how to create an app from scratch in 10 steps

If you’ve ever been interested in creating an app, you might have been baffled by the sheer number of options available to you. Whether you want to use your own skills or outsource them, whether you want to create Android apps or iOS apps, there are many possibilities available to you in the world of software development – and that’s not even taking into account the design aspect! If creating an app from scratch seems like too much work, here are ten tips that will help you decide what it takes to get started. Learn More here about how to create an app.

Choose A Platform

With so many mobile platforms available, developers must decide which one best suits their goals and intended audience. Google Play Store features more than 2 million apps, for example, while Apple’s App Store is host to about 1.4 million apps. And now there are even Android versions of popular iOS apps like Angry Birds. Though competition is high, plenty of opportunities exist: Apptopia reports that 24 per cent of all apps make less than $1,000 per month and 60 per cent of developers’ income comes from just 5 per cent of all apps. If you wanted to create an app then there are lots of options available like a flutter and react native. Which is used to create cross-platform apps.

Define Your Audience

Before you start creating your product, it’s important to have a clear idea of who will be using it. Even if you know it will only ever be used by your mom or best friend, that’s something. Defining your audience means figuring out what they want and how they might use it. This can help shape many aspects of your product including what features you include and how you design your product for easy usability.

Brainstorm App Features

So you’ve got a great idea for an app. You’re not sure if anyone else does, though, so you need to figure out how much demand there is for it—and whether or not you should even bother building it. To do that, come up with a list of all of its key features. The more specific your list is, and the more must-have elements your customers are demanding, the better. Once you have all of those features listed, write down how each one will solve your customers’ problems and make their lives easier.

Design Your App

If you have some sort of idea for an app, take a few moments to think it through. It might help to start with pen and paper, or use a whiteboard if you can’t be by your computer. Put yourself in your users’ shoes and ask yourself: What problem does my app solve? Will anyone really use it? Can I see my users actually using it? Now write down how your app will work (and feel free to draw pictures or diagrams). How many pages will it have? What is each page going to look like? Also think about what tools and templates you’ll use—or build—to help make developing a reality.

Get Feedback

To get started, you’ll need a few things:
(1) an idea of what your app will do
(2) ideas for your design and look
(3) a working computer.

It may sound like a lot but developing an app is a highly technical process, so starting with solid resources is essential. A checklist of sorts, and an assets folder will help keep track of every design or graphic element used as you build out your product. To create one, just grab every image or icon you can find on Google — or if you’re not quite sure what style you want yet, there are plenty of free graphics libraries online.

Hire Developers

As you’re planning your business, it’s important to decide if you want to build a mobile application yourself or hire a team of developers and designers to do it for you. In either case, it’s essential that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Mobile applications are expensive and time-consuming—if your idea has high potential but isn’t technologically feasible yet, it might be worth taking on investors or finding a mentor (or hiring a technical advisor) with experience in mobile development. Otherwise, consider focusing on building other features that enhance your product rather than developing its mobile version right away.

Compile An Assets Folder

Your assets folder contains all of your design templates, icons, and any other resources you will need. An easy way to do that is by organizing a Google Doc with all of your graphic assets. You can organize them into categories, and it’s a great way to keep track of things. The key here is not to make any manual changes to your assets when you are developing your app. Always use a graphic template whenever possible—the easier you make it for yourself, the faster you will go! To learn more about compiling design elements into an assets folder, check out our guide on how designers can optimize their workflow using Sketch templates .

Complete Basic Mobile App Development And Upload To The Store (Android Or IOS)

You can easily develop your first mobile application in a matter of hours. To start, you’ll need to find a good development platform (Android Studio or Xcode) and pay for some software licenses ($25–200). You’ll also want to buy a domain name and web hosting for your project ($5–10/month). After you’ve gotten set up, spend some time learning how things work. There are plenty of tutorials online that explain how things work and it is important that you understand them before moving on. Once you have a solid understanding of how everything works together, it’s time to make something! After all, practice makes perfect. The more you work with these tools, the better you’ll become at building apps.

Promote your app

App discovery is huge. While you might want all your new users to be loyal customers, you can’t exactly control which apps people download or how often they use them. So one of your primary goals as a mobile business owner is getting your app into as many hands as possible. There are a few different ways of doing that, but it all starts with creating a great product and making sure it’s discoverable—or so-called App Store Optimization. ASO involves using keywords and other techniques (like strategic screenshots) for optimizing your listing for both iOS and Android stores. It can be difficult if you’re unfamiliar with marketing, but having a well-optimized listing will help spread awareness about your product far more than just buying ads could ever do.