Mobile app development is an increasingly popular phenomenon, especially due to the increased usage of smartphones. This technological phenomenon has revolutionized businesses around the world. Since the inception of this technological revolution, the mobile application development industry has grown in leaps and bounds. But what are the most common mobile app development challenges? What are their solutions?
Essentially, mobile application development refers to the processes and procedures of developing software that operates on handheld digital devices. Mobile app development entails writing software and requires tools and digital certificates such as the code signing certificate for software code integrity and authentication. It is an integral part of small, medium, and large businesses in today’s world.
Indeed, the cutting-edge technologies we see in mobile applications have played a critical role in upgrading the functionalities of almost every sector. Mobile applications influence people through entertainment and by helping them experience the world in different ways. App developers deserve to be applauded for delivering amazing applications.
Challenges of Mobile App Development and Solutions
But creating a perfectly functioning mobile application is not a walk in the park. It is an intricate endeavor in its entirety. App developers often face multiple obstacles across the entire creation journey.
Before starting the journey of developing your mobile application for your business, you need to be well-versed with some of the potential challenges and their solutions.
The following are the four main challenges of mobile app development and how to overcome them.
Challenge #1: Platform Compatibility
Platform compatibility is one of the most vital factors determining a mobile application’s success or failure. Today, the consumer base is filled with various devices with varying features and functionalities. In addition, these devices use different operating systems, require different software, and come in different screen sizes. As a result, most developers find it difficult to build a versatile mobile application that perfectly fits all these devices.
Building an application that can run on multiple applications is a big order, especially because every operating system has its UI patterns and objectives. Even Windows, iOS, and android, which are essentially the three main operating systems, are so different to the point that creating an application that flawlessly runs on all of them can be so difficult. Moreover, different devices have different screen sizes. Therefore, creating an application that fits all the screen sizes can also pose a great challenge.
Solution
Responsive design is crucial in application development because it results in applications that self-adjust to fit different device screen sizes.
Again, always remember to choose the right platform. Doing so guarantees more than half of the app’s success. You must understand which operating system your users use the most. Android has for long been the predominant OS followed by iOS.
Although deploying the application in independent packages might seem an excellent idea, the whole process of writing codes separately for each platform might be so cumbersome and unbearable. To avoid all the hassles of separately writing the code and deploying the application as independent packages for different operating systems, it is to recommend leveraging the Modern Cross-platform Mobile Application Development methodologies.
This process is easier for coding libraries, APIs, and snippets for applications that function on popular operating systems. It also saves you a lot of time and resources that would have been needed to develop multiple applications for multiple operating systems.
Challenge #2:Security Challenges
Developers should be vigilant to deal with all possible app security threats at the early stages of mobile developments. However, most developers have always found it daunting to deal with app security vulnerabilities. You must know that no one will be willing to deal with an application that could jeopardize their data or security. As such, developers must do all it takes to create an application that customers will find safe and secure to surf and browse through.
Some of the popular app security vulnerabilities that app developers and users are likely to encounter include weak server-side controls, data leakages, malware infections, untrusted inputs, and insecure data storage mechanisms. These threats could bring down an application within minutes and lead to more severe consequences.
Solution
App developers should ensure they integrate security frameworks during the early development stages. Frameworks that enforce robust user authentications, scan, detect and stop malware infiltrations, and enforce strong end-to-end data encryption procedures should be enacted. Most importantly, developers should employ the working of the code signing certificate.
This is an important digital certificate that developers will use to digitally sign the application, thereby giving end-users a way to validate the authenticity of the code and ensure the code has not been tampered with since it was signed. It is however highly recommend the EV code signing certificate as one of the most effective certificates you can use to sign your executables and apps that delivers highest authentication.
Challenge #3: Understanding Users’ Preferences
Building a mobile application that caters to all the needs of a cohesive app user through a perfect user experience and user interface can be challenging. UX/UI is one of the most important factors determining the success or failure of your mobile application. More problems crop up, especially because user preferences tend to be more irrational and dynamic. As the digital landscape transitions rapidly, the bar is raised for developers to be more responsible.
Today, app development is no longer about visual storytelling. Instead, users want to interact with an app flawlessly that addresses all their needs. As such, developers are faced with the huge hurdle of crafting an excellent communication medium that requires the inputs of various business departments. Non-integration of these elements can lead to defectiveness in UX/UI.
Solution
The best approach to solving the UX/UI hitches with app usage is to maintain a holistic approach. Creating an application that provides a seamless customer experience requires strong technical skills and close collaboration between the project team and the end-users.
It would help if you did thorough research to discover who your users are and their needs and expectations. Finally, you must create an application that addresses all the expectations and needs of the users. You must remember that the user is the most important reason you create the application. Everything you should seek to add value to the user and improve users’ experiences.
Challenge #4: Non-unified Mobile Development Strategy
To date, there is no unified strategy for app development. Although many developers now prefer using the Modern Cross-platform Mobile Application Development methodologies, some still prefer native applications. Similarly, some still have the feeling that the platform-specific development strategy is still the best. The hybrid/native confusion we see in the development industry creates a chaotic development industry prone to mediocre products and wastage of resources. Developers often find themselves in this dilemma when choosing the best approach to develop their applications.
Solution:
There is no versatile strategy for app development. The best solution to dealing with the chaotic environment is first to analyze the target audience and note down the UI/UX requirements. Then, devising a 360-degree vision of the end product will help you pick the most effective strategy to steer your project to great completion.
Conclusion
In this post, we gave you 4 mobile app development challenges and solutions. It takes a lot of work, resources, and energy to develop a mobile application. The good news is that should you do it right, it will be an interesting and fruitful work of art when done correctly. You need to be vigilant to avoid mistakes and find working solutions to give you the best results. Most important to remember is that you are doing it for the users, so you must research their needs and expectations to come up with a product that addresses their needs. This article has explained some of the most common challenges app developers face and their solutions.
