Question

What are the stages in app development?

Answer 1

Development of concepts and designs and technical modelling of a product

Answer 2

Phase 1 – Pre-production

Before we start building your app we need to think through every aspect of how it will work. We explore the nature of your app, your expected users, the experience you want your users to have, and the outcomes you expect.

We create a detailed schedule, outlining our production plans. At this stage it’s important to involve all stakeholders. This includes more than just the project team. At this stage you want to involve all of those with an interest in the project. It can be difficult to bring people in at later stages with new and different ideas and concepts. In fact, it could take us back to square one.

If things are right at the start, they should be right at the end.



Phase 2 – Telling your story

Once we know what you want your app to do, we begin to bring it to life. At this stage, we create a low-fidelity wireframe/storyboard which includes details of all screens.

At this stage it won’t look beautiful. The emphasis is on how it works – the logic and flow. Working together, we can quickly make any necessary changes to the wireframes. This is a crucial stage of the process, and getting it right takes time. It’s about building solid foundations, which we can build upon to create the final product.

Regardless of how enthusiastic you are, you’ll not want to rush this process and you’ll want to involve as many people as you can here to ensure you’re on the right path.



Phase 3 – Visual designs

This is where your app is brought to life. Once the wireframes are signed off, we can start creating the look and feel of your app. We decide on colour palettes and UI elements, discussing the transitions within the app, the design of each page and the interactive components.

But we still don’t build it just yet. We create more detailed wireframes so you can see how the app could look when it’s built. It’s essential that you get stakeholders engaged and involved at this stage because, once we’ve agreed this it gets exciting.



Phase 4 – Programming

Building the app is a time-consuming process, but it’s where we bring your concept to reality. We generally create apps for iOS and Android, and will help you choose the most appropriate for your project. In the beginning, we develop for one platform ensuring we get this right before moving on to the others.

During this process we keep in contact with you, to ensure that you know how things are progressing and showing you the app starting to take form. While we will have provided an outline timescale, it can often be at this stage where things can sometimes take a little longer than we planned. Don’t worry, we’ll let you know if this is the case.

Once the initial build is completed we work through it, identifying and fixing any bugs that become apparent. We send the build through to you for final testing, sign-off and release.

You’ll want to ensure that we’ve followed your specification and that the app functions as required so that it can be launched with confidence.



Phase 5 – Launch

When the app is released into the wide world, your users may discover new bugs or difficulties in using the app that we’ve not considered. If you let us know about these we can look at how to fix them. In some cases we can do this immediately, but

It’s worth considering the longer-term future of your app – how to manage operating system upgrades, how the app will function on new technology and so on. Releasing an app creates a relationship with all of those people who download it, and like all relationship it needs work.

The good news is that we can do all of this for you. We work with a number of clients on an on-going basis, providing continuous support throughout the lifetime of their app.