Developing Mobile Apps – Basic Skills that You Need

To succeed in developing mobile apps, you basically need two skills that are essential. Regardless of whether you develop applications to land a mobile app development job or plan to sell these apps directly.

To ensure success in the field of mobile app development, it is important that you have what is known as object-oriented programming skills. Most languages are based on the OOP concept; Java being the most popular among them.

But this is quite a steep learning curve. Complete grasp of object oriented programming concepts is a must if you want to start creating mobile applications. It’s not that only Java or Java-based programming languages are used. But no matter what language is used, you need to possess the basic skills.

The second competency that you need to have, to succeed in mobile development is solid graphic design skills. Coding skills are necessary but not sufficient. Even if you are not a talented graphic design artist, you must have some sense of images and their placement. Mobile application development would most likely to turn into a really hard job if you do not have possess the required graphic sense at all, even if you have the necessary skills in programming the functionality.

People with ample object oriented programming skills and solid graphic design skills are in a much better position to build successful applications developed for mobile platforms. Apart from these two, there are other skills which you need like Marketing skills, for instance, that are highly important when the time comes for you to start selling the mobile applications you have developed. If you don’t have an idea as to what app to develop, you can begin by looking at your target audience and figure out what they need or look for.

For this, you need to be skilled at gathering market data. True, these skills are not technical or even the core skills that one needs to develop mobile apps. But, they play an equally important role at the juncture you need them. So finally, graphic design that aids in enhancing the UI of the application, as well as the programming model and programming language used, are the ones that make up the core technical skills required for developers. That is why we say OOP skills and graphic design capability are considered to be the fundamental, important skills that anyone who wishes to succeed in developing applications for mobile platforms should have.

8 Mistakes Startups Should Avoid In Mobile App Development

Mobile app figures for the year gone by are dizzying. So many apps have been created and many people have used them. But how many of them stayed? And how many went out within a week of going live? These are very pertinent questions whose answer lies in the common mistakes that developers overlook when they build apps. In this article, we take a look at what they are, and how you should avoid them.

1.       Creating an app coz your competitor has one – Before you hire a mobile app company, you must know how it’s going to help you and what purpose your app will serve.

2.       Failing to identify devices of your audience – You must know your user’s devices. Say you hire an iOS app development firm when your target market primarily owns Android, your money along with your app will go to waste.

3.       Not understanding costs – Speak to your mobile app developer and find out about the costs involved. Some of the costs include app development and UI design, app marketing, and app maintenance. You can estimate your spending accurately with this.

4.       Adding all features at a stretch – Some people add all the features in the first release leaving little else to build on in the future. This in turn, will repel your app users as they always pine for something different every once in a while.

5.       Cutting the wrong corners – Do not try to reduce your costs by hiring cheap, new mobile application developers and compromise on functionality or design. Always remember that if you save $1 on these fronts, you’ll have to pay 10 times more on the marketing front. Let your app sell on its strengths.

6.       Failing to integrate Social media – FaceBook, Twitter and other social media are quintessential for marketing your app, reaching users, and saving your marketing expenses. So don’t underestimate the power of social media.

7.       Not testing the app – In addition to design and development, the developer or firm that you choose should test the app to make sure no bugs reach the user and ruin their experience.

Not testing usability – Your app has to be simple enough for the dumb and appealing enough for the techie. If the simple guy can’t do it, chances are you’re in trouble. You might have to tweak your app a little.