Essential steps to create a mobile application that your users will like

In 2025, French people have spent an average of 3.5 hours a day on their smartphones. 91% of the French population owns a smartphone. The mobile phone has become an essential item in our daily lives. Few people can claim not to use their phone for an entire day.

In 2023 alone, 170 billion dollars were invested in mobile applications, and 258 billion apps were downloaded.

In 2025, users’ behavior towards mobile applications includes:

• A massive adoption of wellness-focused apps: sleep tracking, fitness, meditation…
  
• Strong interest in security and data privacy.
  
• A desire for immersive and interactive mobile gaming experiences.
  
• Enthusiasm for eco-friendly applications.
  

Faced with such a dynamic market, how can you stand out if you want visibility with your mobile application? How can you act wisely and efficiently to avoid getting lost in the sea of existing apps? The key is the design of your mobile application. This article will guide you step by step to help you build a mobile app that’s truly useful for your target audience.

Investing in mobile app development is a strategic move for any business. Five pillars must be solidly defined on paper before jumping into the technical development phase. If you’re considering building an offshore mobile application, we can assist you.

Launching a mobile development project requires coordinating various skills:

• Describe the app’s key features and their usefulness for the end user.
  
• Consider budget constraints and timeline goals.
  
• Choose the type of app based on strategic functions: native, cross-platform, or hybrid.
  
• Determine the most suitable technology for the described use cases.
  
• Finally, take into account the constraints imposed by app stores.
  

Step 1: What problem will your mobile app solve?

Before anything else, write a specification document defining your app’s functional scope.

Adopt a clear, direct style to describe the value proposition your app offers compared to existing solutions on the market.

Define main features, for example:

• Appointment booking
  
• Internal messaging
  
• Push notifications
  

Provide detailed use cases, for example:

• The user books an appointment through the app.
  
• The user receives an SMS confirmation.
  
• The admin sends email notifications to users who signed up a week ago.
  

The objective is to highlight the frustrations and needs your app will address.

Step 2: How to Choose the Right Technologies for Developing Your Mobile Application

Choosing the platform for your app , iOS, Android, or both, is a strategic decision. Equally important is selecting the appropriate development technology: native, hybrid, or progressive web app (PWA). These decisions will impact:

• the budget to allocate,
  
• delivery timelines,
  
• application performance,
  
• user experience,
  
• and the image your application projects.
  

The choice of technology for your mobile application will be closely aligned with your primary objective.

Striving for Excellence? Choose Native Development

If you want your mobile application to deliver a high-quality, ergonomic, intuitive, and seamless user experience , where excellence is the priority, native development is the preferred approach.

Seeking the Best Compromise? Opt for Cross-Platform

If your goal is to balance a reasonable time-to-market, controlled budget, and a satisfactory user experience compared to competitors, then a cross-platform framework is the ideal choice.

Step 3: Do user research before starting UX/UI and development

Why study personas before UX/UI and development?

Don’t put the cart before the horse. Starting app development without first studying your target users is a huge mistake. Studying personas is a strategic investment essential to the success of your project.

Benefit No.1: Tailor the app to real user needs

Without understanding how your users operate, you risk creating an app that’s out of touch with market expectations.

Benefit No.2 : Avoid unnecessary costs

When you understand and identify your users’ expectations from the outset, you’re less likely to go down the wrong path and therefore have to start over. This limits costly mistakes in terms of development and design. Fixing a design error during or after development is always more expensive than investing in the right solution from the start.

Benefit No.3: Create an engaging user experience

Conduct both qualitative and quantitative research to understand how your users interact with apps, what they expect, their habits, and frustrations.

Knowing what frustrates your audience will help you in creating a lead generation plan that directly addresses those issues through high-value content. You will offer solutions to their problems through all kinds of high value-added content for the user, thus creating content that will support your brand and make it stand out even more.

With all this data in hand, designing an intuitive UX and an effective user journey becomes much easier.

Benefit No.4: Ensure the success of your app

An app designed with the user in mind from the beginning has 1,000 times more chances of success than one that “hopes” to appeal to its audience without prior engagement.

You significantly increase the odds of adoption, recommendation, and brand visibility among your target audience.

Developing a successful mobile application extends beyond a strong concept and appealing design. It requires a well-defined strategy, a structured methodology, and, above all, a deep understanding of your users. Investing the necessary time upfront to establish these solid foundations is critical to minimizing risks and avoiding costly setbacks in later stages.

Want to build your app offshore with Bocasay? It’s absolutely possible. Contact us to discuss your project and discover our services.