applico mobile company

White Paper:

Build an App that Gets Used: 7 Necessities of Successful Mobile Applications

© Copyright 2010 by Applico LLC. All rights reserved.

http://www.applicollc.com | [email protected] | 203.295.0569

mailto:[email protected]


© 2010 Applico, LLC. All rights reserved. 2 | P a g e

Table of Contents

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p. 3

I. Navigation …………………………………………………………….….………………………………………………………................ p. 4

Tile Displays and List Displays ……………….…………….….…………………….……………………………………………… p. 4

Tile Displays …..…………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………............ p. 5

Menu Footer and Header ……………………………………………….…………..……………………………………………….. p. 6

Innovative Home Screens ………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………… p. 7

Off-Screen Menus ………………………………………………………………...……………………………………………………… p. 8

Design Advantages – Scrolling …………………………………………………..……………………………………………….. p. 10

Using the iPhone and Android …………………………………………………….……………………………………………… p. 10

Using the Blackberry ……………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………. p. 11

An Alternative to Scrolling ………………………………………………………………..………………………………………… p. 12

II. Application Features Your Users Will Love ……………………………….………….…….………………. p. 13

Push Notifications…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p. 13

What is Push?……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….……………. p. 13

iPhone ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….……………… p. 14

Blackberry……….…………………………………………………………………………………………………….….……………….. p. 15

Android …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...……………….. p. 16

Social Media …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. p. 18

Who Is Using Social Media? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. p. 18

GPS …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………….. p. 18

iPhone ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………….. p. 18

Blackberry………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. p. 18

Monetizing Your App ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. p. 20

Multi-tasking ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. p. 21

Conclusion ………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. p. 22

About Applico…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p. 23



Introduction

Your company made the decision to create a mobile phone application. How will you ensure people will adopt and use your application?

Make Your Application Intuitive

People use mobile applications to find interesting content quickly and easily. Our research and

analytics show that the amount of time people spend within a mobile application directly

correlates to how intuitively the application is designed.

A company may have a terrific idea for an application and may do an even better job marketing

the application to attract customers. But none of that will matter if the application is slow or

hard to use. People want a mobile experience that is efficient, seamless, and engaging.

Otherwise, they will lose interest and search for a better alternative.

To make your application intuitive, you must design it with two criteria in mind: the

application's navigation (how users will find relevant content) and the device's capabilities (the

features users are accustomed to using on the mobile platform).

Understand Where Your Application Will Live

In order to make your application intuitive on a specific mobile platform, the navigation and

device capabilities must be designed for that platform. iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android users

all interact with their phones in different ways. By designing your application for a specific

platform, you can create a product based upon how consumers already interact with their

phones. This will make your application easy to understand and fun for people to explore.

An application will be a profitable investment if the users can access its content in an intuitive

way.

To help you get there, this white paper will:

Explain how to incorporate navigation into your application

Explain the unique capabilities of the three mobile platforms

Review best practices and examples of existing applications

In the end, you will know how to design a mobile application and make your mobile

investment profitable and beneficial to your users.



I. Navigation

Every application has a home page and an inner screen. These are the first parts of the mobile

application that users will see and interact with. Therefore, they need to be easy to understand

and catch the user's attention.

Tile Displays and List Displays

For the home screen on touch screen devices, tile displays provide a good format if there are a

lot of different content sections in the application as seen in the Where application screenshot.

List displays are good for home screens that have different sections, as seen in the Men's

Health screenshot.

On trackpad devices (like those who use the Blackberry), users have to scroll up and down or

left and right to navigate through tile displays which can be cumbersome. List displays are

easier because they simplify the process into just moving up and down to make a selection.

While touch screen users can scroll too, these users have the ability to select an item anywhere

on the screen in a single motion. A simple "press and go" is the paradigm for them.

Inner pages usually have a lot more options than the home screen. Therefore, a list display is

preferable.

List Display



Tile Displays

On the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry Storm, you can display 9 menu icons on one screen.

With one click, the user has 9 different possible options. On the iPhone, if the user swipes to

the left, 9 more icons appear. This gives the user 18 options with 2 swipes.

BlackBerry keyboard devices users would find the tile display above extremely frustrating. Their

screens have roughly half the size of any touchscreen devices. By looking at only half this menu,

BlackBerry users would have to remember which icons were located off the screen.

When creating an application, programmers should avoid creating work for their users. Place every

main navigation option on one screen. If you can’t, use secondary navigation screens to keep all

the navigational tools to a single screen.

One click to open one of 9 icons An example of a menu footer



Menu Footer and Header

Menu footers and headers provide users with an easy way to switch between the different

sections in your application. Instead of requiring users to navigate back to the main screen to

access the menu, they can just click the desired section from their current page.

A menu header

A menu footer

The iPhone's menu footer feature provides a convenient way for users to navigate between

screens without returning to the main menu. This feature is particularly useful because the

iPhone—unlike the Android and Blackberry—has no “back” button built into the phone's

hardware.

Menu footers or headers can also be incorporated into BlackBerry and Android applications.

There are seen less often, however, due to the built-in "back" button on both of these devices.

On BlackBerry applications with no touch screen capabilities, it can be an annoyance for users

to have to scroll to the top of the page to switch between screens.

For example, if you scroll through a list of tweets and want to quickly access the Menu header

to switch to a different screen, having to scroll back up to the top of the screen is not ideal. To

mitigate this issue, incorporate common key "shortcuts" by allowing users to press the "t"

button to return to the top of the screen. Learn more about this in the Design Advantages -

Scrolling section.



Innovative Home Screens

If your application has one specific purpose, let consumers realize that purpose as fast as

possible. Here are a couple examples of applications that have done just that.

The Urbanspoon iPhone application lets users search for restaurants directly from the home

screen.

The Pandora Android application lets users control their songs from the home screen of their

device without having to open the application.

Urbanspoon iPhone application

Pandora Android application



Laying Out a Tile Display

Tile displays look great—except when they get too cluttered. In

this example, the clutter and a lack of direction create a

confusing page.

Keep things simple and straightforward. If users cannot identify

the purpose of a screen within a couple seconds, you will lose

their attention. Let study groups be the litmus test for your

application and incorporate their feedback into your

requirements, analysis and design.

Off-Screen Menus

On the Android and BlackBerry, the devices are equipped

with physical buttons to pull up a Menu. The Menu allows

you to design your application so that only the most important items are displayed on the

screen. The non-essential items are left in the Menu. These items can include Options or

Settings, Share to Facebook or Twitter, Login or Logout, Help, etc.

Sometimes users do not press the Menu button and do not have a lot of time to explore the

application. Make sure that everything essential to the application is displayed on the screen, or

users are likely to miss it.

Here, clutter and lack direction create

a confusing page

Facebook’s Menu allows users to perform tasks not available on the screen as well as the same tasks

available on the screen

Google Maps’ Menu is the only way for a user to control the application



In certain situations, you will want to use the entire screen for a single purpose and won’t have

any room for other options. For example, when showing a map, often times you will want to

have the map displayed on the entire screen. In these situations, you can place a lot of the main

control functions in the Menu instead of on the screen.

Facebook’s Menu allows users to use applications that are not visible on the screen at the same

time as ones that are available on the screen.



Design Advantages – Scrolling

For both trackpad and touchscreen devices, scrolling plays an integral part in data rich mobile

applications. Ensure that navigating up and down lists of information and menu options is

efficient, fun, and easy.

Using the iPhone and Android

Scrolling on the touchscreens of both iPhone and Android devices is natural and fluid. Users can

navigate to the top or bottom of a list by using a finger to stroke or flick the length of the screen

one, two, or three times.

Each vertical iPhone and Android flick allows a user to cycle through a maximum of about 7

screen lengths. The images below show an iPhone screen before and after a user scrolls down

with one flick.

As you can see in the pre- and post-flick screenshots above, the user almost reached the

bottom of their restaurant list with one movement.

Both iPhone and Android users can quickly flick through lists, and can stop mid-scroll with the

touch of a finger.

Before After



Using the BlackBerry

Both BlackBerry models—trackpad and touchscreen—make scrolling more difficult.

Each vertical BlackBerry scroll on a trackpad or trackball allows the user to cycle through a

maximum of about half a screen length. The images below show a BlackBerry screen before and

after a user scrolls down with one swipe.

Unfortunately, the user was only able to scroll down 4 items with one movement.

The BlackBerry storm is an exception because it has a touch screen. Each vertical flick allows the

user to cycle through a maximum of about 3 screen lengths.

BlackBerry users are familiar with using their keyboard to navigate.

Specifically, let users click the "t", "b", and space bar keys to allow for easy navigation. The "t"

and "b" keys will bring the user to the top or bottom of a list. The space bar will allow the user

to jump down the list by about 10 items each time.

Before After



An Alternative to Scrolling

Every mobile device lets its users scroll alphabetically somehow. If a BlackBerry user clicks a

letter, he or she will jump down the list to the first item in a letter’s listing.

iPhone users can choose from a list of letters on the right-hand side of the screen to

immediately jump to that letter.

Selecting a letter on the iPhone

Clicking a letter on the BlackBerry



II. Application Features Your Users

Will Love

Keep users interested in an application.

Push Notifications

What is Push?

A push notification is an Internet-based communication method through which data is sent

from a server to a mobile application. The company's server originates the push message and

sends it to either Apple's, RIM's (BlackBerry's), or Google's servers. Their servers then send the

message to the mobile application. Push notifications can have one-to-one or one-to-many

relationships. Scaling messages from tens to thousands of users is relatively easy for the

originating company's servers.

You can specify which users should receive a push message. Therefore, only users who you

deem appropriate will receive your desired communication.

For example, if you had a restaurant app, you could send a user a push message reminding

them that Friday night is date night, which will point them to your application to pick a new

dining experience.

Push notifications provide a great way to keep users interested in an application. They are

efficient, do not drain battery life, and deliver content to users in a timely manner.



iPhone

iPhone push is not as robust as BlackBerry. The payload size—how much information you can

send in a push message—is a lot smaller than BlackBerry. Also, you cannot receive a delivery

confirmation when your message is successfully sent to a device.

The iPhone offers a useful push option that allows you to give your application a “red badge”

which indicates that new content is available. While the red badge serves as a good notification,

you can only use the standard iPhone popup icon, rather than customizing the popup window

when a new push message arrives.

Popup for Push Notification Red Badge indicator that a new

message is available



BlackBerry

Blackberry offers more creative methods to send push messages. You can give the application a

badge and put a home-screen indicator at the top of the user's screen just as if they received a

new email. Push on BlackBerry also allows you to create popup notifications that will trigger

your application to open. This function operates with the standard BlackBerry popups, or you

can create custom ones. Users also have the option to reply to a push notification from within

the popup itself.

A BlackBerry push notification A BlackBerry push notification can let users

respond with a text response

An example of a custom popup



Android

For now, you need to have direct approval from Google to incorporate the push service into

your Android application. The Android push operates in a similar fashion to Apple's push

notification system, but, again, is not as robust as the BlackBerry push service.

Push notifications are included in the 2.2 Froyo update, which was released to the developer

community in late June 2010. This update, which is packaged as Google's push notification

service, is called Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM).



Social Media

Your application delivers value and content to your users. Let them share it with their friends!

Integrating your application with social networks enables your application to take advantage of

the thousands of existing contacts users have in their networks. If leveraged correctly, social

networks could help your mobile application experience exponential growth.

Every time a user posts an application message on a social network, all of their friends can see

the content and which application the content came from. These friends can also click on the

name of the application to go to its website.

Who Is Using Social Media?

From our research, Android users are the most likely to share

information from an application with friends through social

networks.

Applications can integrate with social networks like Facebook and

Twitter. First, the user has to log-in to their social media account.

Once that happens, the application will have permission to access

that social media account. On Twitter, users can post a tweet to

their profile or follow other users. On Facebook, users can post

messages to their profiles and "like" fan pages.

On Twitter, users can post a tweet to their profile or follow other users. On Facebook, users can

post messages to their profiles and "like" fan pages.

Twitter links to your application

The login credentials needed to

register a Twitter account from

within an application



GPS

Every platform offers GPS functionality.

iPhone

The iPhone GPS is fantastic. If the iPhone's GPS is turned off,

certain applications approved by Apple can prompt the user

to turn it on from within the application.

This convenient feature allows the user to utilize their GPS

without leaving the application. Other third-party

applications require you to turn on GPS from the iPhone's

Settings page.

If an application attempts to get a user's location information,

a popup will appear asking for permission.

Android

Android has a similar process. The user can go through additional screens to turn on the GPS

and then press the "back" button to return to the application.

In newer versions, third-party applications have the ability to

prompt users to turn on their GPS from within the application.

BlackBerry

BlackBerry has the least user-friendly GPS functionality and

BlackBerry users are least likely to keep their GPS turned on. To

access GPS when it is turned off, the BlackBerry user has to exit

the application they are currently using, go into Options menu,

select Advanced options, then GPS, and then turn on the GPS

program. Then, the user has to return to the application.

Furthermore, it takes a frustrating 5-15 seconds on average to

receive GPS coordinates on the BlackBerry.

Five steps and a longer-than-average wait will make many BlackBerry GPS users give up and call

their friends for directions. Unless GPS is vital for your application, use cell site triangulation to

acquire the user's location instead.

Turn on GPS from within an

Application on the iPhone

There is a separate screen to turn

on Android GPS



The below screenshots illustrate the three steps it takes to turn on the GPS on a BlackBerry

once the user exits their application and opens up the BlackBerry Options menu.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3



Monetizing Your App

The Apple store makes it very convenient to buy applications. You can also incorporate "in-app"

purchases. This means users can buy individual items or digital content from within your

application. To date, only Apple has this functionality.

Both the Apple and Google Application Stores accept credit cards and have an easy online

checkout processes. Currently, the BlackBerry Application Store only accepts PayPal. They will

begin allowing credit cards purchases later in 2010.

The below screenshots show the three-step process for making an in-application purchase on

the iPhone platform:

An iPod in-app purchase



Multi-tasking

What does multi-tasking mean? It means that your application can be awake and processing

while you are not even using the phone. For example, an application can run in the background

to automatically backup information (such as new contact or calendar entries) while your

phone is idle.

The BlackBerry and Android have true multi-tasking capabilities. The iPhone does not, even in

the new iOS4.

Only approved applications by Apple like Mobile Me have multi-tasking functionality for the

iPhone. To date, no third-party application has access to this functionality.

Apple's iOS4 allows up to three main functions to run in the background. For instance, you can

play music, use VoIP to answer phone calls, and find an address via GPS while performing other

tasks on the phone.

iOS4 also lets third-party applications "pause" while users switch to another application. If a

user leaves your application, they can easily return to where they left off.



Conclusion

If you are ready to build an application, this material will help your users enjoy the

application and keep coming back for more.

People leaving their house these days check to make sure they have three things: their keys,

their wallet, and their mobile phone. If your application is on one of the three major mobile

phone platforms, you are well on your way to changing the way your company does business.

Design is Key

Simply deciding to create an application is not enough to make sure it will be used. As we have

demonstrated, the way you design your application can make or break your investment's

profitability.

Pay Attention to Platforms

The iPhone, BlackBerry and Android are becoming the new Ford, GM and Chrysler in terms of

brand loyalty. But these platforms provide different functionality to their users and their users

interact differently with each platform.

Create the Best User Experience You Can

Terrific design not only gives users a good experience, but it also determines in large part the

growth and ultimate success of your application. Users who enjoy your application will keep it

on their phone. Even better, if you develop a great application, people will refer to it more

often and recommend it to their friends. However, if users remove your application from their

phones, they will not be likely to download it again, regardless of any improvements or updates

you make to the application. The application's utility to the user will be tarnished.

If you are ready to build an application, this material will help you design it in an intuitive way

to give it the best chance of success in the marketplace.



About Applico

Applico creates intuitive and scalable mobile solutions for brands and agencies across all mobile

platforms. The company has operations in Greenwich, CT and Manhattan.

We are a group of people who love what we do and build great mobile solutions. Our team

comes from diverse backgrounds and we leverage our different skill sets throughout all of our

work. We value creativity, intelligence, and respectfulness.

Applico has experience in custom Mobile Application Development on all the major mobile

platforms for customers around the world. The firm’s clients include Fortune 500 companies,

marketing and advertising agencies, Men's Health, Carbonite, financial institutions, as well as

start-ups.

About the Founder and President

Alex Moazed works with digital, creative and interactive agencies as well as marketing,

technology and Fortune 500 companies to develop award-winning mobile phone applications

as the President and CEO of Applico. These companies have relied on Alex for his experience

with acquisitions and licensing throughout the mobile phone industry and have seen his work

by Fortune, CNN, and Entrepreneur. At Applico, Alex is in charge of management and strategic

direction. He is a graduate of Babson College.

Email: [email protected] | twitter: alexmoazed

Contact Us

Website: http://www.applicollc.com | Press Inquiries: [email protected] | Phone: 1 203.295.0569

http://www.applicollc.com/

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