According to statistics, the number of smartphone and tablet users is increasing by hundreds of millions annually. The number of people who cannot do without mobile applications is also growing. You need to be aware of security risks with mobile apps. Therefore, a designer’s transition to this industry will allow him to develop professionally and increase income. But where do you start? The article will tell you everything you need to know about creating a mobile application from scratch.

Creating an MVP step-by-step

All the best app design companies have their approach to MVP development. However, these are the main stages usually present in this process.

1. Assessing a business idea

A business aims to make a profit. Therefore, before creating an application, you need to evaluate the idea and its cost-effectiveness. App development cost breakdown is an important thing to do, so no unexpected difficulties will occur in the process.

• You need to see if the prospective audience is interested. Google Trends will help determine this. It is necessary to indicate the request in the search bar, and the program will show the dynamics of the search activity.
• Experiment Board table. It is worth filling it out for those who are not sure of the business idea and want to understand the project’s strengths and weaknesses. This solution is suitable for teamwork. Each describes a prospective user, what problems he may face, and how to solve them.
• You can do it by creating a form in Google Forms. Do not give it to relatives or friends – they are less objective.
• IdeaCheck service. It is necessary to indicate the essence of the business idea. Then the program will select testers from the target audience, and they will give an independent assessment after 24-48 hours.

2. Analyzing the market

First of all, a professional UX/UI designer needs to study the industry as a whole and its features. This will help to analyze the market dynamics and its prospects, whether it will develop further or decline.

When analyzing, you need to look at the problems of the industry. Knowing it, you can create an application design that would be less influential or allow you to focus on the positive aspects.

It is crucial to study the target audience. For example, suppose prospective consumers are schoolers. In that case, they will be attracted by bright colors and unusual icons, and representatives of the business environment will like the minimalist design, which reduces the time spent on tasks solved by the application.

Market analysis is impossible without studying competitors. We need to see what mobile applications’ interface looks like and what solutions they use to make them more convenient. Knowing about your competitors will allow you to draw inspiration and create a unique design that sets the program apart from the rest.

3. Collecting requirements for the product

Although evaluating a business idea and analyzing the market are essential stages in developing an application, its creation is impossible without understanding the client’s demand. Therefore, you need to ask him to give precise design requirements. It is worth getting information about:

• Goals and objectives of the application;
• Design features (desired colors, icons, font, logo);
• Sections which must be noted;
• Illustrations for the application;
• The volume of the operating systems on which the application will run on.

You can ask the customer to send examples of applications, the style of which he likes, and comment on each. Do not be afraid to find out detailed information, because only thanks to it, it will be possible to create a visual that suits the client.

4. Create a sketch

When the task is received, you can proceed to create a sketch. Standard web design programs like Figma, Adobe Illustrator, or Sketch will help you with this. To work with them, you do not need to additionally study the technical side of developing a mobile application, since at this stage you only need to think about the visual component. Some of them are free, so even beginners can try their hand at designing.

5. Designing Wireframe

Whereas it was necessary to create only a visual for the previous step, then at this stage, it is required to think about the functionality. Wireframe allows you to use blocks and links to represent what the final product will be like. To create more often use:

• The program is suitable for collaboration. It is easy to comment on the project right in creating the application, which makes it easier to make changes to the product.
• cc. Service with a user-friendly interface for creating projects with low detail.
• Fluid UI. Suitable if you need to insert animation into the application, but your graphics can only be downloaded in the paid version.

6. Design an MVP

MVP is the first version of the application with minimal functionality. It is launched to get user feedback and understand what the target audience wants. Thanks to MVP, it will be possible to know how user-friendly the interface is and correct it before launching the application.

Developing a trial version is an opportunity to save money. With MVP, you don’t have to enable all features at once. Sometimes such a solution cuts costs by four times.

Summing up

Designing the application is not as difficult as it seems. The main thing is to focus on the target audience and think about the convenience of users.