We’ll Help You Build an Effective, User-Focused Mobile App
Our experienced, strategic native and cross-platform mobile app developers and designers can help you truly connect with users, build an effective mobile app strategy and turn your idea for a mobile app into a successful tool for your business.
We help organizations strategically solve complex problems with elegant, straightforward mobile app and architecture solutions.
Some of the benefits of working with OST include:
- Faster time to market
- Iterative, rapid prototyping
- Rigorous testing and validation
- Fully cross-functional team of designers, developers, architects, project managers and other experts
At OST, we have the cross-functional capabilities to complete every aspect of your mobile app design and development project, from proof-of-concept strategy and research all the way through ongoing mobile app support services.
If you’re ready to get started, our team of mobile app design and development experts is ready to help you move forward. Complete the simple form on this page and we’ll get back to you right away!
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Explore OST’s Mobile App Development and Design Services
Our goal with every project is to build your app for today’s devices and prepare you for the future.
Mobile operating systems; device shapes, sizes, features and hardware; and other technology in the mobile device ecosystem change all the time. If your app isn’t built to adapt to these changes, you’ll experience crashes and bugs, you’ll end up with an important button right where a new camera is added, and users will abandon your app—or find a better alternative.
OST helps you avoid the pitfalls that lead to building a broken mobile app, and we can help you keep your app up to date. How? We take a conscientious approach to app design and development based on decades of experience. That starts with understanding why you need a mobile app.
Mobile app development takes place in a wide variety of contexts. Some apps are meant to generate revenue via ads, in-app purchases or other ecommerce functionality. Others are designed to strengthen consumer relationships with brands by providing an enhanced user experience, often in tandem with a connected product or service. Still other apps are for internal use only and are focused on delivering specific business functionality and value.
Every app requires a conscientious approach that factors in your business goals, user preferences and your organization’s digital capabilities. But most apps will follow some form of the process outlined below.
Step 1: Strategic Planning and Validation for Your Mobile App Idea
No matter why you’re considering a new mobile app, you’ll need to make your most important decisions before a line of code ever gets written. A lot of people have ideas for apps. But very few of those ideas can deliver on the core promises of mobile app technology:
- Delivering true value to end users in a way that resonates with them.
- Meaningfully pushing business goals forward.
- Generating actionable business insights that drive innovation.
Does your idea solve a problem that end users are currently facing? And does it solve that problem in a way that users will actually engage with?
The only way to truly answer these questions is through user research and testing. At OST, we have a strategic team of experienced designers, developers and other consultants who can help you identify the characteristics and needs of your target audience, define the marketplace, evaluate competitors, ideate the core user experience, develop feature roadmaps, create user journeys and much more.
This early work and the resulting data inform business, design and development decisions throughout the mobile app creation process. Most of those decisions drive forward momentum in a project, but some decisions will need to be made along the way that involve tradeoffs. With the right data and a clear path forward established in the strategic planning phase, your mobile app project stands a much better chance of success.
A lot of organizations jump right into design and development, make educated guesses at crucial moments and end up failing. OST is ready to help you set off on the right direction at the outset of your project—or help you pick up the pieces and find a way forward after a setback.
Step 2: App Design Themes and Information Architecture
With a deep understanding of the app’s end users and your business goals, the next step in the mobile app design process is to choose a broad theme for your application. Is it meant to deliver data in a visual way? Should it help users navigate content? Is it going to control a device? Will it be an online shopping experience? Is it trying to accomplish a combination of things?
A variety of different themes could apply in your particular case, but the broad design theme can dictate the type of information architecture that makes the most sense for your app. Or you may be in the exact opposite position: the data and architecture you already have will determine what theme(s) make the most sense for mobile app users.
With an overall theme in mind, wireframes can be created to build a baseline understanding of the desired look and feel for the app that aligns with your brand and the user experience.
All these factors will inform your decision about the mobile development framework you utilize. At OST, we have a strong base of development experience with indigenous iOS and Android apps as well as Xamarin apps, but we also have capabilities with React Native, Flutter and other popular frameworks. The unique needs of your end users and business goals for the app will influence which framework makes the most sense.
Step 3: Mobile App Feature Design and Development
Next, OST takes a unique, iterative approach to mobile application design and development that keeps project success at the forefront of everyone’s work. We utilize the Scaled Agile Framework for enterprises (SAFe) to rapidly iterate, prototype and demo mobile app features with our clients. Using this Agile approach maximizes transparency and accountability, ensures ongoing alignment and keeps lines of communication open for dialogue throughout the app design and development process.
Step 4: Ongoing Mobile Application Support and Management
Launching an app is an incredible milestone worth celebrating, but many companies are unprepared for the long-term commitment and change management necessary to effectively support an engaging, secure mobile app. Through the app creation process, your business won’t suddenly become a technology company—but you will suddenly add a digital software product to your portfolio.
Feature updates, bug fixes, security patches, new functionality, addressing user feedback and a host of other responsibilities arise after your mobile app product is launched. If your team isn’t ready to fully support your app after launch, it will likely end up among the roughly 25% of apps that are used only once, or the 99% of apps that ultimately fail.
At OST, we test your app with beta builds and beta simulators of unreleased operating systems and hardware to make sure your app is ready to go as soon as new phones, new operating systems and other new technology hits the market.
Not Sure Where to Get Started With Your Mobile App?
OST’s Mobile Team Can Build for Your Preferred App Platform
Our diverse team of mobile-focused consultants has experience building for both iOS and Android. We have expertise in languages like Objective-C and Swift on iOS and Java and Kotlin for Android. And a large portion of OST’s mobile app portfolio has been built utilizing cross-platform solutions. Using tools like Xamarin, React Native, and Flutter, we can accelerate the development of your app and deliver Android and iOS solutions simultaneously.
With an understanding of your project’s unique requirements, the range of successes (and failures) we’ve seen with different frameworks, portability and a number of other factors, we can help you find the best fit for your organization’s needs. Alternatively, we can plug directly into your in-house team. Do you prefer React Native? Are you a Microsoft shop who prefers working in Xamarin?
The diversity and depth of OST’s mobile team gives you choice.
Specialized Expertise in IoT and Connected Products
OST has a unique specialty in the connected products space. Building system architecture that spans from the cloud to your connected product to your mobile device is something that can’t be perfected without experience. In working with clients like Bissell, Amway, Meijer, Traeger, and others, we have the expertise to help your business accelerate connected product design, development, implementation and management.
There are several key pillars to supporting a connected product. Mobile devices and applications are among those pillars because the most common method of control for smart products is a mobile device. With broad experience managing projects of this scope and scale, OST deftly coordinates between engineering, cloud and mobile teams within the Scaled Agile
Framework for enterprises (SAFe). Our architects and experienced consultants ensures you’ll be able to get any help you need with OST.
The Importance of Security in Mobile Application Development
Mobile devices create deeply personal experiences. This means security and privacy are critical aspects of mobile app design and development. At OST, we start making security choices from the beginning of the app development process.
We often begin designing for high-level requirements. GDPR, HIPAA, industry-related standards and other consumer protections all play an important role in how your data is structured. Encryption-at-rest and over the wire, securely storing personally identifiable information and secure API endpoints are all part of our foundational playbook to keep your users’ information safe.
Additionally, OST helps our clients understand the need for ongoing bug fixes, security updates and other app management after launch. Many companies make the mistake of thinking their responsibilities for user security and privacy end once their mobile app is finished. Without ongoing support, your app could open users up to a wide variety of security vulnerabilities.
We’re ready to help you improve the security of your mobile application across the entire mobile app product lifecycle, from developing your initial idea to providing ongoing application managed services.
Our Comprehensive Mobile App Design Services Help You Succeed
OSTs detailed mobile development playbooks are built from decades of mobile device experience. We have proven solutions for the most nuanced details of mobile development. Below are just ten examples of our unique capabilities:
- App store implementation, optimization and maintenance
- Internationalization and support for multiple languages and cultures, including security measures required by other countries
- A wide variety of communication protocols like Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ad-hoc Wi-Fi connections and more
- Integrating and interfacing with cloud platforms like Azure and AWS
- Communicating with IoT durables and microcontrollers
- Accessibility Design
- Human-centered design and focus groups
- Biometric authentication including touch and face recognition
- Social media authentication and integrations
- Ecommerce integrations
No matter what you are trying to create, OST has the skills and capabilities to build it—and help you avoid wasting time and resources on an app that fails.
Think Beyond Mobile Apps to Connect With Users
Mobile devices are everywhere, and they’re not limited to phones. Your users are carrying and using powerful tools for you to communicate with them at any time and place. OST can help you strengthen your connection with users by integrating features like:
- Personalization
- Push notifications
- Location awareness
- Touchless payment
- Mobile ordering for pick-up at your location
Similarly, we can optimize digital experiences across mobile devices such as tablets, mobile workstations, netbooks, mini laptops, phablets and a variety of other mobile devices.
Go Beyond Mobile App Development With OST
Experience is the center of today’s digital universe. Smartphones, mobile apps and always-on connectivity have revolutionized consumer experiences. That shift has raised the bar for mobile apps and mobile experiences at home and in the workplace. To stay relevant and compete, your team needs to reorient your business practices to meet these new needs and expectations for users. That requires a deep understanding of end users and alignment across teams to deliver a meaningful experience.
To accelerate business growth, it’s not enough to simply have an app. You need to think bigger and connect with end users in meaningful ways by creating meaningful experiences.
At OST, we are uniquely qualified to help you stand out and excel in this new, experience-driven digital landscape. And that goes beyond user research and testing, designing an app and offering ongoing app support. It can involve helping you rethink your business strategy, use
data to gain actionable insights about your users, free up your internal team to focus on innovation, and much more.
Learn more about our full suite of digital consulting services.
Schedule a Meeting With an Expert at OST!
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No matter where your team is in the mobile app design and development process, OST is ready to help you move forward with confidence. Struggling to get your project off the ground? We can help. Encountering unexpected challenges in the development process? We can help. Trying to salvage an outdated, broken application? We’re here for you. Frustrated with your current vendor? We’re happy to give you a second opinion—or pick up the pieces wherever they left off.