Mobile Phones allow people to perform a variety of tasks on their smartphones through dedicated applications for such activities as ordering goods and groceries, ticket booking, cab booking, and many more. If you have a unique plan for Mobile App Development, then it is a good time to go with it and grab the market.

The smart phone users are relying more on online shopping and performing other numerous activities. Therefore, if you are having a different plan for mobile app development, then start working on it without any delay.

In this planning of app development, I am going to guide you through this blog. By following the procedure and steps in a precise manner, you can easily refine your business idea. It will also guide you to plan for Mobile App Development and get accurate results thoroughly.

Here are the following steps to create a successful mobile app.

Source: UXPlanet Website

Step 1: It all starts with an Idea

The point where it all starts, the fundamental base of a business is an idea. It all begins with one simple thought- why only this and why not this? Apps require constant updation and make lives a little easier. It is the reason which drives our community forth. Most great ideas start due to need arousal.

A successful entrepreneur provides a solution to the problem in such a way that we could not have imagined. So, look for numerous problems that exist in your daily life and list each of them. Once you are having an ample amount of issues, then start looking for the unique ideas to resolve the issue. Every problem has a solution; if we look for it properly, so find solutions to choose the one that makes more sense. Make sure to put the end-user at the priority because if users are not getting solutions for their problem, they are not going to use your mobile application. Mobile app development is all about providing a solution to a lot of people and making their life more comfortable.

Step 2: Market Research

Now the real work starts after finalizing the idea for mobile app development. To take your app development idea ahead, which requires a lot of research, based on multiple factors. The research is very important to consider because it will form the basic knowledge for your app and help you to decide whether to take this idea ahead or look for something else. So, make sure not to rush this phase and do it appropriately.

a. Competitors

It is very important to learn about your existing competitors in the market first. The existing applications in the market are going to be a great source of knowledge for you. So, just pick the best existing competitive mobile apps in the market, do thorough research, and learn about their working. It also includes the platform app is running, tools, features, and everything as much as you can get the details of it.

After that, look for their targeted customers and the users’ reviews and feedback. As well as, list out the best features that you can also add in your app in a new manner definitely. This will help you lay down a path to move ahead and the numerous points you can add and ditch in your plan for mobile app development.

b. Target Users

The second important thing you need to focus on in the Research phase is to look out for your competitors target users and define yours as well. It is a well-known fact that certain types of apps are developed for a specific group of customers in mind based on their age, gender, and ethnicity. You need to be assured of which type of users you are going to target with your application. Therefore, make all these decisions in the early phase only because every delayed decision will greatly affect the development process.

c. Trend Research

The last part of the Research phase is to analyze market trends. We all know the market trends used to evolve rapidly with time. Before introducing your product in the market, first learn about the market trends, i.e., learn about whether your product is required or have such a demand in the market. Look at your app’s functionality. All of it should be in alignment with trends because nowadays, people want to be updated on all forms. With trend research, gain some insight over where the trend is heading and will be in the next couple of months or until the time you are available with your final product.

Step 3: Planning

After gathering all the information in the research phase, it is now appropriate to plan things before moving ahead. The planning is all about preparing a blueprint or plan for mobile app development. The planning phase also involves different steps, let’s learn about it in depth.

Source: Entrepreneur Website

a. Plan an MVP for App

In the Planning phase for mobile app development, it is important to create a plan to build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). It is a smaller and concentrated version of your app. Building MVP is a feasible option for your app development as it provides clarity about your goals and finds the features which will work as a guiding agent for your app. Developing an MVP will be a great call for your marketing strategy to generate a buzz about it and gather critical reviews and feedback from the users.

MVP for your app development will allow you to provide a chance for users to experience the features and functionalities of your app and review it. These reviews might be harsh but will eventually make you aware of the working of the app and the user’s expectation too. This will help you minimize such flaws, and please your users by improving the app quality and working over their feedback.

b. Select the Platform

The major smartphone Operating Systems that dominate the market on a broader scale is Google’s Android App Store and Apple’s iOS App Store. Both the platforms are a hit among its users.

Google’s Android Play Store has extensive user coverage as compared to Apple’s iOS App Store. Android is open-source. Therefore, a lot of devices are running on this operating system. The enhanced customer penetration and cheap availability of android smartphones have made it more handy for users to go for Android Apps. For any business, Google Play Store will be a great platform to introduce their mobile application. But this handy availability of android smartphones, doesn’t attract more customers to go for in-app purchases or other facilities to spend money over an application.

On the other hand, the iOS Platform is quite expensive and comparatively less users than Android. But the iOS users are very active and can easily spend good money on in-app purchases or purchasing any specific feature through the mobile application.

Instead of going with a particular platform, you can also go with both the apps. For this, you have built the hybrid app, which effortlessly works on both the platforms. It requires a steady internet at all times to work and doesn’t need to be downloaded in the user’s device. Such apps work similarly a website works but with the features of apps. Thus, mobile app development is cheap and requires less time to attain the final product. Overall, in a time and cost of one app, you can get a hybrid app that works effectively on both platforms. Examples of hybrid apps are Gmail, Instagram, Uber, etc.

c. Required Budget

Mobile App Development is a costly call to take for anyone. Despite doing everything the right way, there is no guarantee that you will achieve the desired results at the end. So, step into mobile app development if you are ready to put in the money and a lot of perseverance.

There are numerous methods to build the app, like investing your own money, finding the investors, or Crowdfunding.

Investing your own money is one of the riskiest options. It is a bad idea unless you have so much money to risk, and if faced failure then it won’t affect you too much. The second way is to find investors. It is a bit tedious and a time-taking process. But there are many investors in the market who can invest a good amount of money in your mobile app development if they found your business idea feasible and valuable for the market.

The third way is to fund your project from various sources through Crowdfunding. There are few online platforms that help you to gather money from strangers just by uploading your business proposal on these websites. Such online platforms are GoFundMe, Kickstarter, etc.

Step 4: Development

The mobile app development requires developers to develop the product. The developers will provide life to your business idea, which was on the paper till now. To deliver the plan for mobile app development into reality, you can develop the app on your own, or you can hire a dedicated team of developers, or you can hire even an agency to develop the app.

I don’t think developing the app on your own would be a great call unless you are an expert in app development. Despite that, you will require two-to-three more developers to do so. Being the owner and responsible person for everything, it still won’t be a good call. So, you can go with any of the other two options.

Among these two options, I would suggest hiring an agency would be a great call. It will ease your work and save your time too. With an agency, you don’t have to sit and check every little progress in the app. These agencies are responsible for their work and make sure to deliver accurate products to their clients.

So, look for a good agency in the market and you are sorted for the development of the application. You only need to make a plan for mobile app development, and rest implementation can be done by the agency itself.

Step 5: Testing

The major part of testing will be performed by the developers or agency you have hired for app development. Being an owner and user of the app, you also have to perform testing over the app at frequent intervals. This will help you get a glimpse of on-going work and let you decide if the work is proper or not, or do you require any feature to be more refined or attractive from the end-users perspective.

Only having a plan for mobile app development and assigning it to the agency to develop the app won’t work. You also have to dedicate your time to test the app modules and the final product. Your interest in app development testing will lead towards a quality product and help you strategize your marketing plan to introduce or deploy the final product in the market.

Different types of testing need to be performed for maintaining the quality of the app and make sure to have a bug-free app. The testing are User Acceptance Testing and Beta Testing.

Source: RawPixel Website

User Acceptance Testing (UAT test) makes sure the app is working for users, i.e., the final product is easy for your targeted audience to use or are they facing any problem. Once the app passes the UAT test, then you can conclude that your solution works appropriately.

Beta Testing is done by either the open solicited participation of the previously enrolled identified groups. Feedback from Beta Testers will help to determine whether the app’s functions are operating properly in the real-world environment or not.

Step 6: Deployment

Congratulations! Your plan for mobile app development seems successful. Now, it’s time to formally introduce your product in the marketplace through the Play Store or App Store.

Make sure to follow the preferred platform’s guidelines to make the most out of your app store optimization. Once, your app is live on the App Store, now is the time to grab the customer’s eyes.

You can follow various ways to promote your app. Initially, you can go with Email Marketing. As soon as your app is live, make sure to inform your customers through emails and ask them for their valuable feedback by replying to the mail or sharing it on the app store.

You can also promote your app on Social Media Platforms. You can follow numerous tactics to promote your app on such platforms. Instead of only sharing the apps link, you can create a buzz about your app by making numerous posts about the app. You can highlight the unique features and functioning of the app and attract users to download the app.

Through Social Media Platforms, you can even share a demo of a few seconds to attract viewers and use your application. You can also provide some offers to the first few users or downloads of your app. Be creative, and you can attract an enormous amount of traffic towards your mobile app development through social media platforms.

Another tactic to promote your app can be done through Websites. If you have a dedicated website for your product business, you can Update your Website with this information. Along with that, you can also advertise your mobile app development information through other similar websites. You can simply contact the website owner and request them to promote your app development message on their website for a while in the offered amount. It is a feasible promotional strategy. If you get a few such sites, you can definitely attract a good number of users for your app.

Step 7: Upgrade App with New & Improved Features

After grabbing a good market and getting user’s reviews and feedback, it becomes your duty to resolve all the queries of such users and respond to them individually. These feedback’s will help you to improve your app and add advanced features too. So, maintain regular updates for your app and let users feel that their queries have been heard and resolved too.

This will help you retain the users for a more extended period and makes your plan for mobile app development success. Updating your app with innovative features also enhances the visibility and downloads of the app. This will also motivate users to recommend your app to others and leave a good impression too.

Conclusion

Once you start the plan for mobile app development and deploy the app, don’t think your job is done. To maintain consistency in the app, you need to be in constant association with your agency or firm. So, look for a good and reliable agency with whom you can go to the long-term association.

Mobile App Development is a never-ending process. After app deployment, working over the app continues. Make sure to be in association with a good agency to take your plan for mobile app development to live and maintain consistency in the future.

Source: RawPixel Website

Being a reputed and responsible company EngineerBabu makes sure to follow each phase involved in the Mobile App Development Cycle properly to get the best results and assist you with your personal preferences. So, if you have any idea or plan for mobile app development, you can contact us, and we are always ready to serve you with your specific requirements. At EngineerBabu, we have dedicated and skilled developers who used to follow each phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle with precision.

The post How to Create A Plan for Mobile App Development? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

In today’s evolving world, building a mobile application doesn’t require any rocket science learning. But, a successful mobile application requires to follow a proper procedure of SDLC and extensive pre-planning. Building an application could be quite easy such that, in a week, you can complete your app development and submit it to Google or Apple Play Store. On the other hand, it could be extremely tedious and involves rigorous research, designing, testing, a full beta life cycle, and then deploying it in different ways.

Mobile App Development Cycle is similar to conventional SDLC. Mobile App Development is a smooth process only when the Mobile App Development Cycle phases are taken care of and followed appropriately.

Source: BuildFire Website

As every app is different from another, and technological trends are also evolving rapidly. But, SDLC is fairly considered the standard process when it comes to Mobile App Development Cycle. The Mobile App Development Cycle typically follows 6 following steps;

1. Ideation,
2. Strategy,
3. Designing,
4. Development,
5. Deployment, and
6. Post-Launch.

Now, let’s take each step in depth.

1. Ideation

Every great product, service, or application begins with a great idea. If you don’t have an app idea, then the best time is to start now. For a unique idea generation, train yourself to think in terms of problems and look out for its potential solutions. You have to make your brain instinctively ask “Why do we have to do things this way?” or “Is there any better way to solve the problem?”

If you can identify a problem, you are halfway to your idea generation for mobile app development. Only Idea generation will not be effective; you need to refine your idea by doing proper research over it. Make sure your research for idea validation includes actual demographics, goals of your buyers, behavior, motivation, and buying pattern of customers. While doing so, always keep the end-user in mind.

In the Ideation phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle, you need to be very specific about the following points and find the answers to these questions.

• Define the aim of Mobile App Development.
• How is your app different from the existing apps in the market?
• Is there a requirement for such an app?
• Distinguish the kind of audience your app will target.
• Analyze the time required to develop the app.
• Define the platform on which the app will be developed.
• How will your app solve the existing problem?

While answering these questions, you will get a clear picture of your aim and idea. Make sure the app is user-friendly and targets the appropriate audience. Thorough ideation and research at the initial phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle will minimize the risk associated with your project.

2. Strategy

After the Ideation phase, the second phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle defines Strategies to evolve your idea into a successful app. As each app’s objective differs from another; therefore, a proper strategy is required for applications. The strategy can be formed based on different perspectives.

a. Competition

Once you are done with the Ideation phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle, it’s time to plan for apps success. So, the best step would be to identify your competition first. Just find, if there is any app working on the same thing and providing the service you are planning with and look for the following;

• See the number of downloads of the application.
• Look for the Ratings and Reviews of the app and analyze the customer feedback/comments. It will help you to learn about the likes and dislikes of the application users.
• Look for the application and the company’s history. Take a look over how the application has evolved and what challenges it faced during the course of time. As well as, do analyze their marketing strategies and how did they grow their user base.

To beat your competitor and get informed about it in advance would be a great strategy. So, learn as much as you can about your existing competitors. Apart from that, never think you can beat the competition easily without getting into the competition. So, make sure to understand how hard it will be to compete in the marketplace.

b. Monetization

Well, it is a known fact that if you are entering the market, you will definitely look for the options to monetize your business opportunity as much as possible. There are several methods of monetization that works effectively are as follows;

• In-app Purchases,
• Premium Features,
• Subscription Payments,
• Ad-revenue,
• Traditional Paid Apps, and
• Selling User Data.

To analyze the best strategy among these, you need to learn what the market expects to pay and how to pay for such similar available services. You also need to look for what time is best for the new business to introduce the monetizing feature in your app or do it when you introduce the app in the market. Skipping or delaying strategizing the Monetization step in the Mobile App Development Cycle will give your business a hard time later turning on profit.

c. Marketing

To strategize the marketing tactics in Mobile App Development Cycle is solely for identifying the challenges you are going to face while marketing your app. Suppose you have successfully built and designed your app with quality features. Still, the biggest hurdle exists is to drive the customer or users for your application. So, you need to learn about your marketing budget and approach you are going to follow to attract users.

d. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The final stage of strategizing is to define your app’s roadmap. In this step of the Mobile App Development Cycle, you will define the goal, what your app will become one day and what it requires to succeed. Initially, you can also go with the version of Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Along with that, define all the things you require in your app and prioritize it as well. This priority will help you to build an MVP easily and, in minimum time you can introduce your working app in the market. As you gain users with your MVP, then based on user feedback, you can timely introduce new features in the app.

3. Designing

A. User-Experience Designing

Source: Appinventive Website

Building a prototype or MVP requires excellent design. The Designing phase in Mobile App Development Cycle aims to deliver seamless and effortless user experience with a refined appearance. The goal of mobile app UI/UX Design is to provide excellent user experience by making your app user-friendly, interactive, and intuitive. The Designing of app will be based on the following features;

a. Information Architecture

In the Mobile App Development Cycle, the Information Architecture process allows you to decide what data and functionalities should be presented and how it should be organized in your app. For this, just list down the features separately, what you want the app to perform and what should be displayed. This list will help to build the wireframes.

b. Wireframes

Wireframes are used to design screens and assign data and functions. These wireframes are digital forms of sketches and conceptual layouts. It provides the visual representation of the functional requirements of the app. Wireframes are more focused on highlighting the aesthetics and user experience instead of apps styling and color combinations.

Wireframes are quick and cost-effective for designing apps layout and reviewing the designing process. Make sure to create device-specific wireframes, so that it can provide a device-specific and intuitive user experience.

c. Workflows

Workflows are the guidelines for users to travel within the app. It contributes to the app’s design strategy. Presenting workflow early on will help the Mobile App Development Cycle process and improve the developer’s productivity. As the predefined guidelines will also make your app look and feel consistent.

If you find any problem with your workflow, then update your wireframes and try again. Make sure to follow each step after any update or changes to confirm that you didn’t increase any difficulty of one action while attempting to improve another.

B. User-Interface Designing

The aim of user-interface designing while following SDLC to achieve the accuracy and quality of product development. In the Mobile App Development Cycle, building an interactive and user-friendly user-interface is very important to make the best and introduce the best in the market.

a. Style Guides

It is considered as the building block of your Mobile App Development Cycle. Having a decent styling guideline will help your app to look good and attract users. Having a consistent app design will make users more likely comfortable within the app. Style guides include:

• What font family will your app’s text use?
• What should be the color scheme for your app?
• How does your company’s brand get reflected in the app design?

Try to keep the cluster aside and put forward the main points. The experienced design team can render all your requirements and deliver the app that would be an excellent fit for you and the end-users.

b. Rendered Designs

Rendering high-fidelity design under Mobile App Development Cycle is to replace the greyscale elements of wireframes with your style guide. Make sure to provide a dedicated screen for each wireframe screen. If you want to make yourself stand out from the existing app market crowd, then maintain the new style and feel free to update or amend your style guides. In the end, make sure these changes don’t affect your design, so be consistent.

c. Rendering Click-through Models

After rendering all the screens, return to the click-through model application and test your app again. This is the step in the Mobile App Development Cycle, which requires your time. Make sure to implement and verify all the changes and updates because, after this, changes will become increasingly very costly for your app development.

4. Development

The Development phase in SDLC generally starts once an idea gains some maturation in the conceptual stage. The development of a working prototype facilitates and validates functionality and assumptions, and provides an overview and understanding of the scope of work.

Planning remains an integral part of the Mobile App Development Cycle. So, before implementing the actual development process, define the following points first;

• Define Technical Architecture.
• Define Development milestones.
• Choose a Technology Stack for your app development.

Generally, a mobile application is built over three integral parts: Back-End Server/Database Technology, Front-End Technology, and API(s).

a. Back-End Server/Database Technology

The back-end is majorly responsible for your app’s performance and scalability. The technologies used for app development are similar to those used to power web-based applications. So, before writing codes, decide the following things first;

Source: EdSurge Website

• Language- There are numerous programming languages that can be used to build the API. The most common languages used are C#, Golang, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and Python. These languages have numerous frameworks also that can be utilized appropriately.
• Database/Server- There are two types of modern databases used nowadays, i.e., SQL and NoSQL. In the majority of cases, SQL has been the best and first choice. SQL implementation commonly includes MYSQL, MSSQL, and PostgreSQL. Proceed with a well-thought decision as having a reliable and well-organized database is important for success in the course of the long-term.
• Hosting Environment (Infrastructure)- In a hosting environment, you have to decide how and where your API and database will be hosted. This decision will help you determine the budget for hosting, performance, scalability, and reliability of your final product development. You can have dedicated hosting or cloud-based hosting, based on your preference and convenience.

b. API

Application Programming Interface (API) is a method of establishing communication between the app and the back-end server or database.

c. Front-End Technology

Front-end technology basically follows 3 approaches and is Platform-Specific Native, Cross-Platform Native, and Hybrid.

• Platform-Specific Native- The platform-specific apps are built separately for each platform. The codes for Android or iOS-based apps can’t be reused. But these apps are made in such a manner to be fully optimized for each platform. Platform-specific codes in Mobile App Development Cycle is quite an expensive approach to follow, but is very appropriate and tried, and tested to go with.
• Cross-Platform Native: The apps built under this approach may have some or all shared code, but can run natively very well. The conventional technologies used for cross-platform native programming are Xamarian, Native Script, and React Native. It is a very cost-effective approach, but can easily optimize and style each platform.
• Hybrid: Hybrid Apps are built using Web Technologies, i.e., HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, and the app is then installed through a native wrapper. Such apps can be installed through Ionic, Phone Gap, and Cordova. This is the cheapest option among all the three, but it comes with some difficulties as well.

Coding

To perform all the above appropriate steps requires coding to successfully build a mobile app and follow the SDLC to gain the quality at the end. The approach of coding in the development phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle requires developers to implement the app’s style and functionality.

Your coders need to understand the application’s goals as a whole and the individual function too. The developer needs to be in sync with that particular feature and understand the requirement’s intent to get the accurate return result.

After coding is done from the developer side, now it’s time for the Tester to review each module’s functioning.

Testing

The significant amount of app testing is performed by the non-developers, i.e., the people who are not the app’s primary developer. This ensures a more genuine testing experience. To follow the Mobile App Development Cycle, several types of testing can be performed. Typical testing approaches are:

• Functional Testing- ensures the features are working as described in the requirements. The Quality Assurance team makes sure to test the plan with a list of actions they are provided with and the desired app behavior over each action.
• Usability Testing: ensures all the features are working correctly, and make sure they are user-friendly and as intuitive as possible.
• Performance Testing: ensures that the app is working properly along with the timely and quick response or results. Keep an eye on the responsiveness of the app. If it takes too much time to respond or in providing the required result; then, no one will use your application.
• Fit and Finish Testing: ensure all the designs are done properly and accurately as described in the design. The designers should make sure and re-check their work to attain accuracy and get the finished product as desired.
• Regression Testing: ensure testing of each module and each modified module as well. After any coding changes, it might be possible that, earlier the things that were working properly might get affected. So, do test the same thing again and again to get the final product.
• Device-Specific Testing: There are a variety of combinations of operating systems and devices in this tech world. Therefore, while testing, perform testing over numerous devices based on different Operating Systems and screen sizes. There are also tools to accomplish such tasks and automate this step. You can use Google Firebase but always try to do manual testing of the app on a handful of devices.
• User Acceptance Testing: is usually performed by either the app owner or the app’s end-users. So, always ready to take the feedback from the end-user and make the required improvements in it.

5. Deployment

After following all the above steps of the Mobile App Development Cycle, it’s time to deploy the final product in the market. The proper testing and debugging of the app will make sure to deploy the app, and this can be done by following 2 different ways;

a. Deploy App on Web Server

For the functioning of an app, a back-end server is very necessary because it helps transfer the data between the application and the database. The application will stop performing if the back-end server is not working correctly or is overloaded. To avoid such issues, make sure the server is configured effectively to fulfill all the app requirements and meet the users needs. Some services like Amazon Web Services, RackSpace, etc. are some of the best web services that are efficient in handling the traffic. Such web-based services help you identify the situation where the app can stop working due to a rapid increase in traffic.

b. Deploy App on the Google Play Store or iOS App Store

Once you are sure about the best configuration and features of your app, you can release the app on either or both the app store, i.e., Google Play Store and iOS App Store. To make this possible, you can follow the separate application procedure of Google and Apple. It might be possible that you have to make some changes to your app due to each app store’s guidelines. Apple app store reviews apps manually, so it might ask to make some changes to follow their guidelines and maintain the regulations.

6. Post-Launch

After following all the phases of the Mobile App Development Cycle and the successful launch of the app doesn’t refer to your app will be a hit in the market. It is a crucial stage for your application, so make sure to monitor the app functionality regularly. As well as, keep an eye over its analytics, and continuously update the app for fixing bugs and crashes. Monitor user reviews on social media and app stores and try to respond to them individually and quickly. All these are essential steps of SDLC, that should be followed post-launch of the application.

It is evident that the Mobile App Development Cycle procedure is quite long and exhausting, but in the end, it is quite overwhelming too. Building the full-fledged app and following each phase involved in the SDLC requires substantial investment in terms of money. It also requires a lot of time and resources to achieve quality accurately and follow the Mobile App Development Cycle. But, if you perform every step properly, then, in the end, it will be a very rewarding process.

Source: RawPixel Website

We also follow each phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle properly to get the best results and assist you with your personal preferences. As an ideal company for following all the steps of SDLC, we are always ready to serve you with your specific requirements. At EngineerBabu, we have dedicated and skilled developers who used to follow each phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle with precision based upon your convenience and requirements. For further assistance and detailed information, you can contact us, and we are here to help you.

The post Mobile App Development Cycle- The Ideal Method appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Food delivery apps are a new rage, from restaurant owners making their own food ordering app for you to deliver food while sitting on your couch to services like zomato, foodpanda, swiggy which act as a collaboration platform between the restaurants and clients.

Who doesn’t have a dream of opening a food place, some restaurant which will only serve the food of their choice or a place which will serve food which is different than others and has a knack? Something with a difference.

Image Source

More than that, there are more and more startups every day getting in the food industry and every startup today needs a mobile app even more than that, it needs a website.

Building a mobile app is easy with the advent of so many tools and technologies, but depending on the kind of app that you’re building, you may need to follow certain guidelines and adhere to some criteria. Food ordering app development is not a linear process, but one that entails a lot of complexity.

Not just for the purpose of developing an app for your own sake, mobile app industry is a huge revenue giving area at present and food startups are all increasing daily with every one of them needing at least an app for one single platform with most of them targeting multiple platforms such as Android, iOS, Windows and more.

Comparison between Popular Food Ordering Apps

Image Source

Research and analyzing is a crucial part of any development process, you can add your own insights to make your product better but need to add features and other little things from already existing competitors as well. Food ordering app development makes it easy to access immense features and functionalities.

Some of the most popular food delivery apps from which you can take a clue are GrubHub, eat24, seamless.

GrubHub

This food ordering app is one of the most used food ordering services, it gives the feature of searching for your desired cuisine or browse through the list of local restaurants that are nearby.

You can create your own favorite list to personalize it and not having to search and find every time. It has an additional feature of user reviews as well.

Eat24

Eat24 works on a slightly different approach than most of the others, here you gotta add your address and then it will after a quick search, show up all the food types and different restaurants available near it.

Afterward, you can either browse through based on cuisine type or you can simply initiate an online food order via ‘What’s Good’ section.

You can either order at the moment or save it for later.
It also helps you track your food from restaurant to your doorstep so that you know when will your food be delivered.

Seamless

Unlike others, this Seamless food ordering app has the feature to search for food by the price within your desire to order. You can also leave certain special requests such as based on your preferences.

Things to Take Care of While Building a Food Delivery App

There are many things to do before you start building an app, instructions, and procedures while you build an app, evaluation, and feedback after you have successfully build a prototype and/or launched a beta product. Food delivery app development has many aspects to it.

Before you proceed further and we indulge with you the steps of creating and launching a food ordering app, you may want to take a read of detailed review of famous food delivery apps in continuation of the brief we covered above.

I have created a guide below in the format of step by step detailed instructions for you including the various aspects and coverage of different integral parts of the process of app development.

If you think of starting from scratch, then the development of an app can be hard and tricky let alone that of a delivery app based on consumers feedback and appreciation.

The main thing is that you don’t have to do that, the fundamentals and basics of all food delivery apps are same. A few basic things that you need to take into consideration while building a food delivery app are things such as simple and clean design, minimalistic UI/UX with no unnecessary features, visual enhancement, and local restaurants data integration.

Before you start development of a product, it is always good to remember your target goals from it, characteristics you want in it and the advantages you are going to focus upon. For food delivery app development, consider these factors:

➤   Start locally, test your concept, launch a marketing campaign then scale onto a large scale, when it comes to crafting the perfect online food ordering app.
➤   Hire some experienced and skilled app developers who have previously working in this field to work on your food delivery app. Read this guide for outsourcing app developers.
➤   Promotion is necessary before you launch your beta product and from the very start of the initial phase. Engage your potential customers via social media, emails etc., through the online food ordering app.
➤   Focus on getting feedback from customers and making improvisations based upon that for your food delivery app.
➤   Hire a team that’s worthy and make it stay, competitive salary, flexible working hours, work from home option, incentives, rewards etc are just a few common perks. Food apps like FoodPanda require a lot of thought and careful planning.

There are many different types of food delivery apps, you have to first decide which kind of food mobile app you are looking forward to creating.
●   Apps which home deliver locally cooked food (pizza hut and other locally franchised restaurants which cook and sell their own stuff).
●   Platform Interface Food delivery apps such as foodpanda, GrubHub etc which act as a bridge between restaurants and customers.
●   Apps which work as a sort of grocery delivery service such as postmates etc.
●   Apps which deliver cooked food as well as encourage home cooking such as plated, chef’d etc.

Before we proceed further, you might want to take a look at 101 pointers to keep in mind while development of a product.

Market Research & Target Audience

The very first step for any potential product development is defining the range of people whom you’re targeting and researching the market for it. Food delivery app development needs to be research-based.

Apps are used mostly by people with a busy lifestyle such as working class professionals, entrepreneurs, students who spent most of their time on it amongst others. They should be the primary target of your app.

Before you set out to make your product it is always advised to check out your competitors before starting not just for their features and what makes them popular but also to ensure that you aren’t copying anybody’s idea. Food delivery apps are not about being copycats, but innovating instead.

Spent your time in research beforehand so that you won’t have to make any modifications at a later stage.

Research your competitors well, see their features, the services they provide and what makes them different from others, when it comes to food app design. For example, if you seek a sample business plan for tiffin services, you need to understand the scope of the online food ordering system project.

Technical Aspects

Choosing the right technology before you start food application development is very crucial, depending on your budget, platform and features needed it can vary from PHP to ruby.

Other features such as iOS or Android, native apps or hybrid ones, creating an app from scratch or using third-party tools such as APIs, app clones, and SDKs.

Whatever choices you make they will directly affect your cost and effort needed for app development.

Another thing that comes in technical aspects but is slightly more related to design is the UI and UX of the food delivery app. The aim is to make it flawless, smooth and as fast as possible inclusive of payment systems, menu processing, and food order selection. The more personalization a customer can give to his account in your app, the more likely he is to stay for the long term.

After All, food is nothing but personal to anyone. So do factor in personalization, when you consider how to develop an app.

Functions & Features: Apps for Ordering Food

What sets anything apart from the rest is where it separates itself in terms of its functions and features.

Those people who order food online from delivery apps are looking to be in their comfort zone, thus your app must be simple to navigate and easy to customize as per the user needs.

A sleek design and an introductory tour that can help users find their way the first time around for your food apps helps.

Some of the main features that you should remember to include other than the ones you have already in your mind are listed below for your food app design experts:

●   The very first thing is to contain detailed information of the restaurants along with their complete menu with prices indicated, and pictures if possible are preferred in the menu as they increase the aesthetic taste.
●   An option for quick ordering such as past orders of that user or the popular items from that particular restaurant should also be there.
●   A geolocation feature is a must as it helps the user to pick from the nearby restaurants that deliver to his location. It also helps in the calculation of delivery charges for the restaurants who don’t provide free delivery or don’t have a fixed delivery fee.
●   An inbuilt tracker to keep track of the food order status along with the Google Maps integration for route purposes works great. Having a navigation system saves both the delivery guy and the user from a lot of trouble.
●   For people who don’t keep cash in hand or prefer online payment, a payment gateway integration with wide support is required. You can choose from several existing gateways such as stripe, Paypal etc. for your food mobile app.
●   Along with food order tracking, SMS notifications for things such as order confirmed, order dispatched, etc also is recommended as it saves the user from tracking the online food order all the time and keeps him relaxed.

●   A custom search option for finding restaurants by cuisine, location, availability, etc should also be there. Going through the vast list of options available is not what a user wants always when it comes to a flawless food mobile app.
●   A scheduled delivery is another trend that’s keeping up, unlike monthly dibbas and tiffin services, people prefer to eat various different items daily and this option helps them in ordering ahead of their busy schedule what they want to eat.
●   Programs that reward loyal customers, as well as time to time, offer also help in engaging users and keeping them for a long term.
●   Social media logins and integration such as directly being able to post on your social accounts what you are eating can go a long way with this generation, for any food mobile app.
●   Other than SMS based notifications, you can also go for push notifications, they work as a great retention tool for keeping customers for your food delivery app.
●   A user account separate for each user is not just mandatory, it also helps the user in giving the app exactly the customization it needs and personalizing it according to his needs.
●   Other than that, having the ability for users to leave ratings, give reviews, bookmark their favorite places, and most importantly user’s transaction history is a must to have.

Pricing & Budget of Apps for Ordering Food

Whether you are an entrepreneur or a businessman, it doesn’t matter when it comes to keeping the cost down and in the budget.

Undoubtedly, pricing is the major thing to decide before proceeding with things, as far as food delivery apps are concerned.

While deciding pricing and your budget for development, few things to keep in mind are for your food mobile app:

●   The extent of features that you want in the app and the functions you want to provide to users.
●   Whether you are going with iOS or android, android usually costs less.
●   You are going to backend development or third-party integration. Server backend may cost more initially but is preferred for long-term, while third-party works if you have a short budget for now but in long-term in adds up to huge recurring costs.
●   Whether or not you are going with social media integration in your app and if you are planning on keeping an admin panel in the app.
●   If your approach is to develop a cross-platform app, then your cost will be lower as compared to that of developing a native app.
●   The team that you’re hiring takes a huge chunk out of your budget so don’t be overboard when hiring overqualified people.
●   More visually enhancing you want your app to be and more complex its design is going to be, higher will be the cost.
●   Maintenance required after the release and the upgrades you are planning on releasing.

Recommended Reading: Trustable Food Ordering & Delivery App Development Companies

Based on above-varying factors, you can see that there is no specific range to the development and maintenance costs of the app. However, we can generalize and categorize the apps roughly and based on those price brackets, further notch down the price range of the app we need.

1. Basic food ordering apps such as those with plain UX/UI, item lists, a simple search and basic minimal required functionality can cost up to $10,000 for development only. Post-development maintenance costs for such apps is minimal. So when you consider how to develop an app, do take pricing per feature into account.
2. Food ordering apps with more advance feature lists and functions integration, custom UX/UI, tables support added, payment gateway integration, social media integration, navigator, push notifications etc can range anything in between $10,000 to $20,000.
3. High-end food delivery apps that include the complexity of advanced level, audio/video processing, real-time tracker enabled, custom graphics, third-party APIs integrations, server backed with multiple databases, offline local cache etc can cost anything upwards of $20,000.

Now depending on your budget and functionality, you require, you will have to hire team members integral to the development process. Depending on your needs, you can go with either team structure.

Basic team
It consists of core members only needed to complete the job.

• UI/UX designer
• 2-4 Developers in total
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• Backend Developer
• Project Manager
• Advanced Team

Team Manager/Project Manager

• UI/UX designer
• 3-4 developers for each platform
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• 2-3 backend developers
• Admin panel developer

Apart from that cost of the food delivery app may also vary from location to location around the globe, so you may want to think about outsourcing and hiring from third world countries.

At an average, costs can be approximated at $10,000 for app development and $10-15 per hour with the time for development ranging around 3 months. You can also hire dedicated node js developer or a dedicated php developer since the dedicated hiring method is very cost effective and you do not even have to worry about the tiresome chore of expanding your team.

Launching Prototype & Getting Feedback

Any product is launched first as a beta product in its initial stages then as the final product, this step is crucial as it helps the developers get informed of errors which they might not have noticed and get feedback about potential improvements.

You don’t need to put all your design aspects and other things into it, just the basic minimalistic features required to run the app.

This helps in identifying weak and strong spots and gives time and scope for the improvements before launch.

After you got your first feedback from beta testers, what you have to do is perform more tests such as A/B tests to identify more problems and fix them and finish the development process.

Not just that, if you are planning on launching your app on some marketplaces such as iOS app store or google play store, then you will have to fulfill their requirements as well to be able to show your presence there.

Google Play Store Launch Checklist

iOS App Store Guidelines

Also, add these analytics tools to track and monitor consumer behavior for further improvement prospects.

Now that you have gone through all the above stuff, and theoretically prepared your app and are ready to launch it on whatever app store you have chosen, but your job is not done yet, not by a long shot.

Continuous improvisation and constructive criticism, these are two things that you gotta love if you want to stay for a long time in this hyper-competitive market.

Now, after you’ve gone through all the above, you must be looking forward to hiring some professional or getting some professional advice and building a team and then proceed to the planning & development stage.

Well, it never hurts to let someone experienced and skilled share their opinion and provide a solution to your problem and clear your doubts.

You can go through the numerous case studies done by our experts on the various range of topics.

If you feel intrigued or need to know further about us then you can take a look at our long and happy list of clients and what they say about us.

If still not satisfied, then have a detailed look at some of the apps for ordering food (Eat App, Breezymeal, Food temple, Mann ka dabba, Food triangle) that we have built for our other clients and use them and test them to your satisfaction, until you feel we are the utmost choice when it comes to development of apps for ordering food.

We would suggest to drop us an inquiry and talk and discuss your needs with our experts and get to know them. Doing this will not only clear your needs from your point of view but also help you to understand the development process of food delivery apps.

Hopefully, we have covered all that you needed to know about building a food ordering app, in case you have any doubts/queries/suggestions.

Let us know in comments or shoot us an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com and we will get back to you in a jiffy. You can even directly talk to us here.

The post How to Build a Food Ordering App? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

We introduce you to- GroupPal, the fastest growing branded business networking and profit sharing referral company in India. It’s an exclusive platform where all businesses, vendors, service providers, recruiters, consultants, job seekers, franchise seekers and investors form a Group as Pals exchanging contacts, referrals and turning them into benefits for each one of them.

It’s the 1st of its kind profit sharing networking app where each of the members get solutions from the experts in the Group. Along with this, there’s an assured perennial passive income for life! GroupPal is built to deliver an extremely productive business networking experience, consistent prospective leads and a life long income via this mobile application for android.

Profit Sharing and Networking at one place:

The cost of advertising or visibility creation has become huge today. Yet, there’s no guarantee that you will end up with the right customers or service providers. GroupPal is a successful attempt at solving the puzzle easily by creating a network of intensely loyal Pals who will get you connected to your solutions. GroupPal provides a perfect ecosystem to every member where they get what they actually need, be it a service, job, an employee, investment or selling a product. It’s a unique one stop solution for all your needs.

GroupPal mobile app is free to download and use. Just spend 2 minutes to sign up and become a part of a community which has committed, genuine professional, certified service providers, vendors, recruiters and investors and avail the services of these 6 C Champions who will deliver quality at the best prices along with a special offer every time you connect!

Demands put forward by the client for the Development of GroupPal:

The only challenge for us as a team in the app development of GroupPal was the development of the 6 level hierarchy of the referral program. The client wished for this feature to be an exclusive one to keep the community commerce and profit sharing mobile app as trustworthy as possible. The referrals could be up to a 6-level hierarchy only. A separate provision was to be added for those who did not have any referral code- they will contact the GroupPal team and get themselves thoroughly verified as professionals. This meant- every time a new user signs up with the referral of another user, the first user would get an advantage as profit sharing with the new users.

In addition to this, whenever a user would search for, say, an android developer hiring company, he would be able to select whether he’s looking for a company to hire him within his locality, within the city, the state, or across the entire country. Similarly, say an electrician is setting up his profile. He would be able to enter the service providing location zone- the specific area of a city, the entire city, state, or country.

Our Approach-

About the team:

The client approached us last year in September with this unique project. After multiple change requests, the project got completed in May. Our team consisted of 7 members-

• one designer,
• one android developer,
• one API developer,
• one QA,
• one project manager
• one back-end developer/web developer
• one Business Analyst

Development Model & Wireframe:

If you’re a business owner looking to grow your business, there are certain things to keep in mind before developing an app. For developers, we have our methods to decide upon the approach once a task has been assigned to us. The approach that was used for GroupPal’s development was the Agile model. The requirements were understood by the sales team initially, and were then provided to the design team.

After all the layouts had been created, it was the task of the developers to implement it. Back-end developers were working on the principle of modularity. The entire system and application components were divided into modules in order to carry out tasks on various elements at the same time without affecting the work of the other. Dividing the entire project into modules allowed various developers to work on the project at the same time in order to reduce the burden of doing the task on a single developer and in turn, reduce the time required to complete the project and hand over the product on time.

Engineerbabu believes that an intuitive UI and an easy to go User Experience are the key to a successful mobile app. For GroupPal’s development, we built low fidelity wireframes and developed a flow. When the analysis of the flow was given a green flag by the client, we worked to build high fidelity wireframes using tools like Adobe XD, Illustrator and Invision.

Tech Stack used:

Following is the list of applications we used to create GroupPal (Android as well as iOS)-

• IDE – Android Studio
• Build System – Gradle
• UI Designing – XML, Material design standards
• Web Services Calling – AQuery
• Image and Data Caching – AQuery
• Programming Language- Java
• Push Notifications – Firebase Cloud Messaging

Backend-

• Programming Language – PHP
• Database – MySQL
• IDE – SubLine

Results-

Features of the profit sharing-cum-business-networking app-

After setting up your profile, you will get access to the following features of the app within-

1. Find a Service Expert-

Professionals like Doctors, Trainers, Engineers and Experts in a given service like Plumbers, Acting Drivers, Insurance Agents can register choosing this menu. They will be connected to customers via these keywords.

2. Get a Job-

The app comes with a huge base of entrepreneurs and service providers across all the states in India. If one aspires to get a job in a given industry, they have to register here and to get the connect of such industries.

3. Hire Employees-

Getting a right person for a job is the need of any business’s HR department.. Companies and individuals can register here to get the connect of candidates who are looking for their interested industries.

4. Sell a Product-

From a pin to a plane… be it any product, register here to get more visibility and direct connect of customers for your products.

5. Sell a Franchise-

Get registered here to get the connect of excellent franchisee opportunities from entrepreneurs across the country. As an upgraded member, user will also get an opportunity to get the connect of people who would like to get the franchisee of the business.

6. Invest-

People who like to invest in new ventures or a great business ideas can register here. As an upgraded member they can also get an opportunity to talk to investors who would like to invest in the business or ideas.

Have you come across such other profit sharing referral mobile apps? Well, this one was unique. Let us know in the comments section below, if you have used this application and liked the UI/UX of this app! Also, we have previously developed mobile apps for several other sectors like- Grocery Delivery, EduTech, FinTech, Service Providers, Travel, etc.

We come across various interesting project ideas often. Projects like GroupPal help us achieve our financial goals in addition to being the fuel needed to channelize our energy into doing what we do the best- creating beautiful mobile applications for our clients and their users.

We welcome small and big entrepreneurs alike, who happen to have interesting ideas to boost their business. We’re always glad to work with them. If you’re one of these entrepreneurs, just drop us an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com. You can even talk to us right now!

The post GroupPal: A Mobile Application for Networking, Profit Sharing and Much More! appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Defining Mobile Application

For a layman, a mobile app is something which simplifies their work just by a click of a button of their mobile.
To define it more precisely mobile applications or simply mobile apps are a computer generated program or software applications which are built to run on various mobile devices like- iPhones, Smartphones, and tablets.
They are so common these days that it is another way around if a smartphone doesn’t have the “popular apps” it is considered as “OBSOLETE”!

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Planning to Develop a Mobile app?

If you are planning to develop a mobile app for your business and you are not technically sound on the subject, the challenge is to decide on the type of mobile app.
The success of your mobile app depends on factors such as technical details, business needs, design, marketing, and branding.
Of so many factors, the most critical is the selection of app type, as changing the app type at the last moment can cost you, and wrong selection can ruin your project.
To speed up the app development and take the advantage of right selection for long you must first understand your needs and the various kinds of available apps.

Broad Classification of Mobile Apps

Apps can be broadly classified into Web, and Mobile Apps. Mobile apps can further be divided into Native and Hybrid Apps.
Each has their advantages and limitations, which you must understand and select your choice.

A. Web Apps

When an application is accessed using a web browser over a network like an internet, it is termed as- Web App.
Unlike websites which are informational, they are functional and need not be downloaded like mobile apps.
They are loaded on browsers like Chrome or Firefox and do not consume memory or storage space on the user’s device.
In short, they can be understood as websites with interactivity and functionality.
Due to these developers with web skills can easily write, using cross-platform, standard web technologies like HTML, CSS or JavaScript, a web app.
As web app can be used on any mobile device that has a web browser, be it iOS, Android, or Windows, it needn’t be written multiple times for each platform.
Advantages:

1. Easy maintenance.
2. Single code base across platforms.Distribution, deployment, and updates or features can be released instantly, as they need no updating on an app store.

1. Device-level features accessible through JavaScript APIs.
2. Development costs are lower.

Limitations of Web apps:

1. Interactions are not so neat and responsive when compared to other apps.
2. UI design elements can be inconsistent.Device-level features like push-notification, work offline, and load on the home screen are not supported.
3. As they are unavailable in “App Store” the potential reach to users slip down.
4. Slow operating and cannot be accessed without internet.
   
   Recommended Reading: How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website?

B. Mobile Apps

Mobile apps can be downloaded from an “App Stores” and are of two types, namely- Native and Hybrid Apps.

1. Native Apps

Apps created, designed and coded for specific platforms, like iOS, Android, and Window phones are native apps.
They are more complex when compared to web apps, in terms of the fact they take account of the software language used in the device, development tools required for them, user interface elements needed, and software development kits (SDKs).
Hence, one native app created for one OS will not run on the other.
That implies if you wish to develop native apps for iOS, Android, and Windows you need to create separate apps.
Unlike iOS devices, Android devices have the “back button” hence they do not need separate UI element for this.
Native apps are released and distributed via an “App Store” which has its pros and cons. On one side, the user gets access to hundreds of apps at a single location, which makes it easier to install.
Each of these platforms has its own publication procedure, therefore, for an update or new feature, it can take from few hours to few days for completion.
Other pros and cons are:

Pros:

1. Superior user experience in terms of speed and responsiveness.
2. All device-level features are accessible.

Stable and reliable.

1. Can work offline.
2. Available in an App store hence marketing easy.
3. Least use of hardware and efficient coding.

Cons:

1. Different code bases required for different platforms.
2. Are expensive.

Take time to build.

1. No cross-platform support.
2. Prior approvals required in case of “Apple App Store”.
3. Maintaining and updating are demanding.

As many developers may be platform specific, you may need to invest in two separate developers if you wish to launch on multiple platforms with Native apps.

2. Hybrid Apps

As the name itself says- it is an amalgamation of Native and Web App. They get installed as Native App and feel like Web apps.
They are built on JavaScript, HTML or CSS and run on simplified browser within the app termed as- Web view.
Hybrid apps are good MVP options as they can be created in short span of time, with limited resources and can be launched for testing and feedback.
In short, they are native app codes coupled with web technologies and published via a relevant native app store.
Developers prefer creating web apps as hybrid apps as doing so allow them to integrate device-level features like push-notifications or camera.
At the same time, they also get the chance to be accessed on App store, Google Play or Window store.
Developers are always happy to build a hybrid app as they need to write single web technology code base, which can be deployed into multiple devices.

Advantages:

1. Single code base.
2. Cross-platform support.

Convenient, fast and cost-effective to build, using standard web technologies.

1. Apps can be marketed in app stores.
2. Easy and faster updates.
3. Can work offline.

Allowed access to device’s APIs, can access storage, camera and much more.
Works on both iOS and Android.

Disadvantages:

1. As they load in a browser like an element they have poor performance, i.e., less responsive.
2. The UX is usually compromised.

Submission (for iOS) is required for the relevant App store.

1. Dependent on a third-party platform.

Declared Winner!
Now that you are clear on the definition of Web and Mobile apps, you would agree that Mobile Apps are far more user-friendly, fast, easy to access and have great functionality.
It is estimated that 90% of user’s digital time is spent on mobile apps rather than the web.

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While mobile apps are declared winners, they do have two contestants, and the winner amongst them is certainly the one which has the following:
– Highest Safety
– Supreme User Experience.
– Eminent performance.
– Can work on both online and Offline modes.
You got it correct- The Native Apps.
Though hybrid apps do have qualities like single code base, cheaper origination costs but when accounting for the peerless features of Native apps they fade away.

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Why Choosing is Important

For your and the app’s success, you must take out some time to decide the kind of app your business actually needs.
Here are few reasons why you need to choose correctly:

•  You have a core purpose of developing an app, therefore the mobile app needs to match that purpose.
  While you do so you purposefully keep the focal point of your mobile app in the pain areas of the audience.
  Secondly, that secures that the features and capabilities will be audience-friendly.
• Cost of your platform greatly depends on the type of app you choose. You cannot play with all kinds of apps and then finally come to a conclusion.
  You must choose before you hit the deck. This way you stick to your intended budget for the mobile app.
• App development doesn’t end at the end of the creating it, in reality, it starts from there. It requires long-term dedication and you need resources for the maintenance, updates, and future up scaling.
  Therefore, choosing the correct app will guide you to align your resources accordingly.

Decision Making

With so many positives and negatives of each kind of mobile app, it is quite challenging, rather confusing, to decide which one should you go for. The following will guide and facilitate you to finalize.

A. UX

User experience cannot be compromised, and hence you must account for it while making a decision. If required you may write two separate native apps, one each for iPhone users and one for Android users.

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B. Time and Cost

Consider these two most important factors as you have to choose from a large range and each has its cost, complexity, features, and platform.
You need to evaluate which one to discount or you do not have a scope of discount. You may even decide to hire an agency to decide on this factor for you.

C. Hiring Developers

You may decide to hire freelance developers or employee developers from across borders.
To decide on that, you must research on the cost you need to pay for the same. Hiring from developing countries or emerging states like India or Eastern Europe, where the average cost range from$10-15 an hour, can be cheaper. Developers in the US may have an average cost of $150 an hour.

D. Time Taken to Market

One of the factors you must keep in mind is the time taken to build and then market. All types take their own time and have their own marketing time, For example:

• Time taken to create an app is shortest for Web apps.
• The longest time to create an app is for native apps.
• Native apps might take extra time as they need time for two separate development procedures one for Android and one for iOS.
• Native and Hybrid apps need to go through the submission and approval process in      relevant app stores (Apple App Store).

E. Audience Targeted

Develop apps based on the kind of audience you plan to target. This can be explained with an example.
Say, you wish to launch your apps with an audience, that needs updates very frequently. In such case, you must go for either Hybrid or Web apps as native apps will consume time to update.
 If your target audience needs easy access and downloading you must go for native or hybrid apps as only they work offline.

F. Features of App

The features you wish to keep in your app will also decide the kind of app you should go for. Different apps have different ability to use device’s native APIs.
Some apps are functional irrespective of the phone features. Some others might need consideration in this case.
Apart from this, you should also consider any feature you wish to add in future.

G. Performance of App

Experts agree that around 84% of users consider app performance as an important indicator for their selection.

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When to or When not to!

Another approach you may choose to decide on the selection is to check yourself when to choose an app and when not to choose an app and can be explained as:

Web App:

When to Choose- Choose when:

•  You wish your website to be displayed on mobile devices with ease.
• You don’t want extra mobile native functionality.
• You wish to display your content on mobile platforms like iOS, or Android.

When not to Choose- Do not choose when:

• Native mobile functionality is not the need.

Native App:

When to Choose- Choose when:

•  Target is only iPhone or only Android or only Windows users.
•  When accessing device functionality is the need.
• When performance, view, and compatibility are the prime objectives of a specific ecosystem.

When not to Choose- Do not choose when:

•  No need for specific native functionality.
• Performance is not an issue.
• Budget and time is a concern.
  

Hybrid App:

When to Choose- Choose when:

•  Multiple platforms are the objective.
•  Phone-specific functionality is needed.
• Developer skill sets are limited.

When not to Choose- Do not choose when:

• Best experience required for each mobile platform   

The finest Approach

As explained based on your business objectives you must choose the type of app, and can be summarized as:

1. How soon you need the app?
2. The quality you need in your app for UX
3. Feature advancement or complexity you wish to offer
4. Your budget

Whatever the answer to the above questions you have to remember customer demands keep changing with time and,
– The API infrastructure you offer must be reliable, and accessible.
– A mobile app is always an extension of your brand.
– Understand customer demand, behavior, and be ready to adapt to changing trends and market evolutions.}

“Nobody has Time for Bad Experience”!

The key to a successful app is the user experience. That’s why the most successful apps look completely different to what they used to 10 years back.
Clearly, if the key differences lay in a better user experience then you must choose that app. To arrive at, the best mobile app let’s summarise Native and Hybrid App:

No doubt on all user-experience parameters Native app score higher than the Hybrid app and one must give preference to a Native app while choosing.

To Conclude

Most of the above criteria are been fulfilled by native apps and that makes them the most populous and in-demand mobile apps of the times.
You may employ the best developers to build your native app or may hire the master like- EngineerBabu to do the job for you.
EngineerBabu develops high-quality products and renders world-class services like:
– Logo Design
– Web Development
– Android Development
– UI & UX
– Growth marketing
– iOS App development.
As can be seen, EngineerBabu is the “One-Stop” solution for all your App related concerns.
EngineerBabu helps startups, enterprises, and owners to grow their business by building high class IT solutions. 95% of projects developed by them were completed on-time.
Set your priorities and act accordingly, if budget is priority opt for web or hybrid.
If the priority is brand experience and you are confident that user experience will fetch you the dividend you must choose native apps.
The speed, responsiveness, and the spectacle will be unmatchable.

Also check out:
Top Rated App Development Company in USA
Top Rated App Development Companies in Singapore
Top Rated App Development Companies in Australia

The post What to choose Native, Hybrid or Web App? – Mobile Application Development appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

“If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business”

– Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

In this fast-moving world, websites and mobile applications hold the topmost pitch in the business growth. They help in conveying the products and services of the companies to their prospective clients in the most effective way. They are the face of any business and more often the heart. You cannot go about thinking to accost the best sales, users or clients without having the sound portfolio in the form of an excellent mobile application or website.

Similarly, the content plays a very crucial role in business expansion. You need to inform about your work to the right people in a persuasive way wherever they are. The content in your professional blogs, websites or any guest posts should convey your thoughts, ideas, insight, and knowledge in a simple yet compelling manner. Good content presented in a readable format does wonder.

But what if you have a highly sophisticated website designed and developed by the incredibly talented people and yet out of reach of targeted readers? Even with the innovative product, how do you justify no traffic?

What’s wrong here?

Can you guess?
Yes! The digital marketing is the ‘heroine’ of any growing business in the present scenario. It knows how to attract people. There is no chance a business can grow in a fully fledged manner without exploiting the complete potential of digital marketing tools. You have to have the access to the world-class SEOs and SMMs to bring the reach of your product to the larger crowd.
Otherwise, you know the fate of documentary movies. No matter how great the director, screenplay, actors are, it cannot come at par with commercial cinema in business because it lacks massive launching, promotions, teasers, marketing, and another such tact.
It is need of the hour. Even the conventional businesses are now adapting to these new
mediums to keep up with the cut-throat competition.

Thus, it becomes highly important to ensure that your websites and apps are designed and developed on the right platform using appropriate technologies with superior talents to pour ideas and market it.

Best Way to find Freelancers

Businesses and individuals often approach freelancers to outsource their IT needs.
Outsourcing projects help companies in many ways:
1) Cost Saving: Getting projects developed from freelancer/remote team is effectively cost saving than getting them designed by in-house team as then you have to provide them fully functional office looking after their refreshments, taxes, cash-on-leaves etc or via agency where huge commissions are involved with apparently more fees, lesser transparency and no direct involvement with the developer.
2) World Class Talent: You can easily access the top talent around the world without much effort and movement.
3) Flexibility: It is an easy and relieving experience to give charge of the work to the experts and forget about it as they will take care of the rest. Unlike in-house team where you need to keep them motivated and busy, freelancers keep themselves self-motivated and active.
Upwork is one big name in the freelance market that has been around for 10+ years.
Even if you are naïve in this domain, you still have heard the name at some point. With the growing irrelevant crowd on the website and ever-increasing unacknowledged issues, the site has recently lost its credibility both towards clients and developers.
As they say, you need to keep updating your product if you want to survive in the IT industry else you gradually disappear from the game.
Filtering desirable freelancers from websites like Upwork is a laborious job and highly unreliable way of getting work done. Here the success rate is not 100%.
You may succeed in finding the right developer for your idea but there are high chances you end up getting bluffed and betrayed. This often results in handing over your project to some other freelancer and having to pay extra charges thereafter.

Let us understand this problem in a more fundamental way:
1) Let’s say you post a project.
2) Some 30+ freelancers apply for it. Some of them do not even check the essentials required like skills, qualifications etc
3) The best freelancers still did not apply as they are already over-packed with the existing work.
4) People displaying false experiences and skills is a well-known phenomenon.
5) After 10 days of analysis to find the best developer, you select the one with the best score (someone who has the better ranking, good rates, and good reviews).
6) What if it is an agency which takes the work from you and again outsources to someone else? You would not be able to interact with the developer directly.
7) Most of the freelancers work full time in other companies. They take up extra work as a freelancer to earn some quick money.
They would never spend enough time checking the environment, understanding the client’s requirement and guiding them through the best-customized approach to get work done.
8) Finally, what if the developer does not pick your call or leave the project incomplete?
Yes, Upwork does have a rating system but there is no real way to confirm if the developer you hire is trustworthy and dedicated towards the work and also it does not assure the communication ease of the freelancer.
Even on investing 10-12 days in selecting the right candidate to accomplish your task, you could still choose the wrong person, not deliberately but by mere less awareness and transparency.
Websites like upwork are often criticized for this big downside. People become victims to these fraud profiles and end up spending more money than their initial budget.

What’s the solution?                
In the midst of this chaos, few companies worked hard to rectify issues faced with upwork and came up with the outstanding products.
EngineerBabu:
How about if you have someone who does all the analysis of your project and guides you find the expert developer to meet all the requirements and get the work done in the best possible way?
That’s EngineerBabu!

EngineerBabu is an Indian company that helps in connecting the perfect partner for all your IT needs with the aid of domain experts.
It basically reduces your days of efforts required in filtering the right candidate. It curates highly skilled people from all over the places and gets you handpicked experts to work for your dream.
Removing the wheat from the chaff is a work in itself.
Businesses opting to this website are often startups or SME’s looking to grow flexibly by hiring freelancers to handle projects rather than in-house or via agencies.
They operate as part of what has become “talent cloud” with hundreds of freelancers offering a range of skills in a flexible and efficient basis.
They also promote the benefits of freelancing and remote team as a means to allow people to work more freely in the environment that suits them best.
It provides resources for new and growing businesses and for those who are looking to build a career as a freelancer.
How EngineerBabu helps you to find the perfect IT partner

Here are the best alternatives we consider –

For the Freelancers or IT Company:

1. Create a profile and go through verification.
2. After you are verified, choose projects matching your skills.
3. If you are a paid plan user, you can directly apply and the client will get a notification.
4. We help clients choose a developer and connect them over email.
5. You can also work in-house.

For the client:

1) Engineerbabu team discusses the idea with the client taking down their requirements. (Technology, scope, budget etc)
2) It connects the developer with a client over email for further developments.
There is no bidding system as we provide the best options appropriate for the project. We avoid unnecessary time consumption with bidding process where large numbers of people send proposals and most of them are not even eligible.
3) The team takes follow-ups both from the client and developer from time to time to know the progress.
4) The client can keep the check on the development and progress of the project through our free project management tool “BaseCamp”.
5) Engineerbabu experts spend a lot of time in testing the product and further plan strategies for its promotion.
6) People seem happy and satisfied with the process.

Guru.com:

Based in the US, Guru.com is yet another global freelancing marketplace for freelance workers and employers to partner on a contract basis. It is fairly easy to use with around 1.5 million members worldwide.
How Guru.com helps you:

1) Guru offers a vast network of freelancers to help you accomplish your creative, technical or business projects.
2) Here you are allowed as a freelancer to bid for the certain number of projects for free. After a while, you will have to switch to a paid membership.
3) It is free for the employer, thus in favor of clients.
4) The portal charges a fee from freelancers in the form of transaction fee and membership fee which are quite hefty.
5) Like many other sites with plenty of freelancers, clients have to take the pain to filter the suitable candidate from a large number of proposals.
6) You select a freelancer by evaluating their profile on the basis of reviews, recommendations, testimonials etc.
7)  Guru has an inbuilt project management tool called “Work Room” where you can assign work to the freelancer, keep a check on the progress, share files, define milestones etc.
8) Another good part of this site is it uses the system called “SafePay” which makes sure that you do any payment only after you approve of the project.
PeoplePerHour:

PeoplePerHour is a UK based company that provides a platform for thousands of freelance experts in hundreds of different fields.
As a leading marketplace to find freelancers, jobs can be availed on an hourly basis and can be ramped up as needed to build the whole team online, thus this model is scalable up to the global enterprise.
How PeoplePerHour helps you:
1) Here you get a choice to select from entry-level experience to expert level freelancer.
The prices are fairly reasonable. It is advisable to pick expert freelancer every time as you would find quality skills set only with the experts here.
2) You have to use filters here to opt according to your parameters such as country, experience level, project type etc
It is advisable to wait for the good proposal to arrive. Due to the availability of plenty of freelancers, it happens that many of them apply without checking the details. Thus, it is advantageous to wait and get completely satisfied before handing over your project.
3) It offers various options to be in touch with a freelancer including an inbuilt video calling feature.
4) It has a little-complicated interface which might trouble you in the beginning.
5) Payment needs to be deposited in PeoplePerHour account right when you accept the proposal. Money is held in the escrow and is released as soon as you approve the project.
6) If for any reason, the client cancels the deal, he will be charged 10% of the fee.

Fiverr:

How Fiverr helps you:

1) Fiverr got its name from “five dollar” where every service and task accounts for $5 as their base price.
2) It is the global online market for freelancers and companies to provide their services at much cheaper prices.
3) As the prices are low, so is the quality. You can still get the simple tasks like business card designing, HTML website designing and others done.
4) It is good when you want the product to be developed without much complexity, innovation and quality.
5) It is suitable for very small businesses where work is required to be done very quickly without much detailing.
I hope you find a suitable freelancer according to the need of your project. Some tips that may come handy while taking your decision.
 
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has ever tried”
                                                                                                              – Stephen McCranie

1) Always choose experienced people over newbie, it definitely helps in the long-term relationship.
 
“Quality is the best business plan” – John Lasseter

2) All companies have a development budget, and it is understandable to work within that budget. However, you should never let price alone drive your choices. Let the product and the quality of the developer’s work determine who you hire. A quality product is a brand in itself and branding comes with a price.
3) Get NDA signed before sharing your idea. The NDA form is available in Google or you can ask your developer to share his NDA template.
NDA terms are;

• Not to share your code
• Reuse your code
• Can’t work on similar domain or idea for 2 years
• Can’t work with your competitor
• Company or the employees cannot start another company using your idea or its piece.

4) Ask for the portfolio before hiring anyone. In the samples provided, check for the user interface and evaluate the expertise of the developer and team.
5) You can also ask the contact numbers of previous clients of the concerned freelancer/developer. It will help you to know about the quality of work delivered, work ethics, time management etc.

A reliable and an intelligent freelancer is the ultimate requirement of any project.  I hope you find your desirable one keeping these points in mind.

The post What are the best alternatives to find freelancers? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Currently, blogging is the most artistic way of expressing yourself or sharing your knowledge with others through the internet. Almost 90% bloggers around the world do blogging because they like it, That’s why the blogging is the most amazing way of earning money. Blogging can serve 3 things, the thirst to read & write plus it can also provide the blogger with proper earning.

By using smartphones efficiently people can achieve many things. Now bloggers globally started writing blogs on their smartphones. Currently, there are lots of mobile applications  for bloggers available in the market that can assist a blogger with his/her work.

Top 5 amazing mobile applications for bloggers

Writer
As the name suggests writer is an App purely focused on writing. Blogging on your smartphone is a very difficult task. When a blogger writes something on his smartphone he gets many distractions. Call notification, App notification and notification’s related to messages are some of the major distractions.
This mobile applications provides a platform which is free from distraction’s and the blogger can do his artistic work with a peace of mind.

Google Drive
While writing a blog, blogger refers to all kind of literature he can get. But while writing on the phone it almost seems impossible to refer different documents. Google drive makes it possible for the blogger to store their doc.
 It has an amazing feature through which you can connect your Google drive with your google account. It can automatically sync the documents from your google account to google drive.

Dictionary.com
It’s a general tendency of people, they think that a blogger has all the knowledge of words. People think that a blogger must know every spelling and meaning of all the words. It is almost impossible for any individual to memorize everything related to words.
Dictionary.com helps the blogger to access the dictionary without much hassle.

Photo Editor
A blog is always incomplete without a photo. While writing a blog in a smartphone it is very difficult for the blogger to attach a photo in the blog. With the help of this app, a blogger can edit, resize and crop the photos which he wants to use in his blog. Photo editor can also add effects, drawing and texts to the photos.

WordPress
WordPress is a renowned platform for bloggers. This app is very much compatible with the WordPress blogs. WordPress gives bloggers freedom to perform various tasks related to blogging like checking analytics, creating, editing and moderating comments.

The post Mobile applications for bloggers appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

To promote and expand business, search engine optimization (SEO) is a common practice. To achieve their goals SEO marketing Consultants are rather found out stacked to their chair, in front of their desktops. There are numerous tools available in the market for doing SEO and by which you can do SEO through laptops and desktops. People using tablets and Laptops for doing SEO can roam around to an extent, but what if you can do your SEO through applications on your iPhone? Yes, do you know there are SEO friendly mobile applications available?
iPhone is a brilliant device itself and what if you get a chance to do your SEO through your iPhone. There are various Mobile Application Development companies around the world, which have expertise in app development related to SEO. Here I am going to share some of the best known SEO Friendly Mobile Applications developed in the market.

• SEO Automatic

As the name suggests this application has been developed for the doing automatic SEO. This app does everything on page search engine optimization, Ranging from code analysis, page analysis to content analysis. This app finishes the analysis in maximum period of 1 minute which is quiet impressive. SEO automatic is offered in both free and paid version. As the free version is very light it is recommended to buy a full version at $10.

• Evernote

Sometimes we came up with an idea which can help to improve our SEO tactics, and we jot down that thought or Idea on a note pad or in a piece of paper. But with EVERNOTE we can also capture an image, which we think can help in our SEO. The saved image can also be searched very simply by a small key word. It is one of the best SEO Friendly Mobile Applications for iPhone.

• HubSpot

As the name suggests HubSpot makes a Hub of your social network platforms and analyze the contents and blogs that you have posted in the past. This SEO Friendly Mobile Applications provides the user with the analytics and SEO. This mobile application also provides the user with the training for writing blogs. This mobile application has a free as well as a paid version.

• SEO pro

The developers of this mobile application are very much focused on the monitoring of the SEO and marketing. SEO pro allows the user to keep track of the essential things like Alexa rank,Compete.com rank, Yahoo in links and Google Page Rank. This mobile application also helps to keep track on meta data ranking. SEO pro has a special feature through which it generates notification whenever there is a change in rank of the website.

• Analytics Pro

Analytics Pro is a best app for informatics at it provide user with the information by google analytics. This mobile application provides with the essential information like visitor information and statistics related to the traffic. Analytics Pro is known for providing clean and meaningful data.

Do you want to develop SEO Friendly Mobile Applications for iPhone? Our team at “EngineerBabu” have expertise in developing mobile application related to ant domain with a round the clock 24X7 service.

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