Mobile Development Process
Usability holds the utmost importance for mobile applications. We strongly believe that any application developed for the mobile should not be thought as a replacement for the web. A mobile application needs to be designed keeping the mobile user in mind who has very little time and desires to accomplish what he/she wants with a minimum number of clicks.
Prior to the onset of development, a list of target handset devices should be defined. Our processes make sure that the system design is such that effort required to port the application subsequently to multiple handsets in minimal. We also guide our customers with the user interface design on the different handsets with different form factors.
Our mobile application development methodology goes over the following steps:
- Requirement Phase: A clear understanding of the application features, its target customers and target handsets is enforced.
- Wireframes: Wireframes providing detailed descriptions of each screen element and features is built. It illustrates screen layouts, navigation rules and information flow.
- UI Prototype: A graphical overview of the proposed service structure is prepared. It depicts all of the screens within the service and the relationships between them.
- Development: The mobile application is developed keeping the target handsets in mind.
- QA: The mobile application is very thoroughly tested on actual handsets, this includes both functionality, performance as well as testing corner case scenarios (e.g., application testing in areas where network coverage is low). Specific carrier - handset combinations are tested using Device Anywhere.
- Porting: Porting is not just about porting the code to a new platform; it is also about porting the user experience. Depending on the target handset list, on some devices porting is straight forward. For others it might include development and changing the navigation flow of the application.
- Deployment: Deployment may vary for different kinds of applications and may have to go through various certifications, for example, in the case of J2ME, applications are signed using Verisign / Thawte certificates while brew has a completely different certification process. In some cases, the applications are also submitted to operator specific certifications after rigorous QA.
Guidelines for WAP Application Development
WAP provides a great interface to provide simple end-user functionalities across a majority handsets and usually requires less development time than on-device mobile clients. Guidelines for WAP application development -
- Keep the navigation simple, avoid a graph-like navigation structure that makes a user feel lost.
- Avoid horizontal scrolling and use of long, complex words.
- Take minimal inputs from user, if possible, remember what the user typed previously.
- Avoid dumping too much data on single screen, phones have lot of fragmentation.
Guidelines for on-device Mobile Application Development
- Should provide an experience that WAP is unable to match. If you're looking to provide simple functionalities, WAP serves the purpose.
- Minimize network requests, keep it simple.
- Avoid doing stuff in background mode when the application is on for constrained handsets. It makes the application slow and a user feeling fishy about the application.
- Minimize network data usage, it’s expensive.
