The Comprehensive Guide on the Mobile Application Architecture
- Mobile
- November 28, 2018
When you are developing or constructing anything you need a robust foundation. This is precisely applicable if planning to create a mobile application as well. With the times changing, the business enterprises are focusing more on building the apps to reach out the target audience. This is making the competition fiercer with several players entering into the arena.
Therefore, it becomes imperative to get the right groundwork for which choosing the apt app architecture becomes important. In fact, many mobile apps simply fail to impress the users because of the poor architecture.
Defining the Mobile App Architecture
Mobile app architecture can be defined as the set of different methodologies, techniques and procedures carried out to successfully build a comprehensively structured mobile app according to the specific needs of the business enterprise.
While creating the app architecture, you also have to take into account the programming of the wireless devices such as the Smartphone or the tablet etc.
The Multiple Layers of the Mobile App Architecture Design
The mobile app architecture design basically consists of multiple layers, but we would be focusing on three vital layers including:
- The Business Layer
As the name suggests, it mainly comprises of the business units, the workflow, and the components.
- The Presentation Layer
This layer particularly focuses on the components of the User Interface and the UI process components.
- Data Layer
This layer is created from the combination of the data utilities, data access components, and service agents.
Important Factors to Consider While Developing Mobile App Architecture
It is essential for any app developer to be familiar with the crucial factors that are taken into consideration before delving into the steps of mobile app architecture.
1. Deciding the Device Types
Today we have N numbers of smartphones that belong to a different category. The type of the device can be categorized mainly based on the operating system they run on. For instance, Android smartphones are relatively different from the iOS Apple phones. This would be a pivotal deciding factor before choosing the app architecture.
In addition, the devices can also be categorized into these important types such as the size of the screen, the size of memory, choice of the framework, CPU features, screen resolution, and storage capacity. The selection of the device becomes essential during the app architecture development due to the software and hardware requisites.
2. Choosing the Appropriate Navigation Type
The app navigation is one of the key factors that determine the success of the application. It includes both the client side as well as the server side. Thus, the customer needs and priority should top the list while choosing the type of navigation for the app.
You need to remember the fact that app navigation has a large influence on user experience and so, you should go for the optimal. For instance, you can select the tab control, the single view, gesture-based navigation, scroll views, stocked navigation bar, and navigation based on a search.
In order to make sure that you have developed an app that would aptly suffice the requirements of the users, you have to follow certain guidelines.
3. The Importance of Bandwidth Status
It is extremely essential to take into account the bandwidth situation or think about the local internet network of the demographic region where you are targeting the audience. Often the slowness of the internet speed frustrates the users and he churns out of the app.
There are times when there is no internet connectivity or very limited net access. To counter such scenarios, you have to consider the worst possible internet network when developing the app architecture.
You need to develop your caching, data access mechanism, and state management considering the fact internet speed is very limited. Besides also think about the power consumption and speed when working with the software protocols and hardware.
4. Playing with the User Interface Designs
This is one area where you get an opportunity to showcase your creativity and thus user interface gains much importance in the app architecture design. But don’t forget the thumb rule; which is simply is the best medicine for designing User Interface. Make it highly interactive and intuitive.
Read also: How to Create an Extraordinary UI Design for Mobile App that Instantly Draws Attention
Managing the Process Flow of the Mobile Application
We have already mentioned above that the app architecture design is a multiple-layered structure and it’s important to discuss the guidelines of the three important layers.
Presentation Layer
The presentation layer bases itself mainly on how to present the app before the audiences. Therefore, the job of the app developers is to get across the right set of end users who can be complacent with the app infrastructure and design. You also need to consider the deployment factors based on the client.
Apart from that, you need an accurate data format to be inserted into a robust data validation process for boosting the security aspect of the app. Another good practice is separating the business ideas for presentation of layer code.
Data Access Layer
The layer specifically targets the app securities related to data and other areas. The app developer has to be careful and offer the scalability so that it can fulfill the future requirements of the business when any changes are made.
It becomes imperative to opt for the best data access technology so that there is no compromise on the security and functionality of the app. It would be better to choose the table-based identities for providing a simple design structure for the purpose of the data storage. This also lets the flow of the data across the boundary layers.
The data access functionalities are all summed up in one place in the layer. It also maintains the mobile app data connections along with the CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) management operations and data sources. You can opt for the least privilege approach so as to prevent the unauthorized access or secure against corrupting the data.
Business Layer
When we are talking about the business layer, we have to take into account activities including caching, security validation, logging, and exception management, etc.
It would be better if you divide the work based on the categories to reduce the difficulty factor. But at the same time, it is important to get across the different sets of each of the categories for setting out the app policies, data transformation, and validation etc.
Identifying the Best App Architecture
You must be familiar that it is extremely important to choose the best architecture that would perfectly fit with the mobile app. So, you can just follow the vital tips on how to go about the selection of the suitable architecture.
- Firstly, in case you are a budget crunch, then go to the native apps for getting the interactive features and best-in-class performance.
- Again for the cross-platform app development users (both Android and iOS), the native app is an appropriate choice.
- However, in order to get more customers on the board and engage them choosing a combination of a native app with web app development isn’t a bad idea.
- Lastly, you can follow the approach “develop once and run anywhere”. This means trying out various options such as a mobile web app, hybrid app, or the cross-platform app.
Conclusion
So, as laying the foundation stone before constructing a building is fundamental and must do an activity, similarly, the architecture is rightly regarded as the backbone of any mobile application offering all features, functionalities and user experience. It takes your app into the zone of success and offers the growth prospect for the business to flourish.
