apps come with an in-built App Indexing feature which makes it possible for you to place your app on the SERPs and thus in front of millions and billions of Google Search Engine users.

For Inviting New Users

Google Firebase with its ‘Invites’ feature makes it possible for you to motivate and compel prospects to become loyal users. It allows you to send customized emails, invitations, and messages to the potential clients directly on their device in a time that you choose.

For Firebase Dynamic Links

Firebase Dynamic Links is an example of deep linking done right and a silencing answer to ‘Is Firebase good?’. The links work as you want them to, on the platform of your chose and even when your mobile app is not installed on users’ devices.

With the Dynamic Links, users get just the right experience of the platform, which they open the link on. When users open your Dynamic Link on Android or iOS, they are taken to the linked content of your app. Likewise, when the link is opened on a desktop, the link takes them to an appropriate place which would get them the right experience.

Moreover, Dynamic Links operate across different app installs functions: when the user opens a dynamic link of Android and iOS when the app is not installed, they are given a prompt to install the app, and once it is installed, the first launch page of the app is one that users clicked the link for.

For Powering App with Machine Learning

Nowadays, with the upsurging demand of Machine Learning powered mobile apps which contains features like – text recognition, face detection, image labeling, barcode scanning, and landmark detections – has become one of the must-have element for every app that is to be termed as innovative.

Firebase, with its ML-Kit, offers you both – an on-device and Cloud-based API which works even when the network connection is missing.

So, you see how beneficial Firebase can be for your startup?

Now even though there are a lot of benefits that come attached with the incorporation of Firebase in a mobile app, there are some hard to ignore limitations as well that come attached to the platform.

Let us look at them before we head on to studying the instances where it makes sense to invest in Firebase and places where it doesn’t.

The Limitations of Firebase

The Console is Not Very Useful

Although the console lets you do multiple things but in the end, it is not very useful. A very limiting part about the console is that there is a massive lacking of detailed analytics and logs. While you get a graph showing the database usage, it is difficult to know the number of times a file was downloaded until you find a solution for yourself.

Defining the Security Rules

Firebase uses JSON file using Javascript code with strings for defining rules on the storage and database. Now, usually it is not that big of a challenge as one can use Bolt for making the process a lot less painful, but the fact that once get around the dozen simple rules, the file gets unmaintainable.

Restricted Javascript SDK

There are a number of Firebase features that are implemented only in the iOS and Android SDKs. The most prevailing limitation is the absence of offline persistence when working on JavaScript.

Although, all your hybrid, web, and React Native applications will work even when data is lost momentarily when you close the tab or application the data is completely gone. So, it then comes on you to implement a cache, which can be a pretty time-taking task on mobile.

Limited Data Modeling

Firebase database is simply one big JSON file. There’s not even a single way to show many to many or one to many relationships. When put into practice, it means that you will almost always end with duplication of data everywhere.

Now that we have seen the limitations that Firebase comes with, let us look into the time where it makes sense to employ the platform and place where it doesn’t.

Firebase For Startup: When does it make sense and when it doesn’t?

After all plus points and limitations are seen and adhered to, the deciding factor of when Firebase should be used and when Firebase for Startup is a bad option ultimately come down to the complexity of the mobile app project.

If the app belongs to simple to medium level complexity, Firebase should be incorporated in your mobile app but if your app belongs to high complexity and deals in a lot of data, you should choose some other option, one where the data is entirely in your control.

Also, when you consider the Firebase pricing into the picture, it will again make greater sense to use it for smaller projects as compared to complex ones.

After all said and done, the fact remains that we have worked on Firebase, a lot, and have been enjoying the experience to a huge extent. So for us, the only right answer to – is Firebase good? Is YES!

So, before we help you get direction to our Backend team who would help you get started with Firebase, let us look at how our experience has been so far.

Our Firebase Experience

We have worked around a number of Firebase offerings.

And using Firebase Analytics, we have created several project management tools and content management systems.

Overall, we have enjoyed working on Firebase. It is hands-down an exceptionally useful layer and flexible platform for building both mobile and web applications.

The platform has worked in our favor under a number of different projects that we applied it in – project management platform, a real-time chat, and a billing system.

The one thing that we loved about it is that Firebase grows as your development cycle grows – we first used Firebase editor for mocking up data and getting the idea of how the application works and then, later on, used the datastore, the same one, for serving up a huge amount of data per month.

Apart from this, there are three other factors that made us stick to Firebase for as many applications as possible –

Lets us Avail the Power of Realtime

It is almost surreal when the application you have developed works in a true real-time sense. It doesn’t ask people to wait as the page loads but give them the information as they get asked for it.

But realtime is an everything or nothing element. In case your data fails to broadcast updates, it becomes difficult to join with the realtime data again, making it very tempting to drop the idea to real-time altogether. However, with Firebase’s APIs and high applicability, we get to work realtime from the very beginning of the project.

Easy Firebase Scalability

We have moved from some test projects to hundreds of live design products without having to deal with the database servers. Firebase scalability, indeed, has been one of the most convenient elements for us when it comes to handling an infrastructure.

Build Crucial Data Structure in Firebase

All the apprehensions that we had when it came to trusting Firebase for development of fragile and critical data structures were solved with us locking and securing a number of areas of the database for allowing only our RPC methods to modify them.

Wish to incorporate Firebase in your mobile app? Get in touch with our team of Backend Experts, today!

Proven Methods to Test Your Minimum Viable Product

Posted on 13/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

Minimum Viable Product is a means to test the product that you are going to be launching in the market. It should be understood that MVP does not mean an unfinished product rather it is a way to get feedback for the final product. Let’s break down the term MVP for better understanding.

Minimum means a product that has simple features and usually, no users want to use or buy it. Viable is the product that a developer dreams of creating with the help of available resources to fulfill the needs of users. So the term MVP means a way to build such a product that has all the features and at the same time, has used fewer resources. It also should be able to get honest feedback which is how the final product will be developed.

The idea minimum viable test does not mean to see if the product can be technically improved or not. MVP shows whether a product should be built in the first place or should not be built at all.

Why does your product need Minimum Viable Product?

Who would have imagined that apps like Twitter, Instagram and Uber would blow up like this and would gain world popularity? We are guessing very few. In fact, Twitter gained its popularity through gradual growth. So, why do you need an Minimum Viable Product ?

Minimum development cost

When an app is developed with many features and attractive designs, it’s development cost is high. An MVP is developed with limited resources and is still a product. The cost of developing an MVP can range between $10,000 to $20,000. However, it can be less than that as well.

Getting paid customers becomes easy

As a startup attracting new users without spending a heavy amount on ads is quite difficult. MVP for startups is a way to bring in more users by spending less. If users find your product good enough, they will communicate it to their friends and that’s how things go viral. Also, when the final product is launched, getting paid customers from the existing user base become possible.

Feedbacks for your product

As stated already in our article, titled “What is Minimum Viable Product?“, considering Minimum Viable Product helps with gathering user feedback. These feedbacks further becomes a way to understand how certain features should be built. And this way, saves the developer the time and cost to go all in with the product while ensuring better market response.

Save your time and efforts

Other very important things that go into making an app are time and effort of the developer. Imagine having spent sleepless nights working on an app and when its launched, it gets very less traction. It will be the most disappointing thing for any developer. It’s better to use time and put the effort into building an MVP which will bring feedbacks.

Raise money

If you have saved a couple of million dollars for the projects then you probably may not need MVP to save money. But if you haven’t then MVP is a great way of attracting investors. It is easy to build an MVP that raises money for your app rather than getting no funding for your final product. There are platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, AppBackr, etc that provide funding for apps.

What is a good Minimum Viable Product ?

Now that we know MVP is important for your product, how do we define if an Minimum Viable Product is good or not? To answer that question, let’s look at the following five traits of a successful MVP:

MVP success criteria is achieved when the MVP is focused on one individual. This means that a buyer persona is used to target the audience and is as specific as defining one single person. As it is said that keeping in my one person and solving his problems with your product gives the best results. The biggest mistake usually made is building for multiple audiences.
Even though we are building for one person, we do have to listen to multiple feedbacks. Sometimes different opinions and views solve most of the problems. If people fit into the category of your product, take their feedback seriously.
MVP does not mean you have to do less and expect more. Your MVP should be able to showcase what problems your product can solve and how can it solve them. This is even more important if your product already has big competition.
MVP test is just as important as building an MVP. It is impossible to earn money from a failed MVP, no matter how much you try. So, make sure testing the MVP is an important part of your development process.
An MVP is supposed to find mistakes and gather feedback. Keeping the launch of the MVP limited to as less many people as possible is going to be a wise choice.

Some tools to test your product idea

Validation is not a one-time thing but a continuous process. In every stage, a certain type of validation is required to make sure the product is strong for the market. There are some tools which can be used to test the product ideas before building the actual product.

Research study

When the product is just an idea, try to find out as much as possible about it. Gathering significant information will help in improving the product which will stand out in the market. Tools like Google, Crunchbase, Angel.co, LinkedIn, Google Adwords, SEMrush, Alexa, Quora, etc. are some great sources to gather information. These platforms have vast information on the latest market needs and have a large number of active users.

PoC

In order to convince others that your product is great, you need to make sure you understand it well. Once you are through with it, use tools and platforms to tell others about your product. Use Quora, Google spreadsheets, Facebook ads,c etc to present your product in front of users. You can also use UXPin to bring the product sketches to life or create a landing page with Landingi to create a community.

Prototypes

When you see users interact with your product, that’s when you know where the improvements have to be made. Developing a prototype of your product not only ensures success or failure but also creates scope for improvements. Use prototype tools like HotJar, Survicate, SecurionPay, Google Analytics, Woodpecker, Growbots, Appoint.ly, UserEngage, AppSumo, etc. to reach out to a large audience with your prototype and track their behavior.

Mistakes to avoid while building your MVP

Even though MVP is built to reduce the risk, there are some gaps that are formed while building an MVP. Avoid these common mistakes made by most developers:

An improper market, product, customer needs, demographic research.

What most people forget to do is a thorough validation of the market, idea and the product. Building an MVP is quite easy in reality but building a success MVP is where the big difference lies. Without proper research about the market and the product, the chances of succeeding decreases.

Building for multiple platforms

Most startups think that building the MVP for all the platforms will increase the success of the actual product. But in reality, this is just going to make the process complicated. If an MVP fails then the developer may not have any money to start over since all the money was spent on developing for different platforms.

Features and updates

Bringing in users with one solid feature is a more effective approach rather than launching the MVP with all the features. Even if the other features are good, they can be brought in later in the updates. Prioritize the features to see the best results and reduce the chances of failure.

21 Solid ways to test your MVP

Now, that we know why your product needs an MVP, let’s move onto how to test MVP of your product. Building an MVP is not the only important task but testing its viability is just as important too. A company may think that the product can satisfy the needs of the customers but until and unless the MVP test is run, it can not be said for sure.

There are many tactics for testing minimum viable product. But we will discuss only the best ones on this blog. So, let’s begin!

1. Fundraising

Crowdfunding is a way you can test whether your app will do good in the market or not. Platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are a filled with MVPs that get funding from people who find the product interesting enough. This gives your product exposure to a group of interested and active users. The money raised from these platforms will help in building the final product to launch in the market.

2. Blogs

Having a blog is like having a platform for two-way communication with the prospect users of your product. Blogs are a way to discuss and gather feedback about a product. This will give you an honest opinion about the product by seeing how much keenness the users are showing.

3. Customer interviews

Talking face to face with customers provide the most honest reviews. People may lie or sugarcoat the opinions online but when it comes to face to face feedback, it’s as honest as it can get. Interviewing the customers is usually done in a casual manner but is rather descriptive. The interviewee states assumed problems to get feedback on the same.

4. Videos

It is quite obvious that if an image can speak a thousand words then a video can speak millions. Explainer videos can be used by developers to demonstrate the functionality of the product and answer questions like what, how and why. At the end of the video, the viewer must be clear about what the product is, how it works and why does he need it. Dropbox is an example in such a case. They used a video to gather subscriptions for a product that didn’t even exist.

5. Pre-order Pages

Pre-orders are quite popular with books, gadgets and other interesting products. When it comes to pre-ordering, the idea is to convince the users with your product enough to make them pay for it beforehand. However, there is a chance that users may not be willing to put their money at risk way before the product is even born. For this, the presentation of the product must look as appealing as possible.

6. Social-media surveys

Social-media surveys are quick, easy and most of the time gives honest feedback. Of course, this works when the focus is on the right questions. For instance, Facebook surveys have a feature that allows users to add their own options as an answer which gives interesting insights. Another good reason to use social-media surveys is that users don’t need to go out of their way to fill in the surveys.

7. Paper prototypes

Unlike digital prototypes, these are tangible. A paper prototype is build to understand a product’s user experience. Anyone in the team can use these prototypes can understand how the product works. This will be very useful in the case of physical products like mobile phones, tables, chairs, etc.

8. Emailing

Sending emails to see how many users click on the links or follow up with the email is another way of testing MVP. However, this works even better when you already have a list of emails. While the emails have been sent to the users, make sure to track the actions with the help of tools such as Yesware or use the built-in plugins.

9. Landing pages

Landing pages are the pages the prospective customers go to find out about your business. A landing page can show the interest of the customers with the way they behave and interact on the page. Building a landing page should always be followed by tracking analytics with the help of tools like Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, etc.

10. Competitive products in the market

There is a high chance that the product you are thinking about launching is already present in the market. This can make your new product suffer. To avoid that try analyzing the competitor’s product and see what they have that your product doesn’t. Also, your product’s unique feature can become the strongest feature.

11. A/B Testing

A/B testing is a way to test whether one version of a page is more effective than the other. This test can be done on a webpage where two different versions of the same page are shown randomly to the visitors. Then with the help of tools like Google Analytics, Unbounce, etc. information can be gathered about the interaction.

12. Piecemeal MVPs

Piecemeal MVPs means building a demo of your product using existing tools. For instance, Groupon is the best example of a piecemeal MVP. what Groupon did was built a WordPress website with Apple mail and a script that generated PDFs for the orders. This way the effort and cost of building an MVP become much less than anticipated.

13. PPC campaigns

You will be using PPC campaigns at least once for your actual product so testing out your MVP will be great. For starters, you can pitch in $100 and see the results. If your MVP does not get any leads, then either your ad is flawed or your idea is not good enough.

14. Micro-Surveys

The disadvantage of general surveys is that they are too long and at times becomes quite annoying for online users. Users either skip the survey or fill it in a hurry and that is why these fail to give the accurate results. In micro-surveys, you can ask a couple of MVP survey questions to which you will get honest answers. Micro-surveys have two to three questions which online users find easy to answer.

15. Ad campaigns

Platforms like Google and Facebook are the go-to when it comes to running ad campaigns. Before the product is even launched, you can put up ads and see how many users engage with it. There are even tools to analyze the clicks, engagement and other important behaviors.

16. Services and Platforms

Using SaaS and PaaS to build an MVP can help you in testing your MVP quite well. There are multiple choices to choose from and the building becomes easier and faster. These software and platforms also help in increasing reach of the product. Usually, developers face problems like compatibility of the app, mobile-friendly design and other code-based issues which can be eliminated as these tools already have taken care of those issues.

17. Manual-first MVP

A manual-first MVP (Wizard of Oz) is a way of interacting with actual customers rather than running an online survey. This MVP testing technique shows a picture of a fully completed product and when a user orders it, you deliver it manually. In this MVP testing, the users are getting what they see. Even though it takes much effort but it is worth it.

18. Concierge MVPs

The concierge MVP test is similar to the manual-first MVP test but instead of faking the products, the products are real. This MVP tests and answers whether the users are willing to use and pay for your products or not. An online dress rental business, Rent the Runway, tested their business model with this MVP testing technique. They were able to find the right answer to their questions.

19. Digital prototypes

Digital prototypes can be used to display the actual product in a digital way. Wireframes can showcase products such as apps, games, etc. These prototypes can be anything from screenshots to digital sketches to mockup apps which will validate the user experience.

20. Single feature MVP

Sometimes testing the one and an only strong feature of your product results in the best conversion. Getting feedback on that one feature can help the product immensely rather than focusing on multiple features all at once. It will also help in narrowing down the customer base and will allow better focus. This testing is considered one of the most advised MVP testing strategies.

21. Software testing

If nothing works then there are multiple softwares for MVP test. Software such as QuickMVP, OpenHallway, Five-second test, Justinmind, InVision, etc. are some great ones to get your MVP tested.

Why Rich Animations is a great design trend

Posted on 18/06/202018/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

In today’s world, the animation plays a crucial role in communication. It is incredibly versatile and can communicate abstract, complex and multidisciplinary concepts in an effective and easy manner. Gone are the days when people said: “ Animation is just a small part of interface design or product design and it is not essential “. Today, they are not used merely as eye candy, but as a powerful tool meant to enhance user experience. They are like heartbeats that brings life and soul to interfaces and products.

Latest web developments have allowed animations to be implemented easily which has given us designers truckload of opportunities. Simple or elaborate, animation can fascinate the users at every step. In this blog, I would like to highlight 5 ways you can use rich Animation’s to bring life to your designs:

Storytelling and fun way to convey any message

Who doesn’t like Stories? Probably no one. Animation can be used for storytelling and through them, even the most difficult concepts can be conveyed easily to the users. For example, previously, most brands were using the tutorial videos to help their users understand the process and benefits. But, today, the animation is ruling this space; pick up any app they are generally supplemented with ‘Splash Screens’ or step by step messages to guide users through the usage of the app.

Furthermore, it adds up to the personality of a website or mobile app, basically, your digital presence. Whether it is a long scroll of seamless sections of a website or showcasing of vision and capabilities, your story or action can be told in a fun and elegant manner. For instance, one of our clients, Hakunamatata, in space of Information Technology & Services wanted to communicate their strength in the development space through a website, hence, to highlight this we used ‘Unusual Navigation’ and empowered with many micro-interactions.

We believe, the animated design is a story best told; it adds an extra zing of awesome sauce that pushes the designs over the edge, bringing the very design to life in a subtle and friendly way which prompts the user to interact and explore more. You should check out this website to experience the zing I was talking about.

Interactive and Intuitive

Intelligent animations are very engaging and enable users to focus, get feedback, and communicate efficiently with the brand and its digital interface; this creates a pleasant illusion close to natural interaction as with physical objects. This is the very reason why Apple and Google give so much importance to animation and interactions in their guidelines.

Interactive animations put the user in the driving seat and impart a feeling of having complete control over the navigation while they go through an astounding interactive journey. This amazing website takes users through the interactive journey of Rome’s history. It is the most engaging history book you would come across and a user would feel like they are living the entire era.

Another, important thing to take note of is how a designer can effectively declutter his designs by concealing and revealing options with smooth animations and interactions which can be very useful while designing content/options heavy designs. A classic example would be the Android tray pulling animation with options.

Visual feedback and Micro interactions

These days we see a lot of animations giving visual feedback in the form of effects, transitions, animated colors, icons, and seamless backgrounds. They provide an unmatched user experience, because a user knows he is hovering on a clickable button or a link, and not just some content. Using Animation, the user is made aware of the progress and other features in an instance. An animated interface has the power to entertain the user with a fun loader while they wait for the page to load, inform them with a progress bar, load the animated skeleton of the layout, seek attention with beautifully animated signals when needed, alert a user about an error, help them navigate and what not! Micro-interactions also evokes emotions and feelings for the action. Animation applied for micro-interactions are hardly noticed by the user, however, as with all the small and simple elements of the interface, a lot of intelligence and understanding goes into designing micro interaction which boosts user’s interaction with the interface.

Great and beneficial for designers as well

Animations, not only helps the designer to make a delightful presentation of their designs, but it also enables the designers to discover a lot of potential improvisation while they prototype or animate their designs. I would say every designer should keep animations and interaction in mind while designing an interface, which is nothing but interaction designing.

When the designer does this, not only he takes the wireframes to the design stage, but he also takes the design to the next level for better development, where he has already visualized how a user is interacting with the interface. It speaks volumes about the attention to detail the designer has put into it, as he eliminates bugs, errors, missing links, and dig into a lot of innovative UX with his “ Interaction Thinking “.

An animated design is a living thing! Period.

Not only it is as satisfying as the ‘fidget spinner’, but it supports the very essence of real life interaction and it creates feelings and perception close to what we humans experience while interacting with a physical object. It speaks to you, plays with you, emotes with you, and understands you- Just like your best buddy.

The animation is the future of design and interfaces, which is very obvious with the evolution of VR and AR interfaces, where animation is the key property used to design them. People don’t just buy products, they actually buy the interfaces, the lively designs, and those appealing interactions.

So, if you are creating an innovative product or design, take heed as the future is animated designs. Technologies such as SVG animations and WebGL, which supports us designers to make use of rich animations and interactions to enhance and add life to designs, which eventually impacts millions of lives.

How to Successfully Validate an App Idea

Posted on 11/02/201919/06/2021 by Tushar

Getting an app idea is easy.

How many times have you found yourself looking at something – an event, an issue, or simply a situation and thinking how easy it would have been if there was an app for that?

This occurrence which is also known as ‘There should be an app for that’ is something that has almost single-handedly been responsible for the creation of many millions of apps that are operating in the stores today.

But how to put a filter on your closet full of ideas? How do you validate your ideas’ feasibility? How do you answer ‘Is my app idea any good’?

This is where your search ends – the search to know the right app ideation process.

Let us start the piece on what to do with an app idea by getting you acquainted with the six app idea validation process – something that sets the basis of any and every mobile app development process.

The Six Stages of Mobile App Idea Validation

Validating an app idea to ensure that it fits with your future goal is something that cannot simply be attended in some pointers. There are three different parts and rather phases attached to it.

Here are the six steps to verify your app idea –

Phase 1: Finding an app idea

The first answer of how to validate an app idea revolves around finding an app idea. Until and unless you have a few app ideas on you, checking up on its viability will be out of the question. But how do you get an idea? Where should you head out for inspiration?

While it is true that some of the best performing applications today were inspired by real-life challenges, it will be a little boastful to assume that the same would happen to you and you will too get a real-life problem’s solution, although it’d be awesome if you do!

But in case you don’t, here are the ways you can gather some inspiration for your mobility business:

1. Monitor the app stores thoroughly

Start by making a list of your most preferred app categories where you would like to make an entry eventually. Once you have a list ready, review the top applications in there. See what features they have, what is missing, is there some feature that you can offer in your application, which could make yours different from others, etc.

2. Go beyond app stores to app review and listing websites

After you have studied the top ranking apps in the stores thoroughly, move on to looking into the app rating and review websites – ones which contain the details of the new launches in your preferred category. In fact, you should also make use of sites like AngelList or ProductHunt which contain the details of the new businesses that are now entering the domain you are interested in – be it mobile or non-mobile. And see if you can take these businesses on mobile.

3. Attend meetups

The next activity that you can do to get ideas when you are at a stage of a blank slate is attending meetups and conferences where entrepreneurs meet to discuss their idea and find potential people who might be interested in backing their idea.

These meetups are more often than not a well of information and ideas waiting to be brought to the mobility space.

4. Check who is getting funded

The last of the tried and tested way that helps in getting inspiration is seeing who is getting funded – knowing the industries and business models that are now getting attention will give you a clear notion on app idea testing and where the future lies. A piece of information that you will be able to use to place yourself in it.

Phase 2: Researching the viability

Once you have a basic idea of what app category and type you would be interested in to enter the mobility domain with, the next stage comes – checking the idea validation framework whether it is even viable in itself. This is one of the most crucial steps.

Everything from your business’s future to the justification of how much your app costs depends on the amount of research you put into checking your application’s validity in the market.

This phase is what our article is based on. So, we will be looking at it in much detail sometime later.

Phase 3: Analyze the market fit

After you have known about the app concept validation, the last step before you enter the mobile app development process cycle would be to analyze what the market would demand from your application.

This stage would mainly deal with two things – your app’s feature set and its business model. Make a note of your competitors’ features and see which all you can combine and put in your one application.

Now that we have looked at all the three stages, let us get to the main section of the article, as promised in Stage 2 – How to Validate an App Idea.

Well, here are the Effective Strategies to Validate Innovative App Ideas.

Phase 4: Creating MVP

When you know about your rivals by analyzing the existing applications, acquiring the genuine need of your target audience by studying the market, and hearing the problem areas of the users; you are totally clear in your mind about the application that you will create and features that you will add.

After getting to know the basics and the requirements, you need to consider making a minimum viable product. Make a completely functional MVP and send it out for testing with just the main features to see how it functions in the real world.

Phase 5: Creating digital prototype

When you are finished with all the phases, then you have a reasonable idea of what you are going to create and thus now it’s time for the formation of a digital prototype. Models characterize the flow of design and how it will function before the development of the application. When your prototype is prepared you can do iterations to test the effectiveness of your mobile app and roll out the necessary changes in the design stage to avoid iterating the complete application development cycle and saving time too.

Phase 6: Final design creation

After all the phases are finished and all things arranged, you simply require to draft the last application design and voila! Your application is in the market providing you profits. The design needs approval by the customers who will utilize it, however a design sprint can help you in such cases if getting customer approval is hard for you. Start by testing the design by three or four users, getting feedback from them and executing on the feedback. After this you can dispatch a beta version by permitting only a few customers to join and sign up, and get the insights about their experience to make the end result and launch your application.

Ways To Validate An App Idea

Validating your application idea is a process which takes up multiple steps and time, efforts to become fruitful. Let us look at some of the top ways that can be applied to answer how to validate app idea, whether there is any idea validation tool or is it manual process?

1. Talk to the targeted users

Reaching out to your targeted app users can be your first step to introduce your app to the world. But how do you know whom to contact?

Well, the first thing that you will have to do is create user personas. The benefits of user personas creation ripple down to a number of other app development stages as well. You will have to define your user group in a way that you have a clear understanding of how your app would be used by the people – the features that would be preferred, the layout that will be applied, etc.

Once you have identified the user type who would interact with your app once it’s launched, the next step would be to get your app idea to reach them – the stage that plays a crucial role in finding an answer on how to know if your mobile app idea will be successful.

There are multiple ways to do that.

You can create a survey around your app’s features and send it across to your pool of prospective users to measure their interest rate in your idea. The ways you can reach your users are – A. Through Social Media Ads B. Through Community based Websites like Reddit, Quora, etc. C. Through Connecting with them via Blog comments that they have commented on.

The idea of this stage is to help find answers to the following questions:

How significant is the problem that you are out to solve?
How often does your user group face the issue?
How satisfied are they with the present solution to their problem?
Is the solution that your app is offering something they would be willing to pay for today or in the future?

2. Study the stores

With millions and millions of applications being present in both App Store and Play Store, it can be quite a task in itself to find out your competitors – those operating on the same business model as yours and those who are working on your prime most feature.

Doing a competitive analysis of your mobile app is not easy. There are a number of applications that you will have to peruse and a great number of features you will have to make a list of.

To make it easy on you, here’s a short point by point process to help you understand the track that you will have to follow when doing competitor research and also to answer how to find out if your app idea exists.

Step 1: Start with putting your preferred category name in the search box of the store and see the apps coming in until two scrolls.

Step 2: Enter the keywords that you think your users will put in to find your app in the stores and put them in the search box, individually as well. Make a list again of the apps coming up till two scrolls.

Step 3: Make a comprehensive list of their feature set – see which are common and which are not.

Step 4: Study their reviews and ratings to see how users are interacting with their application, what they are liking and what not, etc.

3. Do keywords research

This step is your way out to understand what people are talking about your category. The mode to gauge if there is an interest in your application – a stage that will help give you a clarification of I have an app idea where do I start?

To start with, you will first have to list out 15-20 words or phrases which you think people will search for to arrive at your application and offerings. Once you have the list ready, put it in tools like Google AdWords or Moz keyword explorer to see the traction the words are getting. The search volume there will tell you whether or not people are looking for an idea like your application.

The information that you will find here would be a clear sign of how attractive your app idea is in the market presently. Also, the list of keywords that you are able to create at this stage will come in handy in a number of other steps later as well, like in case of ASO or when promoting your app outside of the stores. In fact, the step will also get you closer to find app developers specializing in your preferred domain.

4. Create a landing page

It is time to utilize the network you must have created during the survey and social media process.

Make a landing page (otherwise known as a single page website like document) to pass on to people you had reached out to earlier and people whose attention you will acquire next. The idea of it will be to see if at all people are interacting with your mobile app idea.

Tracking of which can be easily done by linking your microsite or landing page to MixPanel or Google Analytics. Also, remember to shorten the link using Bitly or URLBuilder to see how many times the link was clicked.

Other than this, when we talk about the basic things that should be present in your landing page, it looks something like this –

Description of your application
Screenshots or mockups
eMail subscription form

The tools that you would be requiring for creating a ready to be shared landing page includes:

For Creating Pages – Unbounce, LanderApp, Launchrock, Lead Pages, QuickMVP

For Designing Screenshots and Icons – LaunchKit.io

5. Upload rough version of the app on review websites

There are a number of websites where you can submit in your app idea – like ProductHunt or AngelList, etc. So, put in your idea there and see how other entrepreneurs and general new business enthusiasts are reacting to it.

You don’t necessarily need a prototype to use this approach. These sites even let you open pages where you can put in your app’s description and probable list of features that you have envisioned for them. So, make use of these websites to showcase and promote your app idea to the world.

6. Understand the size of your target market

To know your target size you need to first make a list of keywords that are related with your application idea. Then add these keywords to the Google keyword planner tool or any other keyword planner tool. The tool will provide the normal monthly searches that these keywords are getting locally and worldwide. The higher the quantity of searches, the more will be the demand for the services related with your application idea.

Now that we have looked at the ways you can validate your mobile app in the market, it is time to look into the different approaches you should follow to get your app idea across to the potential pool of users – something that would require the help of a mobile app development agency.

Approaches to Check the Viability of Your App Idea

When it comes to transforming your app idea into approaches or ways that can be shared for the world to explore and dissect in detail, there are three methods that come up – MVP, POC, and Prototype.

Let us look at all the three approaches in a little detail now.

Proof of concept (POC)

It is a small version of the project which is used mostly for in-house distribution of the app idea as compared to showcasing it to the other stakeholders. Usability is not something that is given much attention at this stage.

The intent of this approach is to see how the idea is looking inside a mobile app, at a very raw level. It helps mobile app developers understand what flow should be kept and how long will it take. In fact, POC is the stage which plays a very important role in determining how long does it take to develop a mobile app.

Mobile app prototype

While the intent of POC is to show that a feature can be added in the app, Prototype shows how it can be done. A prototype is basically an interactive model of the end product which communicates the navigation and design of your application, which can be made using a number of tools.

It helps your stakeholders visualize how your app would function while showcasing the user flow and giving everyone the idea of the layout and design. Mainly, it is designed by mobile application builders for determining the feasibility of the app but does not represent a final product. The fact that it highlights the issues at the semi-early stage of the mobile app development process makes it easy to fit in the solution from early on as well.

Minimum viable product (MVP)

MVPs are your best shot answer to know how to develop an app idea. It is a minimal form of your mobile application which is shared in the market to test. MVP helps in understanding how exactly are your users interacting with the app. While prototyping helps in solving issues which arise at the start of the development process, the intended outcome of MVPs is for identifying the pain point of the users and some time to get funding from investors.

They are used to verify the following things:

Viability of the product
Assumptions which the team had made about the product
Market demand
Usability

Ultimately, MVPs are used to provide immediate value while keeping the mobile app development cost to a minimum – all the while giving you the possibility of iterating your app development process stage by stage.

Build your brand recognition

After creating and evaluating your MVP effectively, you ought to build up your brand image. Having all-new information every day, a current approved application idea could be invalid tomorrow – we don’t have to remind that, those who are not remembered are not seen – thus you should act quickly and develop your brand recognition.

Above all, your brand image and related things should convey the essence you wish to bring to your application. Arranging about better visual design and identity could guarantee your approval publicly, beside assisting individuals grasp the worth and functionalities of your application idea without any problem.

So here was everything that you needed to get started with the stages of app idea validation – things that would be needed to get your idea off the ground and in the market. In the end, it all depends on how unique yet needed your offered solution is and how many people you are able to reach out to validate your mobile app idea.

The next step? More research.

Now that you have a valid app idea, the next idea is to find the right mobile app development outsourcing partner.

Corporate Learning Mobile Apps’ Role in Business(2019-20)

Posted on 22/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

2018 ended with the size of the corporate Learning mobile apps market at $165 Billion, a number that is anticipated to grow to $240 Billion by the time we hit 2023.

With the constant demand for transformation and innovativeness, a ripple demand has fallen on the need for constant learning that promises a skilled team that is updated with everything happening and entering the industry and is ready to make the most of it while making the whole business all the more efficient.

This demand has single-handedly increased the market size of the corporate mLearning solutions – something that would draw the corporate learning market to grow further in 2019-2020.

The graph here is a sign of how while mobile apps have already established a prominent part in the education industry revolving students, the trend is on a high even in the case of corporate learners.

Before we move on any further, it would help knowing what learners feel about digital learning in the corporate world.

*The insights into the corporate learners that we are about to share here will also allow you to devise your corporate learning and development mobile apps accordingly in 2019-2020, in a way that your learners get the maximum output.

Without further ado, let us get to what corporate learners have to say about mobile based corporate training solutions for businesses. This will give you an idea of the extent of the importance of mobile learning in businesses –

How is the Corporate World Responding to mLearning – The Learner Side of Corporate eLearning Market

A. Career progression is the Driving Force of mLearning Apps for Corporates

78% of employees feel that they are most likely to enroll in a course when they believe that it would have an impact on bettering their job or would help in reaching their future role. The other big motivator besides this in using the eLearning mobile apps that offer recognition is the attraction of getting recognized by a prestigious corporation or university.

B. They are Pro-AI but with Concerns

While around 60% of learners said that they are more than willing to use AI for identifying skills and recommendations of courses that would help fill any gap in their present skill set, they were worried about how their manager would react. They were tensed about the fact that either their managers would feel that they are looking for a job change or might think that they are not capable of handling a task according to the selection of course.

C. Learners Wish to Have a Portable Record of Education Achievements

Around 73% of corporate learners said that they would prefer corporate learning apps more if it allows them to take the record of what they have learned and achieved in the course to the next job. In short, they would appreciate it if they had complete personal access to their records.

D. An Ease of Access is what the Learners Want

Around 78% of learners felt that they would appreciate it if all the learning was there in one place along with the presence of well-synced learning recommendations.

The convenience to access the course from all devices and on an offline mode along with quick load time are some of the things that the learners felt a necessity to define the importance of mobile learning in education.

E. The Mode of Learning Was Not Restricted to Reading

All the learners were divided into several media of inculcating corporate learning and development. Modes ranging from – Reading, Online Courses, Webcasts, Audio, and Video.

They believed that when given options to meet the different style of learning, varying learning goals, and the difference in circumstances, they witnessed an increase in engagement and value.

F. 25 – 40 Minutes of Session was Best for Effective Learning

Around 50% of the corporate learners said that around 25 – 40 minutes of a session in the mLearning app was the most efficient for them, followed by sessions ranging from 1 to 2 hours of learning and those lying in the 5 – 10 minutes duration range.

Now that we have looked at how the corporate learner world is reacting to the idea of Corporate eLearning solutions, it is time to look at the benefits that have helped shape the high growth and engaging online corporate training market.

But before we do that, it would be apt to look at how far the mobile learning apps for business have come in the corporate world. So, let’s take a quick detour and look into the journey the digital corporate eLearning platforms have taken.

See how the corporate mobile learning solutions continued to grow and are even more persistently prepared to expand in the many corporates around the world?

Weel. The place that these mobile learning apps for corporates are able to create for themselves is the doing of the impacts of the learning apps on corporate, something we are going to look into next.

The Benefits of Corporate eLearning Solutions for Your Business

1. A Competitive Advantage

With the business world as our witness, if there is one thing that stands between an averagely performing company and a true industry disruptor, it is the time that the disruptors put in learning and adapting to new technologies.

In fact, brands like Uber, Bloom Energy, Amazon, and the likes directly link their speed of innovation and intensity of growth to constant training and learning.

In such a scenario, a Learning Management System Software that is designed to keep your employees updated with the technologies that are not just mainstream now but have the potential to be major holds the ability to put you points ahead of your competitor.

2. Easy Accessibility of Resources

Today’s businesses are coming out of the geographical boundaries shell, culture conventions, and time limitations. To work alongside them, learning apps would have to deliver training in a small time span. Depending on the job role and geographical location, it can be very difficult for businesses to deliver learning in a face-to-face mode. This is where the accessibility offered by mobile applications can come in handy.

An example of this can be seen in the ATLNext app developed by India’s leading construction organization, L&T. it enables its employees across the nation to learn anytime.

3. Bridging the Skills Gap

The present era belongs to transformation. The skills that you require now to succeed in the market are a hundred times more complex than what they used to be when the industry was in an infancy stage.

By incorporating well-devised mobile learning apps for corporations in your day-to-day work activities, you will be able to not just be updated with how the industry is moving but also know where you are lacking in the worldwide scale and take measures to fill the gap while there’s time.

4. Cost Reduction

Consider the cost of traditional training practices for a minute. Note the cost of accommodation, food, venue, per hour trainer cost, operational costs of materials like projectors, notepad, pen, etc. These costs can be brought down drastically if you employ a mobile app in the process. The cost of education application development will always be a one-time expense.

5. To Attract and Retain a New Age Workforce

As the well researched educational software development services would tell you, it is estimated that by the time we reach 2025, millennials would have made up 75% of the world’ workforce.

And this new age workforce is on a constant thrive to learning and growing to a newer self. Sophisticated learning programs developed in modes that entice them can be your only way to keep them hooked with your company for they will not just be interested in the money but in an expansive career path and the diverse experience that it offers.

6. To Unite the Global Workforce

One of the biggest challenges that every business which operates on a global platform faces is passing off learning in a unified manner across the whole wide business comprising multiple offices distributed across various countries.

For a business that is not confined to any one geographical location, it becomes of prime importance that all the millions of employees are brought on the same page and given the exact same training and LMS modules. Brands that make use of regional language courses specific to individual regions are able to achieve an across company growth with much ease.

With this, we have seen the benefits that come associated with every business learning app for Corporate there is but it is important to note here that all the information that you read above would be incomplete until you are able to design a learning solution that is prepared to offer all those benefits and be a part of the constantly growing mLearning industry. Until you design the mLearning app right, you will not be able to offer the right set of experience – something that your mobility partner who excels incorporate mLearning application development services should tell you.

On that note, let us now look at the features that are commonly present in every Corporate mLearning solution and mLearning apps for corporate employees before we head on to studying the trends that would define the digital corporate mLearning industry this year and beyond.

Popular mLearning trends of 2018

BYOD is the news

BYOD or Bring your own device is one of the major mobile Learning trends that turned up in 2018. It was projected in a report by Sailpoint that 2018 will see approximately 70% of working professionals will prefer working upon their own electronic devices (mobiles and PCs), at homes as well as at workplaces.

This is so because people today are used to working with the comfort of their own devices. Being habitual of the convenience of smartphones which allow us to access any knowledge resource anytime anywhere, BYOD becomes an obvious next step. And with the majority workforce being tech-savvy, BYOD is one of the most appropriate strategies to be adopted in any workplace.

The hiking popularity of Mobile Analytics

Mobile analytics is the way to deciphering learning patterns of different individuals at a workplace. And as more and more organisations are identifying themselves as L&D (Learning and development organisations), “the adoption of having personalized learning models developed for all the employees at a workplace” as an idea is catching fire.

In short, more organisations are addressing the importance of having personalized learning models.

Keeping it small to keep it effective

The average attention span of the present time’s learner is passably low. Therefore, in order to keep up with that, things need to be kept curious enough for people to respond to them. In fact, people tend to lose interest in anything that they know is a long winding course.

Thus, the best retention strategy for people is to keep the content portion small. It is better to keep the content focused on a single topic than to diverse out the things to learn in terms of topics.

In order to achieve the best results, this kind of micro-learning modules can be easily delivered through personal mobile devices of people and are highly effective.

Mobile phones for performance support

Now that we have already learned that corporate education mobile app development is directly related to enhanced performance, it is time that we learn how can mLearning help in providing performance support to our teammates.

In other words, the support that they need to perform their jobs perfectly anytime they need and anywhere they need it. For instance, personal sales meetings can be tricky while demonstrating a tech product, an app or a functional software. And, in many cases, the sales personnel on field end up requiring the support of the backend development team for a smooth presentation. And, mLearning tools can be of great help in such scenarios. Access to all the required information from the ease of a mobile device can work wonders for all the teammates in enhancing their overall performance at work.

With the rising number of mobile learning app development practices, it is safe to conclude that mLearning has become a dependable technology. In fact, The above-mentioned work trends have worked well with all kinds of business structures in this year and since technology is forever bettering itself, trend forecasts can be made for the coming year as well. Let us take a look at what 2019 and 2020 has in store for mLearning.

mLearning trends to be seen in 2019 to 2020

Mobile Coaching

As cool as Mobile Coaching sounds, it is, in fact, a great source of having a subject matter expert right in your pocket. So for instance, before an important sales pitch or business meeting, your teammates can easily log in to the “mobile coaching” application and have a real expert prep them for the meeting in real-time. Mobile coaching, with the benefits that it offers, single handedly makes Mobile apps a growing trend in the Education industry.. And this is not just an online portal but it also works as an offline video directory for people to browse through the videos to watch anytime.

Having Education apps in enterprises opens the possibility of learning on the go, especially in case of critical meetings and deals.

Micro-assessments on mobiles

Training and learning never end even when your teammates complete their courses. As an aid to knowledge retention, mobile micro-assessment tools will be a big high of 2019-2020. As for mobile micro assessments, the mobile apps for corporate training would enable trainers to create short questionnaires and have them scheduled to be sent at fixed intervals to the teammates after the completion of their training.

These assessments can even be taken via text messages or chat applications and services. In fact, It will not be wrong to say that training and learning, either in Workplaces or in learning institutes, Mobile learning technology will revolutionise Education as we know it.

Augmented Reality will become a part of the process

Development of m-learning tools is on an all-time high now and for the future. Mobile learning apps are now moving towards AR and VR. With AR performance support tools, all the teammates have to do is hold their smartphones up to anything they require information about and they can get real-time information about the object to guide them.

No matter how rigorous training is given to the employees, real knowledge retention takes place with hands-on-experience of the job. And there is no better way of embedding experience with learning except through augmented reality.

Today we have access to Some of the best mobile learning learning platforms, right through our app stores, like Coursera, Duolingo, Linkedin Learning and the list goes on. mlearning and education app developers are seeing a high demand of such apps among the over 2 billion smartphone users of the world. If truth be told, Mobile app development companies around the world have dedicated teams for mLearning apps.

The time is not far away when mLearning will be seen as the only way of learning in many diverse scenarios of life. In fact, mobile learning apps for enterprises and other educational bodies are being adopted rapidly. Future of mobile learning is not a dream anymore, rather it is already a practical, practicable technology which is seeping very rapidly into our training courses. And with this ever-improving technology, the scope of m-learning app development is also taking a leap.

Now that we have seen it all – the corporate eLearning market, how far it has come, the benefits that it offers to the many corporate learners around the world, the must-have features, the trends which will soon go mainstream in the corporate mLearning market – the only thing now left to do is to get a corporate eLearning solution devised and enter an era where your business emerges as the industry disruptor.

Not sure how to achieve this? Let us help you. Contact our team of mLearning App Development experts, today!

Key Skills You should know: Successful Mobile App Developers

Posted on 17/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

We often marvel at the fact about the unbelievable progress our world has made in terms of technology. We are literally living with all the gadgets and apps that only existed in sci-fi movies like it’s no big deal. But the truth is, it has taken years to research and development to reach a point where advanced technology has become the normalcy of our lives. From Amazon’s Alexa to Google Assistant, AI software are doing our daily chores for us. In the end, all these software are mobile applications developed by a mobile application developer. This shows us that mobile app development has reached the peak of its evolution and that there are endless innovation opportunities in the mobile app development field. Also, it tells us that for the success of any mobile application, it requires the developer to be outstanding. This is because although there are over 5 million applications in the major app stores, less than 1% of them make it to the 1 million downloads mark. Whether as an app development agency you are looking for app developers or you are a mobile app developer, looking forward to making a breakthrough mobile application, either as a freelancer or in association with an enterprise, there are a few mobile application development skills that you need to learn in order to make your app revolutionary.

Let us take a look at what special skills you can gather to become a successful Android and/or iOS app developer.

Skills required for Mobile App Developers

Cross-Platform App Development – Learning to be the best Android or iOS developer is a long-forgotten agenda in the mobile app development industry. Today, every app developer knows better than choosing just one platform. The skill-set required for a mobile application developer consists of the knowledge of all the platforms available for app development. In fact, Google’s play store has, unarguably, a higher number of active users but the real app engagement comes from the App Store users. That is why it is understandable that being the master of only one of the platforms may not help you capture all of your audience. To be a successful app development company, you should know how to find mobile app developers that are best for your team. Therefore, you need to look for developers who are eminent in Cross-platform mobile app development skills. And as a developer, having knowledge of cross-platform app development opens up a larger market for you along with benefits like:– Less usage of resources in terms of time, efforts and money because the development of apps for different platforms separately is not required as Cross-platform app development allows the reuse of code across multiple platforms. The best mobile app developers are the ones who don’t settle for either Android or iOS but go for both. And Cross-platform development is the best way to do it because it gives the app uniformity across different platforms which results in higher user engagement.

UI/UX Skills – The ardent purpose of an experienced mobile application developer is to make a mobile application that will attract and engage as many users as possible. And user engagement is a skill that can be acquired by having knowledge about how to make an app likable for users. And that can only be done by learning UI/UX skillsets. Although, the mobile app development team in a company consists of UI/UX designers who are solely responsible for the designing part of the mobile application as a developer, having the basic knowledge of front-end design and development is important. And as a mobile app development company, you should be hiring developers with UI/UX design skills.

Knowledge of popular programming languages (Preferably multiple) – As we all know that there are several programming languages in the in the app development world and each and every one of the languages has some unique characteristics which can be applied in specific situations. As an experienced mobile application developer, having the knowledge of multiple programming languages gives you an edge over the developer who is a specialist. Languages such as Java, Python, C#, Javascript, PHP for Android and Swift and Objective-C for iOS are some of the most widely used languages. It does not matter, which language you choose to go forward with, it is important to know at least two of the languages. And while some professions give you the liberty to learn things on your own based on experience. And the answer to how to become a mobile application developer is that it requires you to be updated with the prevalent trends in the app development industry.

Experience in Agile Methodologies – Mobile app development is a highly organized sector to work in. For the ease of the processes, there is a planning methodology defines for developers that make things simple and more systematic to follow, which is Agile Methodology. Agile methodology is a set of different software development methods based on iterative processes and standalone routines that facilitate the overall development process. A successful mobile app developer should be well versed and experienced in mobile application development skills and methodologies such as XP (Extreme programming), Scrum, DSDM, etc.

Cybersecurity Guidelines – As a mobile app developer, you develop a specialty in app development, but still, every project is unique in itself. Apart from that, there are clients reaching out to you from different geographies, with diverse government and cyber security guidelines. Therefore, integrating app security in mobile app development is crucial. The growing news about malware attacks all around the world has peaked the need of cybersecurity professionals. And if you’re one the app developers who can make sure that along with being aesthetically and operationally outstanding, your app is also categorically safe from malware, you can be in great demand. Apps like FinTech or apps which need the banking information of users require plenty of safety precautions as it deals with the most sensitive user information. Therefore, there are many opportunities for developers who are experienced in data encryption and mobile app development skills and safety.

Mobile app development is a highly dynamic profession that is constantly evolving and upgrading, thus it becomes indispensable for mobile app developers’ qualifications to be up-to-date in the latest practices and trends of the industry.

Apart from the above-stated skills, developers should also possess data processing skills. And As a part of a mobile app development company, you also need to have an aptitude for working in teams and delivering your best. Even being a client means that to hire a mobile app developer, you need to know which skill-set to look for.