More and more businesses are building mobile applications and web sites to promote their businesses. But building an effective mobile application is more difficult than just pushing out your web content and shopping experience via a smartphone application. The differences start with the obvious, like the smaller form factor, but it doesn’t end there. There are other issues regarding consumer behavior and expectations that must be considered and addressed to get the most from your mobile application development project.
Mobile applications are currently a critical area that must be addressed by any business or organization that desires to stay relevant with their audience. Smartphone sales in 2012 are expected to be nearly 1.8 billion units and it is for this reason alone, it is important to strive to build an effective mobile application experience for your audience. But beyond just the numbers, mobile application development is a tremendous opportunity for your business.
With mobile applications and mobile commerce you can now go where your customers are rather than waiting for them to come to you. Mobile commerce truly enables customers to purchase products and services anytime and anywhere.
If you are like most people you have experienced the less than satisfactory user experience while accessing web content on a mobile device. Usually this is in the form of having to zoom and scroll left and right and up and down to fully view a page or image or even text. Clearly if you want to create an effective engagement with your audience, you will need to create build pages or applications perfectly optimized for the screen size of each device so users don’t need to zoom and scroll.
When preparing to create a mobile commerce experience, it’s important to keep in mind that mobile web sites and applications lend themselves to less complicated user experiences given the smaller form factor of the experience.
User expectations gravitate towards simple, easy-to-navigate user experiences. And it is simple to see why – the consumer is on the go, often busy or in the middle of a discussion and usually with a more limited keyboard experience. They obviously will want simplified user experience that can be completed quickly. Marketers should reduce the number of steps that users need to take to the essentials and present this in an easy to use format.
But mobile experiences are not just about limitations, there are several exciting opportunities created by the mobile environment. Geo-location is a powerful feature in improving user experiences. Merchants and advertisers are using geo-location to improve shopping experiences. Brands thinking about mobile should definitely include geo-targeting in their mobile user experiences if possible.Through this functionality merchants can provide value added information such as locations of the closest stores and even targeted merchandising based on local or regional preferences.
Mobile applications and web sites present exciting opportunities for manufacturers, retailers and marketers. Smartphone and tablet sales are just too big to ignore. But, you need to pay attention to both the limitations on the one hand and the expanded opportunities on the other to create an effective experience for your audience.
1. Usability – Successful mobile application development often is the result of implementing acute usability design into the mobile application from the very beginning of the design phase. The best mobile apps have an interface that seems seamless with content, features, and the device itself and they allow users to effectively and intuitively navigate and utilize the mobile applications functionality. The applications that create a effective user experiences are often taken for granted; however, those that fail are destined to suffer from a lack of success. It is easy for people to fall into a trap of wanting to do too much so we highly recommend working with usability experts that can help forge powerful interfaces based on intuitive principles of design into your application.
2. Functionality – Mobile applications are not web sites. Mobile-optimized websites are for that purpose and if that is your goal, we recommend pursuing that route instead of developing a mobile application. Mobile apps should be designed and developed to take advantage of all the inherent features and functionality of the mobile device, such as GPS, camera, motion sensors, NFC, etc. Likewise mobile applications should focus on functionality suited to instant regular access from a smartphone, such as product reviews, social networking, information portals, photo sharing, etc.
3. Utility – Valuable mobile applications provide utility. This is crucial for mobile application development projects, as utility ensures that users will continue to interact with an application long after the initial interest has dissipated. Does your anticipated project provide a useful function to potential users? Is there a reason they will use your app day after day? If not, you should reevaluate your project and develop a plan that creates value and provides functionality for your anticipated end users.
Google very recently introduced Android 4.0, otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich, along with the new phone that will ship with the it, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The improvements that it offers are certainly significant, ambitious and compelling to the marketplace. Here is a quick list of the highlights that are being discussed by Android application developers:
1. Unified UI Framework – The new Android UI is now consistant across device form factors. Android developers can now write for Android devices across the board rather than phones or tablets separately.
2. Android Beam – NFC-enabled Android phones can now use Android Beam to share information about their apps with each other when the phones are in close proximity. Users can now exchange contacts, configure multi-player games, initiate chats, etc. Android Beam can switch over to Bluetooth for large data transfers; and it doesn’t require manual device discovery or pairing. Android application developers are very excited about this feature.
3. Face Unlock – Android 4.0 uses the technology as an optional way to unlock the device. Users can also use PIN entry or pattern tracing to unlock their devices.
4. Calendar API – Simplifies the process of adding calendar related services to apps. It allows apps to add and manage events, alerts, and reminders through a shared database. Very useful for mobile applications for Android phones.
5. Visual Voicemail API – Includes the ability to access incoming messages, voice transcriptions, and audio files from multiple voicemail service providers. The Phone app can be integrated with developer apps.
6. Enterprise Enhancements – Ice Cream Sandwich comes with a new VPN API that makes it easier to create apps that rely on secure connections.
There is certainly a lot to be excited about with Android 4.0. If you are contemplating building a mobile app for Android devices be sure to discuss all that is available with an Android mobile app developer to make sure you don’t miss out on a great opportunity to leverage the power of this exciting new operating system.