Top secreTs abouT mobile app developmenT,

your consulTanT may noT wanT you To know!AN APP hAs emerged As the most disruPtive medium iN this coNNected world. heNce, there is A surge iN the demANd for creAtiNg fAst, resPoNsive ANd eNgAgiNg APPs. however, creAtiNg A quAlity APP hAs culmiNAted iNto A chAlleNge kNowN to overcome by oNly A few. oNe of the few is AlexANder rAuser, ceo of PrototyPe iNterActive, who will uNcover the secret to creAte AN effective APP.

When developing mobile apps you will come to common challenges and important

decisions that may impact your project quality, timeliness, and costs.

While this post is opinionated, it is based on the experience of having developed over 40 apps across all major platforms for large audiences.

if you Are serious doN't wAste

your time oN html5:In short, HTML5 will only work for you

if you want a disposable, quick app that does not need to scroll long lists or has other performance intense tasks to do. If this doesn't apply, you must go native.

The reason is that you will be up against all the big native apps your users already installed.

Your performance will simply not

be the same as those apps, and your users will turn away and use your competitions native app if there is one available.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft will do everything they can to make developers develop better native apps because that's how they keep control over their platforms.

We have tried cross-platform development tools that compile into

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native apps but keep in mind that these make you dependent on a third party and may delay your implementation of new platform features.

HTML5 apps can be developed much quicker than native apps, so when your boss wants the new company app within 4 weeks you may be tempted to opt for HTML5, but really you should stand up for your right to produce quality and educate your team on the consequences.

develoPmeNt time = testiNg time:We've tracked how much time is spent

on testing during the development of an app. If you combine the time of all participants that will test a feature, you will notice that you spent as much time testing or more than you spent time developing.

Automation can help optimizing the process. While this may increase the overall development time it will cut down testing time eventually. However, automation only works if your API is set in stone (see next point) and if you have a very clear idea of the UX of your app before you start the development, which is recommended either way.

Why does testing take so much time?

Android alone has 7 minor versions of operating system you should support, around 4 dominant screen sizes to test against and then you have how many phone manufacturers? Here is a good resource to see the complexity of testing. http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

iOS can be a little easier, but still, there will be significant differences between iOS 6 or 7 or 8 and you have got quite a variety of screen resolutions here too in the meantime. http://www.iosres.com/

APi must come first:This is where companies could save

a lot of development costs if they would obey this simple rule: API must be developed first. However, for various reasons most companies prefer to take shortcuts to "save" time, only to find themselves and their developers end up with a delayed project.

Why is this so difficult to accomplish?

API's have to integrate into other systems, this usually means work to be carried out by other teams. Multiple teams on the same project

mean exponential complexity. Not only because of Brooks law, but also politics and ownership issues. If you put API first into a project plan your project seems to be delayed because of that and so it appears to be a good idea to just start developing the app right away and integrate with API's later.

This is theoretically possible if the following statement would be true: you develop a specification for the yet to be developed API that will represent the final product and not change 2 months down the line when you actually start development.

Sounds ambitious? It is ambitious and the only way to actually fulfill the above is to have your API's and all underlying business logic ready, thus API’s ready.

Back to the cost saving part, when having your API ready developers can actually work against these API's and develop features much faster, plus you will cut down testing time. This is so effective we give discounts to clients that agree to this approach when developing their apps.

eNgAgemeNt over feAtures:A lot of time is spent on planning

and developing new features for apps, however, we see little time is spent to optimize the engagement of apps. This means integration of social features, app discovery, ‘push’ notifications and so on.

These features are actually the most important ones, but somehow they get less attention and this may be due to them not being tangible enough compared to adding more screens to an app which has an immediate result.

Engagement focused features are hard to implement. Let's take push notifications, for example, they need to be triggered by various different systems, they need to be deeply integrated into the app experience and they need to be tested. It's just a simple little message, but what is going on behind the scenes is usually far more complex.

Features that allow you to constantly engage with your audience matter because they will keep users coming back to your app and sharing to a wider audience.

if you Need to be Agiler… mAybe build A website?

When starting up a business you need to be agile and app development is more

rigid since you are not just developing the app, but also the underlying infrastructure, API’s and so on. This will make changes harder to implement and, as we know change is the only constant, especially in software development. In some cases, it could be more sensible to start with a mobile optimized website that will encapsulate the service offering, create the necessary infrastructure and allow you to perfect your solution before rolling out your native apps.

For example, many airlines created mobile optimized websites before their mobile apps, this gave them a fast way to rollout and test their services for mobile users and then use the knowledge gained from the app development projects.

Mobile app development is a lot of fun, but a completely different beast than building traditional websites. It’s a commitment to create, maintain and release software to consumers. It requires organizations to think a little more like software developers and build long-term strategies for their app offering to succeed.

Alexander Rauser headed the digital division of an agency in Dubai before founding his own company, Prototype Interactive, in 2010. Prototype Interactive is a digital agency specializing in digital solutions for web, mobile and social media and is considered one of the top digital agencies in the country. Follow Alexander on Twitter @ARauser.

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