Previously we’ve seen the necessity of new strategies to take your business to the next level. we’ve highlighted the importance of the digital presence of  businesses to engage consumers, generate more market share and profit. Since we live in a digital era, data collection, as well as feedback, are key features every business need to integrate into its daily operation processes to determinate and adapt strategies to the target audience. Due to the massive usage of smartphones and mobile devices, billions of people are contributing to the increasing amount of existing big data

Let’s go a bit more in-depth with one of the strategies proposed which is the development of Mobile App and some risks people normally don’t take into consideration.

Mobile App development

 According to Comscore (siwick,2013), as of June 2013, mobile devices accounted 55% of time spent interacting with online retail outlets. Mobile interactions take place via mobile apps specially designed to fulfill specific users demands such as shopping, entertainment, information and social interactions.  Currently, there are around 1.5M apps in each one of the most used platforms Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store. With this amount of different types of apps, it’s important when developing yours, to fit it to your market goals and market niche. Past studies have shown that product value is one of the important factors in promoting app usage and purchases.

     These are the steps you will need to take to develop your app:

1. 1. Research: first thing is to have an idea of what you want to offer, which problem will be able to solve for your target audience. An effective way to know what your audience wants is to analyse your buyer persona’s behaviour
      patterns, doing so, you will be able to identify customers lifecycle, gain clarity towards developing the app and the use customers will make of it. Despite your app can be similar to others, you want yours to be unique in a specific way, so you have to ensure the viability of your idea. Don’t forget to research and analyse your direct competitors to know mistakes you should avoid
   2. wireframing: this process it’s going to help you know and understand functionalities of the app you want to develop. An initial brainstorming of possible features that fit with the purpose of the mobile app and adapt them to users special needs. Including too many features can result in a very costly process.
   3. Technical Assessment: Mobile apps have different requirements depending on platform and format, so you need to make sure that back-end systems will support the functionality
   4. Prototype: build a prototype ASAP, that will help you to know how the app works and flows. This stage of the development will help you have a better insight of the direction the project is taking. You can test the prototype on stakeholders and get feedback from them.
   5. Design: To enhance customers engagement, firms can design branded apps with features that offer different touchpoints at various stages throughout the customers journey. UX and UI designers will take part in this phase using blueprints as a guide to envision the final product. Your budget will condition the timeframe the design process will take. Addition of visual elements will increase possibilities of your UX  being original.
   6. Develop: After you are done with the design, now it’s time to test and fix functionality. One of the best ways of testing an app or any techy product is through a focus group, since they’re  the public that will use the app, so you can get a good feedback and see if the app is ready to be released
   7. Integrate analytics into app: Analytic tools will help you to collect info about users behaviour
   8. Testing: Testing the app through the whole development process will help you keep the fina costs low. The intentionality of testing an app is to see compatibility, security, usability and performance. Once the app has passed the users acceptance test, you know is ready. Net step is a Beta trial to receive feedback about real life functionability.
   9. Deployment:  Last step is to submit the app and get feedback from users. That feedback will help you introduce updates into new versions. Make sure you have enough resources to maintain the product.

Now that you know the necessary to develop an app for your business, don’t forget that there are also risks related to app usage. First of all we have become more dependant on our smart devices, meaning that a huge amount on time spent in front of our devices and sharing our personal information through the internet. You can get more information by clicking on the following link

 mobile app risks management 

References

Ashwini, A. (2017). What Are The Various Phases Of Mobile App Development?. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/what-are-the-various-phases-of-mobile-app-development-4f0a1748e619 [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].

boyd D, e. and P, K, K. (2019). Branded Apps and Their Impact on Firm Value: A Design Perspective. [ebook] Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=1a73f707-6d5e-4635-8c95-a5b98f96621b%40pdc-v-sessmgr05&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=134550812&db=buh [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

lindner, d. (2019). 5 Risks Introduced by Mobile Apps. [online] Bankinfosecurity.com. Available at: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/blogs/5-risks-introduced-by-mobile-apps-p-1406 [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].