4 stages of application development: Part 1, previous design

The Pocket application breaks down the process of the application development services into four different stages: previous design, design, development and support. We can take a modular approach and handle these stages individually, but the greatest added value we can offer is to take a project from start to finish.

With that in mind, we have created this series to guide you through the entire process, explaining what each stage is and what customers get from it. Starting from the beginning: pre-design.

What is the pre-design stage?

The previous design is the first stage of the application development process, where we take a project from the initial summary, be it a line or thirty pages, in a viable strategy. This means solving everything, from which products and to whom it is directed, to what technologies you should use and how we will measure success.

The pre-design ensures you a correct start with the design and development of your application, and ensures a great final product.

What happens during the pre-design stage?

The first part of the pre-design process is to identify the central concept and the objective of the project.

For this, we start with a workshop. This is a one- or two-day collaboration session in which clients can access the experience of our entire team, through UX specialists and business analysts, as well as our main team, which contributes more than thirty years of mobile experience. About the project.

We advise clients to adopt a similar interdisciplinary approach at this point, and bring members of the marketing department, legal ... any department that wants to speak later in the project. If it is an internal application, it is also a good idea to take someone who is really going to be in the field using the application.

This ensures that all these stakeholders have a voice from the beginning, rather than once the process is underway.

The workshop is followed by a research and analysis phase. As part of this, we build user people, who help us understand the objectives and obstacles of the real people who will use the application.

We also look at similar applications already in the market. This is more difficult for internal applications that are not in app stores than for consumer-oriented applications, but when looking across industries, applications that have very similar user goals, you can always find and apply learnings

What are the results of the pre-design?

At the end of the previous design stage, customers receive a package of our recommendations, technical considerations and a roadmap for the project.

The recommendations establish a creative vision for the project and how we direct it to users, and what the objectives are, both from the perspective of the user and the business.

The roadmap includes a content audit of all the features suggested by the client and future plans, explaining what will be included in the initial release and plans for the first phases after that. This roadmap can vary in length, sometimes extending up to five years.

Technological considerations is where we identify the best approach for this project. We are agnostics in technology, so this might recommend that, depending on the functionality you need, it really is better with a website than with a native application. Depending on the client, this could also include more in-depth details, such as a system architecture diagram and the data flow for the APIs.

Together, this package presents everything that both we and the client need to know about the project that lies ahead of us, so that we can guarantee the best final results. Sometimes we refer to him as "the summary that would have been great to get the first time".

How can I know if I need a pre-design phase?

People often think that they can jump directly into the design process, but this can lead to a bad end result. If all the ideas come from a single source, those who have not necessarily done all the research or considered all the angles, this can cause the problems to develop further during the process.

Ultimately, it all comes down to one question: Is your summary sufficiently detailed so that someone can leave and build the finished product? But it can be difficult to know for sure. Consider if you can answer all these questions:

·         Have I established what my users want?

·         What is the main objective of the project?

·         I know which technologies are the best to use?

·         What is the USP for my product? What are you trying to fix, change or improve?

·         Do you need to be an application in itself? Could it be a piece of functionality within something else?

·         Have I seen all my competitors and similar applications in similar industries?

If you have already answered some of these questions, but not all, keep in mind that the previous design phase can be increased or reduced to suit the needs of each client.

What do I need to know before starting the pre-design?

To start the process, we just need to know what you hope to achieve with the project.

Ideally, your report should have isolated what the problem is, what they think the mobile phone might do to help you, and elaborate a rough idea of ​​the objective, but the minimum is to simply know what the problem you want to solve with your mobile.

This is often something that I could write in a single paragraph. It could be as simple as "we lose a lot of money by using a paper-based process for this, we want to digitize it."

We can help fill in the holes, but we need to know where they are in the first place. Once we have that only problem, we can start working to solve it.