How to Create an App for Desktop?
Technology has been advancing over time. These days, almost every person in the world uses computers. The demand for new desktop applications is increasing every day. Developing a desktop application is not an easy task.
If you are self-employed or own a small business, you have to make sure that the whole process of development is cost-effective and does not cost you too much.
It is not guaranteed that you would earn a lot money from your desktop application, so the cost quotient has to be handled carefully. Thus, developing a desktop application can be a daunting task. However, with innovative planning and implementation, the development process can be less challenging.
WHY CREATE A DESKTOP APPLICATION?
A desktop application can easily be accessed from any kind of system. You can add up customization to your desktop applications that you cannot add to web-based applications. Based on such facts, there are many benefits of desktop applications, we have addressed a few of them below:
NO MONTHLY OR ANNUAL FEE
Once you buy a desktop application, you do not need to worry about the fee. You can use your desktop app to put up your data and information. The desktop app stays on local network in your computer; hence it does not require any servers to access the app. While on the other hand, web applications are not free of cost. People have to pay a fee to access the servers. Finally, on contrast to web-based applications, desktop applications are cost-effective.
EASIER TO CUSTOMIZE FOR YOUR NEEDS
Having information at your fingertips is amazing. It is very easy to customize a desktop-based application that is built for your computer’s environment rather than a web-based application that requires a server to access them.
NO INTERNET CONNECTION
Sometimes, a slow internet connection means that your most important work stays pending and you cannot access the most critical information on your system. It can affect your productivity and business affairs greatly.
On the other hand, desktop applications do not require an internet connection to access critical data. You just need to make sure you are provided with electricity and you will have access to your data. Hence, your work will not be affected whether you have an internet connection or not.
SOME FAMOUS DESKTOP APPLICATIONS
As technology is getting advanced every day, every other business and firm is having its own desktop application. In this guide, we will be discussing the whole process of developing desktop applications and their benefits.
If you want to develop your desktop application and lack some ideas, below are a few innovative desktop applications to inspire you:
- WebTorrent Desktop App
- WordPress Desktop App
- WhatsApp Desktop App
- Pexels Desktop App
- Slack Desktop App
These are the most famous desktop apps these days. You can have a look at these desktop applications for your inspiration. If you are thinking of growing in this fast-paced technology world, make a plan now and get your application ready.
TYPES OF DESKTOP APPLICATIONS
Before developing a desktop application, you need to understand what type of application you want to develop. Following are the common types of desktop applications:
CLIENT-SERVER APPLICATIONS
These applications work on a local server of the systems but the access of the information is on the remote server of the system.
STANDALONE BUSINESS APPLICATIONS
These are the standalone business apps. These applications which make people’s work efficient. The category involves, Excel, Microsoft Word and Outlook.
MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS
Multimedia applications uses collection of texts, graphics and animations. These applications help to play movies, sound files and other audio files on user’s system.
Hence, if you know exactly what kind of application you want to develop, the development part becomes easy and convenient. You just need to go in the right direction in order to implement the application.
HOW TO GO ABOUT IT?
If you are looking to develop a desktop application, this is the right time to do it. As a matter of fact, developing an application involves dealing with many challenges in order to make your application efficient for users.
The challenges in developing an application have increased in magnitude due to the current pandemic and require reconsiderations to make your final product fruitful for your customers. Thus, every development process requires a plan and execution according to the resources.
Desktop applications help users with common tasks such as managing their calendar, music and much more. Following are the main features that you need to implement in a desktop application:
1-Develop an Idea
Before starting the development, you must have an idea about what type of application you want to develop. You must know its features and purposes. The first step in desktop application development is developing an idea for a desktop application which is the most crucial phase as it defines the purpose of your application.
It includes many complex aspects. For instance, why the customers would use your application and how it would benefit them. In order to go ahead with the development, you also have to check if there are similar apps available in the market and how your application is going to be different from them. The desktop application should be related to your services so that people can relate it to your business or company.
Following are a few tips for developing efficient ideas for your desktop application:
- Be precise about your product
- Focus on the benefits it is going to provide
- Distribute the application into smaller parts
- Set the goal according to the target audience
2-Graphical User Interface
Now comes the user interface. Before developing the most crucial features of an application, you must look for its user experience. The application should be easy to handle. Do not over complex the user interface of your desktop application. It must have been:
Efficient: the application should enable the user to perform tasks with a level of productivity.
Versatile: the desktop application should enable users to perform multiple tasks effectively in a variety of circumstances.
Integrated: the app must be well integrated with Microsoft Windows. It should allow users to share data with other applications.
Advanced: the innovative desktop application must include extraordinary and advanced features that are not found in other competing solutions.
How to Design a Graphical User Interface?
A great desktop application is simple and efficient. Of course, you want your application to be powerful and also simple. There is a complex tension between these two goals, but that tension is irreconcilable. You can make your desktop application simple and smart through a carefully balanced feature selection. Make the user interface is easy to understand.
Concepts
Typically, UI is not addressed in this design phase. However, provide a thorough business model with complete user profiles. Also, provide usage scenarios that are imperative for a successful user experience.
Logic
Now develop the initial prototypes that support the conceptual design. Identify the hardware and software technologies to use in the development process.
In addition to the development phase, identify the basic factors and hardware requirements that are to be targeted by the final product.
PHYSICAL DESIGN
In this phase, implement the UI design that was initialized in the logic design phase. During this phase, hardware limitations might introduce some constraints on the UI that require significant refinements to the design.
3-Media
This is one of the coolest features. The digital photo organizer in desktop applications helps you store, sort, and display photos on your computer. It also includes a feature for editing and sharing images on social media.
4-Productivity
Desktop apps include several productivity features that can help you with daily tasks, like managing your emails and calendars, organizing notes and finding directions. Furthermore, these apps connect your account with other services such as Google and Apple. Productivity also adds a few other features, such as pinning locations and saving directions on all of your desktop devices.
5-Security
You can ensure data security in your desktop applications to protect them from various vulnerabilities. Here are a few steps to ensure security in your desktop app:
Authentication
The application is assessed to identify ways in which hackers may attack the application. Brute force password guessing attacks are made against the authentication prompt.
In-Memory Analysis
It is necessary to implement this feature as it is used by the application to identify the weaknesses that may only be present at the application run-time.
Source Code Analysis
In this step, automated analysis is performed in order to identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
6-Connectivity
Desktop applications are stand-alone in nature. These applications do not face any hindrances resulting from internet connectivity. The absence of internet or its poor connectivity cannot affect the performance of desktop applications. You can use these apps significantly with or without the internet connection
7-Test the application
After the implementation part, test the whole application. It is so important that you test every aspect of the application.
In this step, make sure you test the code and look for bugs and fixes before making the application live. Following are a few testing types that are necessary to perform on the desktop applications.
Regression testing: first of all, after code modification, detect bugs and errors in the app’s functional and non-functional features.
Functional testing: it is a type of black-box testing. It focuses on the output and makes sure it is as per requirement. Make sure your application is producing the required output and is up to the mark.
Smoke testing: in order to weed out basic errors, it is preferable to pass all QA builds to smoke testing.
Browser compatibility testing: your team of quality assurance must test the entire app thoroughly under different versions of browsers. It is also called cross-browser testing in which the testers test the application on different browsers.
Performance testing: the developers integrate the APIs and test code using JMeter. Run the application on different devices to check how much time it is taking to load.
Usability testing: in this phase, the testers test the application flow and navigation. In this phase, thoroughly improve the user experience.
Crowd testing: at last, test the final version of your application with larger inputs.
8-Deployment
After the development and testing phase of the desktop application, it is deployed to the live environment of desktop or other devices. Changes are made on code and then the app is deployed, now the end-users start using the application. It is necessary to monitor that everything in the app is working as intended.
9-Maintenance
Finally, after deployment of your desktop application, maintenance takes place every once in a while, to meet customers’ expectations. It is essential to gain customers’ trust by catering to their wants. This phase is important to keep track of changes within the application and the outer world to come up with amazing solutions. It really helps you interact with users and grow as a brand.
10-Marketing
In order to market your desktop application, create a buzz among the public. Consistently promote your application on various social networking platforms and blogs on the internet.
Talk to social media giants and influential bloggers about your application and its features. People having influential profiles tend to have a greater impact in influencing the public, so try to communicate with them. Make sure you create some excitement about your application in the market.
11-Submit Your Application to App Store
At last, upload your desktop application to an application store. It is the best way to publicize your application. Do not forget to market and promote your product when it has been uploaded on the App Store for public use.
HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO BUILD A DESKTOP APPLICATION?
Well, it depends on the layout of your application. The design phase takes almost two weeks. The development phase is completed within one month, including graphical user interface, front-end and back-end development.
The testing phase comes after the development phase and it takes around two weeks to test the application entirely. Finally, it can take up to 2-3 days for a desktop application to go live.
TO TIE IT ALL UP
To sum it up, smart computers are everywhere these days. Having a computer is one thing and having smart applications on it is another thing. Nowadays, it is difficult to find a computer without smart desktop applications with innovative functionalities. Such applications not only make their user’s life easy but also a are a way to have a thrilling experience of technology. People can download these apps in their computers and devices without having to on any browser.
Developing the whole desktop app from scratch is not an easy task. It takes a lot of decisions and planning, from platform selection through user input to the size of the interface.
The coding part is also not an easy task to handle, but it can be done in the right way with teams of expert developers. It is safe to say, a desktop application not only runs on computers locally but also helps in expanding the reach and overall brand experience.
If you’re developing a desktop app and need to recover or reset your administrator password on Windows 10 for testing or deployment, start by ensuring you have another admin account to assist you. Use the “Forgot password” option on the login screen to reset it via your Microsoft account if linked, or use a password reset disk if you created one. For specific guidance on how to find your administrator password on Windows 10, consult Microsoft’s support resources. Ensuring you have access is crucial for effective app testing and deployment.
Finally, this guide was to explain you about the implementation process of desktop applications from scratch. In today’s fast-paced world, we understand that with each passing day, technology is getting advanced. Customers’ demands have evolved over time. People who use the latest applications enjoy the features that technology has provided them. Consider generating branding strategies by employing a San Diego digital branding agency as an example of how to produce outstanding digital strategies if you want to obtain a new and broader use of your applications.
INTERESTED IN DEVELOPING A DESKTOP APP?
At RetroCube, we create phenomenal applications that offer great user experiences through highly interactive interfaces. We make sure to keep the customers enthralled with the best features. Our expert team understands today’s technical world’s competition and provides with top-of-the-line services.
To conclude, we are always ready to provide our customers with top-notch services. We care for our customers and build the best running applications for them, be it Mobile App, Android App or Desktop App. So, if you are looking for experts to set up your business game in the technology world, get in touch with us now!
