In this video we address the question, “How should we deliver this mobile app to the end user?” as it pertains to the different types of mobile applications available.

When deciding what type of mobile app to create, it is important to keep in mind how you will deliver your app to the end user. In the first blog of our series, Mobile Application Strategy: What Type of App Should We Build?, we introduced three common types of mobile apps:

• Mobile web applications
• Native applications
• Hybrid applications

Each of these apps has it own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to delivery.

Mobile Web Applications

Mobile web applications have the advantage of simple deployment. Every time the end user visits the site, they receive the most up-to-date version of the application.

Native Applications

Native applications are generally distributed through an app store and must be updated on occasion. From the perspective of an end-user, this process is streamlined, however from the developer’s perspective it’s not so simple. App store approval can be difficult, even for app updates.

Hybrid Applications

As one might expect, hybrid apps have the ability to bridge the gap between mobile web and native applications. Monetization through an app store is one of the reasons that some choose to build hybrid applications, as opposed to native applications.

When choosing what type of application to create, it’s important not only to consider distribution, but also support.

In closing, Fusion Alliance’s Mobile Application team believes that “should we create a web or native mobile app?” is the wrong question to lead with. Collectively, the questions we’ve outlined in our Mobile Strategy series—around audience, business objectives, user experience, devices and their capabilities, distribution and support—deliver a holistic mobile strategy that will result in a mobile app, web or native that will provide the most impact for your business.

Go Mobile
Ready to start developing a mobile web app for your business? Contact us, we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

When creating Device Experience categories consider the following:

• Usage and user posture: lean-back experience (10 feet), stationary use at a desk, on-the-go or shared use
• Input methods: remote, touch and gestures, mouse and keyboard
• Display or screen size: wall-sized, desk-sized, lap-sized, palm-sized, or wrist-sized

Optimizing an experience for a device, leveraging its capabilities and embracing its constraints can result in some truly unique experiences that build loyalty and excitement with consumers. Consider Xfinity’s suite of device experiences, each optimized for usage, input methods and display size:

Approaching multi-device design from this perspective requires a larger investment in user experiences created for each Device Experience category, which may not be feasible for some organizations. Organizations in this situation may choose to target initially only the device experiences that provide the most critical mass for their business, but shouldn’t overlook the potential benefits of creating a multi-device platform for interactions with customers.

• Mobile internet adoption has outpaced desktop internet adoption by eight times (source)
• Smartphone sales have surpassed worldwide PC sales (source)
• Native mobile app use is now equal to mobile browser use, which is just one app (source)

You can’t ignore the age of mobile if you have a new digital project in mind and should consider making strategic shift to Mobile First design. Designing the user experience (UX) for a mobile device is not as simple as porting an existing application to fit on a smaller screen. The UX should be optimized for mobile devices, their varying screen sizes and interaction behaviors in combination with the elimination of all but the most useful, usable and desirable features of an app.

It can be argued that a Mobile First design approach that focuses on the elimination of all but the most useful, usable and desirable features can make the user experience of other channels, such as the desktop, better. Luke Wroblewski, author of the book Mobile First, has used the following example to illustrate this point:

When comparing the Southwest Airlines desktop website and the iPhone app it becomes clear that visitors to the desktop website will have to filter out a great deal more information in order to find and complete a common task like checking a flight status.

Now, compare a redesigned desktop version of the Southwest website to the iPhone app. Both designs have eliminated everything but what matters most to the consumer and business creating an arguably more useful and usable user experience for visitors.

A shift to a Mobile First design approach is something worth considering as you develop projects in the age of mobile.

SMS 4 ROI: The Case for <3ing Text

• Segmentation – Identify what motivates segments of your audience to respond to valued messaging. Is it a timely SMS, a brand event or a product launch discount?
• SMS can be used for self-service, alert messaging (which could be location-based), up-selling and multi-message interactions
• SMS can compliment other channels and should not be a silo
• SMS is 1-to-1

QR Codes: Scan or Scam?

• QR codes can connect and extend integrated marketing efforts
• The QR code open standard is the category killer over the proprietary Microsoft Tag and Jagtag

They can be used to enhance:

• Discovery of the world around you
• Depth of information not readily apparent
• Simplicity of interaction
• Surprising experiences “on the other side”
• Exclusivity for those with access

When developing a QR code strategy consider:

• touch point (shopping)
• audience mind-set (seeking justification)
• placement (on a product display)
• payoff (product reviews)

Mobile Apps and the Battle for Screen Time

• Discoverability – How to get your app noticed in Exploding App Stores. A panelist, Fiksu, offers a free ebook Best Practices for Growing Your Mobile App Business.
• Push Notifications – A great way to drive users back to apps but may have some backlash if too frequent. Apps now are asking users to opt-in to push notifications only after a user has opened the app 3 or 4 times.
• Metrics – Focusing on loyal users not downloads (defining a loyal user depends on your objectives, a loyal user may be one who makes a purchase, launches the app multiple times, etc)

Email Design in the Mobile Inbox Age

When considering how you will address mobile deliverability and design, consider the following:

• Technology (Code), Content (Presentation), Experience (Conversion)
• Execution (One off), Sustainability (every send), Scalability (Across and entire program)

As I left the conference I wondered if email design could benefit from a Mobile First philosophy.

SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, & FOLLOWERS: The Latest Research Insights

Love their SFF research on user behavior. ExactTarget has dug deep into our behaviors around email, social media and mobile. Be sure to check the reports out. Specifically, report #9 Mobile Dependence Day.

Email + Mobile: SMS, Apps, & More

Mobile is the Glue!

Gestural App Interfaces

The gestural or touch interfaces found on touchscreen devices like those running Apple’s iOS offer new and exciting opportunities for interaction design. Preliminary user research by Nielsen Norman Group on the usability of apps for the iPad, brings to light several usability insights for interaction designers to consider. Their report, iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing indicate that touch apps should seek to:

• Utilize consistent gestures for common tasks, typically established by the OS, enabling users to transfer their skills from one app to the next
• Ensure that UI elements have substantial visual affordance for feature discoverablity
• Provide support for standard navigation such as a Back button, search, clickable headlines and a homescreen
• Allow users to focus on the content as opposed to wondering how an app is used

Utilize emerging standards for touch behaviors: Windows Phone 7 Gesture Guidelines

The “Mobile Web”

In addition to mobile app usage, accessing the web on mobile devices is on the rise. NN/g’s Mobile Usability Report took a look at websites and found that most received very low scores especially when users accessed “full” sites that weren’t designed for mobile. Challenges for mobile web usability and some ways to overcome them include:

• Small screens – Provide fewer visible options so users can gain awareness of the information space
• Awkward input – Ensure links and interface controls have larger hit areas for touch interaction, are spaced out, and avoid precise text entry requirements
• Download delays – Remove, don’t just hide from view, extraneous content and images, compress images and reduce page weight, and avoid requiring users to download desktop-focused JavaScript and CSS assets
• Mis-designed sites – Optimize websites for mobile access by scaling back functionality, detecting mobile devices and serving users the “Mobile Site” while offering users a link back to the “Full Site” to support advanced features

Fusion recommends starting with these emerging best practices when designing a mobile app or website. While user behavior in the rapidly changing mobile space will take time to fully understand, fundamental usability principals can always be drawn upon and, when combined with user testing, provide a more satisfying user experience. An experience users are more likely to return to.

Metro UI Marketplace Panoramic Hub

As with other modern smartphone platforms Microsoft announced the accompanying Marketplace app store with all the usual suspects (foursquare, Last.fm, Twitter, etc.). Apps for the platform are built with Microsoft’s Silverlight and XNA technologies. Tools and information on app development are available on the App Hub.

The one downside of the new phone may be its Internet Explorer browser, while an improvement over past MS mobile browsers it doesn’t match the capabilities of WebKit, the browser found on iOS, Android and other mobile platforms. Time will tell if businesses, a traditionally strong Microsoft customer, and consumers are willing to give the Windows Phone a fresh look.

The ability of Apple’s App Store to deliver innovative capabilities to it’s mobile consumers via a successful developer eco-system hasn’t gone unnoticed. App stores now exist for many mobile device platforms from phones (Blackberry App World) to netbooks (Intel AppUp) and is moving into the more traditional desktop and web app space with the soon to be released Mac Store and Chrome Web Store.

The increased level of choice offered by the growth of these stores present numerous user experience challenges for app discoverability, overwhelming consumers and frustrating developers. For consumers, the simple grouping, listing and search design patterns used by these stores may need to evolve to include advanced filtering and faceted search capabilities. Additionally, recommendation engines like Apple’s Genius and the recently released StumbleUpon mobile app may offer some relief.

For developers, combating app overload consists of first focusing on the creation of relevant apps, those that leverage mobile’s immediacy, location-awareness, always-on presence, personalization and self-service capabilities in innovative ways. Secondly, promoting their app with tactics such as:

• Development of a splash page, social media participation and accompanying search optimization
• Posting sneak peaks on sites like Dribble, Forrst, or audience relevant blogs
• Creation of teaser videos showcasing key features
• Recruitment of beta testers
• Sharing promo codes with key influencers or offering apps for free for a limited time

Pastebot Splash Page

Enhancing app discoverability will keep the number of apps growing by allowing users to discover that ideal “long-tail” app for their needs and another $0.99 in a developers pocket.

Web designers have developed many methods over the years to present a brand’s typefaces online. Each of these techniques, images, Flash-replacement, etc. have associated technical and/or user experience trade-offs. With the release of the latest crop of web browsers and the availability of type licensed for web use, web font embedding has finally come of age as a viable option for expressing a brand’s typeface online.

This website itself has utilized these new font developments to extend the Fusion Alliance brand investment into the digital space. As part of our re-branding effort we sought out typography that represented the brand and was available in both print and web font families. Even if your brand already has existing type standards and you compromised in the past on an alternative font choice, you should take the time to investigate the availability of your brands typefaces in a web format.

There are two options for getting web fonts into your site. Purchasing web fonts from foundries licensing web font families or utilizing a font hosting service to serve fonts to your site. Licensing and service costs vary and will impact how you want to proceed. But, your brand identity is a valuable asset. It differentiates your organization from competitors and communicates your personality to potential customers. With web fonts moving into the mainstream, compromising on type choices in the digital space may become a thing of the past. Companies spend many thousands of dollars on web design and SEO, the added benefits of web fonts to help develop the brand online is definitely worth the cost.

Ready to get started? You can do it in a few easy steps:

1. Try out web fonts on your site
2. Review the resources below
3. Contact us for further information on how your brand can take advantage of the wonderful world of web fonts

Web Font Resources:

• FontShop – Introducing Web FontFonts
• FontShop – About Web FontFonts
• FontShop – Web FontFonts
• Typekit – Font hosting service
• Typekit – Adobe partners with Typekit to bring legendary typefaces to the web
• Google Font Directory
• FontSquirrel