Mobile Content and Application World

Great Mobile Application's Characteristics

To be successful in developing mobile applications, we must understand that a mobile application is different with the desktop applications. Some of the applications characteristics are important in desktop applications but become crucial in mobile application development. Some of the characteristics listed here are needed to create great mobile applications.

Startup Time

Users tend to use mobile devices frequently and for short durations. Hence, quick startup time is needed. In desktop applications, people may wait their application to start for some amount time. Even though this condition is undesirable, but people usually doesn’t annoyed too much. But if this is a mobile application, things may go differently. For example, users who want to check the weather today from his cell phone need to wait six seconds for the application to startup, while he/she will only access the application for just about 20 seconds. In desktop applications, these amounts of time may be okay because user tends to access the applications in a longer time. Some good rule to follow is that the user’s session time with an application must be longer than any startup time he/she endures. Take good proportions for the possible session time and the startup time. People only use the mobile applications for short amount of time, so don’t get your applications time takes too much time to startup.

Responsiveness

When people push the button in their cell phone, they want the effect showed immediately. If not, they may feel that they didn’t push the button well and will try again. What if the application takes the input process long enough for people to try to input again? The application will then process the second input as well. This may lead to a wrong response which is undesirable. That’s why responsiveness is crucial.

If the application takes input to process long enough, let user know that the system already accepting the input, so they didn’t inputting again. The most ideal condition is of course fast processing time so the response is also fast enough. Another way is to inform the users that their input is already accepted and still processed in background, so the system is ready to accept another task. An hour glass symbol or similar loading symbol may be used so users know that their input is being processed and they should wait until it finished.

Focused Purpose

Mobile application should clear on their function or purpose. The application should have a clearly defined set of things it does very well. With a clear function, the number of button may decrease to make it more efficient. When developing focus in this functions or purpose. Don’t make too much functional that didn’t support the main function and can make the interface too crowded or hard to do any function.

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