MOBILE APPS Defined: Installable software that can take advantage of a device's resources such as contacts, geo-locations, the camera, and more.
If you don’t know what an app is then you must have been living under a log for the last 10+ years. At the moment, people use mobile devices way more than they use desktops. With everything moving to the cloud, apps are becoming even more and more prevalent. Since my bank came out with an app I don’t think I’ve been to a banking center in a decade.
App Design
Just in web design, apps need to be properly design for the user experience. People who use iOS apps versus those who use Android apps have expectations on where buttons should be so choosing to design “outside of the box” can really just be a decision to disregard your users. We opt to really study the box itself based on actual data and then create a killer design that meets the requirements all the while pushing the design forward.
Native Apps
Some apps are written in a native language which would be Java for Android apps and Objective-C for iOS apps. If you write in one language you can’t transfer it to the other language however writing your app in a native language is the best way to go since it uses less resources to the device and therefore runs faster and smoother. The price is usually higher for native apps since they require some very specific code but it’s definitely worth the effort to do it if you have a large app user base.
Hybrid Apps
The alternate to mobile apps is to make hybrid apps. We wrote an entire article on the difference between Native and Hybrid apps if you want a lot more information but in short a native app is more like a mobile site written in HTML/CSS and Javascript. The “mobile site” is then placed through a wrapper like PhoneGap or Ionic to turn it into an app. A wrapper can be made for iOS and you can make another one for Android. It would be the same app for both platforms however this might be the most cost effective way for you to go.
Google Play / App Store
Making your app is really the first part of it all. Getting your app through the App Store can be a nightmare if you haven’t done it before. There are a million requirements and million steps to go through. Since we have done it before we know the ropes and we also have a developer account which allows us to push apps through the App Store. Google Play also requires a developer account but it’s much quicker to release apps through it. If you want to navigate all this on your own you can but we can save you a lot of time and do it for you.
