#componentix

Experts say this doesn't matter, because mobile phones and tablet are spread not in an equal proportions.

If you take a brief look at the market you'll see that as for Jan. 2014 almost 315 mln people were owners of smartphones. Up to 2018 IDC says there will be sold at east 6 times more smartphones than both PC and laptops. Each smartphone's user spends 147 minutes with his or her phone on average.

PhoneArena says that most of the popular smartphones are between 4,7 and 5 inches while those who use phones with more than 5 inches still count to be a significant group:

Wha should brands and developers do as mobile market grows and screens grow as well?

What happens on mobile apps market

You probably don't know this, but only 14% of users surf the Web via mobile browsers. Mobile apps are widely used (up to 86% of smartphone owners), 32% of the use games and 17% use Facebook app mainly.

As to the end of 2013 mobile gadgets were used by 25% of owners to rich Internet while in 2012 there were just 14% of them.

This is how TOP-25 of popular mobile apps looks like for US market:

As you can see, social networks and content-aimed services as well as shopping apps and info-services are in the top of this list. And all these apps are designed for big screens for both new Androids as well as new (6 and 6+) iPhones.

What B2C/B2B companies can do

If your company works with consumers on a daily basis (e-commerce, delivery services, news-making, entertainment online services, media startups with mobile apps, shopping and fashion etc.) and you target audience widely uses mobile apps and web— this is the time to check your apps and services for compatibility with this new fancy big screens. Because you never know when more than a half of your customers start using "phablets".

Main points to check up:

they should be native and work in a proper way on big screens;

UX / UI should keep integrity of all its visual components on big screens;

no black stripes or mistakes while working on a smartphone with screens starting from 4,5 inches;

navigation inside app as well as submitting / editing content in it should be the same on different screen sizes.

If you'e noticed that mistakes and problems have become a regular "feature" of your existing mobile app, — it's time to make revision and develop a new app which will be 100% compatible.

Before Nov. 1st end us an email, use promo-code TMBLR in your email — and you'l get 10% discount for developing a native mobile app for your company or brand.

Got interested?

System for integrated project management and setting / controlling tasks with a calendar and notifications about basic changes — this is how a typical task-management system looks like.

As a rule, most of these platforms allow us to reduce all operations to sending and receiving e-mails with tasks, as well as working through native applications on mobile and desktop operating systems. There is also a version of the web-based interface with a responsive design which allows you to access this system via any modern browser.

If you want to take a look at the most popular examples of such systems as well as their good and bad sides, you should read detailed research from Siliconrus about TMS (task-management systems).

If we talk about integrated software products which are easy to use for developers (not just for the sales department or marketers and journalists), it’s worth mentioning Asana, Worksection, Basecamp, JIRA, Redmine, «Bitriks24», Wrike, Youtrack, Trello and "Megaplan."

In iur work for almost a year we use Trello, where individual "boards" have separated the problem for developers, designers, testers, marketing and sales. Previously we were using Redmine (mainly because of the possibility of uploading data on time spent from different time-trackers, and the ability to draw a Gantt chart, which was important as a number of studio employees working on an hourly basis, with payment for time spent). But let’s go back to Trello and talk about it.

This system is based on the principle of Japanese management called "kanban". Its essence: every stage of production is monitored and implemented consistently.

In Trello all projects look like separate virtual "boards" with vertical lists inside them. Each list shows the smaller tasks, which represent stages. Cards with the tasks are stored in lists. Each task on the card can be supplemented according to its implementation. You can also attach a description, comments, files (including links and files from document’s cloud storage), deadline and other information about the project (including checklists).

After performing the task card can be moved to a list of completed tasks or to archive.

There are plugins to help Trello in integrating with other systems and time tracking solutions. There is also a mobile application to work with the cards, lists and boards using a smartphone or tablet (which is important for us as a mobile development studio).

There are several reasons why we chose Trello and actively use it every day:

easy operations which don’t require a long learning process or customization;

it’s free to use and has all necessary functionality with zero cost;

it has no strict binding to a specific desktop software or browser version;

possibility of separating access rights to the various boards (developers do not see the board for marketing, marketing "will not go into" projects of the developers etc.);

support for integration with Google Apps;

native mobile applications for iOS and Android (the company employs people who use both);

interface in English.

Nine months of working with Trello showed that it manages perfectly with all of its tasks and the basic requirements for control of time and projects .

Footsy allows you now only to predict scores but also to follow the championship's calendar and be easy for making new bets.

Componentix designed, developed and tested Footsy app as a contractor. We've been testing it during The World Soccer Cup in Brazil and helped to release it when games of the Premier-Leage started.

The main tab of this app shows you statistics and predictions of the results.

The second tab contains to all the games' calendar as well as scores and matches between predicted and real results.

The third tab shows the current user's rating in the table comparing to friends who also use this app.

And the last tab is for options and authorisation via social media profile.

You can make your bet for the results of any game during the whole period of the championship in the UK.

Optimizing content for mobile apps while developing an app includes:

1. Scaling graphics and video — big video files, photos and graphics should be optimized for using with mobile app, or you can upload them to third-party photo- and video-hostings to minimize and scale time of loading for servers;

2. Using responsive design and pre-optimized texts  — text should look good and be easy to read both on-site and in the app so that a user can easily navigate and read;

3. Using website API as well as website’s libraries integration in the mobile app — this is obligatory for preventing possible mistakes while syncing site and app, servers and user’s smartphone etc.;

4. Adding comments with the help of social media accounts — this is necessary to make a simple way of interaction between content and users who use different social networks;

5. Integration with online-services for bookmarking and storing content — remember to provide such an option if you site is devoted to the so-called “long-reads”& Not all the long articles and posts people can read while commuting or waiting or walkin outdoors. That’s why it’s necessary to make an option of saving the most interesting content from an app in Evernote, One Note or other services of such a kind (so that a user can read them later at home on his laptop or tablet);

6. Adding an ability to use built-in and third-party systems of RTB and text-based / graphical advertisement — this option is necessary to monetize content and show different types of advertising (even if ypu don’t plan to show ads in you app from the very beginning);

7. Optimizing content for the same reading style both in-app and on-site — UX rules tell us it’s good when users have the same experience in the mobile app as well as on a website. That’s why it’s better to make a unified design and way of showing a content both in-app an on-site;

8. Minimizing time for getting acustomed in a new app for regular website users / readers — nobody wants to spend lots of time for “learning lessons”: if the site is simple and quick, why you mobile app should be complex and not easy to understand? It must be clear how to use it even if you see it for the first time and have no previous experience with it at all.

If you want to get you own native mobile app following the rules mentioned above, feel free to contact us: [email protected]

There is a community of users in popular Russian social network VKontakte named «Club Of Young Mothers» which is devoted to raising kids of different age, overcoming difficulties and problems of raising a child and solving problems connected with pregnancy and childhood for young women who have no previous experience of being a mother.

Componentix made an iOS-app for this project as a contractor.

The main tab of this app includes news and articles about children. You can also use a left-sided navigation bar for selecting a certain category of content in the “Category” tab. This navigation sidebar hides automatically if not used. All the articles in categories are grouped according to certain topic.

All the discussions are placed in a separate tab in the sidebar to the left. An app user can add own articles and discussions as well as mark some discussions and post as “Favorite” ones and look through the list of questions, previously asked to other members of “Club Of Young Mothers”.

There is also a separate “Options” tab where you can fill information about yourself, connect you in-app profile with VKontakte account and manipulate notifications about new discussions, posts, answers and questions from other members of the “Club”.

main newsfeed;

access to media-files (if there is a section with such files in a blog or in an online newspaper);

wall of events and hot (breaking) news;

buttons and forms for interacting with content inside the feed (adding comments, editing ,etc.);

integration with social media (sharing links to the articles and news, adding comments etc.)

Here is an example of such an app — iOS mobile application for a city online newspaper MyVin. This website covers key news and events of Vinnytsia as well as Ukrainian news in general. It also has a special tool for direct communication with mayor of Vinnytsia, wich was also necessary to include in a mobile app. Besides the Customer also wanted an option of commenting articles and posts via social media accounts.

The default tab of MyVin app includes newsfeed scaled to iPhone screen. The second tab includes wall of events, including ones in the cinema, theaters and concerts with time and date.

The third tab of this app includes a list of organizations and companies in Vinnytsia, divided into sections based on certain spheres of business or other activities. The fourth tab is for video: there are short video news and reports from local TV-channels such as «VDT-6» and «VitaTB» shared via YouTube.

And the last tab of MyVin app is devoted to communication with mayor. Any citizen living in Vinnytsia can send his or her request to mayor with the help of an iPhone. You have to push the button and fill short form of request in MyVin app. Besides you can read here requests from other citizens as well as answers to them from local city authorities.

You can also comment the news and publications in this iOS-app by authorizing with you Facebook login and password.

Step 1. Segment out smartphone and tablet visitors.

Research has shown that people behave differently on different devices. And the context often matters a lot more than the screen size.

Let's begin by looking specifically into our mobile traffic. Here's how:

Go to the Reporting section in Google Analytics.

Switch to Audience > Overview in Standard Reports.

Click on Advanced Segments.

Check All Traffic, Mobile Traffic, and Tablet Traffic segments.

Click Apply.

A new report will be generated showing how many visits you get from each device type, as well as other useful information.

This is a great place to start learning about your mobile traffic. Look at the metrics such as Bounce Rate or Pages/Visit and see how they compare between device types.

Step 2. Learn about your top content.

We also want to find out which pages your mobile users visit the most and which pages they land on when coming from different sources.

For example, your Home Page may be the most visited page on your website. But your Contact Page may be the one most people see first when they arrive from search engines.

To find out what your top content is, follow these steps:

Go to Content > Site Content > All Pages.

Look at 3 segments (All, Mobile, Tablet) separately and pay attention to the differences.See anything surprising yet?

Repeat these actions for Content > Site Content > Landing Pages.

You can use this information to prioritize your design and development effort. We suggest aiming for at least the top 5 most visited pages and the top 5 landing pages. This should cover about 40-80% of your mobile traffic.

Step 3. Select the most important devices.

Next, let's identify which exact devices people use to access your site.

To begin, deselect all Advanced Segments in Google Analytics and go to Audience > Mobile > Devices.

This information is useful when prioritizing your mobile adaptions. Should you build a mobile site or tablet site first? Do you have to tackle both at the same time? This report will help you identify which devices to target.

Step 4. Set up benchmarks for performance.

Now that you know who your mobile visitors are, what content they view and which devices they use, you're well-equipped to start making informed decisions about going mobile.

The last thing you should do is make a report of all the important metrics and set up benchmarks and goals.

Here's a list of metrics:

Conversion rates and revenue

Mobile visits and percentage of total traffic

Bounce rate for different devices

Pages / Visit

Praise vs. Complaints (this one's qualitative)

Keep track of these numbers over time to calculate your return on investment.

Here's how representatives of the project themselves characterize LoveEat:

LoveEat.ru, as well as its spinoff for Facebook, VK, Twitter and Instagram is an ideal platform to promote brands that are somehow connected with the cooking (food and household retailers, brands of food, kitchen utensils, appliances, restaurants, farms, alcohol brands, star chefs, etc.), which has an extensive audience with income above average level.

LoveEat app allows to login using accounts in one of the most popular social networks (Facebook, VK, Twitter, Odnoklassniki). You can also use guest access, yet it has limited functionality in some ways of adding and saving recipes.

Most of the interactions with the already published content are implemented on the basis of a single touch or swipe. There is also a built-in search for published recipes, specifying some search parameters. 

The main application screen of LoveEat for iOS contains fresh recipes, the most popular recipes feed and a list of subscribed profiles from specific food bloggers in this social network.

Left sidebar of the app is made to quickly select recipes for specific parameters, as well as to add own culinary guide with photos and short annotations.

By its functionality LoveEat reminds such social networks as Pinterest or Tumblr, but with an emphasis on culinary gastronomic theme. This app will be interesting for those who love to cook or want to learn how to cook new dishes for yourself, family and friends.