Apps are an ingenious tool that can do wonders for your business when they’re purposefully and thoughtfully made. Well-built apps allow you to connect and communicate with your customers in a way that benefits you both. By transforming the customer experience with functionality and aesthetics, you can create an engaging and enjoyable experience that keeps your customers coming back again and again.
A not-so-good app will leave you short a few thousand dollars, with a persistent headache and the same problem you started with.
To help you create an asset for your business that benefits you long term, our team is taking you through the fast-fading trends in app development, the next big things to keep an eye out for and the process to follow to get started.
You’ll be hearing from our Senior Developers Matt Rowles, Byron Papanikolaou, Thomas Nixon, and Devika’s Founder Ken Kencevski as they share their personal and professional experiences in application development.
Senior Developer, Matthew Rowles at Devika
What things are important to consider before building an app?
“First and foremost, you’re building a product, so the app/s should revolve around the products’ target customers, which from day one will be a niche persona within an industry. Every product is an experiment until proven otherwise, so you want to start small and grow with the early adopting customers while looking to expand the channels to additional personas.
“Before you commence building, you want to mitigate risk by trimming any excess bloat by narrowing the minimal viable product down to what we call 'the lean path to the market'; what is the smallest thing we can build to prove the hypothesis and begin testing with customers? Sometimes this isn't even an MVP, but a prototype on a whiteboard with some user testing!”
When technology is constantly evolving, how do I know what to build an app on?
“Look for established ecosystems from day one; the web, mobile app stores, platforms with marketplaces e.g., Salesforce and so on. In terms of technology, try to sit at the cusp of the bleeding edge; tried and tested technology that has been in production in most regions around the world for more than 36 months, yet still fresh enough to maintain the status quo.”
What’s a fast-fading trend of apps at the moment?
“Hyper-wedge/niche; setting out with a grandiose plan of building platforms is almost impossible, so what we've seen people do is build a feature as a plugin for or on top of another app and grow their own small set of loyal customers. Generally, what will happen is one of three things; 1. the feature will be implemented (fail), 2. the feature team will be acquired (success), or 3. the feature will grow into its own product, which means a wedge will be driven in enough to become a competitor to the system it once was a parasite to!”
What is the next big thing for mobile apps that’ll be game-changers for business owners?
“The introduction of mobile platform APIs in browsers is really interesting. Being able to access biometrics and AR/VR capabilities via the browser will change how people build apps. Also, new laws are coming which will enforce OS owners such as Apple with iOS and Google with Android to open up their platform to other marketplaces (Google already does this to some extent). It will be interesting to see what this will open up.”
What’s the first application you ever built?
“When I was in high school, I built a retro point-and-click adventure game that took five minutes to complete. More professionally, we launched an online car buying service with some colleagues in 2015, which was the first of its kind and really exciting.”
Senior Developer, Byron Papanikolaou at Devika
What things are important to consider before building an app?
“It’s important to know how much is involved before the code even hits the compiler. An idea is the first spark, but then it needs to be validated. This can happen in many ways, such as market research, focus groups with potential customers, or even using a prototyping tool to illustrate the idea. The process of turning an idea into a viable product is usually when the fun stops for most people. It requires time, effort, discipline, and unfortunately for most, there is no substitute for this.”
When technology is constantly evolving, how do I know what to build an app on?
“At the end of the day, technology is just a tool and should be treated as such. The technology itself will rarely play a deciding factor in the success of a product. That onus is on the vision and the implementation. If you’re building an application by yourself, use your native language. If you’re building it with a team, play to their strengths. Chances are, if the product is successful, you will have to re-write it in 24-36 months anyway as technology is changing this quickly! ”
What’s a fast-fading trend of apps at the moment?
“2D user interfaces. Once mixed reality applications make their way into our everyday lives, depth and layered user interfaces will be the new norm. As always, we will have to wait until Apple does it before the mass market accepts it, even if Android does it first.”
What is the next big thing for mobile apps that’ll be game-changers for business owners?
“The democratization of payments. Whether it be fiat or cryptocurrency, the landscape for how end-users and businesses make transactions has changed drastically over the last five years. As businesses adopt alternative payment providers to banks, it will relieve them of all the legacy rules guarded by the big financial institutions.”
What’s the first application you ever built?
“It was an interactive Flash-based website of my family’s house in high school for my major project. I went around taking photos inside and stitched them together using frame-by-frame animation. I even added door opening and closing animations. Fortunately, Adobe Flash has reached its end-of-life date, and no one can run this thing.”
Senior Developer, Thomas Nixon at Devika
What things are important to consider before building an app?
“The team and skill set you already have - It’s best to work with what you know. Software development is mostly about people and working with other people's strengths. If you need a particular skill, like app design, there are many resources out there and many companies and services with specialized skills who can help.”
When technology is constantly evolving, how do I know what to build an app on?
“Due diligence doing research and seeing what exists in the market already and what competitors have done. Getting advice and input for an idea is critical to its success as you may learn more.”
What’s a fast-fading trend of apps at the moment?
“Serverless architecture has allowed developers to build highly scalable applications that can reach a global audience easier.”
What is the next big thing for mobile apps that’ll be game-changers for business owners?
“Flutter and react-native have made cross-device apps that are easier to build and maintain. It also means less work for you as they do not need development for Android and ios. Low code has also opened the doors to a lot more people who want to build simple apps.”
What’s the first application you ever built?
“When I was 12, I taught myself how to program by making games and started me on a journey to learn and create more.”
Founder of Devika, Ken Kencevski
What things are important to consider before building an app? And what should I build on?
“Don't build an app. Create a solution to a problem and then use technology to solve and scale it. Our mission has always been to enable people first and then apply the technology needed to scale the idea and the organization's impact. It's equally important to solve a problem you are passionate about because building a business from it is hard enough as it is. If you believe in the cause enough, it’s a lot easier to get through the tough times.”
What’s a fast-fading trend of apps at the moment?
“Apps that don't solve a problem well enough; not sure if there is a technology, feature or function in particular.”
What is the next big thing for mobile apps that’ll be game changers for business owners?
“Voice and augmented reality have huge potential to change the way businesses interact and provide services for their customers. From medicine to architecture and retail, there’s a huge range of possibilities.”
What’s the first application you ever built?
“I built a basic eCommerce website when I was 15 to sell car audio gear from my bedroom 😊”
Ready to start building?
From website apps to mobile apps to hybrid apps and everything in between, our team has experience in not only building these technological products but creating solutions that help your business better connect with customers long term. If you need a hand getting started with this process or want to chat more email us here
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