Your business is in a good place, and you want to build an app to support it. But you don’t even know where to begin! Building an app, whether you’re doing so internally or hiring someone to work with you, can be a daunting task for any business, let alone first-timers. Not every situation will be the same, but there are some key steps to follow to help you achieve a positive outcome.
Make sure you set aside the proper resources for app development. The most obvious resource needed is money. Budget is an important part of any project. You have to remember that just because an app is ‘straightforward’ doesn’t make it easy or quick. But it’s more than money; resourcing can include your internal project staff, your graphic artists, and your documentation. The last thing you want is for your developers to be sitting around when they should be working because no is getting back to them.
Secondly, don’t get ahead of yourself. Sure, it’s easy to jump ahead and start dealing with colours and sizes and buttons, but all those decisions might change once you realise that your workflow doesn’t allow them to be there. The workflow should always go first, followed by the backend (i.e. databases), and then app design. Changing the first bits after you’ve gotten far into the second and third might mean some significant costs (time and money). Don’t try to force design before development decisions have been made.
Remember that an app is more than just an app. Or rather, there are more pieces to the puzzle than you may initially think. You have the app itself, but you also have app store accounts, software licences, APIs, databases, servers, related web apps and related desktop apps. You don’t necessarily need all of those, but those are all possibilities for an ‘app’ project. So, don’t just jump in assuming that all you need to do is design a couple of screens and that’s all there is to it. Not only that, remember that an app is not the same as a web version or a desktop version. You can’t (and shouldn’t) expect the same functionality on all versions.
Finally, trust who you’ve hired to do design/develop your app. You may have the final say because you’re paying the bills, but that doesn’t make you infallible, especially when it comes to the look and feel of the app. Users tend not to want paragraphs of text, or rotating icons, or sound effects, but for a moment those might seem like good ideas to you. Stand your ground on your business use cases and your workflow, the things you know best, but try to trust the advice of your developers on the topics they know. After all, you’re paying them for their expertise! Treat developers and designers the same way you treat your mechanic or your doctor. You wouldn’t tell your mechanic how to fix your car or your doctor how to fix your broken leg because you understand that they know more than you do on that topic.
Building an app is a process that takes time. It is a valuable process that can produce a fantastic outcome, but it is also a complicated, painful process if you don’t consider your approach to it beforehand. You want to get a good app? Bring your thought-out ideas, bring your resources, and bring your trust.
