Eight steps of digital health app development


These pages outline the steps and factors to consider throughout the development lifecycle of a mental health digital product, including both wellness and software as medical devices products. This includes in-depth points around implementation, commercialisation and choosing a tech provider.

The steps are designed to act as a checklist for researchers and the phases do not have to be completed one-by-one and consecutively but instead they will often (and ideally should) overlap. Firstly because that makes the process more efficent and secondly because actions and thinking from one phase may influence and improve actions and thinking in another.

Project Initiation

Project Initiation

What problem will this app solve for whom?
Market Research

Market Research

What is already available?
Requirement Analysis

Requirement Analysis

What is needed by whom and when?
Development Timeline

Development Timeline

How much and how long will it take?

 

Prototyping and Design

Prototyping and Design

Is the structure feasible?
Iterative Development

Iterative Development

What do the potential end-users think?
Quality assurance and testing

Quality assurance and testing

Will it work and will it work well?
Deployment and maintenance

Deployment and maintenance

How can the app reach its audience and be maintained?