Why doesn’t every mobile app succeed and some of them have to even shut down? Why do Uber’s mobile apps don’t collapse even with heavy user traffic while similar apps do? Want to know the secret behind successful app development to its eternal maintenance?
It’s architecture for mobile applications!
Now, you may ask,
What is Mobile Application Architecture?
App architecture is a magical diagram that navigates and steers mobile app development to produce a well-structured product. Typically, it combines technologies and patterns based on the market industry and standards according to mobile device procedures.
A precise architecture ensures every app component contains multiple responsibility layers. This way, it accelerates the app development and simplifies future app maintenance, positively affecting your time & budget. Now, if you may wonder…
Which are these primary layers of Mobile App Architecture Design?
The traditional 3-tier app development architecture modularizes user interface, business logic, and data storage layers. It grants the development team the flexibility to update or modify any specific part of the application independently.
Presentation layer – comprises every technical detail connected with the UI components to create a format that forbids invalid data input.
Business Logic layer – is formed out of business components, entities, and workflows to present the core business services to its end users. In layman’s language, it determines the rules for the app functions as per its functional specifications.
Data layer – is for offering secure and efficient data transactions. Programmers must develop a mobile app considering data maintenance and flexibility of the data layer concerning future business requirements. The layer covers data access components, utilities, and data service agents.
It’s time to acquaint yourself with the factors you need to analyze prior to designing mobile app architecture for iOS and Android.
What to consider to develop Mobile App Architecture?
DETERMINING THE DEVICE TYPES
Mobile devices come in a wide range of variety that should be kept in mind while designing your app architecture. Smartphone functionalities differ dramatically based on their operating systems—for example, Android and iOS. Besides, there are various device types of each OS, such as smartphones, tablets, iPad. The practice is a must as some app features required specific hardware and software solutions.
Therefore, you must consider the below factors while determining device types in building app architecture;
- Screen resolution
- Size of screen
- CPU characteristics
- Memory
- Availability of development framework
- Storage space
CONSIDERING BANDWIDTH SCENARIOS
The foremost prominent thing to consider is the compatibility of your app with different types of internet connections. Sometimes it may happen that a user faces zero or limited internet connectivity. The fluctuation of internet speed around your targeted audience region can negatively impact the user experience.
Hence, you should pay attention to your targeted regions’ network services or bandwidth scenarios as network services diversify worldwide. Some countries are still running on 3G, while others already have 5G network service available.
On top of that, consider power consumption and speed at the time of choosing software protocols and hardware for your app. To adjust to a slow and irregular internet connection, you can also emphasize cache mechanism, data access mechanism, and state management design.
DEFINING USER INTERFACE
Your app should be solving targeted users’ problems and not making it more chaotic. Users will come to your app expecting a solution to the problem they face, and your app claims to solve it. So, let them get started with your app quickly and interact uninterruptedly with the intuitive app user interface. Always endeavor to meet your target audience’s demands and preferences.
PICKING THE RIGHT NAVIGATION METHOD
You get multiple options to choose the right navigation method for your mobile application. A fixed bar or intuitive gesture-based navigation, the selection should be based on the needs and priorities of customers. The app navigation method significantly influences the user experience.
Below is the list of some navigation methods to consider:
- Stacked navigation bar
- Tab controller
- Modal controller
- Single view
- Gesture-based navigation
- Scroll views
- Search driven navigation
A quick sight on the steps to come up with the best app architecture
Step #1: Audience analysis
Creating buyer personas or customer surveys related to the products/services that your project is going to offer, allows you to unlock insights about your end users’ behavior. The insights will be very useful to draft or choose the right app architecture.
Step #2: Discover the experience that your end users expect
In order to capture users’ attention, you need to know what type of experience they expect from your upcoming project. Also, leverage the utmost capabilities of mobile devices to offer a personalized user experience.
Step #3: Define the key functional requirements of the project
If your app is going to accomplish a task for a user, it should have an intuitive interface. Mapping the user journey to complete an action is a better way to define the app architecture’s key functional requirements.
Step #4: Platform/s selection according to audience majority
Audience analysis also presents the details of mobile devices and operating systems, a particular type of audience prefers. You can use such information and select the most beneficial platform to develop your application for (Android, iOS, Web).
Step #5: Isolate offline app functionality from the total requirements
Offline functionality requires platform-dependency that can be easily achieved in Native app development. If you don’t want to be bothered by an expensive Native app development, you can classify a few basic offline features that can be accomplished within your development approach.
Step #6: Development time frame
It is necessary to evaluate the time frame to launch your project before starting the development. If you need to roll out your app in a short time, you can focus on a native app later to deliver an optimized user experience.
Step #7: Outline the required skill set of the app development team (e.g., experienced in Native or/and Cross-platform app development)
You should Hire Mobile App Developers depending on the required skill set for the project. Also, consider the time and cost you have to spend after recruiting and maintaining the developers.
Step #8: Maintenance Cost
The cost to maintain the native or hybrid mobile app also depends on the selected app architecture development.
We have mentioned some of the best practices to build the right architecture tailored to your project requirements. Creating and following the app architecture simplifies to write readable code, test source code, and maintain the application.
For queries related to app architecture, you can Contact us to have a practical consultation.
