It is a tricky business of mobile app development a one-time investment of efforts that pay off in the future. Knowing where to begin is important. The process of developing a mobile app has several roadblocks. These can be overcome only if everything has been planned in advance.
A functional specification can be defined as paperwork that highlights the basic design, deadline, development teams, everyone’s roles, functions of the mobile app, and types of users.
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Five Tips For App Development
Set Your Vision
Vision is all about where you want to take your mobile app. You can set a long-term vision or focus on the initial baby years of your product.
Some long-term visions include the number of teams you want to hire, the platform where you first want to launch your mobile, and what technology you want to choose.
Some short-term visions include deciding the pace of progress, arranging finance, and confirming Minimum Viable Product with the technical and marketing team.
Translate Your Idea
Getting your ideas on a piece of paper is interesting. You basically present a picture that helps everyone to understand your vision.
For instance, saying that birds will fly when a student guesses the name of the bird is vague. Showing it on a piece of paper is more interesting. Technical teams understand what you want and others get hooked on your idea. This is therefore one of the most important parts of mobile application development service. You can get a professional to design while you speak or you can simply give it a shot.
A rough sketch helps as the only aim is to show others what is going on in your mind. Keep your focus on user experience, display of buttons, and interface. Start with a draft. Once you are done, take a break and come back to it later with a fresh mind. You will have clearer thoughts about your work.
Design Graphical Framework
This sounds similar to our previous point but it is more technical than that. The development team prepares a framework for the graphic team to insert their graphics and test the impression.
Do not miss this step. It helps to lower the overall cost of the project. Imagine getting everything on the table only to realize that the colors are bad, or they don’t go well with the color of fonts. The template designed by the technical team comes in handy.
Designers are able to test the look and get it reviewed by the client.
You might want to stay in the loop for this step. Insist your developing team to get everything approved before putting it on the mobile app. If you have everything on your mind, then get it on the system by assisting the design team during the process.
Attain Visual Consistency
Another way to put it in words is by saying that the attention of the user must remain intact at every section of the mobile app. He or she cannot be left to wonder if everything that is happening is a glitch or not.
Consider keeping the same font everywhere except when your logo appears at the beginning. Inserting animation is a great idea but do not mix 2D animation with 3D animation.
Differentiate between sections that are active and inactive. Meaning, that users must be able to tell the difference between sections where they can tap for another result and where they cannot be tap.
Execute With Perfection
Perfection is something that we all desire; however, not everyone can control it. Professionals with technical know-how have more control at this point. The best you can do is try to understand what they are doing and it affects your mobile app.
Try not to get into details as it may irritate the developers. Keep a check over the coding language that they are using and security certificates that they are integrating with your mobile app. If your mobile app deals with online payments then ensure that it is going to be safe for users to transact on your mobile app.
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Creating Functional Specifications
We are now at a stage where we can conveniently move on to understanding how you can create functional specifications.
Functional specifications complement the process of developing a mobile app. They further help you to streamline the entire process. Here’s how you can create functional specifications.
Introduce Your App
You can also mention a list of your competitors that developers can refer to. You may have inspiration as well from a totally different type of app. For example, you are developing a cab aggregator app but you may like the way an online teaching app interacts with the users. Certain aspects can be derived and designed accordingly.
Define different terms that the team will be using during the development process. This applies to you especially if you are a professional who is just getting started. There cannot be confused about who the Client is as it may be your client or the one who will be using the app.
Define Users
A user can be anyone when it comes to a mobile application. In a general sense, a user is a person who ultimately uses the app. Technically, a user is also a person who will be operating the app.
Let us take the example of online teaching to the next step. Users for that app can be teachers, students, and parents. When you define these users on a paper, the development team understands what features are required for which user. Teachers may want to see who is online and who is offline but a student may not be interested to know that.
Describe Screens
Your maximum efforts would be required here. Describing every screen is important. Needless to say, this will depend on how many screens you are planning to have.
A mobile app dedicated to online food delivery may have, for instance, a minimum of 5 screens. The first screen would be a list of different restaurants based on their cuisine and distance. The second screen may be dedicated to the restaurant that the user wants to order from. Other screens follow similarly.
Describing a screen refers to what each screen will have and what it will look like. This also includes where the user will have to tap to proceed to the next screen. Place images and text carefully while ensuring that there is enough space for the user. Less space can land the user in a totally different section.
Get Technical
Try to get your basics clear by conducting research on the internet. When you get technical with the developer, you are better able to recommend the preferred technology and data structure. You would not want your mobile app to save every type of data. A lot of it may be important to understand how the user interacts with the interface.
Believe it or not but many extensions are available in the market that can be directly used. Know about such third-party extensions that are available for integration.
