7 minute read
A well-designed app or website can transform your company with the power to create a dynamic, engaging user experience while solidifying your brand’s image. However, conceptualizing a digital product and bringing it to life takes time. Just think of all the phases you must move through from start to finish: in-depth research and the planning process, the developing and designing your product, thorough testing for any errors or bugs, creation of a marketing strategy, and, at last, the launch of the final product.
When your company has a vision for an app or website, it’s natural to want the end product as soon as possible, but rushing the development process can cause significant issues and cheapen the result of your investment. Instead, managing flexible development timelines empowers the overall quality of your site or app — plus, allows your marketing team time to implement campaigns that will increase user visibility once the app or website is launched.
In web design, there’s no such thing as a “standard” timeline. The time it takes to build your app or website depends on the design and complexity of the product, along with the size of your development team. Even if outsourcing your project to a team of experienced developers and designers, you will need to work with them closely to establish a realistic and adaptable timeline.
Ultimately, speed of development must always take a backseat to quality. To drive this message home, let’s discuss the potential drawbacks of working on a strict timeline and why to prioritize a high-caliber finish for the best product possible.
The Pitfalls of Rushing Web and App Development
Creating a website or app is an intricate process, and a short timeline can drastically decrease the success and functionality of your end result. A rushed job can lead to glossing over essential features, missing copious bugs, and a strained development team. Before enacting a strict timeline, be aware that you may run into the following roadblocks.
It Sacrifices or Undermines Essential Features
An unrealistic timeline can drastically decrease the quality of your mobile application by undermining all those cool features you’d brainstormed and hoped to implement. When faced with strict deadlines, developers may not have time to fully build out certain features, leading to half-baked ideas that fail to enhance customer satisfaction. What’s worse, core features may have to be sacrificed along the way to meet the launch date, creating a final product that’s less comprehensive and useful for users.
It Jeopardizes Quality and Collaboration
When there are 1.92 billion websites and 4.83 million mobile applications, only the most high-quality digital products will stand out amongst the fierce competition. As such, the timeline for your app or website should allow developers the time necessary to collaborate on exciting ideas to create a well-performing product that is dynamic.
If the job is rushed, developers working on a tight deadline have less time to research and innovate for your target audience. As a result, the team may have to compromise by creating an app that mimics competitors rather than developing a superior product with features and details that add new, exciting value to the customer experience.
It Smothers Creativity in the Design Phase
When developers are in a rush, they may be forced to breeze through the design phase of development. However, this is a crucial phase because it determines how the final product will appear to users. A visually stunning design is the beginning of a stellar user experience, so it is in your best interest to thoughtfully design the website or application before continuing the development process. A flexible timeline will allow designers to think creatively and deliver an app or website that delights users from their very first impression.
It Requires More Developers for the Same Quality
Building a digital product within a limited timeframe will require more developers to hit your baseline of quality of functionality, which increases the cost of development. If you’re more concerned about time than money, this may seem like a great idea, but you’ve heard about “too many cooks in the kitchen.” Similarly, adding more developers can unnecessarily increase the complexity of the code.
It Leaves Less Time for Testing
You can’t successfully launch a website or mobile app without thorough testing. Quality assurance is a crucial component of development that allows your team to create products that actually work. Trying to enforce a rigid timeline can cause significant issues during the testing process if developers don’t have time to do their due diligence. So when you’re creating a strategy to develop a mobile app or website, ensure that you make time for quality assurance, beta testing, and other tests to ensure that everything is running smoothly and ready for launch.
How to Plan a More Flexible Timeline
Each stage of the development process requires a certain amount of time to achieve optimal results. A realistic and adaptable timeline ensures that your company will release a high-functioning website or app that users find engaging. So keep the following stages in mind when you’re creating a plan to develop and launch your app or website.
Research
Whether you’re developing a mobile application or a website, the first requirement is knowledge of users, competitors, and the market you want to compete in. As such, idea formation and research have a significant impact on your project’s timeline. During this stage of development, your team will identify the target audience and determine how to create engaging content for them, allowing you to boost traffic once the website or app is launched. Generally, the research process takes several weeks. Once you complete this stage, your team should understand the project goals and parameters and be ready to move forward.
Planning
After a few weeks of in-depth research, your team of experienced designers and developers will begin conceptualizing the project. If you’re developing an app, you will need to decide whether the app will be for iOS or Android, amongst other important decisions. You will also need to determine which features will enhance your website or app without hindering its main functionality. The planning stage typically takes at least a month.
Design and Development
Now, it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty part — designing and developing your digital product. At this stage, designers will create wireframes and begin to work on specific elements of the product, such as font choices, brand colors, and the visual layout. Once the design is established, developers will use it to create an app or website that users can interact with. Design and development can take anywhere from 4 weeks or more, depending on the complexity of your project.
Testing and Optimizing
Before launching your app or website, your team will need to perform test runs. Even the most thoroughly planned mobile apps and websites have bugs that your team needs to fix before the final launch. If you’re launching a website, testing will include checking browser compatibility, ensuring the content is optimized for SEO, verifying navigation, and checking for mobile responsiveness. Testing for a mobile app is a little more complicated. Essentially, your team will develop beta tester personas to navigate through the app and discover any problems. The process of testing and smoothing out any kinks will likely continue for at least a month.
Launching Your Product
In a minimum of 4 months, you will have a digital product that is suitable to launch. Now you’re ready to announce your website or app, team up with influencers to promote your product, and create demo videos that explain how your product works. It is also wise to create a press kit so that your website or app can begin to garner press coverage. Most teams allow 60 days for the pre-launch process and 30 days for major pushing. This will create excitement and build your brand’s sphere of influence so that you can have the most successful launch possible.
Let Us Help You Create a High-Quality Digital Product
Given the steep time and financial investment that comes with creating an app or website, it’s in your best interest to work with developers and designers that know the ins and outs of the industry. At CodigoDelSur, our experts will work with you to establish a realistic timeline that meets your expectations while still fostering a top-tier end result that will help your website or app stay a step ahead of the competition.
Since 2007, CodigoDelSur has helped nearly 200 US-based startups design and develop a wide range of mobile apps and websites. Our team of web developers leverages their technical expertise and knowledge of usability, engagement, and growth hacking to scale your business exponentially.
Ready for a website or app that is synonymous with quality? Contact our team today and find out how we can revolutionize your brand’s digital experience!
