How many times has it happened that you have thought of a great app idea but couldn’t gather resolution to actually develop it just because you know nothing about coding? This has been a common experience for many of us who often find cool app ideas and want to make a significant business venture out of it. But unlike what it was years ago, now actually we can app developers without a coding background or any technical knowledge. Let’s find out how you can build your app with a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach and without learning how to code.
First, Get Down to The App Idea and Target Audience
It would help if you started from the app idea itself. You think the app idea is great, but without evaluating it and reviewing it as per different parameters, your judgment amounts to nothing. Let’s make it clear that every app comes as a solution to one or multiple user problems, and unless it offers a solution, and the idea amounts to no real value. So start by asking the following questions about your app idea before proceeding to the next step.
- Does the idea solve any user problem?
- How unique is the app idea in solving user problems?
- How many apps are already there, addressing the same user needs or problems?
- If already several apps are offering similar value proposition, how can your app idea stand apart
from the rest? - What are the important features most valued by the users of this niche?
- What additional features can you provide to make your app more useful for user needs?
- What are the key pain points or shortcomings of most of the competitor apps?
- Based on the app idea and the users who need such a solution, determine the ideal target audience
in terms of demographics and digital habits. - To get a more specific idea about your audience, you can use market research data, carry out
surveys on social media and study user groups, and the audiences of competitor apps. - You can also use Google Analytics to create the ideal user persona representing your app
audience.
Once you have these areas determined, you can reach out to your target audience and ask for feedback
and opinions. Engage with your near and dear ones and social media audience and ask what features and
user experience attribute vital for such apps.
Get Down to Budget and Requirements
Now that the app idea is fixed and evaluated and you have come to know about the audience, it is time to get down to the app budget and the requirements for building the app, as for getting a clear idea about the app development budget you need to decide about the kind of app you are going to build.
The budget will be lesser for web apps and hybrid apps, while the native development budget will be more. For the DIY approach of development, it is better to opt for hybrid app development with native functionalities and user experience. On top of that, the app features and functionalities will play a crucial role in enhancing the app development cost. Lastly, to keep the budget lower, it is advisable to embrace the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach of development that allows incrementally adding more features and value over time-based on feedback while keeping the initial cost of development low.
Put Your Idea into Sketches
Yes, the time is still not ripe for turning on your computer and starting building the app. You need to design the app, and for that, you need to give your app idea a visual shape. Just make sketches of the various app screens as per your app idea. When sketching your app idea, make sure that you take care of everything, including easy navigation, a simple layout, thumb-friendly scrolling, and easy access to important buttons and links.
Wireframing and Storyboarding
Once the basic app sketches are ready, and you have a gross and basic idea about how the app is going to look and feel, it is time to make the app design wireframes. The wireframes will further give your design sketches a kind of professional flair and a comprehensive idea about how the app s going to look.
Fortunately, you have an array of sophisticated wireframing tools at your disposal, and you can create wireframes using these tools.
At the very next step, you need to start storyboarding the design. Through storyboards, you visually depict various user journeys after tapping on different navigation and CTA buttons. By creating storyboards for different screens and user journeys, you finally have a total and comprehensive idea about the user experience you want to create for your app. To make things easier, you have a whole range of most efficient wireframing and storyboarding.
Use Some DIY App Builders
You are at last ready to build the actual app. Since you don’t have any coding knowledge and technical expertise, it would be wise to use some DIY app-building tools that help you with ready to use components for the entire development process.
Presently in the market, you have quite a variety of high-quality app builder tools for diverse app projects. Thanks to these developer tools, you can also bring down the cost of development while maintaining optimum productivity. The best part is there are several tools to convert your existing website into a mobile app with several native features.
Test your App Product
Finally, your app is ready, and this is the time for testing the app using some testing tools. Remember, no app product can be completely free of coding errors and bugs, and especially in case of development projects with the DIY approach, such mistakes are likely to be more in number. Hence, your app needs to undergo more rigorous testing.
Conclusion
Remember, app development is far from just a one-time project. After building your app, you need to constantly evaluate its shortcomings and areas that need betterment and value additions. You need to fine-tune the app user experience with every subsequent update constantly.
Author Bio
Jamie Waltz is a senior mobile app developer at Square Root Solution – Software development company offers Mobile app development in Ireland. Within Short span of time Squareroot have developed 100+ mobile app for different kinds of businesses including small, medium and large. As having a technical background Jamie likes to write, read & research about new technologies.