Mobile Apps in the News: 9 Trends Businesses Should Know

/0 Comments/in , /by

Advances in technology and consumer demands are the key drivers of the evolution of mobile app development. Mobile app revenue will surpass $690billion in 2022 and is only going to grow. Despite this success, the untold story is that of a majority of apps that never get traction or generate enough revenue to provide a positive return on investment. Such apps often fail to adapt to evolutions in technology and consumer preferences while competitors do.

As a business, here are some key trends in the mobile app development space in 2022 and how they will shape the industry.

1. 5G Technology

The number of 5G-capable devices in use is growing fast. In 2019, there were just about 3.7 million 5G devices worldwide. According to Statista, the number has since grown to over 200 million and is predicted to hit 1 billion in 2023. While developing your mobile app today, it’s important to remain alive to this trend and build features that leverage greater connectivity speeds. 5G is up to 100 times faster than 4G speeds. Developers will add features without affecting performance due to latency. In order to remain relevant, businesses will have to add greater functionality to invest more into research and development because competitors certainly will.

2. Foldable Devices

Foldable devices no longer seem like a fad by mobile phone manufacturers. The release of foldable phones by more companies such as Huawei, Motorola, and Samsung shows that there is a market for such devices. Statista estimates that around 50 million foldable phones will be shipped in 2022 worldwide. The devices allow users to expand or compress screen size according to their own preferences. Mobile app developers must now take this market into consideration so that their apps work in either mode on foldable devices. Fortunately, apps in the market can fix this through an update.

3. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Apps are leveraging AR and VR technology to offer more immersive experiences for customers on their apps. IKEA has famously been using AR to let customers visualize how a piece of furniture would look in their house. Live maps are a feature on Google Maps that allows users to see directions in real-time. LIDAR technology on Apple devices uses augmented reality technology to let users take high-quality images in low light conditions.  Asos, a British online fashion company, launched an AR-powered feature called ‘See my Fit’ in 2020. The feature allows shoppers to see how clothes look on models with different body types and sizes. The technology resulted in a 24% jump in revenue within 18 months after the launch.

The first movers have shown that users will embrace technology if it brings more convenience to their lives. Globally, the AR and VR market is worth more than $200 billion. The number of people who’ve interacted with augmented reality has hit 100 million. Going by trend data from Statista, the number will only continue to grow.

4. Developing for Wearable Devices

The number of wearable devices in active use is over 900 million in 2022. Apple WatchOS has been a major factor in the growth of this market because it delivers a native experience for its apps. Developers that want to generate revenue in this space must build apps for wearable devices to ensure the app experience is smooth as users toggle between the wearable and the smartphone. Developing app versions for wearable devices could be a competitive edge when competitors have not done so too. Your app is likely to be used more frequently than those by competitors.

5. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

More mobile app developers are taking advantage of advances in AI to build more features into apps. For instance, Google Maps has a feature that suggests less carbon-intensive routes to minimize fuel consumption by cars. Features such as image recognition, face detection, and speech recognition all rely on AI technology. The availability of these technologies mean that app developers can improve their apps significantly over the coming years.

On the backend, app analytics can improve to help developers decide on features to improve upon. AI models can be used to implement predictive maintenance on apps based on user trends. Developers can also rely on natural language processing to classify reviews and app mentions on social media to assess user thoughts on their products.

6. Mobile Wallets and Payments

It feels like online payments have been here for a while. However, the market is still young and growing.  Whereas PayPal has been around for over a decade, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are expanding.  Mobile wallets allow mobile phone users to make in-app payments safely and on the go. Mobile app developers can boost app revenue by making it easier for users to make purchases even from wearable devices. The wallets will account for $13 billion worth of payments in 2022. Any business seeking to grow app revenue must introduce mobile wallet payment functionality.

7. Mobile App Security

As the volume of in-app transactions grows and more personal data is stored online, app security becomes more important. Malware attacks are on the rise to target mobile device vulnerabilities. Mobile app developers, therefore, need to implement security precautions that are up to date. One such method is allowing users to sign into apps using their Apple ID, Samsung ID or Google Account. In many cases, these sign-on options have 2 step authentications to add a security layer. Still, mobile app developers must keep testing for susceptibility and implementing correct fixes.

8. Super Apps

There is a new trend where apps are seeking to be a one-stop portal to solve several problems for users. Take Facebook, for instance. Besides being a social website, it is evolving to become a marketplace where people can create catalogs for their business. To add importance to an app, developers should think about how an app that’s already working well can become even more useful. For instance, a mobile wallet could become a place to pay all your bills. Whereas super apps are popular in China particularly, the trend is just starting in the west.

9. IoT Integration in Mobile Apps

The Internet of Things consists of a network of internet-enabled devices that are communicating with one another. Smart home technology is perhaps the most common and easiest way to understand how IoT technology is useful. From a mobile phone app, one can control their Air Conditioning system, switch on alarms and control the lighting in their house. But IoT technology is applied in far more sophisticated and high-value situations. For instance, an oil pipeline company can use IoT devices to monitor hundreds of miles of its infrastructure for peculiarities. Manufacturing companies can use IoT devices to inform their predictive maintenance operations.

As the IoT market grows, there is an opportunity for mobile app developers to spot opportunities for IoT to add utility to their apps. For instance, IoT can help a real estate management company to use IoT to monitor infrastructure such as HVAC in its property. Hotels can build apps that allow guests better control of their rooms.

Finding the Right Development Partner

Every business that has an app or is intending to build one must identify trends that will affect its industry. It can also find a trend it could pioneer in its industry and perhaps use it to build a competitive edge. Survival in a dynamic business environment such as the mobile app landscape requires constant adapting and evolution.

To work with a reputable mobile app development company, reach out to NS804. We help start-ups, entrepreneurs, and businesses build mobile apps using the right technology and in step with the latest developments in their niche. Schedule a call with us today.

What Makes a Good UI Design

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , /by

The user experience is the most common front-end, interactive feature in any app, website, or dashboard. The user interface supports all human-computer interactions.

The user interface provides a navigational platform to control software. Think of a user interface as an application programming interface that links users and a computing system, the back-end.

Although a user interface can take many forms, it accomplishes two fundamental purposes:

  • conveying information from users to machines
  • conveying data from machines to users.

The most important features of a great user interface design are:

1. Simplicity

Simplicity is the centerpiece of any navigation. Easy navigation depends on a highly simplistic user interface. So, the user interface design must be succinct: it must communicate the most with the least. The designer must ensure less navigation and fewer mouse clicks to accomplish any app or website task. It’s important to add new features only if they’re essential and bring substantial value to the application.

2. Consistency

Your user interface must deliver consistent browsing and search results. Consistency achieves stability and eliminates ambiguity and information chaos. Designers should apply size, typeface, and style conventions to screen components to improve readability and learning.

3. Intuitiveness

Intuitiveness is the most important detail of a great UI design. Intuitiveness means that users can easily learn your interface and quickly pick it up. Intuitiveness implies the ability to get accustomed to your app’s interface, element spacing, and overall layout. Intuitiveness means something that can be understood easily and applied with ease.

4. Familiarity

Familiarity is a critical feature of a great UI design. While many designers aim to create intuitive designs, few stop to ask themselves what does an intuitive design mean? Well, intuitiveness means making things understandable and easy to remember. Creating a great user interface concerns familiarity. Designers must aim to create apps that deliver personalized user experiences. Aiming for familiarity will reinforce your app design.

5. Responsiveness

A great user experience must be responsive to users’ needs. Today, most website visits come from mobile endpoints, which is surprising given that it’s convenient to leverage an Android or an iPhone. You encourage users to visit your website frequently and stay longer by having a mobile-responsive interface. Responsiveness is about reducing the latency time and offering a rewarding experience.

6. Clarity

Clarity is an important element in the user interface design process. Clarity signifies that you know what you’re doing and that the interface or platform your users leverage is trustworthy. Achieving clarity in user interface design involves consistency, truth, and simplicity in your messaging. If you aim for consistency, it’ll be simple for users. In addition, if you eliminate ambiguity and incorporate only relevant elements, your interface will be rewarding.

7. Attractiveness

Attraction is about aesthetic appeal. Attraction concerns making elements and layout appealing for prospective and existing users. Attractiveness aims to make the site enjoyable and thrilling to navigate. You can make your site or app efficient, simple, easy to use, and concise – but it will only do well by making it attractive. Your clients or prospective users will not only use a stirring interface; they will look forward to using it once again.

Contact NS804 to achieve a great UI design.

Productivity Slump? Improve Your Workflow with These 5 Features

/0 Comments/in , /by

Workflow management apps are meant to enhance the productivity of your employees. If your organization is building an app to handle a slump in productivity, there are certain must-have features on the app. These features will address bottlenecks that often affect the speed and efficiency in the handling of tasks. A common problem that hurts productivity is the lack of clear assignment of responsibility and authority. Gray areas often result in tasks remaining pending for too long with no one being reprimanded. To address this, here are must-have features to address the productivity slump.

1. Status Indicators on Workflow management apps

Status indicators on a workflow application are useful when people have over one task running at a time. They can keep track of their workload, which helps in better time management. For managers, status indicators help to manage employees better and avoid overburdening staff. They can see the most urgent tasks whose deadlines are drawing close and assign help if required. Color-coding of tasks according to urgency is another useful feature because it draws attention to urgent tasks.

2. Notifications

Notifications are useful in boosting productivity, whether on a web application or mobile app. Employees should receive notifications for new task assignments, when they need to approve something, or when deadlines are drawing closer. Notifications are useful when the management needs to disseminate a message quickly and simultaneously to all employees. Everyone gets to be on the same page.

3. KPI-Reports on Workflow Management Apps

An efficient way to boost productivity is to build performance reports within the workflow management app. This way, individual employees can monitor how far along they are in meeting their goals for a particular review period. Salespersons would benefit from such an approach to self-management. KPI reports can also be pulled at the team or departmental level.

4. Monitor User Behavior through Analytics

When building a workflow management app, integrating analytics can help improve the app in the future. By monitoring user behavior, it’s possible to gain insights on the most useful features, the least used features, and the main exit points from the app. User behavior analytics reveal the choke points on the app, which may be a hindrance to productivity. A UI that is too complex can also hurt productivity if employees perceive software as being too complex.

5. Integration with Other Apps

Productivity suffers when employees have to toggle between multiple apps to get their work done. An app that integrates with other cloud-based applications can go a long way in remedying this. For instance, if a project management app can sync with calendar apps and document editing suites, it would make scheduling of meetings and sharing of documents much easier. The goal should be to put as much control, speed, and efficiency in the hands of employees.

Building Productivity Solutions

Before your business builds a custom workflow management app, you need to identify the right development team. The team should be ready to build a solution that speeds up your workflow by allowing parallel handling of tasks where possible. They should also include an analytic dashboard to keep track of how well the app is helping improve workflow.

Reach out to NS804 for all your business app development needs. NS804 is a world-class mobile app development company with experience in helping businesses build apps to transform their workflow.

Ecommerce and Apps: Should You Consider It?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , /by

A critical facet for any e-commerce business is a well-designed and optimized online store. Nevertheless, despite the emergence of mobile applications in modern-day digital retail, most retailers still wonder whether they need to adopt a mobile app to accompany their online stores.

Google published research showing that 56% of smartphone users were highly involved in online retail. According to Google, 58% of smartphone users check prices, monitor trends, view customer responses, and evaluate client feedback. Most smartphone users were also involved in product and review comparisons and even buying products.

Further statistics revealed that 66% of smartphone users made online purchases once a week. For most smartphone users, online purchases were made by phone as opposed to desktop devices. The prevalence of mobile apps is driven by the accelerated adoption of smartphone devices, alongside higher internet penetration rates.

Therefore, although retailers are wondering whether to uptake mobile apps to complement their digital retail efforts, it’s important to remember that users first view products on their smartphone devices before making purchases on desktop PCs. Most importantly, with the emergence of highly optimized apps, making online purchases via apps is becoming more streamlined, making mobile apps the go-to option in the e-commerce marketplace.

So, here are the top reasons you should consider e-commerce and mobile apps.

1. Loyal audiences

One of the greatest benefits of an app is the ability to build loyalty with the targeted audience. 67% of online buyers prefer apps offered by their brands and companies according to data by Adobe. These statistics clearly show the impact of digital platforms in reinforcing customer and brand relationships. But how do you encourage your targeted audience to download and install your app? Well, focus more on the user interface and user experience and offer better discounts and more attractive deals.

2. Faster buying process

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have longer queues that point to a slow check-out process. Traditional check-out processes in brick-and-mortar stores are responsible for higher customer service costs, delayed check-out processes, and may inhibit customer retention. Luckily, the emergence of mobile apps has simplified the purchase and check-out process. Ecommerce mobile apps come with a payment gateway functionality that allows app users to purchase products and services from authorized vendors. That ultimately facilitates a faster buying and a timely check-out process.

3. Product listing

Product listing is a critical aspect of any e-commerce process. A product listing is what the customer sees when they search for a product online. For sellers, product categorization is one of the greatest benefits of e-commerce. Sellers can use categories to streamline the ordering and purchase process, allowing fewer errors in procurement and supply chain processes. One advantage of e-commerce is that customers can add products, product categories, product descriptions, images, pricing, and delivery date. Product categorization allows vendors to inform customers more about the product, allowing buyers to know what retailers have.

Product listing best practices:

The following are the tips and tricks of product listing and categorization:

  • Maintain image dimensions
  • Use a high-quality image resolution
  • Provide multiple viewing angles for your products
  • Use lipsticks when displaying or showing multiple product views
  • Consider UX-design and UI-design that facilitate a 360-degree product view.

Customizing your product listings makes them appealing and attractive, enhancing your chances of online retail success.

4. Improved marketing communication

Marketing is principally about communicating and educating prospective clients. Marketing outreach targets educating users and prospective customers about the benefits and drawbacks of products or services, including the drawbacks of competitor products. Mobile apps and eCommerce platforms act as central communication platforms, providing insight and knowledge to customer and client groups.

An e-commerce mobile application provides a communication channel for different stakeholders, including clients, prospective customers, and brands. This communication acts as an avenue for brand positioning and marketing excellence. So, complementing a mobile app with an intuitive online store helps deliver superior marking and outreach.

5. Efficiency

The intuitiveness, user-friendliness, and accessibility of mobile apps render them ideal for many customers. Today, online shoppers are leveraging mobile apps to streamline their purchase and procurement processes. And even though you might incur a substantial sum developing a solid app, be assured that it will generate incomparable value within a short period. A well-designed app with superior functionality has unmatched potential for long-term value. Apps’ overall functionality delivers superior performance, enabling businesses to be more agile and efficient in their routine business processes.

6. Reduced response time

Vendors and customers want a rapid, time-to-value service. A mobile app is smooth and streamlines the purchase process, saving time and money in routine check-out processes. The response time for mobile apps is considerably less than for web platforms or websites that retrieve data quickly. So, e-commerce stores with mobile apps are well-positioned to serve customers faster than online stores without complementary apps.

7. Personalization

E-commerce platforms and mobile apps have many opportunities for personalization. That’s because retailers can understand and use customer shopping patterns to build more personalized retail experiences. If personalization is well-planned and combined with push notifications, it can deliver superior marketing campaigns that touch the hearts of shoppers. E-commerce platforms and mobile apps provide retailers with countless opportunities for shoppers to connect with brands. Customer connection is reinforced through a solid personalization approach, providing retailers with fresh opportunities to revamp their revenues.

8. Multiple payment options

The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution has transformed the online shopping experience. The emergence of IoT, artificial intelligence, data analytics, big data, and blockchain has helped transform the digital marketplace. Nowadays, with digitally secured cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, Binance, or XRP coin, you can access limitless retailers. Cryptocurrency provides shoppers with numerous payment getaways, streamlining the online shopping experiences for millions, if not billions of online customers.

9. Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management is an evolving field of marketing. Customer relationship management is concerned primarily with building lasting relationships with customers by understanding their changing needs and responding accordingly to these shifting priorities. Long ago, brands and organizations approached customer relationship management by obtaining written feedback and evaluating based on demand shifts.

However, nowadays, mobile apps have overhauled the entire CRM practice, with advances in chatbots and online communication portals that collect information and feedback at-a-go. E-commerce platforms first ushered in a new, innovative way for customers and brands to interact and share problems. Mobile apps reinforce this relationship, allowing brands to mine insightful, statistical shopping trends. Consumer insight drives better customer relationships, especially regarding customer inquiries, refunds, and payment errors.

10. Competitive positioning

The Covid-19 pandemic signaled the start of a new dawn. The announcement of the Covid-19 outbreak was accompanied by stringent social distancing measures, an effort to prevent the spread of a global virus. Unfortunately, new social distancing measures discouraged conventional physical meet-ups as shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and public transport systems set measures to curtail physical contact.

These developments affected traditional shopping avenues and disrupted the office workplace. Businesses suffered blows due to shrinking purchases, and supply chains sustained bruises due to the collapse of the global market. Luckily, mobile apps defied the anecdotal narrative of an economic decline and beat the odds to become an alternative solution for retailers. Adopting mobile apps and e-commerce solutions provides a competitive advantage, allowing enterprises to respond to changing customer preferences.

Reach Us Today!

Therefore, as enterprises wade off this pandemic, it’s only wise to adopt with time by accelerating app adoption. For enterprises recovering from the pandemic, mobile apps offer an innovative way to ignite touches with prospective customers. There’s no doubt that mobile apps give a competitive positioning to enterprises adjusting to the post-covid digital marketplace.

Contact NS804 to optimize mobile apps and e-commerce solutions.

Automate Tasks with These 7 App Features

/0 Comments/in , /by

Whenever you are building an app, your business must think about adding employee productivity through features that make their work easier. Automation is important in the business world today due to the availability of technology and expectations from users. A single automation feature may be the difference between an app being widely used or not getting any traction after its launch. But how should a business go about deciding what automation features to build? There are constraints such as development time, costs, and ensuring the app is not too feature-heavy and bulky?

Tasks to Automate

In your business, the following characteristics indicate that a task is prime for automation.

Repetitive– Tasks that employees have to do manually over and over are great to start with. These tasks include downloading and uploading files, transferring data, and sending reminders to employees.

Boring Tasks– Tasks that do not engage employees mentally are boring and can easily make people become detached from their work. Automating such tasks and allocating more meaningful work to employees will increase motivation in the staff.

Regular or Frequent Tasks– Tasks that occur at regular intervals can also be automated. For instance, if the company requires weekly reports of each sales team member and the whole team, it’s easy to automate the generation of such reports from the billing system or another primary source. This will greatly relieve the team from having to do extra paperwork each week.

Rules-Based Tasks– These are tasks that follow a logical sequence. They are pretty straightforward and easy to delegate to a bot. For instance, incoming emails can be redirected to the right people based on their subject matter. Such things as reminders would fall in this category whereby people are nudged to complete tasks if the deadline draws near, and they haven’t delivered or communicated.

Software-Based Tasks– Tasks that require communication between two applications are also prime candidates for automation. Such things as synchronization of data between two Software as a Service (cloud applications) need no human intervention.

Time-Consuming Tasks– There are certain tasks that take up too much time to complete but they have little effect on the bottom line. Automating them would save the company numerous man-hours. For instance, consider scouring the internet each month to find information on the average performance of certain companies. This can take time. However, it’s possible to create a feature that tracks those metrics from the different sources in real-time.

Automation Features to Build

With these characteristics in mind, here are some features you can build to help automate tasks in your organization.

  • Scheduling of Posts

Content is an important part of marketing in organizations today. Whether content is for social media or for your blog, there is a team of people charged with creating and curating such content. It is highly likely that they create social media posts and blogs in batches and then post them later. This works well when the organization follows a content calendar. You can include a scheduling feature so that your posts go live at the appointed time. Your team then can concentrate on creating content whenever it’s most convenient for them or whenever the creative spark hits.

  • Information Aggregation

It’s quite tiring to keep plowing through online publications, social media, and other platforms to look for company mentions, competitor activity, or trends. You can use information aggregation tools to have that information compiled and sent as an email regularly. The responsible party then takes minutes to go through the email and make their assessment.

  • Traffic Monitoring

What if you could have the inbuilt analytics tool send a weekly report regarding activity on your app or website? It’s a much more effective approach than trying to have a tab open to keep an eye on real-time activity on the backend dashboard. You can customize the report to show the metrics you really care about. Such reports can show the important sources of your traffic, your peak days and hours, the most important pages, and any chokepoints in the users’ experience.

  • Customer Reminders

If you are building an e-commerce application for your business, some of the automation features should help boost revenue. If customers had a cart with items but they did not checkout, a nudge through a push notification may prompt them to complete the purchase. The app should also integrate with your email marketing system so that offers and coupons sent are based on the customers’ activity on the e-commerce app.

On the e-commerce app, you should automate the process of responding to inquiries through AI-powered bots and setting up tickets. Customers should not have to call or send emails.

  • Backing Up Files

If an application to aid in the organizational workflow stores important information, it’s important to have such information backed up in a cloud storage. The process of synchronizing app information with cloud storage should automatically happen at regular intervals and without human intervention.

  • Invoice Reminders

An often-tiresome task is having to email clients to request them to pay outstanding invoices. You can automate this feature so that clients get reminders a few days before the due dates. The business itself can also schedule certain bills for automatic payments to avoid service interruptions or problems with vendors.

  • Case Management Feature

A case management approach is ideal for dealing with scenarios where unstructured data is involved. It’s also useful when there is a mix of human interaction as well as technology in the completion of tasks. For instance, when an incident arises within an organization, a ticket may be raised, and certain people will be expected to handle it. A case management feature allows the management to track the various stages an issue passes through until resolution. Other use cases of the feature included in the onboarding of new staff and vendors, management of claims from customers, and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Challenges Businesses Face in Automation

Whereas it’s easy to enumerate the benefits of automation features in an app, the reality is always different for the development team. First, they have to pick the right tasks to automate based mostly on the return on investment. However, this is not always the case. For instance, automating a task may reduce the need for human labor to handle the task. Yet, the cost of building the feature may be more than the cost of the human effort. However, in the long run, allowing those people to handle other higher-level tasks may bring in bigger returns than the initial cost of the feature.

Automation projects also need to get buy-in from employees. The organization may try to solve a bigger problem using fragmented automation tools. This could lead to a complicated workflow with glitches and numerous interruptions. It can easily lead to frustration on the part of employees.

Automation of a single process cannot happen in isolation. It’s better to design solutions with a bigger picture in mind, including how existing laws may affect them.

If your organization is seeking to build automation features, you need an experienced and world-class software development company. NS804 is a leading mobile business application development company. Reach out to us for a free consultation on your automation needs.

 

App Features that Will Help Remote Work

/0 Comments/in /by

Employee apps are supposed to make internal communication and collaboration easier to affect productivity positively. A feature-rich app is important, especially when team members are doing remote work. Such things asynchronous communication is crucial due to time zone differences. While it may be impossible to bundle all features into one employee app, integration with third-party tools through APIs is helpful.

An employee app for remote workers should make for a company intranet. It should be a source of news on the goings-on within the company. In fact, the management can use it as a tool to affect culture through the communication they share there. The app can serve technical purposes by having a resource pool where technicians can consult colleagues or access training manuals. The app can also be a productivity tool through which customer-facing employees get to serve customers. All these are hinged on the feature list of the app.

Here are X features that are extremely useful for remote work.

Mobile Friendliness

If your business is building any application or website to be used by employees at and away from the office, ensure that it is accessible optimally on mobile devices. This will ensure employees can be productive from the work device they choose to use. Mobile-friendliness is a big determinant of people’s willingness to download and keep using a particular application.  The development team should prioritize proper device optimization.

Chat Functionality

Remote workers thrive when they have real-time chat functionality in their work management applications. They can easily inquire about something from a colleague without having to toggle to their email. Chat applications are great because they can be reviewed later. A team of more than two can take part in a real-time semi-formal conversation without the information leaking to outside parties. Chats are also great for instilling a closer relationship between team members by providing an effective communication channel. All members have a direct line of access to their team leaders and colleagues.

Push Notifications

Push notification capability in an employee app today achieves several things. First, push notifications to nudge people to interact with an app. This will increase the number of people as well the number of times people log into an application. When people log in regularly, the app serves the purpose for which it was developed- to disseminate news. Push notifications are also great for sending out urgent and important information to everyone in the company at the same time. This ensures everyone in the company is duly informed of important developments.

Individual departments can use push notifications to notify people when tasks have been assigned or have fallen due. They can also be used as reminders for upcoming meetings and deadlines.

Meeting Tools

No matter the application your organization chooses to use, meeting tools are critical infrastructure for remote work. Synchronous meetings are important for brainstorming, monitoring project progress, and team building.  A useful feature would be the ability to record meetings and share them with team members who were not present. Meetings can also be archived as proof of deliberations and agreements on important matters.

During meetings, remote team members should be able to share their screens when making presentations. Additionally, note-taking features within the meeting tool eliminate the need to toggle between applications. Notes taken within the meeting platform can easily be shared with team members as a record of the meeting’s highlights and resolutions.

Cloud Storage

Remote teams need secure and easy-to-use storage for their work documents. As such, an employee productivity app needs integration with third-party cloud storage and backup provider. The storage solution should be an easy way to organize, upload, download, or access work documents. Important features here include the ability to safely send links accessible to authorized persons or the ability to password protect documents being sent over the internet. Some sophisticated cloud storage tools have an inbuilt version control system that helps track the history of changes made to a document.

Integration with Document Editing Tools

Remote workers need their employers to provide them with a document editing suite. This suite may be integrated with their main productivity and project management software. When people are using a common document editor, they will have access to similar functionalities. Sharing documents and collaboration will be made much easier.

Inbuilt Survey Tool

If you are building a new employee app, a survey tool would be useful in collecting feedback from your remote team members. In fact, the tool shows that you value their input regarding company issues. Surveys are a great way to quickly judge sentiment on emerging issues. For instance, you could ask employees how they feel about a training program they just completed. In large organizations, surveys may be more cost-effective in collecting information compared to physical interviews or questionnaires.

Focus Mode

We live in a world full of distractions. Emails, messages, notifications, calls, and social media. It would be great to have a focus feature within the productivity application your employees are using while working remotely. The focus tool should be customizable such that the person can choose what notifications to allow. This ensures that they can still respond to urgent matters but can shelve away those that can wait. Cutting away non-essential distractions will help your employees finish tasks faster and get more done in a day.

News and Blogs

An important feature of an app for remote workers is a news and blog section. The news section should include events within the company. The section can also include publications on mainstream media that mention the company or touch on the industry. These stories may interest employees because occurrences in the industry will affect their career curve.

In the blog section, employees should get an opportunity to become contributors. Writing opinion pieces is a great way to grow writing and leadership skills by airing your voice on issues. Employees should be encouraged to do so.

Lastly, the app should also feature an internal job board, where new opportunities within the company are advertised. This feature will increase engagement with the app.

Password Management

If your employees are using several apps for their work, it may be risky when they use one password. A password management tool could help mitigate this security vulnerability by generating different passwords. This is an important feature for organizing that’s handling sensitive information such as client contacts and other personal data.

Prioritizing Features for Remote Work

It’s important to have a clearly mapped out workflow in order to decide on the features to prioritize. In many cases, there will be more than two applications offering the same solution. Your business will need to pick one based on pricing, integration with other apps, the size of the user community, and the level of support provided by the provider.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need for companies to be agile. Providing remote employees with the right tools is critical for their productivity and job satisfaction, too.

If your business is seeking to build an employee productivity and engagement app, reach out to NS804. We are a software building company helping client businesses build custom applications for their workflow. Reach out to us for a free consultation station.

New to Apps? Tips For Beginners

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Mobile applications are the new frontiers in technology. With the ability to support multiple functions such as messaging, social connections, interactions, payments, and banking, apps are proving to be an instrumental force in propelling the mobile revolution.

But, if you’re struggling with learning mobile app development, you’re at the right place. You don’t have to be an expert programmer or a coder to develop an app. With the right knowledge and a solid grasp of one of these programming languages (Java, C++, CSS, and HTML), you can ace any mobile app development journey.

So, if you’re new to apps, here are a few tips for beginners:

1. Start with A Killer Idea

A killer idea is the cornerstone of any successful application. An app must be able to solve a real-life problem and provide an instant solution to a deep-seated problem. So, to get started with apps, draw out a sheet of paper and bring your idea to fruition. Write a list of features you’d like to incorporate into your app, and don’t get lost in the design details. It’s just the beginning!

2. Do Research

Unless you’re creating an app for your purposes, it’s important to ensure you’re providing an entertaining service or fixing problems for people. Find out what features people are looking for in apps and incorporate them to stand out from the competition. Usually, your research should be directed at finding out what’s missing in other apps. Try to fix an existing problem and provide new solutions.

3. Create Mock-ups

At this juncture of your development journey, you should know what you’re building, who it’s for, and what audience you’re targeting. This is the time to think critically about the build itself. Develop rough sketches of your layout known as mock-ups before you start hiring programmers.

4. Get Graphic

As an amateur developer, it’s crucial to be realistic with your programming strengths and weaknesses before you commit to building the first app. This is because you’ll need to hire expert programmers and developers to make your dream a reality. If you’re not a design expert, you can hire an expert developer or programmer. Many companies and agencies offer app development services. So, it’s advisable to select a service provider who offers excellent, quality, timely, and affordable app development services.

5. Lone Ranger

Use an app design template if you’re taking this programming journey alone. You’re free to use the standard design templates to create app features that you can customize later. Some great building block app templates include TETHR, NOW, Stark UI Kit, Apply Pixels, Phoenix, and Stitch.

App Development Journey

It’s important to remember that app development is not a one-off task but a journey. What you do today will impact your app outcomes tomorrow. So, remember that app development is a learning curve that requires patience, discipline, and consistency. Other crucial tips for beginners include:

  • Sort out your Google account. Your Google account will be linked with the app you want to create. So it’s advisable to create a new google account for a new app.
  • Master transfer tools. Most developers and manufacturers provide free (and paid) transfer tools to help developers move old content into a new interface. However, if you’ve been using a Google account before, the content will be transferred automatically without a hitch.

NS804 provides professional app development services.

You can contact NS804 to kick start your app development journey.

Innovative Ways to Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

/0 Comments/in /by

A minimum viable product is a service or a good built to have enough features to satisfy early users. It is a product development approach meant to help builders concentrate and spend resources on the most important features of a product. It also reduces the time to market. The approach also helps to save money by testing the market with a stripped-down version of the product. When looking to build an MVP version of an application, here are some innovative ways to go about it.

Market Research

In whatever market you are looking to enter, it’s important to understand how competitors have positioned themselves. You need to know their product’s strengths and weaknesses. You need to collect enough data to develop and test hypotheses. Market research is therefore crucial in determining the features that will make your product stand out and generate enough traction in the market. You must develop the product on paper before the actual building begins.

Sketch Out the User Flow for the MVP

It’s important to put yourself in the shoes of the intended users of your product to ensure that the MVP satisfies the problem it should. Picture all the scenarios in which the user might intend to use the product. List down all the steps the user goes through to fulfill their need. You then should build your MVP around these steps so that the user experience is satisfying.

Pick the Best Features

Another way of going about the MVP is to list down all the features that a product may have. Next, you can categorize or order them according to their importance. Finally, pick only the best and most important features to include in the MVP. Your product development budget will dictate the number of auxiliary features to be included.

Once you have built your MVP, go through an initial testing phase. Get a few early adopters to try out the product and give feedback on how to improve it.

If your business is seeking a software development partner, NS804 can help you design, build, and launch an MVP. Reach out to us for a free consultation on your business app idea.

 

Differences Between An iPhone App And An Apple Watch App

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

The iOS ecosystem is not only about iPhones but also allows a developer to create the kind of Apple Watch app that will turn heads. But here’s the problem, Apple’s effective marketing machine has unintentionally convinced many that iOS apps are similar across iOS devices. However, that’s not true, and developers must ensure that they don’t fall into the trap of creating apps that don’t take advantage of each device’s unique features.

Due to its form factor, the Apple Watch has a far smaller screen than an iPhone. And thus, developers must take this into account and not try to shoehorn an iPhone app into the confines of an Apple Watch. Below, we go into greater detail about what developers should consider when building an Apple Watch app.

An Apple Watch App Should Show Key Data Points Clearly

Many consumers choose smartwatches over conventional watches due to how easily they can track their fitness levels. And the size of a typical smartwatch screen is large enough to display key health attributes effectively.

Take one of the leading fitness apps on iOS as an example. WorkOutDoors has some notable differences between the iPhone and Apple Watch versions. The iPhone app of WorOutDoors’s user interface (UI) has detailed maps, displays many workout routes, and includes a comprehensive list of settings.

However, that’s not the case with the accompanying smartwatch app, which has a far simpler UI. Key health data points, such as the miles traveled, kCal, and BPM, are displayed clearly with large fonts. A user can quickly digest this information with a casual glance at the smartwatch screen.

The Ideal Apple Watch App Offers The Most Relevant Features

Most iOS users utilize their iPhones or iPads for most of the things they want to do. Whether playing a game, online banking, or video conferencing, a smartphone or tablet works well for these purposes. On the other hand, the smartwatch is not a good option for these particular use cases.

So, when planning and developing a smartwatch app, always consider what features users will most likely use. Focus on the bare essentials, and only include any additional or ‘nice-to-have’ features in your accompanying iPhone app. But ensure that both your Apple Watch and iPhone apps synchronize correctly to provide your users with a rich and seamless experience.

Create Apps That Don’t Drain The Battery Quickly

While the Apple Watch is an impressive piece of technology, it has one notable flaw — it suffers from poor battery life. And users become easily frustrated with any apps that drain the battery quickly. Therefore, ensure that you follow Apple’s best practices and guidelines when developing your Apple Watch app.

And ensure that you’re making your app as lightweight as possible and utilizing native iOS development tools. Furthermore, if your app needs to run any background tasks, keep these to a minimum.

In Conclusion

The smartwatch has become incredibly popular over the past five years. And it’s easy to see why that is, considering all the benefits and features that smartwatches offer over conventional watches. Thus, it’s worthwhile developing a compelling Apple Watch app that takes advantage of its form factor and unique features. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you create stunning iOS apps that will delight your users!

4 Benefits of Incorporating Apps to Improve Employee Culture

/0 Comments/in /by

Organizations think about workplace apps in terms of their influence on employee productivity. Apps are good for improving output or they are a hindrance to output. However, beyond productivity, apps can influence employee culture by improving collaboration and communication. Organizational leaders can be strategic about the type of information they share, the frequency, and the tone to influence culture.

Here are 4 benefits of incorporating apps to improve employee culture.

1. You Can Use Apps to Share Positive Content

When a business builds an internal app for employees, the type of content shared there can build positivity among employees. The organization can curate and share stories of people’s growth within the organization, their highlights, and what they are looking forward to. Such stories will inspire other employees to think about their own careers. Other common themes to focus on would be inclusiveness, customer service, innovativeness, and integrity.

2. Apps Increase Engagement with Employees

An internal employee app can be a platform for employees to share, discuss, and brainstorm on issues at the workplace. If a new tool is being introduced, the platform is a great place for people to share their thoughts, fears, and excitement. The management should strive to make the platform as democratic as possible. They can take the feedback and use it to improve the workplace experience for staff. Such platforms keep the employees engaged and can heavily influence the organizational culture positively.

3. Single Source of Information

In a big organization, misinformation can be highly detrimental to people’s morale, and it can quickly chip away at the culture of an organization.

The app can serve as a central place from where to disseminate information about happenings within the organization. Whether it’s good or bad news, an official statement leaves no room for rumors. In addition, sharing news openly with employees sends the message that the internal leadership of the organization is transparent and open to feedback. Employees are more likely to be forthcoming with information when the organization has already set a precedent for open communication.

Not to mention, an app enables organizations to send out information in rea-time to all employees simultaneously. Employees get to read the information at their own time, thus minimizing disruptions to their workflow.

4. Apps are Great for Branding

An employee app is a great channel for extending the organization’s brand. The colors, layout, and logo on the app should reflect the brand’s visual identity and they should give employees a sense of belonging. They should be able to login and track useful information about their relationship with the organization. This includes their pay and benefits, positions they have applied for, openings, upcoming events, and so on.

Analytics On the App

An employee app can have inbuilt analytics to track user behavior which can inform decision-making. The organization can see the number of users per day, week, or month. This can be a good measure of how engaged employees are. Declining user numbers might warrant a reaction by the organization, including a refresh of the content or a rebrand of the app.

If your organization is considering developing an app to foster employee culture, NS804 can help design and build the app. We will help craft an MVP with all the most important features to keep your employees fully engaged. Reach out to us for a free consultation today.