App design is the way of the future. With over 22 million apps on the Apple marketplace alone, there’s little doubt that the right app idea in the right hands can be incredibly lucrative. But how exactly do you take that idea from a dream to a solid concept?

That’s where we come in.

Our App Foundation service offers an exclusive, branded approach to designing elevated app concept designs. Along with a pitch deck for you to present to investors, the process is designed to take your app idea and make it a fundable, sellable concept.

We get a lot of people asking us what our design process looks like for our App Foundation service. This post is going to answer that question for you as well as give you a rundown of who we are and what we do.

Who We Are

We’re Reveal Lab and we design, code, and deploy apps. It just so happens we’re pretty good at it too.

We offer a range of services for app development from initial concept to app revival to full app immersion. We’ve made it our business to help you business succeed with app design and development and we love what we do.

Now you know who we are, let’s dive into the nitty gritty of what we do.

What is app development?

Mobile app development is the design and implementation of software that runs on mobile devices. This software is specifically optimized to take advantage of the platforms’ unique hardware and features.

The type of apps created includes native apps, hybrid apps, and HTML5 apps.

Tablets and smartphones are massively popular, making mobile app development one of the most lucrative modes of software design. Mobile applications have become a central element in many businesses and for good reason: they engage users and market products. Many a business has turned its eye toward mobile app development as users unlatch themselves from their desktops and turn ever more mobile.

Mobile app development isn’t all that different from traditional, desktop software development. What is produced, however, is a singular piece of software that uses the unique hardware and features of mobile technology. Modern mobile phones are equipped with a range of technologies including:

• Bluetooth

• GPS

• NFC

• Gyroscopic sensors

• Cameras

These features mean mobile devices can be used for everything from augmented reality to barcode scanning. Mobile apps are designed to use the full range of these features.

This isn’t to say mobile app development is easy. Just as desktop software development programmers are tasked with creating an app that can function on a specific limitation of hardware, so too are mobile app developers. The difference is in the variances of the hardware – mobile technology is a lot smaller than desktop and it introduces extra challenges in optimization as a result.

No matter the challenges, mobile app development is a fun, interesting, and incredibly lucrative field to be in. And we love it.

Our Design Process

Now you know who we are and what we do. Let’s take a look at our App Foundation design process in depth. Here are the steps.

1. Immersion

The first step on the path to a killer product is immersion or discovery asset. This is where we and the client get together and marry our thoughts and feelings surrounding the project. We get to know everything about the project, people, and product we’ll be working with. In turn, we share with the client our points of view and how we work. It’s essentially a getting-to-know-you exercise.

When we work with clients we want to forge a partnership. There’s no hiding under a rock during the creative process – we stay in touch throughout the project and collaborate as much as possible. This is made possible with the immersion phase.

During the immersion phase, we’re also documenting everything that goes on. This information is stored in what we call a “collaborative creative brief”. This might include answers to the following: What are the project’s goals?

Every project should have goals. After all, you can’t start your journey if you don’t know where you’re going.

For an app to have any chance of success, its project must have clearly defined goals and objectives. These must give a clear and detailed explanation of the “why” behind an app development project.

Well formulated goals and objectives will lay out the project schedule as well as identify what problem the project will solve. They will also identify the processes and requirements required to solve said problem.

Locking down an app development project’s goals and objectives isn’t always easy. This is why our immersion phase is so essential for ironing out the kinks in an initial app idea.

Who are the target users?

A target market is defined as a set of individuals who all share the same or similar needs or characteristics that your app hopes to serve. These people represent those users most likely to use, buy, or spend on your product.

Identifying the target market helps us develop an effective concept for an app because we’ll understand who is going to be using it. We wouldn’t develop an app that helps identify pets with an animal hater in mind, for instance.

Determining your target market starts with clearly defining the idea behind your app. What is the need it will fulfill? How will it help people? From there you’ll be able to determine how you can meet consumer needs and better understand what those consumers look like.

How will this impact our client’s business?

Getting to know our clients isn’t just good manners, it also helps us answer the question: how will this app affect their business?

We need to know the impact on our clients’ business to ensure we understand what the client is hoping to get out of the app. If an app is going to sink a business, but they want to make a million bucks, these factors very much don’t align and should be flagged as soon as possible.

Once we know how an app will impact a business, we’re able to align the goals of the project to ensure the best possible outcome for everyone.

Who are the key stakeholders?

Stakeholders are organizations or individuals who are either directly involved in a project or whose interests may be negatively or positively affected because of the execution of a project. In other words, a stakeholder is someone who has something to gain or lose from the project’s outcome.

Stakeholders might include:

Project managers
Team members
Managers
Resource managers
Executives
Senior management
Company owners
Investors
Sponsors
Financiers
Suppliers
Vendors
Consultants

Key stakeholders are those the project should identify before it gets off the ground. They’re the managers, directors, and team members who are working directly on the project.

By identifying your key stakeholders, you identify who will be working at what level on the project. This will help it run smoothly.

Mapping things out like this serves a major purpose: it keeps everything in alignment. Essentially, it keeps us all on the same page and focused on the project’s end goal.

By the end of the immersion phase, we should know who the client is, what they do, and what they want out of the project. We should know their hopes and dreams for the project and how it will foster positive change in their business. Once we have all this on paper, we’re able to start designing some concepts.

2. Concept Design

This is the moment to throw caution to the wind and start getting creative. We take to the drawing board, literally, and sketch out ideas for the app in question. The weirder the better: constraints are for losers, now’s the time to think big.

Eventually, working closely with the client, one or two concepts will rise above the pack. These are the ones we run with to explore further.

During the drawing board phase, our sketches will start to coalesce around some specific ideas. Those ideas are rooted out, given a clear objective, and cleaned up. What results are some key thumbnail designs.

At this stage, one or two of our biggest ideas will get this treatment to be presented to the client. From there these final concepts will be whittled down to one clear winner that will be taken to testing.

The concept stage is also the stage in which we perform a minor branding exercise. We develop a logo and a look and feel for our final concept to be presented to the client along with the thumbnails.

This branding exercise is essential because an app without a brand is like a fish out of water – they have no context through which to be identified.

Good branding:

1. Helps an audience identify a product

2. Gives a product credibility in the market

3. Boosts conversions or downloads

Our app concept is married to its brand. This ensures the app is marketable and memorable when it comes time to pitch the idea to investors.

3. Testing

After our lead concepts are nailed down, the party starts. This is the moment we put our ideas to the test.

We put our concept prototypes in front of real people. We let them play, bend, or even break the product. The more engaged we can make them the better. The goal is to come out of this stage with a solid understanding of how our concept will be used in the real world.

We also look at usability studies. Pushing usability studies at this stage helps us determine how our app will be received by the target market. It highlights any issues with the design or user experience and gives us valuable insight into how people will use our product.

By the end of the testing phase, we will have clear, actionable data to give the project direction.

4. Documentation and delivery

After a few sprints of adjustments with the clients and taking the test data into account, we’re able to finalize our concept design. This is where things get fun. We get to introduce Figma.

Figma is a web-based user interface design and graphics editing app. It’s used to do all sorts of graphic design work from website wireframes to prototyping designs to crafting social media posts. We use it to design mobile app interfaces.

Figma gives us the power to essentially wireframe, design, and build a prototype of our app concept. It allows for real-world interaction and gives people a solid idea of the possibilities behind specific concepts.

Using Figma, we’re able to deliver a click-through prototype with 4-8 fully polished app screens to the client.

Last but not least: Documentation.

Documentation and delivery go hand in hand. Along with our click-through prototype, we develop comprehensive documentation to not only aid our clients to use our prototype, but also to help them navigate the final concept itself.

6. Investor pitch deck creation

An investor pitch deck is essential for the financing of a project. No app is going to get off the ground without funding, and no investor is going to be swayed by an idea poorly presented.

A pitch deck is a short presentation that gives investors insight into your business. It showcases your product, shares your business model, gives a look into your monetization strategy, and introduces your team.

Despite their length—usually, 10 slides or fewer—designing an effective pitch deck that wins investments isn’t simple. This is where we come in.

Rather than leave you with a prototype and a dream, we work with our clients to develop a killer pitch deck for their app. This involves collaboration and dedication. The project itself is solid by this point, we just have to sell it effectively.

Our pitch decks bring the idea, the concept, and the prototype together to develop a persuasive argument for why an investor should act. Using tried and true marketing techniques, we’re able to design a pitch deck that attracts investors and sells your product to the most cynical of people.

Take your next app idea to the next level

Our App Foundation service is designed to help you take your ideas and make them a marketable reality. Now you know everything there is to know about our App Foundation design process.

Looking to take your own idea to concept? Get in touch today to see how we can help you.