A Beginner’s Guide to iPhone Application Development

By William Spencer

Mobile technology has taken great strides forward in the last few decades. It has not only changed the way people live their lives, but it has also revolutionized the way companies conduct business. It has become essential for companies today to develop apps for their business in order to widen the reach for their products and services and to engage better with their customers.

In an effort to accomplish this, businesses often come up with an idea that they are unable to carry out themselves due to the lack of in-house expertise. In scenarios like this, they hire mobile app development companies to develop the app for them.

While there are several development companies and even freelancers to choose from, it is necessary to do a little background research. This would include investigating the company’s experience and exposure, their technical abilities and knowledge and what they are willing to offer in terms of support, guidance and post-deployment assistance. While it can be a rather costly investment, hiring an agency or freelancer can offer you a certain amount of security and support during the development process.

Developing an iOS app is not as difficult as you might imagine. Firstly, it’s important to make sure you have a strong idea in place that defines the purpose of your app in the market. Once you’ve defined your business objectives, it’s time to get started on the app development process itself.

The iOS has an Integrated Development Environment, known as XCode, which grants developers access to a wide set of tools that are specifically designed for app development. In order to make use of this IDE, you will need to familiarize yourself with the object-oriented programming language known as Objective-C. This language is used across all of Apple’s devices. Once you are well acquainted with the rules, guidelines, and restrictions that Apple puts in place for iPhone app development, you will be able to better design an app within the framework provided.

When typically designing for an iPhone app, the first stage is to plan and sketch. You need to chart out what the app is going to do and the role it will play by asking certain questions like what features should it have? Or why would people download this app? Rightly assessing the emphasis required at this stage of the development process could save you a lot of confusion later.

Design plays an important role in the making or breaking of the app. How the app interacts with its users and the experience it creates are both crucial to its success. Apps that are designed without giving due consideration to User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) fail to attract users. iOS places its navigation at the bottom of the screen and uses a more traditional black and white design. It carries a number of UI elements like, a status bar, a navigation bar, a toolbar and a tab bar which ultimately affect the User Experience.

Apple tends to prefer a more grayscale palette as opposed to some of its competitors. That being said, when iOS apps to make use of color, they tend to be bold and rich, bringing the screen to life. A visually attractive user interface acts as the identity of the app and creates a lasting first impression. Apart from being attractive, the design should be simple as simplicity in the design elements make for a smoother user experience. The ideal balance between UI and UX design attracts traffic and provides users with an engaging experience. The best designs consider and value the time of users and focus on providing an interaction that is pleasurable and navigation that is easy to use. In this regard, Apple puts forward a few well-explained guidelines to enrich your UI/UX design. For example, Apple recommends an optimal touch area of a square with sides of 44 pixels.

Whether you are looking to build your own app or to have an iPhone application development company carry out your project idea, it is important to remember that the vision and purpose of the project are what will carry it forward. Once you have clearly defined this, you could either choose an agency with the right background and technical expertise to help you or you could get started with making an app in-house.