UXDLAB SOFTWARE

Author name: manager website

Contemporary Wireframes on Mobile Landscape

It has observed that many of the web and mobile app development companies eliminating wireframe development stage at all. They believe that prototypes serve their purposes. However, in practice, prototypes never take the seats of wireframes of different kind. There are many reasons behind that prototypes never can replace wireframe and the first one is the abilities of wireframes to do testing. By concept, wireframes just serve the outline of the final product done in hurried manner with perfectly imperfectness! Today we are designing highly intricate and interactions rich mobile applications for various mobile platforms with their own native requirements and technologies. Therefore, early day’s sketches type or low-fidelity wireframes are inadequate, if we solely rely on them and not going to do mid-level fidelity wireframes or hi-fidelity wireframes at all. If I am not exaggerating to say that, modern mobile app development companies should practice all sort of wireframes of different levels using modern wireframe creation tools. Tools for Wireframe Development Low-fidelity wireframes are of very primitive type so we can use just pen and paper to draw sketches. However, whiteboard practices are very fruitful when a big team is involved. Today many graphics tablets in computers or tablet devices with appropriate software are fine alternative to incorporate your colleagues or clients in person or online. Mid-fidelity wireframes or say mockups are demand somewhat details so Balsamiq Mockups or Axure like wireframe creation software are useful in modern days. Unlike sketches, mid-fidelity wireframes have precise and final content in textual as well as image forms. They have precise UI copy with system messages, navigation items, various labels, and instructions included. Therefore3, many smart and seasoned front-end mobile app developers simply translate these mid-fidelity wireframes in to HTML-CSS or programming code without going to next high fidelity and prototyping steps. High-scale and high-end mobile app development demands enormous details and precisions in interactions and look and feel. Thus, gauging their interactivity is only possible with high-end wireframe producing software like Fireworks, Illustrator, OmniGraff, and alike tools, which are giving opportunity to create animated interactions between the screens and UI elements to break their complexities. Fortunately, in recent era we have browser based wireframe development tools using HTML-CSS and some JavaScript or Media Queries to test your interactions and responsiveness of the mobile application in process. Twitter’s Bootstrap, Zurb’s Foundation, and similar software enables mobile app designers to mount grid based column system in minutes using code. There are other certain advantages of modern browser based wireframe development tools such as: You can create basic layout with multiple options within the shortest time with low learning curve You can create responsive design and test their responsiveness either using resizing browsers or test on real devices by integrating the devices with your PC or Mac You can test your mobile app wireframes using natural capacities of browsers on real devices and with real touch gestures Since this browser based wireframe tools offer HTML-CSS and scripting options to make your wireframe interactions live and allow you to test on the web, you have real world and real user experiences These tools are opensource and almost free or cheaper in compared to many proprietary wireframe development tools so affordability is great point to attract developers to use them No doubt, all the mobile app development companies are not adopting or have expertise in modern wireframe tools usage or practices so you have select your company with great care. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/contemporary-wireframes-on-mobile-landscape/

Contemporary Wireframes on Mobile Landscape Read More »

How to Develop Mobile Apps That Attract and Retain Users

Today mobiles are ubiquitous and use of smartphones for shopping is becoming trendier in wake of wearable devices and their attachments with smartphone apps. Medium to big e-commerce businesses are spending a good deal of their budgets on mobile application development. However, success of mobile apps for a business is depending on many factors and attributes, but mobile development approaches are affecting a lot. If you have good team of mobile apps designers and mobile app programmers, still you need some extra efforts to make it a success legend in the market. Today if any end user is downloading your shopping app, that is a big honour to your business and matter of pride for your app development company, as very few apps can be stored in smartphone and use frequently according to the recent surveys. Establishing a Personal Touch with Users Thus, it is imperative to welcome or greet your users with a warm welcome message at first place and establish a good rapport at first encounter. If you use in app tracking analytics tools, you will know your users the best and based on their behaviour with your app, you can offer them personalised services. There are many ways to offer personalization in your mobile apps such as… Personalized ContentIf your mobile app has good and enough introductory content, you can engage them further and bring them quickly to their targeted places i.e. at products/services. Now, the real game of programmers starts here. Now, you have some prerequisite data to predict their personal choices and their personality. Thus, you can offer them highly personal content automatically or upon requests. This way you can give more informative content to the new users and to-the-point content to the repeated loyal customers. No doubt, your content may not restricted only up to texts, but may include relevant images and other multimedia content like video. For instance, instead of long textual descriptions about how to use products, you can embed a video depicting entire process in very decent and comprehensive manner. Personalized IncentivesJust like content, you can go to offer various incentives using same techniques and technologies in the mobile apps. Based on previous purchased history, social media profile, and many other ways, you can know that which sort of incentives/offers will work for your particular users or groups of users based on their location, culture, or demography. You can forward aiding products, vouchers, coupons, gifts, badges, awards, points, and many other kinds of incentive upon new and regular purchases of the users in your mobile apps. Taking Care of User Experiences-Performance-Usability If you have genuine team of mobile app developers at your side, you can win battle of success in mobile app market and in your own niche. As recent trends of offering excellent user experiences and best app performance, may give an edge to your mobile apps through word-of-mouth i.e. viral marketing. This way you will get good reviews on your business websites or in App store/marketplace for your app due to satisfied users. Usability will offer you best ROI. Offering easy to use navigation, checkout process, guest check-in, advance search features, and attractive UI with smooth interactions may bring good traffic as well as convert them into your loyal customers forever. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/how-to-develop-mobile-apps-that-attract-and-retain-users/

How to Develop Mobile Apps That Attract and Retain Users Read More »

What Does it Take to be a Successful iOS App Developer? The Must Knows

At a time there are more than 1.5 billion smart phones in the world, everybody knows the answer to how important app developers are. The iOS market has been steadily growing and while Android is an app paradise, where the iOS scores is the money. iOS apps make a lot more money than Android ones for developers and here are the statistics to back it up. Google paid $5 billion to its developers in 2013, while Apple paid $7 billion. Role of an iOS app developer The software industry has been growing in leaps and bounds because of those numerous app developers who strive to bring to life any prototype that is given to them. Products like the iPhone, iPad, and the iPod are a result of their efforts. If this industry has always fascinated you and you are looking to make a name for yourself in this field, then you must imbibe the following qualities to become a successful iOS developer. Research ways to improve upon the performance of your app: Nobody likes to stare at the screen for a long time anticipating that their required app would finally open. If this happens, even though the quality of the product is very good, you may lose your customers to the competitive product that has a faster processing period. So in order to make your customers happy and make the best use of the resources you must use algorithms that provide optimal solutions. Some instances, which enable a better performance, are using scroll lists to minimize loading time, storing images and data in the cache etc. One other helpful tip to enhance the performance is to disable all console logs in the production environment. Write well-documented codes: A well-documented code helps your team members understand the functionality better and can be reused for similar logic. The documentation will also help you at a later date to understand the program flow at a glance instead of trying to devise the whole logic again. Organize your code changes better with a source code management system: A source code management system efficiently organizes all the versions of code you have created for your app. This way you can access any version at any given point of time. Some useful SCM’s are GIT, Mercurial, and Subversion. Test your app from a lame man’s point of view: Each application must be thoroughly checked for possible errors. Don’t take it for granted that the user will know the basics of operation. Become proficient in your domain: Know all that is to be known about your development environment. This will be very handy when coding under deadlines. Mastering the shortcuts will help you get more work done in less time. Don’t hesitate to ask for assistance when stuck: The iOS platform is huge and there is a new development almost every day, it is only natural that you may not be acquainted with all the information. It is good to get help when required. It’s important to keep updated with Apple’s policies. Remember, Apple launched the Swift code for developers a while back and you need to be well versed with the language. While the Swift by itself is not that difficult to learn, provided you know the other languages, you do need to take out time from your busy schedule to learn it. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-successful-ios-app-developer-the-must-knows/

What Does it Take to be a Successful iOS App Developer? The Must Knows Read More »

The 7 Most Important Questions Related to App Development

Want to start making apps or do you want to hire a developer? When it comes to app development, these 7 questions must have surely crossed your mind! So here are the much-awaited answers. What is the cost of making an app? The cost of making an app can never be exactly calculated as it is depends on the scalability, technology capabilities, functionality, complexity and many other factors concerning the app. It can start at somewhere around $20, 000 and go up to somewhere around $200,000 and even more in some cases. What are the processes involved in creating an app? a. Ideation – fleshing out the idea, competitive analysis, research of market, design b. Concept Design – detailing functional requirements, creating specs and prototypes c. Processing Design – creating user interface, mapping out user experience flow d. Development – coding, functionality, operating systems e. Testing – check bugs, user experience’s quality, cross device functionality f. Marketing– launching and penetrating strategies, PR, communication and promotion How do we monetise an app best? The best ways to monetise an app without destroying the user experience are freemium, pay-to-unlock, Ad revenue, pay-per-download, free and paid versions, one month subscriptions, sponsorship and in-app purchases. What is the time taken to build an app? The approx time taken to build an app is around 4-6 months but after that it needs to regularly maintained for hardware and operating system updates and bugs. Does it make a difference if a similar product is already available in the market? We all know by now that no app is absolutely unique. What you need is competitive advantage which will help prove your app to be the best in the market. You should know what your competitor is up to and you should be able to surpass it. Do I make an iOS platform first or an Android one? The answer to this difficult and complex question is to have a long-term plan for both the operating systems especially if your app has a commercial purpose. What is the best way to launch an app? The key behind getting this right is to figure out the best communication method that will tell the users that you alone have the perfect solution for the problem. You need to use those mediums of communication where you know your target audience hangs out the most. Getting more answers to these questions will go a long way toward finding the right developer for your app. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/the-7-most-important-questions-related-to-app-development/

The 7 Most Important Questions Related to App Development Read More »

What’s the Right Platform For Your App Launch?

A crucial decision for an app company is to select a platform for app launch. Various decisions and preparations need to be executed systematically for the app launch. You will need to decide whether you would like to launch your app for Windows, Apple or Android or all the three. A few questions to consider will be, will the platform support the app, will it allow updates and help you reach millions of users for the desired cost. It is a lot of work to develop for one platform and your decision to launch will depend on understanding the app goals and each platform deeply. For iOS Most of the major apps are launched on iOS first. In fact, the reason in simple – iOS users are more likely to pay for your app than when you release it on other platforms like Android. If you are planning to create a tablet experience, then focus on iOS. It is because; the truth is transparent that Apple is the winner in the tablet market. Also consider that whether the app is free or not because iOS users are keener to pay for the app. Secondly, developing for iOS requires a skillful developer’s team and a Mac to develop. In addition, an app that runs on iPhone 5 will run on iPhone 6 as well but the same is not the case with Android. It is because Android manufacturers and distributes more than 400 types of phones. For Android If you have a freemium model, Android is a great choice. On a global perspective, Android is a dominating mobile operating system. Though iOS and Android are closer in market share, Android still beats Apple with 1 million app mark. If you are marketing your app in UK then Android is the best platform as in European market, Apple share is just 30 percent. Always understand what your customer wants, and you can make a wise choice. Android users spend on personalization, education and reading more than business and entertainment apps. Other things to consider while choosing a platform: An app needs to address the size of the market. iOS is quick and responsive, and there is less piracy. Unlike Google Play, it doesn’t have many quality issues. It is also important to understand that iPhone users are more dedicated and engaged to use apps. In addition, they are habitual to use error-free apps and, for this reason, they tend to pay more it. Finally, understanding the limitations of hardware and software of mobile phones to publish your app is vital for minimal hang-ups as you begin with alpha testing. Showing good amount of flexibility in using the tools to develop the app for different platforms is a critical decision as well. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/whats-the-right-platform-for-your-app-launch/

What’s the Right Platform For Your App Launch? Read More »

Business and a Mobile App: Changing Traditions, Expanding Boundaries

Ever looked back down a decade and wonder how much business has changed down the years? With ever evolving tech, businesses need to be up on their toes when it comes to embracing newer technologies and understanding when not to switch to something new. Often, whether a business becomes successful, depends on the technologies and methodologies on use in the workplace. Mobile apps have changed the way business is done. However, innovation has occurred rapidly, which have left the businesses struggling. As user expectation is much higher than a business can deliver, a new approach is required. Continuous Quality is key methodology for ensuring the app meets such user expectation. Continuous Quality is involved in every step of software development from design to production. It optimizes the time a software reaches to market with minimum risk. However, to ensure the success of Continuous Quality key building blocks are required: 1. All device supportFor the success of Continuous Quality, developers must ensure that tests are conducted for all current devices/OS profiles. In addition, app test lab must ensure that there is quick access to new releases and updates roll out on schedule. 2. EnvironmentsDevelopers cannot develop mobile apps before knowing how server, network and device “wind tunnel” factors affect the performance. Lab that runs the Continuous Quality must test app on active devices capable of up linking and downlinking the data from various networks such as 3G, LTE, and Wi-Fi. These tests must be implemented in different regions around the globe. Emulators never provide the required level of intelligence and feedback, which ensures the performance and usability regardless of environment. Hence, real environment test are necessary. 3. Coverage Across SDLCThe test lab should support all scenarios from first day to post production. Software Development lifecycle test must include unit tests, functional tests, load tests, and user experience on live device. For those testing the app must be able to provide both empirical and visual data to allow developers to understand what users experience on the device. 4. Integrating existing toolsTest labs that ask users to learn new skill leaving the known environment could be ineffective. Instead, lab must provide open integration with eco-system coding languages, CI servers, IDEs, and frameworks. By using Continuous Quality, app developers can quickly work and respond to new changes without compromising the quality. Right now, mobile adoption is growing much faster than web adoption was in 90s and 2000s. Mobile now has become major product platform for businesses and it will remain so. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/business-and-a-mobile-app-changing-traditions-expanding-boundaries/

Business and a Mobile App: Changing Traditions, Expanding Boundaries Read More »

Expectations Vs. Reality – The Journey from App Development to App Success

Any experienced app user and app developer knows that everything is not as beautiful as it seems when it comes to matching up to job expectations. While app development does fetch some great job prospects, it can be quite grilling for amateurs with their limited skills and experience. Theoretical knowledge doesn’t translate to real job experience in most careers, and it’s the same in the app development world too. Most freshers expect a lot more compared to what they can deliver. It is not wrong for the freshers who are into app development to have a different note of expectation which is significantly higher than that of reality. It is not easy to convert the mobile version of the website into an app format, and while there are app makers that help you go through the drill without extensive coding, they can only be used to design basic apps. On the contrary, it is easier to think the app as a tool where the users can get all the necessary information they want. How much time does it take to develop an app? App building takes time. The complexity decides the time limit – if you’re involved in a complex project, it can take up more than a year of your life. Most times, expect a month’s time to make the app work completely. The more you hurry, the less precision you get and eventually build up a failed app. Developing an app does not mean it’s approved. This is especially for iOS app developers, and they must be ready for the challenges. Read thoroughly through Apple’s guidelines before developing the app. So what is the next step? Does creating and making it live on the App Store end your work? Apart from regular updates, the other priority is on the marketing strategy. Know the desired audience and strive to reach out to them as much as you can. Speaking on the same context, do not be under the impression that your apps will automatically reach the target audience. It’s important to do some good app marketing and analytics. What do you want to achieve? App store optimization wouldn’t let you accomplish what you wish to achieve with the app. Keeping in mind the particular target customers and a proper marketing strategy is the only way to convert prospects into permanent customers. Then there is also the problem with the app developers who think that analytics can help to understand and read the app’s performance. On the contrary, it just helps to improve the app’s performance. Judging the users’ interactivity is not through download rate. However, if your app users visit few times a week, it’s an excellent sign. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/expectations-vs-reality-the-journey-from-app-development-to-app-success

Expectations Vs. Reality – The Journey from App Development to App Success Read More »

What happens after you have decided to create an app and have it in the PlayStore?

If you’re launching the app in Google Play Store, you probably have a freemium model where users can buy extra add-ons to progress in the game or have access to extra features. Being optional, you can only count on a few users to actually buy the extras, and you need to look at monetizing your app. One of the best ways to earn extra revenues is to look at the different options of monetizing the app. Monetizing the app would be profitable way to earn from the hard work you have put into android app development. What are the strategies that you can use? There are three most common strategies that you can use to earn money from the app. Paid AppsPut a price on your app and let the user buy your app if they want to use it – however, statistics suggest that this is a good method only in the iOS store. It’s difficult to have Android users buying an app outright. A paid app is the most common way of generating revenue. However, it has own issues. If you are looking to raise the number of users downloading the app and generate more revenue, it won’t be easy. The most installed apps are always free and users always look from free options. Go in for a lower prices; set a price that user can pay easily. Make sure that the features offered in the app are not available with other apps. In-app purchasesThis is popularly called the freemium model by the developer. It is one of the most effective way of earning from app. The app is free to install but users can buy more value items or features from the app. This is a better model as users are able to assess your app and use it – increasing user engagement and trust. If users love the functionalities on offer, they can pay more for the extras. In this model, you provide a certain value for free; if the user does not pay for in-app purchase and they can continue to use it for long period. In turn, you always can increase the number installs. This kind of model is best for games, personalization theme or more. In-app adsIt is another way to earn revenue. You can add ads to your app. The app is free to use but you dedicate special ad slots that can come up at specific intervals. Whenever the user taps on the add you get certain revenue. This method has been used on desktop websites – if you are offering something valuable and the ads are relevant, they will not be a distraction. You can also employ other strategies like increasing subscription rates. or giving special offers time to time but opting for a freemium model or in-app ads are often the way android app developers and app entrepreneurs go to. Easy to choose and implement, they offer a constant source of revenue while you can focus on other marketing strategies. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/what-happens-after-you-have-decided-to-create-an-app-and-have-it-in-the-playstore/

What happens after you have decided to create an app and have it in the PlayStore? Read More »

NATIVE vs HTML5 vs HYBRID – The Review

“Because it is not about app development, but efficient development”. In past few years, people have rapidly migrated from desktop devices to handheld ones. With the growth of technology, mobile devices facilitated and enabled us to do everything that a desktop could. Cell phones, tablets, palm tops and more, there are a lot of ways to work today. So, what do you do if you’re looking at connecting to your audience through their smart devices? For connecting with mobile users, businesses need to get their presence on small screen devices with apps. So, what kind of app do you need to choose? Should it be a native app, or a hybrid one or the one built on HTML5? It’s important to understand the pros and cons of each – for one, which one is cheap? Native App Basically, native apps are those that uses native APIs of device and calls for high expense. These applications need to be programmed separately for separate platforms. For instance, the same app, with same user interface and features will be programmed twice, once for iOS and once for Android. A native app for one platform (say iOS) wont be compatible with other (say Windows). Moreover, the SDKs (XCode for iOS, Eclipse for Android, Visual Studio for Windows) and the programming language (Objective C for iOS, Java for Android, C# for Windows) will also differ. Thus, it calls for high expense but provides a better user experience. HTML5 App Unlike Native App, apps built on HTML5 are less expensive as they are compatible with all platforms. But with merit of low budget, there are some demerits too. The developer cannot make them available in the app store, as they are not dedicated to a particular platform. In easy language, they can be understood as web applications, which can smoothly run on the low resolution of mobile devices. They are made responsive, using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Programmers do not need to code them only once Hybrid App Similar to HTML apps, hybrid apps are also developed using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript but they are wrapped in some native application. For instance, we can consider a web application running in the native browser window (and not Chrome or Mozilla) like UIWebView (similar to WebView in Android). These jobs of wrapping the app into native applications, or making the use of Native APIs are done very easily using application like Cordova. These apps are easy to maintain and fast to develop. Your app development strategy needs to take into account your audience – your apps will have to be tailored to your audience needs. Go in for hybrid apps if you’re looking for best of both the worlds. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/native-vs-html5-vs-hybrid-the-review/

NATIVE vs HTML5 vs HYBRID – The Review Read More »

Improving Mental Health – How Can Mobile Apps Help Young People?

With one in every 5 young people suffer from a mental health problem every year and more than half of the mental disorders starting before the child reaches 15 years of age, mental ill health is a serious problem threatening the youth of the country. Increasing pressure on young individuals related to family, work and mostly education, make health and fitness apps a priority for them, much more than regular game and social networking apps which only secludes a young individual away from friends and families making him lonely and non-social. The statistics proving that apps can alleviate problems and help people cope better with their worries is not new. In fact, patients are sometimes encouraged to play apps and playing games as they can then forget their pain. Why choose apps to offer help? In today’s time a child gets a smartphone first and braces later! A smartphone which has the right apps in it lead the young person towards positivity and can prove to be one of the best tools to reach out to him and help him achieve his goals, solve his problems and lead a healthy and normal life. With the individual being in close and private contact with the apps regularly, they can be used to reach out to them to in several ways which include treating, diagnose and analyzing mental ill health. Youths do not open up to their doctors or family members easily and are often reluctant to take help from the people around them. Mental ill health apps are considered to be youth-appropriate channels as they offer rapid help, advice and intervention into a person’s mental ill health offering complete privacy to the patient protecting his name, illness details etc. A health and fitness app should be low in cost and high in efficacy. How can apps be introduced to such young patients? A mental illness patient can be slowly introduced to the world of apps. A positive approach should be owned when asking the patient to deal with the problem via the apps without making him realize his illness. Slowly, filter in information via the app to the patient offering proper detailed information about the mental illness followed by related advice and changes in lifestyle. This will help the treatment become effective and on finding positive changes in himself, the patient will get involved in the recovery process and be able to manage his own illness. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/improving-mental-health-how-can-mobile-apps-help-young-people/

Improving Mental Health – How Can Mobile Apps Help Young People? Read More »