First Steps into the Mobile App Ocean

When looking to build your first mobile application, you need to ask yourself some hard questions before you start.  Once you’ve answered these questions, you can use them as your starting, and very basic, framework.

The Application

The first and most important question should be “what is this application going to do?” You should take the time to outline your application and list what features you want it to accomplish.  You will also want to think about any external connections or dependencies you would like to include. This could be anything from sending emails, posting a status to a Twitter account, or directly tying your application to an existing website.

The Device

Once you have your application defined, the next big question is “which phone market will this target?” Unlike website development, in which you can make slight tweaks and/or hacks to make a single site talk to multiple different browsers, mobile apps do not play nearly as nice when moving your code from platform to platform. Of course, this is not the only thing to consider when choosing your platform. Product history, market presence, device popularity, and platform philosophy all go into this decision as well.

This second question should cover a majority of the first steps as there is much research you will have to do to ensure the finished product will be of the highest quality. With your outlined list of features for your app, you can determine if any or none of the platforms have the abilities to create what you want. 

The Market

Once you have a platform created, you need to search the marketplace. Are there any existing apps that do what you have outlined? If so, what makes your app unique and more likely to attract the customer? Do you know your target audience? Do they use this market and/or platform? These questions could have you running back to your platform decision once again.

It is possible that you don’t plan on opening your app to the general public and simply plan on serving it to a select few, or internally within a business. If that is the case, the device question is going to be much more pertinent. If you are publishing for internal use, is your device used widely throughout the company?

The Development

With these questions answered, you can move into the nuts and bolts aspects of your application. Dive into your chosen development environment and learn all that you can, this is simply the beginning.