Outside of China, Apple controls 30.44% of the app market share through iOS apps. The operating system allows third-party developers to build and publish apps. In the last few years, Apple with 1 billion smartphones has generated $935 billion in sales and millions in revenue. Thereby iOS apps constitute a major part of the world’s economy.
Apple’s app store has more than 1.76 million apps and 46,000 game apps. The number of apps published on the Apple store is continuously increasing. The growth is accompanied by the addition of barriers and other standard specifications (minimalistic design, unified UI, and functionalities complexity).
All of these things mandate the need for iOS professionals who are well-versed in iOS development and have the required skills. The iOS developers should be proficient at aligning the company’s goal with project requirements. As a business owner, you should know which skills iOS maestros must have, which help you to build tailor-made iOS solutions meeting your needs. Here’s an extensive guide that will make it easy to hire an iOS developer for your next iOS project.
Taking a step further, if you are one of those entrepreneurs who narrow down the choice to one or two iOS development companies, you should check the following skill sets during screening to know which remote developers are the perfect fit for your iOS app development needs. Let’s dive in!
Top 10 Skills to Look for in iOS Developers
Did you want to hire iOS developers who have the required expertise and experience in niche development? Due to the drastically changing app development trends, it is helpful to check the following skill sets that help you select the best developers or even a team of developers as required for iOS development.
Good know-how of Swift 3.0
Swift 3.0 is a programming language that’s leveraged for building apps for various Apple platforms say iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac, and others. The object-oriented programming language is intuitive and robust for developers due to its simple syntax. Plus, Swift is stable, fast, and packed with lots of tools that enable iOS developers to build responsive, high-performant, and functionalities-rich applications for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
The open-source programming language is easy to learn, but in-depth knowledge and experience in working with the latest Swift version is a must-have. You should check if the iOS developers are well-versed in this language or not.
Well-versed in Xcode IDE
When you hire iOS developers, they must have the required knowledge of Xcode IDE (Integrated development environment) for iOS app development. Xcode IDE comprises all the tools and essentials required for programming, interpretation, debugging, automation, and compilation which makes iOS development plain sailing. There are resources available in IDE that help with the process of development and deployment.
The resources also lend a hand in reducing iOS app development time and cost and delivering the best user experience. Don’t forget to check IDE’s proficiency in iOS developers.
Leveraging core data
Core data framework simplifies the model object and their relationship management which makes the data-driven app development process easier. Thereby routine tasks that iOS developers need to handle related to graph and object life cycle management are reduced. Besides, the framework reduces the number of lines of code that developers need to write for the supporting model layer.
Furthermore, the core data framework helps with caching temporary data, saving app data for offline usage, and introducing undo functionality for an app. When it’s required to sync the app for multiple devices with a single iCloud account, the framework helps by mirroring the schema automatically to the CloudKit container.
Handle memory management
The data that the iPhone or iPad’s hardware stores is referred to as memory. Integrated RAM works as a memory system in iOS devices for storing data temporarily. However, the memory is allocated by specific iOS device OS dynamically, but they are resource-constrained which makes memory management difficult. When the app gets access to limited memory, it leads to app crashes or poor performance.
The experienced iOS developer can identify that functionality is not working as expected because of the limit cross for each process and knows the ways to fix issues with memory management. Partner with an iOS development team that is good at memory management.
Better deal with source control
The source code is changed many times to create iOS apps that perform to precision. That’s where the system management strategy provided by source control helps with tracking changes in source code. It enables different iOS developers to work on the same project without any conflict. You should check if the iOS developers have experience in using source control system because improved collaboration improve app development.
Test like a pro using unit testing
Unit testing is favored for iOS development because it tests the app in parts and at speed. When each functionality is tested using unit testing as they are developed, it’s ensured that all the functionalities perform correctly. When the changes are required based on the given set of inputs and outcomes, they can be fixed as soon as possible. Thereby unit testing prevents bugs. You should check if iOS developers are well acquainted with unit testing of every functionality of the application.
Proficient at spatial recognition
Spatial recognition ability is one of the primary skills that iOS developers should have for building an app from a user perspective. The capability makes iOS developers proficient in understanding objects at different scales and manipulating them logically. Weighing this skill set into developers would help if they can build an iOS app that delivers an unmatched user experience.
Ability to grand central dispatch
Multiple tasks get executed in the iOS apps continuously when the app is used by the target user base. For instance, the user may request data from the network, provide a touch input, or ask for information, which puts extra strain on the iOS devices. Grand central dispatch helps in performing heavy computational tasks in the background with concurrency and parallelism. Hire iOS developers who mastered using Grand Central dispatch.
Expertise in UI/UX design engineering
Presently, UI/UX design plays a vital role in making the users download the app before even checking the app’s functionality. You should hire iOS developers who can build an app with an intuitive look and feel, seamless navigation, aesthetic design, and more. The attractive apps improve usability, branding, and appeal, which results in improved user acquisition and retention. Hire iOS developers who are experts in UI/UX engineering.
Organize everything with a storyboard
Before building an iOS app, the rough sketch helps in knowing how the interface would look like with several connections between the screens. The storyboards are created for an iOS app development wherein the view controller and its views that are connected using segue objects and transitions between screens are fairly displayed.
The app’s UI and workflow can be easily visualized through storyboard creation. That’s why storyboard creation is preferred before iOS app development to look at the broader picture of the app’s user behavior. Hire iOS developers having experience in storyboard creation as a part of stable iOS development.
Which skills should you check in iOS developers?
A great team builds great products and it’s no exception for iOS app development. iOS developers play a vital role from app idea conceptualization and planning to scalable development and necessary integration. It signals when you select iOS developers, you should check the skill sets of the iOS developers for smooth sailing of the project. The top 10 technical skills aforementioned in the blog would help you turn your trending app idea into a smashing hit. Consider all the skills when you hire iOS developers for your next project.
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