Most of us have lived with apps for a long time, so we intuitively know what an app is. However, that is mostly from the perspective of a consumer/user. From the perspective of the developer/innovator, an app is a little more than a program that runs on a mobile device.
Before we can discuss anything else, it is important to identify the purposes (objectives) of an app. Note that this has nothing to do with the implementation or even features of the app. This is just asking “why would someone (pay,) download and install this app?”
Let’s take the Wells Fargo app as an example. Online check deposit is not a purpose, it is a feature. The purpose of the Wells Fargo app is to enable customers to do banking 24/7 with just a mobile device. It is the convenience, security and instant gratification of online banking.
What about Uber (the app)? It is about getting transportation on-demand.
What about Angry Bird? It is about getting entertained.
What about Amazon (the app)? It is about getting stuff that you want with convenience!
What about a mindfulness app? It is about keeping the end user in a mindful state that is not stressed out.
Too often, developers tend to think about implementation, features and details. While someone has to do this at some point, losing sight of the overall and high level objective of an app can easily lead to feature creep and delay of product release.
Once the objectives of an app is clearly identified, then it is time to brainstorm what is the desired user experience. How is the app going to interact with the user to accomplish the objectives?
Unlike the objectives, user experience is an open ended question. As such, it helps to start with high level concepts of what can be done before getting to the details of how it is going to be done.
Here is an example.
Each item can, then, be elaborated a little more. I will use the “link desires/wishes/purposes to products” as an example:
“the app will accept general statements like ‘improve wireless network performance’ to start. The app then helps the consumer narrow down to ways to accomplish the objective. Products are suggested based on how other customers associate with their own objectives as well as rating. Provide the ability to build a shopping list if multiple products are needed to accomplish the objective.”
Examples are always helpful. This helps the innovator (who is coming up with the ideas) to work out the details. But it also helps to show developers what the finished app may look like. Screen shots, mocked up videos and etc. are especially helpful. It doesn’t matter whether we know how to get it done, we are just interested in what it is like to use the app.
In the case of the Amazon app, it is heavily dependent on the server-end. In the example of linking consumer objectives to products, it will rely on the correct classification of products and some kind of AI engine to deduce what products can be used to accomplish an objective.
Mock up sequences of interaction with the app may look like the following:
Unlike the Amazon app, a mindfulness app does not need to rely on the cloud as much, although data can still be stored in the cloud. As a standalone app that does not rely on the cloud to function, a mindfulness app needs to store all the relevant data and perform all the processing on the mobile device.