Keep The Noise Down

10 simple things to consider when building an iPhone app

It’s that time of year when lysteria (ahem, the hysteria around creating a list) takes a hold. Whether it’s Five Trend Predictions for 2010 or a Top Ten Apps of 2009, it seems that just about everyone is putting out a list of some sort. 

As I read over some scribbles this morning on designing iPhone apps, I noticed there were 10 individual points.  How convenient.  So straight out of my notebook comes yet another list =>10 simple things to consider when building an iPhone app.

     
1 Are you giving your audience something of value? 

A successful iPhone application addresses real customers.  For every iPhone application that is the result of a rigorous user centric design approach there will be one that fails to consider who the users are, their behavior, and how they will interact with the application. Keep asking yourself, who is your target audience and are you giving your target audience something of value.

Pinch Media findings from earlier in the year showed that repeat use of iPhone apps is generally low.  The headlines were that only 20 percent of people that download a free application from the app store use the app the next day.  And by 30 days that figure has fallen to less than 5%. For paid applications, the return rate is only slightly better. Much conversation that followed this was on how to give iPhone apps more stickiness.  The conversation is better focused on how to create customer value. Give your customers value and they’ll come back.

2 Understand the context?

The iPhone provides exciting opportunities because it allows users to interact in more places and in a more engaging way, and at different times of the day.   It’s important to understand the environment in which your customer may interact with the application.  Consider what it means to your application if your target user will typically use it on an underground commute (with no network connection) or how they would interact with the application during the hustle and bustle of a department store.

3 Does the functionality help your target audience achieve their goal? 

Don’t make the mistake of discussing what functionality to offer but what user goals you should serve for the target audience. This avoids common failings such as feature bloat, where features are placed ahead of better experiences.  It is easy to create a rich feature list but the challenge is to understand the customer and pare down this feature list so that it does fewer things, better and in a simpler way, and all with the purpose of helping the users to achieve their goal.

 

4 Understand how people user iPhone apps.

iPhone apps are more transient experience than traditional online experiences.  Customers use them briefly and move on.  These considerations are vital when designing iPhone apps. Long complex tasks are unlikely to be completed as users are distracted or disengaged.

 

Even when these applications do address customers’ needs, and there is an understanding of the customer behavior many applications don’t make sense to customers because of a poor design execution. Key characteristics that are fundamental to the iPhone application include simplicity, ease-of-use, responsiveness and an engaging & delightful experience. So here’s the remainder of the list on design considerations…

 

5 Focus on the essentials

The screen size of 480 x 320 pixels provides obvious design implications. A usable application is one where the user can focus on the essentials.  It’s about stripping out the unnecessary to create a simplified user interface which is easy to read.  The design objective is to keep the user experience focused on the task.  Screen clutter distracts and hinders the user from performing the intended action.  This is less about minimalist design but more about focused design.

 

6 Is it finger friendly?

The iPhone browsing experience is a different beast to the online browsing experience. The iPhone is a gestural interface, with precision mouse control & clicks replaced by the finger.  This enables users to interact in a far more natural and intuitive manner, responding to gestures such as tap, flick & pinch.  Successful implementation requires supporting standard gestures such as tap, flick and pinch appropriately and providing immediate feedback.  Gesture support manifests itself in the interface, as the layout is optimized for fingers, providing a finger tappable area for all tappable elements.  Fingers don¹t have the same level of precision as a mouse, so make sure all interactive elements are sized and spaced to optimise gestural interactions.

7 iPhone has its limitations. 

Users have high expectations of performance.  Therefore design your application with bandwidth in mind. Desktop Internet experiences provide a visually engaging experience without the same bandwidth constraints, therefore images and rich media are heavily used. However, when it comes to mobile design, these rich elements can do more harm than good if they provide a sub-optimal experience. 

8 Delight the user

iPhone apps are expected to be enjoyable to use  - so whilst they are purposeful they need to delight. A delightful experience creates an emotional connection and a customer who is emotionally engaged will interact longer.

9 Is it intuitive?

From the moment the launch screen appears it must be immediately apparent to the user what the application does and instantly understandable as to how to interact with it. iPhone users are impatient and if it takes too much time figuring out what to do then the user will tune out. 

 

10 Is the flow streamlined?

iPhone are seldom built to rely on long attention spans. It’s important that the user can complete the tasks in not too many steps.

 

DearSteveJobs: Cute PR Stunt

 

SVT, a Swedish public television broadcaster has highlighted the often criticized slow iPhone app approval process with http://dearstevejobs.com - a web site intended to grab the attention of Apple CEO Steve Jobs and publicise the time that some apps sit and wait before getting approval to join their fellow apps in the iPhone app store. This is a clever PR stunt supported by additional activities such as protesting outside the Apple headquarters dressed in iPhone costumes. It’s a cute PR stunt, that hopefully is a reflection of the creativity in the actual iPhone app.

Visit the campaign site > http://dearstevejobs.com

See demo of the SVT Play iPhone application:

Shutl : Redefining eCommerce

It’s three years since I last wrote a post on the importance of a sound ecommerce delivery proposition.  In this time we’ve seen a significant improvement in online delivery propositions; better communication around the proposition, more choice on when the order can be delivered, better delivery pricing etc  Some retailers have listened to their customers and responded to their demand for more convenience. Customer concerns with timings is driven by their increasingly hectic lifestyles – “I need something in time for the party”, “I’m only at home between 1 & 5 as I need to pick the kids up at 5:30”  …

Many online etailers offer more choice to meet the demands and growing expectations of online shoppers with delivery options such as same day, named day, weekend delivery & in store collection. Despite these improved delivery services, surveys regularly show that customers still feel that retailers are not delivering on convenience. Not enough retailers are providing flexible delivery options, and even those that do could offer more. And in many cases delivery choice is regarded as a premium service, accompanied by a hefty price tag.

Along comes an ambitious Start-up, Shutl, that could be a game changer in the way that it offers fast delivery without the price tag.  Shutl is the brainchild of Tom Allason the founder & former CEO of eCourier.co.uk in 2008. Shutl will allow online shoppers to receive their orders within 90 minutes of placing the order as well as 1-hour delivery windows. And the best bit for the customer is that Shutl says that in many cases the cost of a Shutl delivery will be similar to cost of the ecommerce site’s standard delivery.

 
 

How does Shutl work?

Shutl acts as the middleman between retailers and customers, connecting retailers with local courier companies that collect the order and deliver direct to the customer.  The Shutl platform applies a  complex proprietary algorithm to determine the courier and quotes a price to the customer.

When & where does Shutl launch?

Initially this service will be launched in London only.  The plan is to roll out this service to the rest of the UK by end of 2010.

It launches early 2010 with some smaller shops, although a larger store has signed up to use this service.  The first businesses to trail Shutl include StartLondon, Alexandalexa.com, Georginagoodman, Lily and Lionel,  Something and Zuneta.

Redefining eCommerce

It will be interesting to see which retailers can support this as this service is limited to retailers that keep their stock on-site, so more suited to smaller retailers.

Let’s hope Shutl’s vision to ‘redefine commerce’ is realized.  This has the potential to be a real game-changer.  Keep up with announcements by following @shutl

 

Could the challenge of buying that last minute present without paying through the nose for same day delivery soon be a thing of the past?

All I want for Christmas is…

All I want for Christmas is a decent Christmas Number One single.

The X Factor has a festive stranglehold over the charts with Simon Cowell’s manufactured mob bagging the last 4 Christmas Number One’s.  Yet this year sees a protest against the dominance of such manufactured music.  Hosted on the social networking site, Facebook, a group titled Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No.1  is campaigning to take the Christmas spot away from the eventual X Factor winner. 

Last year saw similar groups rally for Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley's version of Hallejuah to beat Alexandra Burke's version to number one spot.  These were spirited campaigns but in the end the manufactured pop princess held on to take the coveted Christmas No.1 spot by some margin; Alexandra Burke sold 576,000 and Jeff Buckley just 80,000.

But the past 12 months has seen Twitter continue its staggering growth and this might just be the tipping point as a growing army of people who want to celebrate authentic & genuine musical talent now have greater reach. 

More people will be exposed to this campaign. More people will tell their friends.  More people will buy the Rage Against the Machine single.  And hopefully more people will have a better Christmas.

 

Pledge your support to 'Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No.1'

If you want to support this protest against manufactured music then become a fan of the Facebook group Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No.1 and purchase a copy of Rage Against the Machine's ‘Killing In The Name’ between Sunday Dec 13^th & Saturday Dec 19^th.

ONLY buy the track from 7Digital, iTunes or Play.com between .

At the time of writing over 163,000 have joined the Facebook Group & pledged their support for this campaign.

And here’s the interesting bit ...

William Hill’s Odds for Christmas Number One are as follows:  1/10 X Factor Winner, 16/1 Susan Boyle, 16/1 Leona Lewis, 16/1 Rage Against The Machine, 20/1 Vera Lynn, 25/1 Boyzone, 25/1 Cheryl Cole, 25/1 The Soildiers, 33/1 Michael Jackson, 33/1 Peter Kay …

So here are 3 simple steps for a better Christmas:

1: Put a £10 bet on at William Hill for Rage Against the Machine to be Christmas Number One.

2: Wait until Sunday Dec 13^th  then go to  7Digital, iTunes or Play.com and buy your copy of 'Killing In The Name' by Rage Against the Machine. 

3: Tweet, Facebook, email, WOM or whatever….just go tell everyone you know to do the same. 

Make yourself a little Christmas earner, with the added knowledge that you’ve done your bit for decent music.  Remember piracy isn’t killing the industry, crap manufactured music is.

Artists are needy types