Planning your application project is a necessary first step in building a quality app. The principles we use at Apps42 is to start with a structured planning document that outlines the key major elements of a good app design and deployment. We use this plan as a guide to efficient development. Some of the key questions we explore when engaged in a planning exercise include:
- What is the basic idea of the app
- Who is your target audience
- What level of app sophistication do your users have
- Where do you want to take your audience
- Will the app need unique graphics or audio
- What and where is your content
- Will there likely be many or few future updates to the app
- Is the app a free, enterprise, or commercial app
Once we have a good idea of your direction we can talk about how we get there.
- What will the architecture look like
- How will we navigate through the app
- What unique features of the device will be needed
- Will the data be static or dynamic
- Where does the data currently exist
- Will there be a need for a back-end server
- Do we want to include usage statistics
- What devices do you want to the app to run on
- When do you want to launch
- What should be our interim milestones during development
- Do we need to set up a new app store for this app
This list is a starting point in our discussion during the planning sessions. As we progress with turning your idea into a reality many more will become apparent. Documenting these points will help coalesce our mutual understanding and lead to a better design and development phase with Apps42.