When it comes to making a mobile app, design is everything. Whether your project is a game or an app for an online store, the design always remains the most important thing. That is why every step of the design process must be appreciated and given plenty of care and attention. If you are able to give the entire project the attention to detail it deserves, then you can have a mobile app you can be really proud of.

Here at Ireland Web Design, we have a very specific approach to our app design process. Here we will take you through all the different stages of the design so then you can see how building a great mobile app takes place.

Decide The Primary Function

Once we have an idea for an app, we then have to decide what the main purpose of the app will be. All really great apps have one main function in mind, whether it be access to an online store or the ability to find restaurants in the user’s local area. No matter what the app is for, it has to have one main function. Once we know what that is, we will be able to proceed with the next stages of the project.

Research, Research, Research

This is one of the most important parts of the app design process, even though it doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. Doing the right kind of market research is extremely beneficial to a mobile app design project. We start by making a document where we can chart all of our market research, so then we can look back at our findings in one place so and compare our results.

Then we will look at the apps that we would consider to be the direct competition to our project. We look at what those apps have on offer and what we feel they lack and add that to our market research document. We then do a little research into the technical limitations of some of our ideas. After all, we do not want to start working on something that technology will ultimately prevent us from completing.

During the final part of the process, we plan how the app can develop over time. This is possibly the most important part of the process, mainly because apps tend to have regular updates so then they stay current and fully functional with modern devices. That’s why we plan out in detail how the app might be improved and altered in the future depending on the functionality of devices.

Finding The Target Audience

Once we have done our market research, we have a clear idea of who the app should be aimed towards. When we have a target audience in mind, we will also have a clear idea of how to make the app appealing to them. Once again, our market research document becomes very helpful when we are deciding how the app will be laid out, including the kind of typeface and color schemes that should be used.

The Mobile Sitemap

Now that we have everything in place we need, we can start making our mobile app sitemap. Unlike website sitemaps, mobile app sitemaps only provide a single way to get to a specific page instead of multiple options.

This is a crucial part of the app design process, mainly because it lays the framework for how easy the app is to navigate. The last thing users want is having to go back to previous pages when they feel they have been sent down a dead end. During the sitemap stage, we make sure that every page is easy to access.

Wireframing And Prototyping

Now that the sitemap is in place, we are able to start work getting everything together. We can start designing and adding all the different design elements of the app, ensuring that we run a prototype run for every aspect of the app. The last thing we want is for something to be faulty after all the different aspects have been added, resulting in us having to backtrack over our work. This is why we test everything regularly to make sure everything is working properly before we move on to the next stage.

Finishing The Project

Once everything is working properly and has been placed where we want it, the app will be ready to go! Before we launch your new app, however, we will run a few more trial runs to make sure that the app is easy to navigate, looks appealing and above all is appealing to our clients. Once we are happy with all of those things, our latest mobile app is ready to be listed on online stores.