How to make an App: costs, timeline, functionality, design and App success

Turn your dream into a reality

So, you have an app idea, do you?

You’re now ready to turn your dream into a reality?

Congratulations!

At this point, you’re wondering how to make that app. The app development process can be complicated and creating an app that will be successful involves much more than simply building out the idea you have in your head. That’s what I’m here to guide you through today.

I’ll be explaining the step-by-step process of turning your creative genius into an app that you’ll soon be able to market and monetize.

In this article you’ll learn:

• How to identify a market for your app
• How to determine your target audience
• How to determine which revenue model works best for your app
• How to keep your app optimized and relevant
• How to get started with the buildout
• And SO MUCH MORE!

I’m about to run you through a crash course on the business of creating a successful app, so pay careful attention. This is important!

VALIDATE YOUR CONCEPT

When people first approach me about how to make an app, I tell them that in order to create an app you must first establish a solid foundation.

You should know as much as possible about your idea and how it will perform once it’s launched. Otherwise, all the work it takes to create an app will be for nothing. The process it takes to create an app is time-consuming and costly. Like any business venture, there must be proper evaluation of your app’s viability before moving forward with such an investment.

Use the following three-step process to validate your concept and prove your idea’s viability to yourself and investors.

Identify a Market

The first step to validating your concept is to identify a market for your app. If you want to create an app you can monetize, you have to understand how to make an app people will want to pay for.

Check the App Store/Google Play

The App Store and/or Google Play (depending on where you plan to market your app) are great places to determine whether you have a viable concept that can be easily monetized

Are There Already Apps Like Yours?

Do apps like yours already exist? If so, how many? The existence of similar apps can be a good thing. That means people are downloading them, buying them, and using them. It also means that there will be competition to overcome.

The more competition you face, the harder you’ll have to work to promote your app at launch. It also means you’ll have to create a product that does something your competitors do not, or improves upon the way the app functions in a substantial manner.

Gather Inspiration

Competitive apps are a great place to gain inspiration for your app.

• What do they do well that you’d like to include in your concept?
• What do they do poorly that you could improve upon?

Don’t just look for similar apps. Explore some of your favorite apps in every category in order to gather ideas to include in the functionality of your app. The things that make apps easy to use and provide an excellent user experience can typically transcend app genres.

Fill a Need

Tools like Sensor Tower provide you with an insight into what people are searching for in the app marketplaces. If you have an idea, see what people are searching for related to your idea. If you find that people are searching for something that doesn’t exist in the current market, you may want to tweak your concept to meet the needs of the majority.

This type of search traffic tells you exactly what people want. There may be apps that fill that need already, there may not. If you can do it better or meet their needs more exactly, you’ll be able to utilize that search traffic to it’s full potential.

Get Feedback from Others

Its also a great idea to approach groups of people in your target audience to discuss your idea. For example, if you were creating an app that allows college students to buy, sell, and trade used books, you may want to approach groups at your local colleges to determine the interest or need for your idea.

If you have an idea, your target audience can give you valuable feedback on how to make an app that suits their needs.

Guage Interest with Custom Tools

Tools like those available from launchrock.com give you the amazing ability to gauge the level of interest in products before they launch. You’re able to share with your social network and even expose your app idea to their networks, then use their analytic tools to breakdown the interest generated in your pre-launch product.

This type of insight is incredibly valuable and I can’t emphasize the importance of understanding how the public values your product before you invest in a full buildout. Note that these tools usually require that you offer something in exchange for their user engagement. You may want to offer a free early download of your app to the selection of people who help you in your development process.

Seek Guidance from Experts

One of the best ways to determine whether or not your plan is solid is to talk to the people who eat, sleep, and breathe apps. Talk to expert app developers about your idea and get feedback. A good mobile app developer isn’t going to be pushy about selling you on their services because they speak for themselves. Instead, they’ll be more interested in determining whether or not you’re a good fit for their company and part of that is understanding your idea.

I highly recommend sitting down for a consultation with an app developer to go over your idea. They’ll be able to point out any weak parts of your plan and help you tweak the areas that need improvement.

DETERMINING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Selling to everyone will get you nowhere fast. Instead, you’ll need to determine your target audience before you start building. The process of how to build an app properly involves deciding who the app’s intended user will be. It’s a very important piece of the puzzle.

If you try to reach everyone with your concept, you’ll miss out on specializing enough for any one group to appreciate it as the app that best meets their unique set of needs.

You’ll end up with a watered-down version that is appealing to many, but just not exciting enough to download or keep using once they’ve got it. It’s these highly useful apps that spread quickly. Nobody is going to tell their friend about an app that they “kinda like.” They’re only going to share and recommend apps that they love.

Working to make an app that a specific group loves will provide you with a far more marketable product than one that tries to appeal to everyone. The aim is to generate a group of adoring fans before you expand your market.

Remember, this rule of how to create an app…

You’re creating something based around your user’s needs, not expecting them to modify themselves to fit your app.

Create a User Persona

The best way to determine your target audience is by investing some time and energy into creating a user persona. By creating a user persona you’ll be able to keep the user experience in mind during development and tailor your process accordingly.

What Are User Personas?

A user persona is a semi-fictitious identity you create that sums up all of the qualities of your ideal user. Your app is being created to solve a problem, and the user persona is the person who’s problem your app is best suited to solve.

You keep your user persona in mind during the entire development process to ensure the end user experience fits their needs. You also use user personas to market your app appropriately and optimize it after it’s launched. That said, they should be adjusted as you learn more about your user base.

How Are They Created?

You create a user persona by collecting the following information about who your app is intended for. Do you have existing customers? If so, create one or two user personas that represent them. If not, create them based on who you’ve determined to be your ideal user.

Include:

• A name that represents them
• Gender
• Age
• Income
• Education
• Location
• Marital Status
• And any other information that is important to understanding who your ideal user is on a deeper level.

Create a document that outlines your user persona and describe them as accurately as possible, including as many details about them as possible.

Understanding Your User Persona

In order to create a detailed user persona you’ll need to identify their reason for using your mobile app.

What Is Your User’s Primary Goal

The reason your user goes out of their way to search, download, and use your app should be clear long before mobile app development begins.

• What challenges are they facing that your app will alleviate?
• How does your app make life easier for them?
• What will they appreciate most about your app when recommending to a friend?

Also consider things like:

• What would keep them from using your app to solve their problem?
• What reason would they have to not download your app?

Understanding What You’re Selling

More than anyone, you need to be clear on exactly what it is that you’re offering to your users. You’ll never be able to market effectively unless you understand how to identify exactly how your app benefits your users and communicate that to them effectively.

One way to do that is through…

Your Unique Selling Proposition

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is the thing that makes you special. It’s the creative, innovative, and exciting way that you meet your users’ needs or solve their problems. Clearly identifying your USP will help set you apart from the competition and is something that most successful apps have in common.

In your description you’ll be able to include plenty of information about your app, but you’ll have to hook a potential user with a single-line USP to get them to expand the information drop down and look deeper into what you have to offer.

You’re here to learn how to make an app that is better than the competition, so ask yourself:

• What does my app do differently?
• What does my app do better?
• How does my app make users feel?

How Will You Reach Your Users?

Another important thing to consider is how to make an app easy for your users to find. Where will you publish your app? Do you have a marketing plan in place or are you depending on user ratings and recommendations to promote it?

Google Play/App Store Search

You currently have two main options for publishing your app. Android apps live in Google Play, Apple apps live in the App Store. Both markets are massive, each with millions of searches and downloads each day.

That said, they’re crowded. That level of exposure is something every app developer under the sun is after. It’s up to you to make sure your app ends up in front of the right people, and publishing a native app to either of these markets is a good place to start.

Recommendations

Evey app creator needs to understand how to make an app spread like wildfire. I’ll go into that in the next section, but know now that recommendations from adoring fans are worth their weight in gold. Friends telling friends about your app is a very effective way to market.

Think about it. A recommendation doesn’t require someone to identify that they have a problem, search the market, weed through the competition, and download your app. Instead, their trusted adviser has told them about this new app they have to download.

They’ll search for your app by name and download it without hesitation.

Advertising

Advertising for apps has become a big business. People are creating video ads for YouTube, pay-per-click ads for social media and Google, and even running commercials on TV. Unless you’re creating a game changer, you may not have the budget to advertise with a TV spot, but advertising is still something you’ll need to consider.

It can be difficult to put your app in front of new users, especially for new apps. Paid advertising gives you a way to build an initial following and generate the reviews and recommendations that will help you establish your brand.

Inbound Sales Funnel

Last, but certainly not least, you’ll have to consider your inbound sales funnel. Some of the process is already recommended to support other areas of your development, but when you break down the inbound sales process, it looks like this:

1. Define your ideal buyer persona
2. Create useful and problem-solving offers
3. Write a strong landing page to sell the offer
4. Place the offer and message in front of them
5. Write helpful articles that can be found by your ideal buyer in search engines

To put it simply, you’re attracting your customers to you by filling the information/idea gap between where they are and the solution to their problems/answers to their questions. In doing so, you begin to develop a relationship, build trust, and nurture them towards your product.

In your case, if you create an app that tracks your sleep quality, you might create blog posts that outline:

• The Importance of Good Sleep for Your Health
• The Best Ways to Achieve a Good Night’s Sleep
• The Best Apps to Support Your Health

These posts would lead people to your site/landing page where they would be presented with a downloadable offer (ebook) like:

• The Secret to Better Sleep in 7 Days, Guaranteed!
• 5 Sleep Secrets You’ve Never Heard Before
• Why You’re Not Sleeping: How to Solve Your Most Important Problem

Those who download your ebook will give you an email address that you can use to provide further value, nurturing them towards the eventual conversion (download). The entire process can be automated, meaning you set it up and sit back while your customers come to you!

YOUR REVENUE MODEL

The process of how to make an app becomes increasingly strategic as you look at it more closely. Identifying your revenue model is another important step to understanding how to create an app that will be successful.

You may want to allow time for your app to build a following before you monetize. You may have plans to charge for your app or run ads right off the bat. Whatever you decide, you’ll want to have your monetization strategy in place before the first line of code is written.

Developing a Substantial User Base BEFORE You Monetize

One of the most popular and powerful monetization strategies for apps involves focusing on expanding the awareness around it before creating any sort of revenue stream. With the abundance of applications entering the market every single day, making sure yours stands out should be your first priority.

When creating an app, your main goal should be to deliver an outstanding product that provides its users with the ultimate experience possible. Remember, the success of your app is totally dependant on people actually using it.

There are plenty of apps focusing on monetization right out of the gate, but it’s becoming more and more common to first put your time, energy, and money into generating as many happy users as possible.

Look at all of the biggest apps currently on the market. Instagram existed for years before it included advertising. By the time they did, they had already been sold to Facebook for $1 billion and was such an integral part of the social media community that people couldn’t live without it.

I’m not saying that you’re creating the next Instagram, but maybe you are. Either way, it’s important to learn from the best in the business.

What To Focus on Before You Monetize

1. Excellent User Experience

Your number one concern out of the gate should be your user experience (UX). Your UX isn’t as easy to understand as some of the other metrics we’ll be covering, but it’s the most important by far. Your app’s user experience is how it makes your users feel.

Ask yourself and your testers these questions:

• Is it incredibly simple to navigate and understand or does your app come with a massive learning curve before you can successfully utilize all of the available features?
• How does using the app make you feel—excited, entertained, frustrated, bored?
• What about the app can’t you live without? Which parts would you change? How?

2. Excellent Reviews

If you can figure out how to make an app that generates great reviews in the app marketplaces and is downloaded often, your app will be featured higher in the search results when your users are looking for what you have to offer. The better your reviews, the better your chances for having your app downloaded before your competition.

Many users look at an app’s reviews before they look to the description and images. If the reviews mention problems, fix them! Then make sure that your community knows that they’ve been corrected in your latest update.

3. Creating a Buzz/Generating Referrals

Determining how to make an app that creates a buzz can be more difficult than the first two items on this list, but if you can pull it off you’ll be on your way to creating a highly successful app.

Depending on the type of app you’re creating you may be able to isolate a certain X-factor that your app possesses. What makes it so amazing, helpful, or special? Use that unique quality to spearhead a marketing campaign that focuses on engagement.

Remember, if you’re focusing on growth before you monetize, you’ll want to get people talking about your app, asking questions about it, and sharing it with their friends. A great place to do that is on social media.

Facebook allows you to create ad campaigns that specifically target people most likely to comment, like, and share your posts about your app. The more people that engage with your posts, the more others will trust your app and potentially download it.

You’ll also see people tagging their friends in these types of posts to recommend that they take a look at what you’re offering. They tag, like, comment, and share. The snowball grows and grows. That’s the power of engagement.

How Monetization Can Be Harmful

Plenty of apps are using a cost-per-download monetization strategy. In an attempt to generate sales in higher volumes, prices are typically quite low. Most of the apps available for sale today are between $0.99 and $1.99. There are those that are far more expensive, but they’re rare.

The problem with this monetization strategy is that it doesn’t work very well for the majority of new apps. Logic goes out the window when we’re app shopping. A $0.99 price tag is something every single user can afford, but unfortunately most of us simply don’t want to fork over the cash when we’re surrounded with free versions of apps that do the same thing.

Highly popular free apps typically see a massive decrease in their high volume downloading when they try to monetize with a pay-per-download strategy.

The pay-per-download strategy is usually better suited for smaller technical applications. That said, most only see success from offering a free version and nurturing users toward paying for an upgraded “pro” or “full” version.

Ads Can Detract From User Experience

If you’re wondering how to make an app that spreads like crazy, you’ll likely want to avoid banner ads and pop-ups that detract from the overall user experience. People are easily annoyed by ads that interrupt their otherwise perfect UX.

If you spend lots of time and money creating an app that provides your users with the ultimate UX, I recommend rethinking monetizing with any advertizing that can clash and interrupt that seamless interface between app and user.

Free Apps Gain Traction More Quickly

If you can’t already tell, I’m partial to creating an app that will be free for some time before trying to monetize. The main reason for this is that you can promote your app heavily to kickstart downloads and the barrier to entry will be minimal. When people see a price tag, they not only think of the cost, but the minute amount of extra time and effort that goes into making sure this app is worth their $0.99.

If the app is free, they have less to worry about. If they download the app, test it, and dislike it, they can always turn around and delete it without having wasted anything but a few minutes of their time. There is no financial (read: risk) component to the equation.

Optimize for Growth

If you haven’t noticed the recurring theme of this article thus far, it’s to optimize your app as well as your launch and marketing strategies for growth first. If you can develop a large, highly active user base, you’ll be able to monetize more effectively.

First of all, that large, highly engaged group of users is far more appealing to advertisers, buyers, etc. Depending on your goal, you may decide that your app monetization strategy lies in selling the entire thing once you’ve cultivated a strong user base.

If you’re trying to figure out how to make an app that you can sell, you’ll be much better of avoiding ant sort of monetization prior to the sale. You’ll be able to offer a stable, well-engaged group of users, figures on the app’s steady growth, and projections that will make your app worth more.

Remember my Instagram example?

When Facebook bought Instagram, they had yet to make a single dollar from their app. The value of its extremely active, high-volume user base was what attracted the social media giant to acquire them.

When to Monetize

You may decide that it’s time to monetize when you reach a certain user threshold. You may also reach it and decide that you’ll be better off to rethink your monetization strategy. There are a number of ways to make your app profitable, just be sure you choose the right one for your particular application.

Remember, you want to focus on creating a product with this type of user-centric interface that makes people happy to use first! Then, and only then, can you decide on how you’ll monetize. Otherwise, no matter how you monetize, your strategy simply won’t carry the same power.

How to Make an App That Makes Users Happy

There are over 2 million apps in each of the major app markets.

You know what that means?

You have to create something amazing in order to stand out. The way you create that amazing app is by delivering—you guessed it—a superlative user experience that keeps your users happy and actively using your tool as a part of their lives.

Why User Experience is Important

I’m sure you’ve downloaded at least one app in your life that was just too hard to use, difficult to navigate, glitched or froze, or just didn’t do what it was made to do in the right way. These are the apps that get downloaded and deleted or sit dormant. Successful apps, on the other hand, are those that are used again and again.

The reason I put so much emphasis in creating an app with a flawless user experience is because most people won’t think twice about deleting your app if they encounter a problem that rubs them the wrong way.

Instead, create the perfect intuitive user experience works with little to no thought and your app will become a way for your users to improve their daily lives, it will live on their home screen for years, and they’ll happily tell their friends and family all about it.

Designing SMART Mobile Apps

A smart app is one that you can continually monitor and make micro adjustments to as you see the need. You accomplish this is by installing analytic and optimization tools in your app that allow you to A/B test minute changes to your user interface. These types of tools allow you to make small changes that very few people will actually notice, all the while making your app better and better suited for your users.

They also allow you to monitor the engagement of your users. You may generate a ton of downloads with your marketing, but none of that will do you any good if the app sits dormant. The intrinsic value of your app is in its user engagement, so it’s important to be able to test small changes that can keep your users active longer.

We’ll touch more on this in the Mobile App Optimization section. For now, just know that these features are very important when it comes to monetizing your app.

Designing for User Interface and User Experience

When creating an app that keeps users happy, it’s important to understand the difference between user interface and user experience. The user interface is the combination of icons, images, buttons, etc. that add up to create the visual and interactive component that your user encounters each time they open your app.

Your user experience is the science behind the layout and functionality that generates a particular feeling for your users. Does the app feel intuitive and respond just how I’d imagine without much of a learning curve? Does the app leave me feeling frustrated and encountering roadblocks every time I perform an action?

Obviously, you’re interested in how to make an app intuitive, so read on!

How to Design an Intuitive App

The apps we love to use are those that respond to our wishes as if they knew what we were going to ask them to do ahead of time. They are the ones that we can flow through without giving a conscious thought to where this button is and what this icon does. They’re the apps that are directive, familiar, well styled, and uncluttered.

Make It Directive

In order to make an app directive, you have to minimize the thought that goes into every action. For example, rather than having a “next” button, include the page name or where it takes you. The simpler it is for new users to understand each of the commands and options you provide, the easier it will be for them to adapt your app into their lives.

Make It Familiar

How to make an app work FOR your users should be your highest priority. That means creating an app that does what you say without a user needing to put in much effort. One of the best ways to do that is by making your app familiar.

Including a hamburger menu in the top left, a settings gear in the top right, and interactive buttons and icons that they’ll find familiar—from other apps and their phone—will go a long way.

These familiar additions eliminate a lot of the guessing involved in operating a new app and allow new users to feel right at home when it’s more important to be clear and easy to understand than edgy and cool.

Styling

Styling goes a long way in the world of mobile apps. How to make an app stylish depends greatly on your designer, so being able to give examples of your intended look and style will be an important part of the consultative process.

Create something that is both pleasing to the eye and helps your app to feel that it’s of the highest quality. We’ve all seen those apps that look terrible and most of the time we end up judging their functional ability based on their poor styling.

On the other hand, don’t get carried away. You don’t want an overly styled app that detracts from its functionality or user-friendly navigation, which leads me to my next point…

Remove Clutter

When talking to your developer about how to make an app that blends your concept with functionality that provides an excellent user experience, be sure they’re taking a minimalist approach.

When it comes to mobile apps, less is often more. Remove excess text, images, etc. Don’t include a function or styling unless it truly adds something of value to the end user experience. If you add something and decide in testing that it doesn’t really matter if it’s there or not, you may want to remove it.

Remember, the simpler your app is to use, the more it will be used. The more it’s used, the more buzz and recommendations it’ll receive. The more buzz, the more your user base will grow, and that, my friends, is the bottom line.

Things to Consider About Your App’s Intuitive Design

By the time you’ve reached this point in your design, you’re probably chomping at the bit to get your app to market. Before you do, there are a few concepts you’ll have to double check are in line with your original vision.

Target Audience and Core Functionality

Is your app’s functionality based around your ideal user? If you’re target audience is of the less-than-technical variety, is your app super intuitive and directive? Could your mom figure it out?

Navigation

Is your navigation based on that of other popular apps, or are you trying to be too innovative for your own good?

Your Goals (in-app purchases, Facebook sharing, etc.)

If the goal of your app is to get your users purchasing items from within your app, make sure it’s easy for them to figure out how to do just that. If you want people to share on Facebook, keep that functionality front and center and you’ll have a better chance of getting people sharing with social networks that may engage around your app.

Minor vs. Major Options

Be sure to keep the least-used functions of your app tucked away deeper than the most commonly used functions. For instance, hide your privacy settings deep into a Settings menu, but make sure your social sharing functions are right where your users will be looking for them.

Test, Test, and Test Again

If you asked most developers about how to make an app that people will use time and time again, they’ll tell you to test, test, and test again. You have to run through every user scenario and locate any areas where something could go wrong.

User Scenarios

User Scenarios are like fire drills that help you catch any weak points in your app before your users encounter them. You want to walk through every path a user could travel in order to catch problems and improve areas that detract from the overall user experience.

If you’re creating an ecommerce app, follow every possible channel from start to finish over and over again. Open, shop, add to cart, remove from cart, login, complete the purchase, initialize a return…you get the picture.

Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal user and determine where things need to be improved to enhance the user experience and other problems that may need to be taken back to the drawing board.

Launch with the best product possible, and then..

Always Be Improving

Once you figure out how to make an app that stands out, create an app, and launch your app, you may think your job is over.

Think again.

At this point you’ve reached a critical stage in your app’s lifecycle. You’ll have done everything you can to get your app functioning at the highest level. You’ll have designed according to your user personas and followed rigorous testing. You’ll have run every user scenario you can think of from top to bottom, back to front, inside and out, and you’ll still have problems.

Keep Users Happy

No matter how “perfect” your app is when you launch, you’ll encounter errors along the way and your users will let you know about them in your comments. As your app is used by more people, you’ll hear about more ways that you can improve upon your design and optimize your user experience. But that’s not the hardest part of mobile app optimization.

Not only will you have to respond to feedback, you’ll have to anticipate the ever-changing landscape of the app market and your users and adapt to keep ahead of the curve.

For example:

If new technologies become available that might end up in a competitive application, you’ll want to have them first.

If your app is a social tool or has a social component, be sure to stay up with the latest trends in how people are interacting and sharing.

Mobile App Optimization Speeds Monetization

Once you get your app to market, it’s completely natural to shift your focus toward monetization. After all of the hard work you’ve put in to get your app to where it is, it’s only natural. One of the best way to start monetizing your app is through driving engagement.

What is Mobile App Optimization and How Does It Work?

Mobile app optimization is the process of testing for problems and continually enhancing your user experience through A/B testing. Remember when we covered developing smart apps and the tools that you can use to split test small interface changes that improve engagement?

Here is where we put all of this into action. It used to be that changing your app was difficult. There were review periods and users would have to download an update. Things are better now, easier.

3 Steps to Effective Optimization

Here is my expert process for conducting effective mobile app optimization. Pay attention, it’s simple and straightforward, but it’s really good!

Start With Your Strategy

As we know, your app’s success is dependant on your ability to implement a clearly outlined strategy. The optimization process is no different. If you want your users to do something, you’ll need to create a strategy to accomplish that action item.

If you want them to make an in-app purchase, share something to Facebook, or click on an ad, design a strategy around each of those actions.

Determine the Path to That Action

What steps will your user need to take to take from within your app in order to accomplish the intended action?

Make a list of these steps and determine how you can improve or highlight the text, buttons, images, and calls to action that get them from point A to point B.

Are there any weak points where people could get lost? If so, create a stronger connection and improve that item’s effect on their impulse responses.

Your developer can help you connect each of these dynamic elements to the testing tools so you can track each element’s engagement and determine which changes show an improvement and which hurt your intended goal.

Make sure to optimize each step on each screen in order to draw your users along the path to taking action.

Test, Learn, Optimize Again

Your optimization software will come with a dashboard that allows you to monitor your user engagement and determine which of your changes are successful. You’ll want to learn to interpret that data to be able to understand how each change affects your user engagement and whether or not it’s having a positive effect on your intended action.

You’ll want to continually optimize your app. The competition is fierce and you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve if you want to survive. What works for you one month may not work the next, so be sure to stay on top of the date and be prepared to take the necessary measures to remain competitive and successful.

Where to Make Changes

Just like when you optimize your website, you’ll want to make small changes and test the results before making another, otherwise you won’t be able to tell which of your changes impacted your app. Here are a few items that you’ll want to try changing one by one:

• Copy
• Formatting
• Colors
• Buttons
• Icons
• Layouts
• In-app purchase
• Any other part of the UI that can be easily modified.

User Engagement Goes Beyond App Monetization

The importance of user engagement goes beyond a monetization strategy. Even if your app is a part of a larger business and designed to be an extension or tool of this business, user engagement will create a deeper relationship between your customers and your brand.

Higher engagement typically generates more leads, business, sales, and loyalty. Those are things we can all appreciate!

Completing the Process

The process of optimization takes time. The most important part is developing an understanding of what your users want and continually working to deliver that in the most effective way possible.

If your app isn’t profitable a month after you launch, don’t fret. Most popular apps aren’t overnight sensations. Stick with your optimizations and you’ll be delivering a product that you’re sure people want.

READY TO GET STARTED ON YOUR APP IDEA?

By now I’m sure you’re ready to get started with the development process. When you’re ready to reach out to a developer, be sure to ask them the following questions:

Top Questions to Ask Your Developer

Is my app idea safe with you? (Intellectual Property Protection)

You should always ask for a non-disclosure agreement in order to protect your intellectual property. You have to be able to trust that your idea is safe with any proposed developers before you begin working with them.

How much does an app cost?

Every app development company will quote you something different, but that’s not the information you’re really after when asking this question. You’re asking to gauge where your proposed developer lies on the spectrum, understanding that the cheapest may not always be the best option, and the most expensive isn’t always the most qualified either.

It will also help you to set a baseline around your overall project cost. Rather than a developer telling you that you’ll be paying an hourly rate and leaving a wide range, ask for a quote with a clear set estimate, only to be modified if the project details are modified mid-development.

Do you outsource your development work?

App development has become a big business, and unfortunately that means there are plenty of low-level companies trying to make a quick buck. These companies stick a local representative in an office to handle the human interaction and leave the work up to a handful of scattered foreign developers that don’t always fully understand every aspect of the development process. It’s important to understand where your app will actually be developped and your development company should be happy to let you speak to their development team directly about how to make an app.

Why Partner With DuckMa?

You have a lot on your plate at the moment, so I’m going to make this simple. We only want to work with you if both parties agree that it’s a good fit. At DuckMa, we love what we do. We’re a team of highly skilled, highly passionate individuals that enjoy every day in our office.

These are the 3 pillars of our success:

Experience: We have been providing app development services since 2009, the dawning of the app age.

Flexibility: We like to call our office the, “laboratory of excellence,” a specialized boutique for clients who demand the best for their own solutions, meaning we can think outside the box and work within client constraints.

Attention: Our passion for everything hi-tech is considerable, but first and foremost we are professionals that specialize in the mobile environment.

Who We Create Apps For (Startups)

Startups are our bread and butter. There are plenty of app development companies who don’t fully understand how to make an app for a startup. If they focus on existing enterprises they may miss the emphasis on many of elements that are most important to startups.

In fact, we work almost exclusively with startups at this point because we have such a deep understanding of their needs. We even help our clients hire a developer to aid them in the long-term testing, optimization, and modifications processes.

If you have any questions, want to run your idea by us, or just want to have a chat about the app development process, please contact us.

We’re here to help you and we’re dedicated to making sure you understand every aspect of how to make an app, and how to make it successful.

We’re excited to talk to you, let’s get started!