Designing A Mobile App Specification – Developing Your Vision
One important point to understand if you want to launch your idea into the mobile world, is that you don’t have to be a programmer to create an app.
Unfortunately, without fully understanding this point, many innovative people stop themselves before taking their idea that next step further and exploring its potential.
Think about it like this:
- When you build a house, do you personally have to become the carpenter, plumber and electrician etc?
- When your car needs to be repaired, do you need to become a mechanic?
- If you have a health problem, do you need to become a Doctor?
Of course not…these people are all experts that you engage with to take advantage of their expertise in a particular field.
Just like electricians, mechanics and doctors, exceptionally good programmers can be contracted to perform work and share their valuable expertise.
Over recent years there has been an explosion in “outsourcing” services; the development of the internet and an increase in broadband speeds has allowed offshore workers to enter the market and provide their specialised services (often at a far lower cost than employing local workers in many cases).
While outsourcing is still a viable model to engage the services of experts, there are many outsourcing horror stories in the app development industry of overseas companies having little respect for intellectual property or an inability to conceptualise a simplistic brief the same way you see it in your mind.
This highlights the importance of evolving your initial concept through an iterative design process, it also supports the argument for using local developers who at least reside within the same country, understand local conventions and more importantly, can be held accountable under Australian Law.
No one enters an agreement with the intention of taking legal action however if the developer doesn’t deliver as promised (and contractually obligated) or is unethical and takes your idea to develop it themselves – then at least you have a chance….much unlike you would if you were to work with an overseas app developer who doesn’t respect your proprietary IP or isn’t capable of delivering to the timeline or budget quoted to you.
As long as you are protected, an outsourced app development project can be an enjoyable experience provided that you manage it correctly and have a clear plan to move forward with.
In order to get the best result at the end you need to start with a comprehensive concept outline at the start. This is one of the most important parts of the process to ensure you get what you are expecting.
One of the ways to minimise the cost of app development is to provide a clear project brief that will reduce the amount of time that will be needed to understand your requirements.
While the developer you engage may want to hold workshops and prepare a detailed design document, at the early stages a detailed project brief that outlines your idea clearly will ensure that you can get a reasonable quote for developing your app.
Think about the earlier example of building a house…to get started you don’t just assemble the carpenter, electrician and plumber and tell them to get cracking! No, your first step is to develop a detailed plan for the house you want to build and then an architect will help you to fully conceptualise your ideas into a plan before the ground is broken.
Before you start paying the highly skilled labourers to do all of the grunt work, your architect (or outsourced consultant) helps you to completely map out your design plan before you get started.
The design specification stage is all about developing a clear picture of how the app should look, feel and function before you engage the highly skilled and highly paid labour.
The early design stage will allow you to get a reasonably accurate indication of the development costs and timelines however in most cases you would want to work with a developer to create the final design specification and take advantage of their experience in developing innovative and engaging mobile applications.
We can’t overstate the importance of the design phase in delivering on your expectations with the final result. This is a pivotal point in the process and if you get it wrong or the developer doesn’t understand what you are trying to do, then you can waste time and money trying to get your project back on track.
About Brad Davidson
Lessons learnt over last 20 years working across a variety of different industries provide Brad with a unique perspective on the mobile app industry.
A passion for technology was sparked by his first computer in 1985 and exposure to the BASIC programming language and followed up with formal training in system analysis and design in 1993. Brad has delivered many successful project for his clients over the years using both system and web based programming languages and he combines this experience with his love of technology and business to help mobile app creators explore their ideas.
8 responses on “Designing A Mobile App Specification – Developing Your Vision”
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The explosion of tablet devices is definitely a promising reality for app developers. This only multiplies the market of app users, from i-phone and android users to millions more people who use tablets. I know some people who use both, but maybe that doesn’t count unless such a user buys an app twice (one for the cellular and one for the tablet). In any case, I do get the gist of this article. An app can promote.
The analogy that correlates the building of a house is not only the most appropriate out of the three analogies, but it also makes a lot of sense. I think I have a great concept for an app, one that I have not seen on the market (in what little research I have done so far), and if my research proves to be accurate, I definitely want to team up with the right development company.
The Social Network for Real World Competition. as it is referred to, was named Best in Show’ at CTIA’s Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Awards, This I guess is an example of some a great app concept and marketing. It beat out mobile powerhouses Samsung, AT&T, Novatel Wireless. On the heels of its victory, LEAGUES announced it has secured $150,000 in Series A’ funding. I hope that is not indicative of how much money is needed to develop an app..
The trend toward mobile, including use of check-in sites, is increasing. Every business’ customers and competitors increasingly are taking advantage of the mobile revolution. So the question all business persons should ask themselves is: What about your business are you ahead of this curve, keeping up, or totally unaware? One thing you can do is: optimize your site for mobile users. Features such as pulldown boxes and collapsible links make a site much more mobile friendly.
A writer, I think it was Dale Carnegie, once wrote that in order to become successful, one way is to surround yourself with skilled people. From there, it is up to you to be their leader and inspire them to produce. I guess that is one way to achieve great success and wealth and it is applicable in the app development and IT fields in general. A developer stealing a concept is my biggest concern.
Speaking of developing great apps, I read that computer scientists have developed a new mobile app to prevent data abuse by digital spies through other applications on your smartphone. Scientists from the Saarland University, Germany, have developed “SRT AppGuard, a mobile app that determines every application installed on a smartphone, based on their approach such as what it accesses, and shows this information to the user. The app enables users to grant privileges to the respective app.
The explosion of tablet use has made it so you might want to get in on app. building if you can. Even though they are pulling away from the cell phones and thing the tablet can do even more. I understand the article myself and I am glad that you posted it for all of us to understand. Thanks for taking the time to post this I appreciate it.
I was reading your article and where you put “think about it like this and listed the carpenter, mechanic and doctor , I thought to myself if I could I definitely would yes. The car problems I do try to fix on my own, I was heavily involved in the building of my home and I do have a tendency to self diagnosis my health problems. That is until they all get to serious.