Mobile Apps Archives - Alessio Bresciani /tag/mobile-apps/ digital marketing blog Thu, 17 Mar 2022 04:31:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 /wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cropped-AlessioBresciani_Favicon-32x32.gif Mobile Apps Archives - Alessio Bresciani /tag/mobile-apps/ 32 32 Netflix’s Small Changes Make Big Ripples /leadership/netflixs-small-changes-make-big-ripples/ /leadership/netflixs-small-changes-make-big-ripples/#respond Mon, 10 Apr 2017 21:58:50 +0000 /?p=2455 Big news in the digital world… over the last week, Netflix introduced two changes to the way its content is displayed to its user base. With 93m users logging in…

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Big news in the digital world… over the last week, Netflix introduced two changes to the way its content is displayed to its user base. With 93m users logging in every month, even these small changes will have a big impact.[1]

First, Netflix removed the five star rating that is displayed across its content. Like others, I assumed that this star rating system reflected the ratings for shows and movies by real users. But as described by Netflix, the star rating system was actually a rating of how various content would be a potential match to your personal preferences. So whilst you might see five stars for House of Cards, your neighbour might only see three stars. In place of this rating system, Netflix introduced a ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’ way for users to cast their vote on content.[2]

The second change is to also replace the stars with ‘match’ (or match rate). Match displays a percentage figure next to each show or movie, almost like a ‘compatibility rating’ to suggest how well this content may be a fit for your preferences.

Now, we have known for many years that Netflix content has been somewhat personalised. Netflix has whole teams whose job is to tag and analyse content, to enable content to be aligned to the very specific niche preferences of its users. To a large degree, the ‘behind-the-scenes’ personalisation of Netflix content has been an ingredient of its success. However, while the recent changes are consistent with Netflix’s strategy toward greater personalisation, there is also a departure from what it has done before – which is to make this personalisation so visible to the viewer.  It is this important shift in viewers’ perception (which is created by the visibility of this measure) that could well be the success or failure of this feature.

‘Match’ is neither a friend nor a review crowd sourced from other people as with Rotten Tomatoes. And I assume it’s not meant to be. It does require a further action on the viewer, which is to imply a question that requires answering, ‘do you agree with this match rate for you’? Much like the ‘swipe left’ or ‘swipe right’ on Tinder and similar dating apps.

Netflix and many others have incredible sway in the way trends are adopted by millions and the way these trends affect mainstream behaviour. In just a few short years Netflix has completely changed the way content is not just consumed, but also made. To accept all this ‘goodness’ and digital disruption, as viewers we have to be prepared for some change we don’t like. Such is the bind of technological advancement that characterises society today.

It’s quite possible that in months ahead we’ll readily accept ‘match’ as though it has always been there.  As users we are becoming far more accustomed to accomodating new features put into the software we use every day.  The concept of ‘feature shock’ is far less of a factor than it was five years ago.

And yet I can’t help but think of the days growing up when I’d listen to Bill Collins’ midday movie prelude, before sitting down to enjoy an all-time classic like Roustabout. Those days are some time ago, but for now as a viewer if I had my choice, I would be switching off ‘match’….just for now. How about you?

Notes:

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-number-of-netflix-streaming-subscribers-worldwide/

2. Of interest, Netflix still makes previous user ratings available to individual’s through their Account page – http://www.polygon.com/2017/4/7/15212718/netflix-rating-system-disapproval

 

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5 Proven Formulas of The World’s Best Mobile Apps – Slide Share /digital-marketing/5-proven-formulas-of-the-worlds-best-mobile-apps-slide-share/ /digital-marketing/5-proven-formulas-of-the-worlds-best-mobile-apps-slide-share/#respond Sun, 01 May 2016 06:12:59 +0000 /?p=2414 In recent years more and more organisations and colleagues have asked me whether they should build a mobile app for their business. The answer I give is…’maybe’. It’s certain that…

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In recent years more and more organisations and colleagues have asked me whether they should build a mobile app for their business.

The answer I give is…’maybe’.

It’s certain that ‘mobile’ is one of the fundamental trends changing the internet. So ensuring a business can capture this opportunity is essential for any strategy.

Building an app is one of the options to do this. Another option is to create a ‘mobile responsive’ website. Sometimes, businesses can pursue both strategies with good results.

The presentation below extends the thinking of the blog post 5 Proven Formulas of The World’s Best Mobile Apps.

[slideshare id=61543411&doc=alessiobresciani-5provenformulasoftheworldsbestmobileapps-apr2016-160501053707&w=715&h=550]

If you enjoyed this, you may also be interested to read How To Build Mobile App Features That Keep People Coming Back or Why Mobile Apps Win Our Hearts Every Time.

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How to Build Mobile App Features that Keep People Coming Back /leadership/how-to-build-mobile-app-features-that-keep-people-coming-back/ /leadership/how-to-build-mobile-app-features-that-keep-people-coming-back/#respond Sat, 12 Dec 2015 10:17:36 +0000 /?p=2233 In recent times with the growing popularity of mobile devices, mobile apps have become a battleground for customer attention.  This is no surprise given that research agency Flurry estimates that…

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In recent times with the growing popularity of mobile devices, mobile apps have become a battleground for customer attention.  This is no surprise given that research agency Flurry estimates that up to 84% of users’ time is spent using mobile apps when compared to the mobile web (ie. browsing websites on a phone).1

Businesses are still coming to terms with how to use mobile apps to reach customers.  And there’s been a great deal of debate whether a mobile app should do everything for customers, or only a subset of activities.  This debate can sometimes create a divide in organisations and teams.

Instead of debating whether mobile apps should do all things or some things, I recommend teams first ask the following questions:

  • what are the tasks that are most valuable to customers?
  • how could we fulfill these tasks exceptionally well?

When we look at it this way it refocuses us on the activities that create value for customers. This is the territory where memorable experiences are created.

To simplify value for mobile apps, we can consider value as a function of importance and frequency.

VALUE = TASK IMPORTANCE + TASK FREQUENCY

Some tasks are incredibly important to customers. For example, when it comes to mobile banking, checking account balance is incredibly important.

Other tasks occur frequently. For example, when using an email app, it’s a regular behaviour to check messages 10 to 20 times a day.

The sweet spot for mobile app design is the subset of user tasks that are both Important and Frequent. So before investing in any feature for a mobile app, it’s worth mapping where tasks fall relative to these two dimensions.

Mapping Tasks for Your Mobile App on a Value Matrix

By plotting user tasks on a matrix, we quickly get a bearing for whether tasks are high or low value. We can encourage teams to do this process for any digital experience, not just mobile, but the exercise is particularly relevant to mobile.  Here’s an example:

Mobile Apps How To InvestIn Features - Value Map

Once these tasks are mapped, we can group them according to these four zones:

Mobile Apps How To InvestInFeatures - Value Quadrants

#1. Mobile App ‘Value’ Zone (High Importance, High Frequency)

This is the high-octane zone for mobile app development. When we invest time and energy into creating mobile app features that fulfill these tasks, we have the very best chance to delight customers.

When I think of my favorite apps, features that come to mind in this category include: the ability to see my most recent notes in Evernote, the notifications feature in LinkedIn, the most recent content updates in Feedly, or the ability in Twitter to quickly send a Tweet.

Ideas in this zone are more likely to generate high value for customers (and potential returns for your business), even if they are more costly to build than less costly features placed in the three other quadrants.

#2. Mobile App ‘Consider’ Zone (High Importance, Low Frequency)

While these tasks are important to users, they will be completed infrequently.

Let’s take Netflix as an example. Netflix provides an incredibly easy process to suspend or cancel an account. However, the Netflix mobile app has an Account link that takes the user out of the mobile app and into the Netflix website to manage these tasks.

While the action to suspend or cancel an account is very important to users, this action is done infrequently, so Netflix has chosen not to build this into the mobile app.

The decision whether to build features in this zone will need to be carefully evaluated, based on how important the feature is to the customer experience.

#3. Mobile App ‘Enhance’ Zone (Low Importance, High Frequency)

Often there are relatively few tasks that fall into this zone.  In addition, tasks that occur with high frequency but are not important are often trivial in nature.

‘Refreshing’ a page is an example of task in this zone.

It used to be enough to navigate to a new page within a mobile app so that data would refresh within an app. However, this experience was replaced in some apps with a ‘swipe to refresh’ feature.

Twitter does this well, allowing the user to swipe to refresh their recent notifications. Prior experiences (such as navigating to a different page) were not particularly bothersome, but the swipe feature is a neat way to improve the experience.

#4. Mobile App ‘Reject or Backlog’ Zone (Low Importance, Low Frequency)

Tasks that are done infrequently and are of low importance will create little value for users if fulfilled within a mobile app.

Ideas in this area should be captured (as part of a your idea generation process) and allocated to a backlog, with a fairly low priority assigned to them.

If you do chose to service these ideas within the mobile app, they could be included deeper within the app than other, higher priority features.

An Exception – How Digital Experiences Can Change Customer Behaviour

So far we’ve spoken about how we should build features to respond to user tasks.  And we’ve also classified user tasks based on importance and frequency. But what happens when the features or experiences we create, completely change the way people do things?

Of course this does happen.

Let’s look at an example.  Sharing photos by email used to be a relatively ‘low frequency’ task.  Yet, whenever people shared photos it was usually an important way to connect with others.  So according to our value map, these interactions may have been allocated to the Consider zone (Low Frequency, High Importance).

Then along came Instagram.  Instagram made the process of sharing photos with social networks simpler and faster than ever before.  The result…the frequency of sharing photos exploded.  Suddenly it became incredibly important to share photos very frequently.  This shifted the task from the Consider to the Value zone.

Similarly, the process of adding effects to photos used to be hard work. Once again Instagram made the experience of adding filters to photos far simpler, and suddenly everyone was frequently adding filters to photos before the photos were shared.

So the way we create user experiences can have a dramatic impact on the way users behave and, in turn, the perceived value users place on certain tasks.

I hope you’ve found this article in contemplating what features you could build into your own mobile app.  If you are interested in mobile apps, you might like my other posts on why mobile apps hold a special place in customers’ hearts and how some of the world’s best companies have approached mobile apps.

References:

1. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/mobile-web-vs-app-usage-statistics-2014-4

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Film Like A Pro with iPhone 6 /digital-marketing/film-like-pro-iphone-6/ /digital-marketing/film-like-pro-iphone-6/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2015 01:48:26 +0000 /?p=1250 15 years ago we foresaw the convergence of cameras, smartphones and mobility. Today smartphones offer an unprecedented level of photo and video possibilities, which rival many of the digital SLRs…

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15 years ago we foresaw the convergence of cameras, smartphones and mobility. Today smartphones offer an unprecedented level of photo and video possibilities, which rival many of the digital SLRs of just a few years ago.

The iPhone 6 brings some breakthrough technologies to photographers and filmmakers.  In this post we look at some of the recent tools to turn your phone into a pro tool.

Whether you’re an intrepid traveler, moonlight blogger or small business, you can use these tools to create visually inspiring stories.

Apps for Filmmaking on iPhone

1. Movie Pro
Movie Pro lets you define up to 5 preset modes for shooting video. This app extends the power of your iPhone camera, allowing you to take well-above 60 frame-per-second video, at high definition. The app even lets you control the zoom speed for slow transitions to super fast zoom. Visit the app.

Image of Movie Pro Interface
Example of the Movie Pro interface

2. iMovie
iMovie is remarkable. It’s simple enough to use on your iPhone, while being powerful enough to create some truly amazing videos. Add video filters, music and transitions to make your images pop. Free now with the latest iOS 8 version, or under $10 for iOS 7, it’s my go to app for quick video editing. Visit the app.

3. Video Grade
iMovie comes with some pre-loaded filters to sharpen the images in your videos. If you want some added flexibility to tune your movies though, Video Grade is a must have. The app allows you to adjust contrast, lift sharpness, change vibrance, add vignettes and a suite of other features. You can even see a preview of your changes against the original video, like in the image shown here. Visit the app.

Image of Video Grade Interface
Video Grade lets you see the before and after image

4. Hyperlapse
Realased recently by Instagram, Hyperlapse allows you to record sections of video and then speed this video up from 2 to 16 times. The result is to create dramatic time lapse videos. Because Hyperlapse includes some smart processing to ease wobbles and connect video frames, Hyperlapse produces very smooth video effects, even when handholding your iPhone. As this video from The Verge shows, you can even retain the current speed of footage, and take advantage of just the image stabilization features of Hyperlapse. Visit the app.

Accessories for Filmmaking on iPhone

5. Olloclip:
Olloclip adds new possibilities to iPhone’s inbuilt lens, giving you another four lens options, so you can shoot in any situation. Included with Olloclip is a wide angle, a fish eye, a 10x macro lens and a 15x macro lens. I used to travel with a DSLR with multiple lenses. While the DSLR produced stunning images, its bulk disrupted spontaneous shots and it was complicated to switch over lenses to get features like wide-angles. I’ve been impressed by the versatility the Olloclip and the speed of changing lenses (which is done by either flipping Olloclip or rotating off one of the two larger lenses, to reach the macro lens) is tough to beat. Visit Olloclip.

Image Macro Lense Olloclip
An example of using the Macro lens on Olloclip

 

6. Gorilla Grip
Sometimes when shooting on iPhone, you need to steady the camera. Whether it’s shooting a time-series video or taking a group selfie, for under $20 Gorilla Grip is a simple addition to your toolkit to keep your iPhone steady. What’s more it’s light and small which makes it ultra-portable for travel.

Gorilla Grip for Smartphone

7. iStablizer Dolly
A step up from a tripod, you can now add stability and movement to your videos with the iStablizer Dolly. Simply attach your smartphone to the dolly, and it’s four wheel system will give you forward or circular movement. With iStablizer Dolly, you can create cinematic videos and panning shots using your iPhone. Visit iStablizer.

– End

Image Source: Omar Jordan Fawahl, iPhone 6+ Camera Bump, flickr.com/photos/omarjordanf/15231892287/

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3 Drawing Apps that Might Make You Ditch Your Sketchpad /digital-marketing/3-drawing-apps-might-make-ditch-sketchpad/ /digital-marketing/3-drawing-apps-might-make-ditch-sketchpad/#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:12:11 +0000 /?p=1159 I love to sketch. I have loved it since I was a kid. For a time, I forgot. Then several years ago I remembered. I started sketching again with A4…

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I love to sketch. I have loved it since I was a kid. For a time, I forgot. Then several years ago I remembered. I started sketching again with A4 sketch pads. I tried a stack of them. Finally I found my sketch pad of choice at a local artists supply in Melbourne CBD.

Then I started using a tablet. I tried the iPad. I moved to a Samsung Tab. Then I tried the Samsung Note. Now I’m back onto the iPad.

During these transitions I’ve tried endlessly to find the perfect tablet sketching experience. Something that would be akin to drawing on paper, but with new interactions, like pinch and zoom, that are pure revelations when it comes to tablets. These are 3 drawing apps I’ve used and loved and recommend to you also. I like them so much that these days I find I spend far more time sketching on my tablet than I do on paper.

Notability

Notability is useful for all types of notes, not just sketching. It’s simple to categorise your notes, move pages about, and and even select and zoom/rotate objects. This is my ‘go to’ quick sketching app. If I’m in a meeting and want to note what’s being said in an illustration or mind map, I do it in notability. It’s my ‘main use’ app because it’s fast. It’s easy to sketch a quick object (whether a cloud or arrow). It’s even simpler to colour objects so that they have life on the page. Because objects are vectors, its a trivial task to select and resize an object also. And swiping up and down between pages lets me quickly find notes from months ago, just as easily as those from yesterday.

Sketch_Notability

Paper

Paper is simply a beautiful app. For the artist in you that likes to sit in galleries and lose yourself in water colours, you’ll find this app as pleasant to spend time in as MOMA. A real weakness of Paper for some time was its poor zoom function. But this has since been solved in recent releases. Now you can pinch and zoom a magnifier to sketch in fine detail. I still have niggles with this app, but cannot fault it for sustaining a simple, elegant design, useful pen tools, and its sheer fun to use. What’s more, Paper includes a section that shows the art of other users, so you’re never far from inspiration. Sketch_Paper

Procreate

Procreate is a serious tool. It brings many elements previously reserved for Photoshop to the illustrator’s toolkit. You can use layers, opactity, colour swatches, about a million brushes and even create your own custom tools. This is the app to use if you wish to sketch contemplatively, with absolute realism, and high impact. It is not an app that you necessarily use for quick work-sketches. It is the app you use if you want to create artwork that you would put on the wall.

Sketch_Procreate

Of course there are many things your tablet cannot do. For example, it’s still difficult to get the feeling of your pen on paper, which provides a very tactile drawing experience. And it’s still difficult to get the pin point accuracy and graded shading of a good 2B pencil. But the gap has reduced considerably, at least enough for your tablet to now be a credible and frequently used option for day to day sketching needs. If you give it a go, I’d love to hear what you think.

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Why Your Watch May Know You Better Than Your Best Friend /foresight-strategy/watch-may-know-better-best-friend/ /foresight-strategy/watch-may-know-better-best-friend/#respond Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:02:08 +0000 /?p=1124 Having worked in the health industry for many years I’ve been interested in the convergence of health, technology and mobility. Recently we’ve seen the early rumblings of a new market…

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Having worked in the health industry for many years I’ve been interested in the convergence of health, technology and mobility.
Why-Your-Watch-May-Know-You-Better

Recently we’ve seen the early rumblings of a new market for health devices. And with the Apple announcement of Watch this market got a big injection of inspiration.

The global wearable technology market stood at $750 USD million in 2012 and is expected to reach $5.8 billion USD in 2018, with a compound growth rate of 40.8% from 2012 to 2018.1
We can expect this forecast will bump up with Apple’s announcement. After all, Apple has a history of backing big opportunities. This time is no different.  Apple will have to jostle for its place amongst the current field. Mashable Wearables is awash with entrants seeking to play; from Samsung, Nike, Intel, Sony, and Nissan.Apple doesn’t shy away from a skirmish – it certainly didn’t in 2007 when it launched the iPhone or 2010 with the iPad – and Watch will gain ground quickly.

But for Apple and others, wearables should be considered a long term game.

Wearables…this is just the beginning

Here’s the thing…what these devices are today will be only a fraction of their potential in several year’s time.When smartphone’s first launched they were heavy. They didn’t have picture-perfect bevelled edges which glinted in the right light. They didn’t have the commercial advertising that made that them look better than a new Maserati on a sun-drenched coastline. And they seriously lacked the functionality we’ve come to expect today.
In fact when Apple and Google first launched their phones it was common to hear people say “why do I need one of those, myBlackberry works just fine for email”.Of course we know what happened next.

Now we can’t do without them.

If you don’t believe me, try taking a phone away from a teenager and see what happens. I tried it once. Next time I’ll wear body armour.

While some people use their smartphone like it’s always been with us, I’m still in awe of what these things can do. Literally, our phones go to space for us and back everyday. What’s not to be amazed by?

Wearables will go through the same evolution. So when we look at these devices today and think they’re a little bulky and we critique their battery life and compare them to luxurious Swiss dress watches, we might think back to where smartphones started from.

There’s another push why wearables are so important. Smartphones have hit a limit which wearables may overcome.

One of the ways to get your heart rate on a smartphone is to press your finger to the phone’s light and hold. Other than that, the only way to connect your phone with yourself is to strap the phone to your chest.

The limit of the smartphone is that it cannot always stay in direct contact with us, in order to connect us to ourselves. That’s where wearables play such a key role.

This role isn’t about giving us yet another device to become enamoured by. The role of wearables is to reduce the chasm of biological connectivity between our phone and ourselves. Even though the phone fits neatly into the palm of our hand, this distance may as well have been the other side of the world in terms of user experience.

As wearables close this gap a new universe of measures will open up to us.

A universe of human measures to choose from

The concept of tracking biology isn’t a new one. Just ask Alex Pentland. Also dubbed the godfather of wearables he’s identified 100 possible metrics for us to track through studies which he commenced in 1973.While it might seem like a distant vision that we would want to track so many metrics, many wearable devices are tracking more than a handful of these already.


Rock 
created a fascinating analysis of which wearable devices track which metrics (specific image link). From temperature through the skin conduction, there’s a lot already being covered by more than watches. And this market is still in its infancy.

This breadth of measures may make Apple’s Watch pale in comparison. But lets think about it. Would we really be ready for a mainstream wearable device to track so many new areas? For Watch to launch with too many metrics would have been like Apple releasing NFC on the first iPhone, and we know all good things take time.To get to this vision will require wearables to expand the list of metrics that we see today.  As much as the aesthetic of wearable technology is important, customers will also choose devices based on the variety of metrics they capture, and the fit of these metrics with their lifestyle.

We will see providers compete on metrics, just like they compete on screen size in the smartphone market today.

How these devices then connect with vast ecosystems to make use of these measures will also be important, just as its been for smartphones and apps.

What we stand to learn about ourselves and each other

While many of us may question the value (and privacy) of capturing this type of personal data on watches and phones, the most significant opportunity is for these devices to tell us more about ourselves.They will make us aware of information about our biology that, for the vast majority of us, previously would have been discovered through a visit to the doctor or hospital.

Sure, we might not need this information every day. After all, do you really need to know what your heart rate was when you ate breakfast? But by becoming aware our data is available, we may spot patterns about ourselves that we didn’t expect. For some, this information might even help us avoid a crisis.
The most useful purpose for technology is not technology for its own sake, but that it may inform and change human behaviour for the better. Equally valuable is that it can do this in an unobtrusive way that requires as little effort from us as carrying a device. I’ll leave it with you to consider if email passes this test.Beyond ourselves as individuals, our information will have potential uses at the aggregate level.Imagine what it would be like if you could compared your stress levels to those who are the happiest people in the world. Would it prompt you to change the structure of your week? Maybe even change jobs?Imagine if you realised that the sleep cycle you’ve held for the last 6 months could be detrimental to your health based on studies of average sleep cycles?

Imagine if you could see the collective heartbeat of the stadium during the winning goal of a World Cup final?

These are just some of the possibilities that could be available to us, in an era like we have never seen before.

This week a friend of mine said to me “I wouldn’t want to share my information”. Many of us think the same…myself included.

Then I think of what we see on Twitter and facebook. We share incredibly personal stories on these platforms, sometimes to audiences well beyond our network of friends.

If today we can connect through 140 characters, maybe sharing some of our biological information will find a place too? For example, a university student sharing their heart rate when they opened their exam results.

The internet has a history of challenging the things we thought we would never do. At one time we questioned whether we would use our phone’s GPS to help us locate each other. Today this functionality comes standard. Why would wearables be any different.

These developments come with their own challenges. Returning to Alex Pentland:

“Any technology that can capture and transmit your surroundings mid-stride can be abused. We’re more attuned than ever to the data we leave online — digital bread crumbs, Pentland calls them — but the data we give to a sociometer or a device like Google Glass is potentially far more damaging. Pentland sees the benefits of his technology as limitless; but so too are the possibilities for abuse.”2

These are just some of the potentials we may see in years to come.With the release of iPhone 6 smartphones have hit their stride, and in such a relatively short timeframe. Think of what we’ll see in Watch 6.
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Photo Credits:
Image 1: www.flickr.com/photos/rafaelnepo/14968744809/
Image 2: www.flickr.com/photos/keoni101/7069578953/
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5 Proven Formulas of the World’s Best Mobile Apps /foresight-strategy/5-proven-formulas-of-the-worlds-best-mobile-apps/ /foresight-strategy/5-proven-formulas-of-the-worlds-best-mobile-apps/#respond Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:23:02 +0000 /?p=1105 Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007 the market for mobile apps has grown at a mind blowing pace. According to Venture Beat, apps for mobile could generate $70bn in revenue…

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Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007 the market for mobile apps has grown at a mind blowing pace.

According to Venture Beat, apps for mobile could generate $70bn in revenue by 2017 and were responsible for $35b in mergers and acquisitions last year.

Perhaps it’s little surprise given how much mobile apps have devoured traditional use of the internet, away from desktop and mobile browsing.

With all this heat in mobile, most companies have pointed their digital and innovation teams to the challenge of producing apps for customers. But this is no easy task. For every successful mobile app on Google, Apple or Windows, there are thousands that haven’t done as well.

In this post we look at 5 formulas followed by the best mobile apps in the world. Regardless of industry, you can apply these to give you own mobile app the best chance of cut-through in a busy market.

1. Does the mobile app answer a compelling and frequent need, at a time when its important?

When banks invested in mobile banking, they responded directly to the compelling and frequent user need to ‘check their balance’. If you don’t have a positive balance in your account, you might not be able to pay for the dinner that you’re about to eat, or buy that incredible coat that’s on sale. Before mobile banking the alternative was to run to the nearest ATM or phone a call centre. Today this simple action drives the majority of traffic for mobile banking apps internationally.

Compelling and frequent needs – just like checking balance – are essential for a successful mobile apps. And the same principle occurs in many other apps, whether it’s keeping tabs on your team’s score in a football game, through to checking the latest new stories first thing in the morning. Whatever the app, answering a compelling and frequent need will give your app the best chance of success,

2. Does the mobile app perform ‘the compelling need’ and other functions exceedingly well?

On paper it’s easy to define a functional mobile app.

For example, for mobile banking, we would include checking balances, viewing recent transactions, searching previous transactions, and so on.

But not all mobile apps perform their functions extremely well. This is the difference between ‘form’ and ‘function’. The ‘form’ of the mobile app is all about the ‘experience’ of being able to use functionality simply and easily.

If we only aswer the question of ‘what functions’ our will app perform, without thinking about the ‘form’ of how these functions will be performed, we only answer one half of the question.  The risk is that we dilute the experience of our app for customers.

As a simple test, think about the apps that you would consider 4 or 5 stars, and how ‘form’ plays an important role in your rating of them.

Likely all of the apps you have in mind provide a simple, fast, and seemless experience in a beautiful form.

3. Does the mobile app fulfill a greater purpose in the user’s life?

While solving a customer challenge is important, so too is fulfilling a greater customer purpose.

Doing this creates a meaningful place for the app not only in the customer’s day to day routine, but also within the context of longer term goals.

For example, mobile banking apps give customers ‘financial control’, the LinkedIn app lets customers “take charge of their career” and facebook allows people to “stay connected with their social circles”.  One of my favorites…Evernote isn’t just a note taking app, it’s the ‘space to do your life’s work’, and it delivers on this promise by letting users pick up any device and see what they’ve recorded as inspiration.

For your mobile app concept, ask how it fulfills a higher purpose in the user’s world.

4. Does the mobile app provide the user with at least one magical experience?

Magic is what is created when the user has an experience that gives them complete surprise and fascination. It makes them say ‘wow, I never thought of this!’, let alone that it could happen in the palm of their hand.

When the Buffer app pulls from your reservoir of shared posts, to automatically send your updates via Twitter and Linked In, it’s like Buffer is doing your work for you even when you sleep. When Spotify lets you select from zillions of songs and stream them directly to your phone, without the need to pay for or download a single track, this delights listeners. When you open Feedly and see the app has beautifully curated 40 articles for you to read based on your personal preferences, it’s like having your own personal news editor.

To have sticking power, mobile apps need to create at least one magical experience to be truly different in the market.

5. Does the mobile app serve a succinct objective / purpose for the business creating it?

This final question is less simple to answer for businesses other than your own, but is just as vital. For a mobile app to be successful, it has to be closely connected with your strategy and fulfill a specific objective for your business.

This could be to ‘grow customers’ or ‘lift customer engagement’ or ‘reduce cost’. It could be to ‘build an online community’ or ‘increase online sales’. Often this question requires us to consider the connection of the mobile app with our mission statement.

As an example, facebook’s mission is ‘to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected’. It is plain to see how facebook’s mobile app (with its ability to connect with friends, write on walls, read activity feeds, share events, and so on) is integrally tied to it’s mission.

If the mobile app is directly connected to a business objective (or multiple objectives) which are measured over time, there is the best chance of it receiving priority for future investment.

 

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6 digital tools that save me 350 hours a year /productivity/6-digital-tools-that-save-me-350-hours-a-year/ /productivity/6-digital-tools-that-save-me-350-hours-a-year/#respond Sun, 17 Feb 2013 08:21:45 +0000 /?p=466 Do you ever find yourself wishing there were more hours in the day to get through all that we have to do? Over the last ten years I’ve taken an…

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Do you ever find yourself wishing there were more hours in the day to get through all that we have to do?

Over the last ten years I’ve taken an interest in the study and application of productivity.

More than ever we need to find new ways to manage the ‘busyness’ in life, while at the same time keeping our mind calm and uncluttered, so we have all our resources available to focus on our goals.

I want to share with you 6 digital tools I use every day and how they save me 350 hours per year.

1. Feed Reader

Feed Reader is one of the many RSS (Rich Site Summary) tools available. An RSS Reader allows you to connect to ‘blogs and online newspapers’, so that when they’re updated, the article comes directly to the RSS Reader.  This way you don’t have to visit the blog’s specific website every time you want new articles. These tools are enormous time savers because they bring the internet to you in a single location so you never miss an update.

How I use it

I’m passionate about learning new things. Fortunately, my work and study have always required me to explore new thinking, and this has often required research.  I use Feed Reader to synthesize over 50 sites into a single feed which I scan every day.

My process is:

  • find blogs of interest and add them to Feed Reader
  • read new ‘feeds’ and articles every day
  • asterisk the articles that are of interest
  • post articles (via Twitter, Linked In, or also email to colleagues) or save for specific reference purposes

How much time it saves me

It would easily take me between 2 to 4 hours a week to do the same amount of research I do through Google Reader in just 30 minutes.  That’s a minimum time saving of 1.5 hours a week.

2. Evernote

EvernoteEvernote is a suite of software and services that allow people to take and archive notes on the web, on a smartphone, or a tablet. While the Evernote suite has many applications, I get the the most use out of Evernote itself.

How I use it

I’ve used many other note taking applications in the past. However, Evernote is among the very best and most practical.  I use Evernote to:

example of evernote image search
An example of the Evernote search function, which will also search hand written notes created and scanned into the program.  Here I searched for the word “less”.
  • capture and collect new ideas: whenever I stumble upon a new idea it goes straight into Evernote.
  • manage an idea through stages: I use Evernote as the drafting tool to flesh out an idea. In the subject lines, I actually change categories as I go to manage the idea through these steps – ‘idea’, ‘draft’, ‘review’ and ‘finished’. Even this blog post started in Evernote and was 90% complete before I added it to this website.
  • a second memory: there are some actions we do infrequently that are very important to our success. For example, planning goals and objectives, organising a family holiday that is 6 months away, submitting a tax return, and so on. I store my notes on these diverse subjects for reference during the year (or just so I don’t forget) in Evernote.
  • search functionEvernote has a fantastic search feature, so all you need to do is enter a keyword to find notes you’ve written many months ago. Even better, the search  will also find documents that you’ve written by hand and scanned into the program. For this reason all of the diagrams that I draw go straight into Evernote (eg. process maps, charts, sketches, systems diagrams).

How much time it saves

I’m constantly using Evernote and would estimate I gain 1.5 hours a week in efficiencies (of writing, researching effectively, not forgetting, and having information accessible wherever I am).

3. Buffer

Buffer is an online tool that allows you to schedule social media updates in advance. For example, with Buffer I can ‘load up’ 10 social media posts on the weekend, and they’ll be distributed by the ‘Buffer’ app throughout the week.

How I Use It

Often people tell me ‘you send so many Tweets, I don’t know how you find the time!’. The truth is I’m very specific about how I use social media. Outside of responding to people’s comments (which I do daily), twice a week I spend 30 mns on updates. My process is:

  • review articles or quotes I’ve read or flagged over the last week
  • select the most interesting content
  • load this content into my Buffer account, knowing these updates will be sent (2 or 3 per day) over the course of the next 3 to 4 days

I use Buffer to manage my Linked In and Twitter updates, though you can use this tool for many other social media applications.

How much time it saves

It’s said that every time you’re interrupted from completing a specific task, it will take you an additional 7 minutes to return to the same level of concentration you had before you were interrupted. This is why I manage my social media updates twice a week, instead of continuously during the day. For this reason, I would estimate that Buffer saves me at least 30 minutes to 1 hour per week.

4. Toodledo

Toodledo is an online task management application that helps you track tasks and optimise your productivity.

How I use it

I’ve been a long time advocate of this product. This is the fifth year I’ve used it, and I’m constantly refining the ways that I leverage the tool. I use Toodledo to:

  • capture: capture all tasks which I’ve agreed to or have been assigned to me
  • categorise: categorise the ‘context’ for the task (eg. whether it’s an ’email’ or ‘errand’ or ‘call’ and so on)
  • schedule: schedule when I will complete the task over the next week or month
  • track: track when tasks delegated to others are due and whether they’ve been completed
  • notes: store and retrieve my notes about important meetings, research and ideas

Two of the biggest benefits I’ve received from using Toodledo are:

  • freedom of mind: because I have a system for managing my commitments, I don’t have to retain them constantly in my thoughts. This leaves my mind free to focus on the important opportunities in front of me
  • productivity: with Toodledo I am able to get more out of each day, and take a real joy in completing actions I’ve agreed to

How much time it saves

Toodledo would save me 2 hours per week through additional productivity and increased focus.

5. Gmail

I know, I know, I’m sure we’re all very familiar with Gmail. However, because it’s such a good tool, I feel it deserves a mention.

How I use it

As a long time user of Gmail, there are 3 ways I feel it trumps many other email solutions:

  • search: it’s search feature is very fast. I’m amazed just how quickly Gmail is able to locate emails from years ago when I search for them.  And there are many occasions when I have to find previous conversations, receipts, booking references, and so on.
  • junk mail: Gmail’s spam filter is very good. When using other email tools, I often found spam incredibly frustrating. Gmail does a great job of removing the junk, so I don’t have to.
  • multi device: I have an Android phone, an iPad and an Android tablet, and I find Gmail works seamlessly across all these devices.

How much time it saves

Based on its abilities to quickly search for previous information as well as de-clutter my inbox from junk mail, Gmail would save me 1 hour a week.

6. Combined Calendar

If there’s one thing all busy families need it is a combined calendar. There are plenty to choose from, such as Cozi and Zoho Calendar, and my personal choice is Google Calendar.

How I use it

By far the greatest use I have for this calendar, is that I can see the calendars of other people that have shared their schedule with me. This is especially the case for family members and very good friends.

Instead of having to call around in order to plan events, with a shared calendar, I can see when everyone’s working or busy, and simply book time with them.

With this calendar I can also setup multiple reminders and I use this feature frequently. If I have an important meeting coming up, I schedule an alert 2 weeks prior to the event, then 1 week and then 1 day before. These structured alerts keep me thinking about what’s coming next.

How much time it saves me

By using this shared calendar in place of phone calls and emails, I save 30 minutes a week.

Added up, that’s 350 hours a year…

That’s right, taking the minimum times highlighted above in green, multiplied by 50 weeks (leaving out 2 weeks for holiday), that’s a whopping time saving of 350 hours per year.  Isn’t it amazing how saving an hour here and there can add up to so much time within a single year?

Question: What digital productivity tools do you use to manage chaos and reach your goals during the year? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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