Technology Solution
Today, businesses are not only using mobile apps to deliver goods and services to their customers but also to increase their returns on investments. Many businesses are rapidly coming to the realization that their can effectively interact with their customers through the use of mobile apps. This is particularly considering the fact that 3.5 billion people in the world possessed smartphones by the year 2020. In the same year, approximately 1.4 billion smartphones were brought. Thus, the mobile app industry is growing rapidly, and businesses must strategize themselves appropriately to reap from it.
Stakeholders/Target Audience
The mobile app development project has two categories of stakeholders; the technical and non-technical stakeholders. The technical ones include the app developer, the back-end developer, information architect, and content producer. On the other hand, the non-technical stakeholders are the users, customers, project manager and content producers as well. The whole development process requires the input of every one of the stakeholders. The app developer is the one to implement the mobile app with a focus on the business logic of the client. The information architect designs the layout of the app, taking into consideration the navigability and usability as the content producer generates contents for the app.
Development Tools/Environment
The mobile app industry continues to grow and change the way business is done. Businesses are increasingly getting attracted to mobile app platforms to grow their businesses. However, an app idea is not enough. To carve a competitive edge from a mobile app, an organization must seek the most appropriate app development tools to build its platform. It is not easy to build an app tool, nonetheless as it requires several hours and workmanship. However, some mobile development software offers API, analytics, IDEs, templates, and data synchronization, and, hence, simplifying and enhancing the process.
Accomplishments
The mobile app is intended to enhance the customers’ experiences. Customers will be able to search for their preferred products and services and track them from the comfort of their homes or offices. In addition, the customers will also be able to register their complaints and feedbacks through the apps for appropriate actions. The mobile app will also play a significant role in branding the business and create a lasting impression among users. The app developers will use color combinations and logos to achieve this. It is expected that these efforts will result in 50% increase in customer connection and thus, boost the company’s profits by 30% within the next six months.
Functionality Progress
The first phase was to define the strategy for converting the concepts into a successful app. This was done strategically by ensuring that the objective of the app is oriented towards addressing the problem at hand. This involved identifying the app users, researching about competition, establishment of the goals and objectives of the app as well as choosing the right mobile platforms for the app. In the analysis and planning phase, use cases have already been defined as well as capturing functional requirements in detail. This has been accompanied by an elaborate preparation of the product roadmap, which include the prioritization of the app requirements and clustering them into milestones of delivery.
Problems Encountered
The mobile app market is highly competitive, which makes it very difficult for a mobile developer to be easily noticed. Although the industry is worth billions of dollars, it still suffers from serious funding challenges especially among the startups. It costs between $3000 to $150,000 to develop an effective mobile app. This amount is beyond many developers. The net effect is that only developers with strong financial muscles dominate the industry, thus, limiting the choices that businesses have. In addition, with different screen dimensions possessed by users, it is difficult to create feasible apps that can be appropriately displayed on the screens.
It is challenging to develop a mobile app that is well performing and free of bugs but operates on minimum battery. Apps come with a lot of visual effects and pictures that flood the cache. They also use integrated sensors, which not only interfere with the performance but also consumes much battery power. Furthermore, there is always a growing need to add photos, computer animations, and videos on the app. This present content management challenges as well. There is also the problem of marketing and promotion encountered by many app developers. This is primarily attributed to limited timeliness, lack of appropriate systems, and competition within the industry.
How the Problems were Overcame
The problem of difficulty in getting an app noticed could be solved by focusing on a target market. An app developer must have a niche and define the intention and functions of the app as well as its price. It should be priced competitively to enhance its visibility in the market. The mobile app developer should consider being responsive to the design in a way that features are adjusted to meet various layouts of the screen dimensions. The app developer should consider advance communication to make the app more interactive.
The problem of performance vs battery life can be solved by transferring certain categories to the prototype initiatives. This is in addition to the use of the beta version for running test cases. It is also advisable for the app developer to apply mobile content management solutions using any system that focuses on mobile content management streamlining. This helps to optimize bandwidth and reliably deliver content. The problem with user association can be solved by thinking beyond interactive features and user-friendly designs and giving them memorable shades, logos, and designs that provide first impressions.
Build 2 Schedule
The development of the mobile app will not be an end in itself. With time, several specialized features will be added as market forces and security demands. As the business will be expanding, more power will be added to the mobile app mix. It will also be vital to build and improve long term relations with customers. This will be achieved by updating the app in such a way that it can send personalized updates about the company’s products and services to customers. With this control, customers will get more opportunities to engage with the business. In future, if the business decides to change its brand or merge with another, the same should be reflected in its mobile app as well.
References
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