Posts tagged "app development"

Top Benefits of Using Cloud Technology to Develop Mobile Apps

October 7, 2021 Comments Off Roxana read

The utilization of cloud technology in the development of applications, specifically mobile apps, has increased significantly over time. Technological advancements that first began using the cloud were able to make their applications faster and more efficient. There are several benefits of it, leading to its increase in development.

Cloud technology is known as accessing and storing data on the internet as opposed to a device. This allows for faster processing, development, and data protection.

Some of the top benefits of using cloud technology to develop mobile apps include:

Easy Development Integration

When using cloud technology in app development, developers don’t have to focus on the infrastructure of the cloud. The provision of the cloud maintains it, which means there’s one less thing for the developer to monitor.

Lowers Costs

By outsourcing data centers, as well as servers, to cloud providers, developers can lower costs and direct their attention only the resources they need.

All the Added Features

Compared to traditional app development methods, cloud technology contains more features for developers to use. Some of those features have helped revolutionize how apps have been developed. Things like social networking platforms and geo-location functions are such features. Increasing seamless user experiences is a result of incorporating cloud technology as well.

Increased Development & Processing Speed

By storing data on the internet, the space it would have taken up on a hard drive allows developers to increase the speed at which apps are developed. This is because less code is stored, which takes up less space and subsequently increases the app’s processing speed. Furthermore, faster apps mean quicker updates, the addition of more features, and shorter load times.

Easier to Scale Apps

Scalability is a crucial element of app development. When done right, it accounts for the increase in data, interaction, and other things as apps evolve. It helps them continue running properly. Cloud technology applies to making apps easier to scale since no additional software needs to be installed when the data is simply transferred to a secure place on the internet.

Excellent Integration Compatibility

With platforms that are web-based, integration is important. Development that utilizes cloud technology allows for easier integration with those platforms. This benefit maintains data security as well, which puts it above the integration level of traditionally-developed apps. Performance speed is also affected by integration capabilities and creates a two-way street of benefits, so to speak.

Summary

The use of cloud technology is commonly noticed with Google Drive, Google Docs, Dropbox, and other similar storage sites. Data is protected by this technology while it also makes app development simpler and faster. As technological advancements promote speed and high-quality performance, the need for efficient cloud technology becomes more in-demand. Younger generations in particular are focused on such functionalities of their devices. In fact, apps that can’t keep up with their competitors in speed, smooth user experiences, updates, and so on are likely to be abandoned. No app developer wants that.

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App Development: How Long Does It Really Take?

September 29, 2021 Comments Off Roxana read

App development is a part of the tech industry that has boomed in recent years. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to its rise in popularity. With people being stuck at home, they needed something to occupy their time. Apps like TikTok and YouTube filled that time but were just the tip of the iceberg.

Since the beginning of 2020, the number of streaming, games, health, and medical apps has skyrocketed. That increase has left many other potential app developers with questions. The main one being: How long does it really take to develop an app?

The Process

Coming up with an idea and doing research.
Planning out the app.
Designing the app.
Developing it.
App testing.
The release.
Maintaining the app.

The Idea & the Research

Taking anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks, coming up with an idea for the app is the first step. The next part would be to research the idea. Not all ideas would function well as an app. Additionally, there are ideas that have been done many times. Researching the idea for daily usage, functionality, and other elements could answer the initial thought: Is my idea good enough?

The Plan

This typically takes about a month. The planning stage involves things such as the target audience, structure, operating system, type of app (i.e. native, web, or hybrid), cross-platform compatibility, and more. It’s also important to consider what features and extra options the app will have. This part of development serves as the foundation for the rest of the development process.

Design

Designing the visual aspects of the app could average between 1 to 3 weeks. Color schemes, images, logos, animations, and so on make up this stage of development. For an app, the visual elements are vital to the user’s comfortability. An app that looks boring when it should appear vibrant and fun may lead to the user deleting it.

The Development Stage

Around 6 weeks is the median amount of time for this stage. This is also the most extensive and time-consuming part of app development. It includes creating the front-end, back-end, and User Interface (UI) elements so the app can function smoothly. An app that is frustrating to navigate or that crashes is one that users won’t keep installed. Creating a working app is perhaps the most important thing.

The Big Test

There is no accurate timeframe for this phase of development. It depends on the developer and the app. However, testing the app prior to officially releasing it ensures that any issues or glitches are fixed. Also, the use of alpha and beta testers could be a good option for new developers.

Releasing the Finished Product

From a day to 2 weeks, this is where the finished app is officially released to the public. Submitting it to the App Store, Google Play, and so on may take time due to each platforms’ guidelines.

Maintenance

Maintaining an app has no timeline since it’s a continuous task. Keeping the app functional, adding new features, making security improvements, and more are some of the tasks associated with app maintenance. Nonetheless, the app is still out there, which is something to celebrate.

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Main Strategies and Advantages of “Speed to Market”

April 1, 2021 Comments Off Roxana read

Many businesses and startups have adopted the speed to market strategies, and this is due to new technological advances. The ability to come up with an app, develop it, and make it available for customers is not that easy. However, some strategies can help keep up with the speed to market. The primary cause of business success is innovation and new techniques to beat their competitors. Many businesses are now keeping up with technology, and they are putting their ideas into action.

Main reasons pushing people to adapt to speed to market strategies

There are reasons why businesses and startups have decided to develop their ideas into action. The desire to succeed and be the leading competitor in the market has led to app developments. The main reasons for the rush into news ideas, invention, and innovation, are as follows.

Availability of open source technology

Open-source technologies have become excess in the market, making it easier for people to develop apps quickly. This open-source technology has solutions to build your app on its basis, reducing the time required to create one from scratch. Also, the project completion is made faster; however, there are so many apps developed based on the open-source technology basis.

Client’s preferences

Technology has made it easier for people to reach multiple audiences using a single app. People have adapted to online services like buying food and groceries using an app. However, having an app that has a favorable feature can be an added advantage. The business has turned into developing apps that meet their client’s preferences to obtain a competitive advantage.

Strategies to create your app faster.

Developing an app might be challenging and time-wasting; however, using the speed-to-market strategies, it has become faster. The process that helps you create an app more quickly is as follows;

Develop a plan. Have a clear plan with the entire development team and consider the risks and uncertainties that might happen during the development period.
Be organized. Ensure that there are proper communication and adequate systems to track the development process to avoid misunderstandings.
Make the development automatic. Encourage the development team to use single codes and script the actions and testing to be made automatic.
Outsource the development team. It is better to outsource and get better services within a short time other than using the local employees who might not be well skilled.
Try pilot release. Make use of pilot releases to help get feedback from users and know where changes are necessary.
Develop using the minimum viable product. MVP will help cut down the six-month development period to two months; also, it provides your app with the best feature.
Market your app. Before the app’s official release, create a landing page to announce your app, and you can also send mails o alert people to be ready for your app.

Advantages of speed to market:

Competitive advantage.

Having an app that enables you to reach most of your clients allows you to be ahead of your competitors and reach more customers.

Saving on cost.

Developing an app by outsourcing the developers helps you obtain a ready market and unique features installed by the developers.

Ability to understand your user’s need.

Pilot release helps you capture the user experience and feedback that enables you to make the changes at the right time.

In conclusion, speed to market is the best strategy that helps you grow your business faster. Due to technological trends, it is better to put new ideas into action other than waiting when it is too late. Make your business stand through the speed to market strategies.

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How to Speed up Your Mobile App Development Process

July 18, 2019 Comments Off Roxana read

The development of mobile apps is through the roof and is only expected to grow. It is estimated that by 2021 350 billion mobile apps will have been downloaded, generating around $200 billion in revenues. Today, you will find 2.8 million apps ready to be downloaded through the Google Play Store and an additional 2.2 million on Apple’s App Store.

The use of mobiles is becoming more and more preferred over a desktop so apps are not about to disappear from our lives, particularly in business and technology industries.

Those who are keen on start-ups will have one burning questions, how long will it take to create an app and how much work will I need to put in?

Existing Data: App Development Takes 3-5 Months

There isn’t actually a lot of proven information to back the websites that claim it only takes around 3-4 months. There are two studies that we found to be reliable.

In 2013, Kinvey performed a survey on 100 mobile app designers to find out the time they thought it would take to build an Android or iOS app. The average response from the 100 designers was 4.5 months, broken down into approximately 10 weeks for backend and 8 weeks for frontend.

The second study was published by GoodFirms in 2017. GoodFirms not only asked about the time it would take but also the potential costs to create an app like Instagram or Tinder. They split their findings into the following:

Instagram is a ‘feature-rich highly complex app’ and would take between 4.5 and 5.5 months to develop.
WhatsApp is a ‘medium complexity-compelling app’ and would take approximately 4.6 months to create.
Tinder is a ‘user-friendly app with lesser functionality’ and would take between 3.8 to 4.1 months.

The cost of developing these apps varies from $44,830.20 for an app like Tinder to $64,333.30 for an app like WhatsApp.

We will continue by looking at the principal stages of developing an app. While it might seem like a repetitious process, there are actually distinct stages involved and none of the stages are unconnected.

Stage 1: Research and Planning

As with any type of market research, you will need to focus on two main areas. First, why should this app exist? Do you think it will be useful to people and how? What types of people are going to choose to download the app? Second, is your idea already on the market? If so, how is your app going to be better and more successful than the existing one?

Research must be thorough in order for your app to be successful. You need to think about how your app is going to help or solve a problem that people have, are you going to be able to save people money. Your research must also include the market size and extensive investigations of apps that are considered your competition.

Stage 2: Functions and Features

So, you have completed your research and collected your data into meaningful information. Now it is time to determine the precise functions and features. Here are some questions you might want to be able to answer.

What should your app be able to do?
What operations or tasks will it be able to perform? Are you hoping to integrate it with other apps or use peer-to-peer chat?
How is it going to manage data? Is it going to join existing data frameworks or collect new data?

Once you have this information you get to create your storyboard. A storyboard is a visual portrayal of your app, showing individual screens and how they are going to connect. A storyboard should reveal and issues the user might face and improve their experience.

At this stage, you will also want to create ‘use cases’, which will operate as a template for user interaction. It is a logical assumption that the more features your app has, the longer it will take to develop.

It is also the time to decide on the operating system. Basically, you will have to decide whether your app will run on iOS, Android, Windows or a combination, supporting multiple operating systems. Your choice will have an effect on your timeline. Multiple operating systems will almost always take longer to develop and might also double your budget. Although this is not as significant now, developing an Android app normally takes 20-30% longer due to the fact that there are over 12,000 devices and it is almost impossible to develop an app perfect for each model.

There are two common platforms to develop your app. If you are working on an Android app it is normally done through Java and iOS written in Swift or Objective-C. If you are looking at an app for multiple systems you can either develop two separate programming languages or use a cross-platform development tool such as React Native or Ionic.

Expect to take approximately 3 to 5 weeks on this stage.

Stage 3: Technical Feasibility, Design and Development

It is now time to start working with your technical team to determine what you want your users to see while they interact with your app and what goes on behind the scenes. This means that the frontend and backend have to be compatible.

Frontend systems are the visual aspect of the app, it is what can be seen by the user and it is related to the design. The backend is the technical, software aspect. The central focus it how the site works, it is about the server, application, and database.

Another decision you will need to make is whether you will use a public Application Programming Interface (API) or if you prefer a personal abstraction layer. APIs are what is needed in order for apps to communicate with each other or with other developers. The major global apps like Facebook and Skype use APIs that are publicly available. An example of this is when Tinder uses Facebook profiles to allow users to log in.

Part of the technical stage is to design a wireframe. A wireframe is a 2D image of the app’s interface and its main task is to allow you to see the space allocated to the contents. They are normally black and white and assist in linking the information to the actual design. A wireframe can also shed light on the consistency of how the information is shown, confirm the intentional functions and decide which content can take up the most space and where it should go.

When you choose to create your wireframe is up to you, some developers will create them along with the storyboard as they will help with the visualization of the app while other developers like to complete wireframes in the design stage.

After finishing the wireframe you can begin to work on the GUI (Graphical User Interface) where you choose the theme of your app, colors, fonts, and icons, etc. And now you should have the final look of your app.

We are not going to discuss the technical information related to developing an app. If you are somewhat familiar with coding you might be able to use software programs or you may want to use a professional service. Keep in mind it will be the most complex part of developing your app.

Stage 4: Testing and Refinement

In reality, your testing will be a continuous process, as programmers will be fixing errors along the way. This is known as internal testing or alpha testing because it is your own team who is doing it. Once the team has completed the internal testing, your app is ready to be tested by a limited public, known as beta testing.

You know your app inside out, you know how it should be used, but beta testing gives everyday users the chance to use it as they see fit. You should only begin with beta testing once alpha testing is 100% complete.

To beta test your app, you can use any number of websites that have been specifically designed for this purpose. Here are a few suggestions:

BetaFamily
NetaList
ErliBird
PreApps
TestElf

Websites such as Reddit and UserTesting are sites that will beta test and provide feedback through options like screenshots and recordings of interactions with the apps.

Assuming your alpha testing was completed to the highest levels, the beta testing stage should last just 3 to 4 weeks.

In Conclusion

By looking at our breakdown and the two studies, we can conclude that you will be looking at a couple of months to complete all of the four stages involved in app development. It is not something that can be thought up and created over a weekend and it is going to take a lot of dedication.

Using a staffing agency can be greatly advantageous. Staffing agencies are specialized in the industries they serve. That means they can find suitable candidates quickly, and they know exactly what to look for according to the position you need to fill.

Because staffing agency recruiters keep a pool of readily available talent for a variety of jobs, a job opening can easily be filled within a matter of days.

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Top Mistakes Made When Hiring a Dedicated Developer

May 9, 2019 Comments Off Roxana read

A developer is someone who structures the inside and out of a website. They are saddled with the responsibilities to know which suitable language to use for developing a specific website. They are conversant with one programming languages or the other.

However, the choice of a developer to hire can either make or mar your IT company. So, most companies have a diverse way of hiring developers. It can be through recruitment agencies such as reputable freelancing website or manual CV submission.

Whichever method you choose to hire, it is better you get yourself acquainted with the merit and demerit of these methods so as to avoid howlers.

Here, we expose common mistakes that you can make when hiring a developer.

Poor Research

As an employer, your concern when hiring a developer should not be on the pay alone. Rather you must be able to take an in-depth look at some major factors such as expertise, review and portfolio check. If the developer does not match the following factors, then it is better to let go of such a developer.

Little or No interview

According to Merriam web star dictionary, an interview is a formal consultation usually to evaluate the qualification of a prospective employee. It is also a means of selecting a viable candidate amid the less viable. When you want to hire a developer endeavor to conduct a proper interview. Ensure you are conversant with the niche or else you might be fool by mere discretion. Hire someone who is a geek in the niche to hold the interview on your behalf.

Besides this, you should have the proper infrastructure to assess their skills. This can be in the form of short coding test that must be completed in a nick of time.

Trivializing Credentials

Often times, we fall into the habit of trivializing developers’ credentials. This will never do you any good. Imagine you hire someone who has no practical experience of what it takes to develop a website. It is important you delve into their credentials to be able to remove the wheat from the shaft.

Myth About Local Developers Being the Best Alternative

Please debunk this! What is the essence of reckoning only a local developer can create a well-structured website? When you know that your end goal is to create a robust website or apps and most of the local developers are inept. It is better you go a thousand mile to source for capable developers.

Hiring Inexperienced Developers

Often times, experience is the best teacher. Some companies rather go for inexperienced developers in other to maximize their profits. It is quite deleterious to your business. Better break the bank to hire capable and efficient developers to avoid constant issues from inept developers.

Overwhelming A Single Developer

In recent time, the division of labor is fast going into extinction. To get the best out of your developers, it is better to learn how to break work into segments and allocate it to different developers in your team instead of overwhelming a single developer. Hire more developers if you are in short of developers in your team.

Budgeted vs Skilled Developers

As we all know that money is the driving force behind the hiring process. Many companies hire novice while some go for an experienced developer. The gulf between skilled developers and budgeted developers are quite enormous. In other to produce effective results it is better you opt for skilled developers.

First Come/ First Serve Policy

Do you hire through manual CV submission? Or through online recruitment platform? Whichever way you choose to hire; it is better you permit several applicants to apply before hiring. This will allow you to properly select viable candidates.

Anticipating Fast Outcome from Developers

You should know by now that developers seeking a job are always desperate. They promise quick turnaround in no time so as to secure employment. To develop an app or web is not a day job and require team coming together to get things done. Instead of falling prey to these fake developers, take your time to look for developers who are trustworthy and reliable.

Hiring Someone with No Experience in The Niche

The biggest mistake we often make is putting the square peg in the round hole. Hiring developers with no experience in the required niche is tantamount to putting the square peg in the round hole.

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How to Find Great Android Developers for Your App Development?

April 25, 2019 Comments Off Roxana read

Cell phones currently represent over half the entire portion of all Internet traffic, with most of this traffic commanded by applications. Android, Google’s portable working framework, drives the worldwide cell phone OS. It has a market share of about 80% and a very large number of users. These, joined with regular updates and a devoted after of clients, settle on it a top decision for organizations that consider portable application advancement.

The market for Android engineers is immense, and it tends to be hard to pinpoint the correct possibility to meet your particular needs and breathe life into your application in the best manner conceivable.

Here, we share our tips to enable you to discover and employ the best Android designers, alongside how to keep away from the potential entanglements of settling on a terrible choice.

The Most Effective Method of Discovering Top Android Developers

The following procedure is effective in discovering skilled android developers:

Define Your Requirements

This is a very crucial assignment, to begin with, as versatile applications are truly expanded and require different ranges of abilities. Characterizing the components that are necessary for the execution of your task will enable you to discover developers that have practical experience in a given area of specialization

Organize a Proper Interview

If you want to choose the best applicant, you must be orderly and arrange your interview very well. If you are not an IT specialist yourself, you ought to think about acquiring a reputable programmer to confirm the competitor’s abilities.

Prior to the meeting, you should run a record verification on your potential hopefuls. Pre-business screening ought to incorporate checking the hopeful’s understanding and their work history, just as their achievements. Make sure to ask critical thinking questions – ones that may relate to your versatile application improvement process now or later on as well as questions based on challenges your team has experienced previously.

Request to See a Portfolio

A lot of Android developers have worked on two or more applications, which is a good thing. These previous jobs ought to be present in the Google Play Store. Be that as it may, it’s not the quantity of discharged applications that matter. The main thing is their quality: check the size of the applications and their functionalities; their dependability and usage, what number of downloads they have gotten.

Where to Discover Great Android Designers

There are three principal approaches to enlist an Android engineer:

as an in-house representative,
on an independent premise,
or then again by collaborating with a gathering of outside portable application improvement experts.

The technique you select depends upon a few criteria such as your financial plan, the real due date, how critical the nature of your application is, and so on

Addressing these inquiries will enable you to pick admirably. Simply recall – each alternative has its upsides and downsides. There’s no general arrangement that will work for everybody, except you can pick the one that will be ideal for your necessities.