Developing an application may seem a piece of cake for pros, but newbies need online guides to help them get from A to Z with their app development project. The most successful applications were created on multiple platforms, being downloaded million times on the Google Play Store, App Store or Windows Store and if you’re planning to build a cross-platform mobile app, you should take the following tips into consideration: Beautiful and Identical On Any Platform We can agree that each of the major operating systems is a powerhouse and there are only a few similarities between them. But when building an application that runs on either of them, it’s not always necessary to have programming skills, as there are some DIY mobile app making platforms that help beginners make their own apps. So, if an application will run on multiple platforms and will render differently across them, it will still have the same interface, menu and features. Many app developers are using Appcelerator, which allows them to use a single code base, then use existing code to perform a new function. As we’ve told you, the most used cross-platform app development tool is Appcelerator and it supports the reuse (60-90%) of developed code. 100 percent reuse would give developers very little control over their app’s UI/UX and the app will look identical across all platforms. The Importance Of Code Reusability Usually, web browsers share a high percentage of their code across Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Also, the greatest potential to share code between applications for different platforms is in their app logic and specialists recommend developers to tailor the UI for each platform, to deliver an awesome user experience. When developing cross-platform apps, it’s recommended to build the code to be abstracted (like it would be a local web service), making all of the programming logic totally independent from what will run on the screens or on the platform. Build Code That’s Abstracted By making all programming logic totally different from what will run on the screens or the platform, the programming modules will be platform-agnostic and reusable across platforms. The next step is to build the native user interfaces (they will consume local web services) and make sure that the code is decoupled from the logic. Experts have assured that it doesn’t matter if mobile app developers are using a TabbedBar on iOS or a ViewPager on Android, because the user interface code won’t suffer any changes, as it’s only a consumer of the app logic. To explain the difference between tabs in iOS and Android, we’ll tell you that the former OS has a built-in NavigationController and supports multi-level navigation within each tab, while Android has shallow tabs that don’t allow in-tab navigation. If you don’t know your target platforms, read their user interface guidelines in full and after learning enough information about them, you will understand them better and you’ll know how to design more beautiful user interfaces. Many mobile app developers fear modules because they don’t know how to work with them, but once they become familiar with them, they are able to improve the user experience and the overall quality of the application. Tabs Are Either Deep Or Shallow Check Out The User Interface Guidelines For Each Platform Modules Are Challenging, But You Should Learn To Use Them An open-source framework that developers use is Appcelerator Titanium, which allows them to create mobile applications from a single JavaScript codebase, but because it doesn’t expose all features, it offers Objective-C and Java developers the possibility to use a Native Module Development Framework. You may have a personal preference when it comes to platforms, but learn not to discriminate and show equal commitment to iOS, Android or Windows Phone users. Become Obsessed With Your Target Platforms Don’t let your passion for any of these operating systems influence the design or functionality of your cross-platform platform, don’t put limitations and don’t add extra features only for the version of your favorite OS. Because you will lose users and it’s not fair to them. Imagine what a user of the target platform would want from your mobile application, put yourself in his shoes and start making comparisons with other applications that work on the same platform. Be A Developer And A User At The Same Time What they have in addition and how complex are they? After answering these questions, you – the user, will give suggestions to yourself – the developer, about what features should be added. Then, you’ll test the final product, and if the user in you will give the ok, then it means that the application is ready to be uploaded to the iOS/Android/Windows Phone stores.
