Research provides an understanding of the users needs and a general idea of how the app is supposed to work. The main elements of a good project research are:
- Intro
- Challenges
- Statistics
- Market
- Tech Stack
- Naming
- Monetization Potential
- Content Research
- Initialisation
Intro provides a quick overview of the product followed by it's differential factor from the rest of the market.
Challenges identify the key and complex areas of the product and provides a solution for tackling them.
"Number's never lie" and that's why stats are crucial before starting a project.
Market analysis helps in identifying competition and aids in providing better services to the consumer.
It provides information about the technologies to be used. This is just an approximation and exact specifications will be specified at last, in the form of requirements.txt
Choosing a catching name for the project goes a long way in branding and improves the trust in consumers.
This gives a general overview of the monetization potential of the app, i.e. it provides details about the ways in which the produxt would make money.
Good content is the key when it comes to gaining and retaining users and researching the kind of content we want to provide initially helps in many ways.
This involves setting up the directory and domain name. This is the final step of pre-development routine that is key in building great apps.
This the process where we determine how the app looks and works. Looks are an important component when it comes to gaining and retaining users. This step invloves:
- Business Logic
- Logo Design
- Wireframing
- Web design
- Mobile design
Business Logic gives an understanding of the whole project is structured and what components must be present to provide a great user experience.
Logo is a crucial factor in branding and getting it right is an essential part of a good app.
Wireframing is the process of designing the layout of the app. It helps in determing where the UI elements go.
This is the step where the UI/UX of the website is made.
This step corresponds to the design of UI/UX for the mobile.
Backend is the part where actions hidden from the user take place. It contains the databases and APIs that make up the working of the website.
This step involves technologies such as Django, Flask and in API development it involves Django Rest Framework. It contains two very important parts:
- Database Design
- API Development
This involves determing the structure of the database and also the initialisation of it. This also involves determining the suitable database according to the requirements.
Mostly this invloves the design of SQL databases but can also involve NoSQL databases at times.
API based backends are the easiest to develop since they seperate the frontend from the backend completely and lets us test the backend independently. API development also involves testing of the API using tools such as Postman.
API defines the functional working of an app or website. Having a single codebase of APIs help in maintaining consistency between web apps and mobile apps (including the ones in different platforms).
Frontend corresponds to the part of the website which the user sees and can niteract with. It is equally important as the backend since the backends functionality depends solely on the working of the frontend.
This step involves technology such as React, Vue or Angular. It invloves:
- Development
- API Integration
This is the step where the UI/UX design of the website is made into an actual website.
This is where the frontend and backend are linked. This corresponds to using the APIs created in the backend to provide a bridge between the server and the user.
There might be cases where a mobile app can also be used to aid the concepts of it's website.
This can sometimes invlove two seperate code bases for Android and iOS, but can also be served by a single code base in the case of usage of technologies such as React-Native or Flutter.
Testing invloves fixing the bugs and making the app production ready.
This step is also an ideal place to include monetization methods such as advertisements to be displayed on the website.
This final step involves deploying the website onto a host such as Google Cloud, Hostinger, Heroku etc. depending the needs of the app.
It is also crucial that we market the app so that people would notice our product in the market.
This is my idea of how to ideally build a full stack app and if you found this useful give it a star.