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What Makes A Mobile Application Developer Competent?
For every possible human need, there is probably a mobile phone app, waiting to be discovered in your mobile phone app store. It is therefore no surprise that the demand for mobile applications has been steadily raising ever since the smartphone was invented.
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Increased investment and interest has further created an enabling environment for this industry to grow faster. This has further acted as an incentive for several mobile application developing companies as well as free lancers to mushroom at a faster pace. With multiple options in hand, it becomes difficult for the ones in need of a specific app to handpick one from the sea of developers. Here are a few characteristics of a competent Mobile Application Developer that one should keep in mind before doing the same.
The developer must have great UI/UX Skills: There were 3.5 million apps on Google Play Store in 2017 and 2.2 million apps on Apple App store in the same year. The number must have only magnified by now. The astronomical number of apps on their respective app stores denotes that the users’ hands are already full. The developers must have great UI/UX skills to make their apps attractive and distinct enough to their apps apart from the crowd and attract the users. On the other hand they should be capable enough to use these skills to make the user interface easy to use and competent.
Knowledge of several programming languages: Different companies of mobile phone brands use different platforms/operating systems which make use of different programming languages. For this reason programmers should have proficiency in not just one or two languages but in dozens of languages to develop the best suited applications. The most common languages being Java, Python, PHP, C#, JavaScript, Objective C, and Swift. These are the most popular ones but the mobile app developers should be well versed with multiple programming languages because the situation may hand pick any one out of the blue.
Knowledge of cross-platform development: Gone are the days when owning a phone or gadget was a luxury. In January of 2018, Statista reported that there were 3.7 billion unique mobile users on the planet. This number is almost one and a half times more than the total number of people on the planet. One can safely deduce that a certain section of the population now owns two or more devices and the chances of them using only one platform are pretty much non-existent. For this reason app developers should know how to develop cross-platform mobile-apps. Another advantage of implementing cross-platform development is uniformity. Uniformity of the app across platforms raises the level of user engagement. On the other hand, according to Fueled, there are more users on the Google Play Store, but the App Store users spend more time actually using apps and being engaged. Cross platform app development can increase the revenue raised from the app by multiplying quantity with quality.
Creativity: Some people learnt to be creative while creativity is inborn in some other people. But weather acquired or born with it, mobile app developers should be very creative. The biggest advantage of creativity is that it makes an app stand out from the rest. You need to be able to think outside the box all the time. Creative apps also offer better user experience.
Good Communication skills: Whether working solo or in a team, the app developer should have good communication skills. Good communication skills will bring out the best from the app as it would allow the developer to convey his/her thoughts clearly to the client and on the other hand will allow him/her to grasp what exactly the client wants from him/her. If the app developers are working in a team them good communication skills become all the more important for they allow the team members to exchange ideas within the team and understand each other’s exact intentions, avoiding any clashes, bringing out the best from the app. Thus, good communication skills create an enabling environment to bring out the supposed result.
Portfolio and Track Record: Portfolio is important not to check how long the client list of the developer is or how high profile the developer’s clients were, but to cross check the quality of the developer’s work. Because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how many clients the mobile app developer(s) have served, what matters is the quality of their work and their dedication to solve their client’s problems in case the app encounters any problem.