Tips to Consider While Choosing Android App Developer

by Aniket Kumar, Guest Contributor

Smartphones have become an indispensable part of everyone’s lives. Customers find their phones so handy that literally, they want every service to be accessible through their phones. From banking to e-wallet, shopping to travelling, socializing to entertainment, and almost for rest everything there are mobile apps.
 
In fact, the trend has become so that if a particular service is not available through a mobile app, then customers don’t hesitate to give it a miss; after all, no service is unique in today’s market and a competitor’s service is always available through a mobile app.
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So, it’s high time for every business to get a mobile app. It’s good that you are thinking on those lines and considering to hire a mobile app developer.

Android is the indisputable leader of the global smartphone market. Thus, the idea of getting an Android mobile app for your business is great. But the desired results pour in only if you succeed in developing a user-friendly app. Great UI (User Interface), fast loading time and high performance, extremely helpful customer support, updates to adapt to users' needs, and complete compatibility with the Android platform are the winning features of a good mobile app. 

The success of your mobile app highly depends on who is developing it, how knowledgeable is the developer and how much he is aware of business analysis. To get the right Android App Developer on board, you should consider the following while doing your selection process. 
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Get an Insight into Technical Skills
Of course, the technical skills of the developer are of paramount importance. If you know someone senior in Android development field, then request that person to interview the technical skills of an eligible candidate, in case you are not from a technical background. 

Let’s have an overview of an eligible candidate. An android app developer should have the following IT skills:

• Thorough knowledge of Android development programming language - Java and Kotlin or both
• Exposure to app design and development using Ionic Framework and Cordova.
• Knowledge of XML to develop design layouts (user interface)
• Knowledge of Android interactivity - Activity
• Knowledge of Android Studio, Android SDK, APIS, Databases and Material Design
• Knowledge of Push Notification Service and Firebase, Unit Testing and Bug Fixing
• Should be able to handle complete app development lifecycle.

Test for Execution Ability
A developer with the abovementioned IT skills is technically capable of developing an Android app. However, before choosing the developer you must test his execution abilities also. Brief him with your hypothesis like who will be the user of your app and what problem it intends to solve. Then ask him to develop a rough wireframe of the application using a tool like Balsamiq or Sketch. This will give you an insight into how well he has understood your requirements and will he be able to provide you with the results. Don’t expect that at the first go he will be able to give you the final wireframe. After all, app development is a continuous process of idea iteration. So be a bit liberal!

Go Through Personal Skill Sets
Requisite personal skills of a developer are the same as of any other working professional. His profile should have skills like dedication for work, passion for development, ability to work independently as well as in a team. Along with these, other skills specific to developers that you should look for are:

• Ready to take feedback on ideas
• Positively willing to iterate as per the feedback is given
• Not just a technical geek but has an interest in knowing about the business objective also
• Awareness about the industry you are dealing in
• Eagerness to stay updated with new-technologies

Final Words
Aforementioned factors are not the ultimate points to consider while you choose your Android developer. You may require to add or minus some factors based on your requirement. But partially, you can rely on these factors and hope you get a smart and reliable developer for developing your Android app.

Author bio:

Being the Business Analyst of FieldCircle - a leading field service management software company, Aniket Kumar is highly experienced in managing sales challenges by facilitating field sales software solutions to the clients. His excellence in offering field service scheduling software solutions has helped prominently in providing operational success to a number of companies in varied domains. 

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