Most of us know how it feels to be told by someone that there is ‘this App’. Usually it comes in the form of social banter and is often catalysed by a complaint or a suggestion and someone in the conversation immediately gravitates towards the need to inform the other person about an App. An App is simply a software application often downloaded from a play store on a device.
The novelty of Mobile Applications is that they are seemingly endless and they cover every facet of interest imaginable (I mean, there are apps that help people sleep by playing background sounds of rain!). Because of this ubiquity, they appeal to all races, genders and ages. They are amazing but with consumer experience comes steep expectations. A quick download of a 70 MB application that may have taken months to develop can be followed by an uninstallation 1 hour later. Very few Apps survive the initial first impression phase to move into actual usefulness. In fact, the importance of an App can be gauged by asking this simple question, if you lost your device today and replaced it, would you remember to re-install that App? That’s the reason we delete Apps to make space for videos of funny animals or pictures of functions we attend.
As a consumer, judging the utility of a product or service is your right. But let’s take a moment to consider the other side of the coin. What if we flipped the script? What if you had the ability to create (or pay for the creation of) an App. What would it be? What problem would it solve? What utility would it have? Would it be interesting enough for other developers to imitate it? Would it make its way into social conversations? Would it be downloaded in the thousands and uninstalled in minutes or would it be a godsend to your consumers?
In the spirit of sharing that Christmas brings, kindly share your thoughts on the Apps you love and let’s celebrate some ingenious developers who have done their bit to make your life better!