10 Best Practices in iOS App Development to Follow In 2022

What are best practices?

The best practices can be found in every industry. These are guidelines for how to do certain things the best way. They are shared by professionals who have years of industry experience. This is true for software and iOS app development services.

It is rewarding to be able to do everything yourself, but there is another way. Learn from others’ mistakes and observe them. These 10 tips will help you build even better iOS apps.

What are the best practices for iOS app development?

Do you not want to be behind? Your learning curve will improve if you use the best practices. Learning is easier and you will make fewer mistakes. We all have to make mistakes from time to time. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean we should avoid them. You can avoid most of these failures by implementing the best practices. Best practices allow you to focus on real problems and not reinvent the wheel.

Here are the top practices for iOS app development

Now is the right time to share some of the best practices and golden guidelines that you should use in your iOS app development. Although it won’t always be easy, it is definitely worth it.

Get ready for battle

Many developers feel the urge to code immediately. It’s a common approach but not the best. It’s difficult to make an app without causing problems. Before your team begins coding, it is important to determine the app’s architecture. Also, decide which design patterns you will use. Typically, for iOS applications, you will use a Model-view-controller pattern. MVC allows you to break down your application into components such as UI, Data, or Software. MVC also allows you to prepare your app for future updates and changes.

You may decide to create a hybrid app for iOS or Android. This is a strategic choice for marketing and development. Another solution is to create a native mobile app with React Native.

This stage of preparation requires extensive research. It’s well worth it, according to our experience. Software development is a lot like “measure twice, cut one”

Follow the instructions to create and maintain documentation

It is important to have adequate documentation that covers all aspects of the system. It will be easier to keep track of your project’s progress if you have a description. The documentation of code will be a great source of information later on about how and why certain things were done. It can be difficult to understand business logic in larger systems. Fortunately, there is easy documentation that can help.

Your developers will find it easier to understand the scope of the project. This is especially true if your developers join the team in later stages. If the team has been around for several years, it may be necessary to make some adjustments. Successful projects require not only excellent execution but also meticulous control.

Proper documentation is also necessary for future quality assurance and testing. It’s possible for some details to disappear from your memory, even if you are the only one-man army. Well-written documentation will increase your reliability and make it easier for your app to pass through App Store revision.

APP STORE REGULATIONS

Many app creators will find it surprising that they need to think about marketing before they start coding. Distribution is an important part of mobile app marketing. The App Store is one of the best ways to make your iOS application available to everyone. It gives your app more credibility, which is a big plus. Why? Although it may seem easy, getting your app published on the site is not. Not at all. This is a crucial point to consider at every stage of your application’s development, as well as when you prepare for release. This is a crucial part of the process. If you don’t include it, you’ll likely spend a lot of time on an application that’s not allowed for distribution in the App Store. Apple guidelines address safety, performance, and legal issues.

Security is something you should consider from the beginning

You must ensure that your application is secure at every stage, from architecture design to coding to testing to release.

Security is a major concern because mobile apps have access to data stored on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). The app should not be used as a way for scammers to gain access to the device or steal data. If your app requires personal information to be stored or processed online, security issues are critical. You could be vulnerable to fraud if you are not careful about security. Badly coded and designed mobile apps can also lead to identity theft.

These threats can be avoided by implementing a security protection strategy. It is important to concentrate on code quality. You should take a look at the cache, logging, authorization, and authentication of your app. Consider adding an extra encryption layer.

Taking into account the backward compatibility

It is obvious that iOS 14 will be released in December 2020, so if you create an iOS app in 2022, it must run smoothly on iOS 14. Not to be forgotten, iPhones from 6S through 12 Pro can run iOS 14 on the most recent iOS release.

Backward compatibility is an option if you want your iOS application to be accessible to more users. Your application will run on older iOS versions and older iPads or iPhones.

Backward compatibility can be complicated depending on the progress of your app and how you use the latest iOS features. You can find the latest features and changes here:

You don’t want your app to be the only bright one at night.

Apple ID Login — It’s essential as it simplifies life.

Augmented reality — We (users), will be more interested in it. Is your app making use of it?

Voice commands are a wonderful thing when it comes to accessibility.

This is the time when you have to decide how far back you want to go. What amount of time and money are you willing to invest and how many users you will get?

Use Xcode

App development requires a suitable environment. Although there are many options, most iOS developers agree that Xcode offers the best environment. It’s the only official development environment for iOS that Apple supports, so it’s the preferred choice of most developers. If you want to create a native iOS application, it is your first choice. It’s also free and comes with all the documentation that you may need.

Xcode offers many other benefits, including an intuitive user interface that allows for easy bug-fixing, testing, and dynamic navigation. Xcode can be easily connected to GitHub for version control, team cooperation, and bug-fixing.

CocoaPods are also useful

You already know Xcode and GitHub. CocoaPods is another thing. The dependencies manager will improve your performance by keeping track of all third-party dependencies.

You might wonder, “Why to use third-party dependencies?” They can do it all on their own but you shouldn’t. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like trying to reinvent the wheel. Let’s look at the password field on your app registration form. You can create all the rules yourself and verify that they are valid. You can search the CocoaPods website for what you are looking for.

CocoaPods can even help you write better code. Some developers include configs in their code as constants. It is not only against iOS best practices but can also cause problems in the future. CocoaPods is a great way to keep configurations out of your code.

Start with the Minimum Viable Product

Most people already know what Minimum Viable Products are. Its importance cannot be understated. It is important to focus on the basic features that will make up your application’s core.

It’s easier to focus on fewer tasks at the beginning and create an app that excels in just a few areas. This is better than an app that does not excel in a few areas. An MVP can be delivered faster and users get feedback quicker. You can respond faster and improve users’ satisfaction than your competitors. It will get even better with subsequent iterations. Next, MVP is less expensive than fully grown applications. It can be viewed as an experiment. You will know if you should withdraw more or invest more money.

Aim for a fabulous design

Apple’s minimalistic design has been a hallmark of the company. Clients who purchase iPhones, iPads, and Macs still value this aspect. This is why people will search for the iPhone in iOS apps. You don’t need a flashy user interface design. Your app will be more successful if it is simple.

Apple has published the Human Interface Guidelines. This is your main source of information about iOS app interface design. You will find everything you need, from animation to user interaction to branding to buttons and bars to help you navigate.

These guidelines remind us that design is not just about a beautiful layout.

Good design is purpose-driven. It responds to our need for clarity and understanding.

Remember accessibility

The first time we discussed accessibility was in relation to people with disabilities. In her TED talk Elise Roy stated that “when we design to accommodate disability first, we often find solutions that are better than those designed for the norm”. By considering the experience of different users, we can design better applications using the accessibility principle.

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines also cover mobile accessibility. Apple even made it explicit in its Human Interface Guidelines. This breaks accessibility down into two main ideas. Simplicity and permeability are the two main principles. Simplicity means that the user can interact with the application in the exact same way every time. The consistent interface is not the only thing that matters. It is also about simplifying complex tasks. Permeability is the ability to perceive content in multiple ways. You can see it, hear it, or touch it. Consider contrast, large controllers that sound alarms or voice communication.

Summary

Implementing best practices in every business can be a benefit to all. The golden rules of project management, software testing, and car manufacturing are similar to the best practices for iOS app development. These rules are based on the experiences of many experts.

There are probably many more good practices than the list of top practices for iOS app development. There are probably many more good practices than that. These are all good practices for any programming job. These 10 rules will give your project energy and direction. The ten rules will guide everything else.

It is wise to use the vast experience of the specialists we have worked alongside over the years. Ideamotive is looking for highly skilled designers, developers, testers, and project managers who share our trust in their expertise.

Read More: Future Of Mobile Application Development – You Can’t Overlook in 2022