Build an application for your business quickly, professionally, and effortlessly.

What is the purpose of the app? 

What should it do? If you sell products – do you want to do it through the app? Payment? Delivery? Do you provide services? Can you do it through the app? Is it better, or just more convenient? Different? Something new?  

The list of questions might go on and on once you start thinking about your app, and this process might discourage you. One of many roles development companies have is to help potential clients or partners shape the idea into a functional concept through the initiation phase. MNDA (Mutual non-disclosure agreement) is signed first to allow you to fully discuss the confidentiality of the project without fear that the other party will wrongfully use or disclose confidential/proprietary information. 

List of features to think of while making an application

Can your client see the list of products/services, can they select/choose, check the specifics, buy? Can they reach out to you if needed? 

This looks easy but many, in attempts to cover all the possible options, make the app too complicated and not user-friendly. 

Some of the things you can do yourself are:

• Check out the apps you use on a daily basis. Why have you chosen them, and not the others? It’s because their UI/UX is excellent. So, start making a list of things you like about the other apps. What you can also do is make a list of the things you do not want your app to do. For example, what frustrates you, as the end user, on other apps? 
• If feeling helpless, check out the competition and note down what you like about their apps. Think of the things you’d like to do differently. If you’re not the digital type – consult the relatives and friends. Chances are there’s this one gadget-crazy friend or a niece who’ll be able to tell you all about the UX and UI they favor. 
• Think like a client. Do you want to click 3 or 12 times to put the product into the basket? Is the app primarily built for the existing or for the new clients/customers? Do you really need that much text? 

If you prefer more specialized help, a development team can do all this for you during the discovery phase. Everything you consider app-worthy: the looks, functionalities, the whole technical project plan can be developed by a team under your supervision. This investment pays off in the long run because it helps you decide what would be the best, cost-effective solution for your MVP. The best part about the discovery phase is that the technical project plan developed during the discovery phase is yours and protected by the MNDA.   

The cost of building an application

How much will it cost? This is the key question and you’ll need a software developing company, like us, for this. First, list the things you came up with while thinking about how to build an application (answering the qs above). Then, note down the way you want it to look (refer to an app you like or the one you do not like for specific reasons). After that, the team will be able to estimate the cost of building an application, and the time it will take. 

If you collaborated with a development team on making your app idea tangible, the quote for the project comes at the end of the discovery phase. In most cases, like at Bridgewater Labs, the cost of the discovery phase is deducted from the project development cost.  

So, have in mind that the optimal solution is to build the MVP (the basic stuff needed). After that, you will test the app and the market, work out the feedback you’re getting, and then build the application further in a profitable way. An experienced team of developers can help you not only develop the app in profitable phases but scale your business, too.  

Jelena U. Bogunovic