Five Tips for Application Development

Question: What sort of an application do you need?

Tip One: Often, when people think about building an application, their first thought is a downloadable mobile app. This is often not the best option as it restricts the use of the application to phones. In most cases, the best option is a website application that is built to be mobile friendly.  Website applications can be used on laptops, tablets, and on mobile phones. 

Question: Who is the audience(s) for your application, and what is your goal for (each) audience? 

Tip Two: The first step when defining a new application is to define the audiences for the application, being aware there may be more than one. For each audience, define your goal: how will your application benefit them, and how will that benefit you?

Question: Do you have a general idea of what the application will do, but are a little stuck on how to add details?

Tip Three: Start by creating a process flow diagram of how users will interact with the application. This will give you a high-level overview of all functionality. This also centers users from the very beginning, which is vital to a successful application.

Tip Four: Use your overview process flow diagram to create a roadmap for development phases.  As you reach each new development phase, define the lower-level details for that phase building on what you have already built.

Question: How do you design an application that users will want to use?

Tip Five: Use a User Experience (UX) Designer to design the site. This is a discipline that focuses on centering the user in every design decision and looks at:

 “not only the beauty and function of a product, but also things like delight, and emotion.”

Athena Consultants

www.athenaconsultants.com

978-512-9873