Apple announced a slew of software updates for the Apple family of devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac desktops and laptops, Apple TV, and Apple Watch at the WWDC Keynote on June 3, 2019.

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the announcements:

iPadOS

A surprise announcement (missed by the tech news portals prior to the event  too) was the announcement of a new OS, exclusively for the iPad With their larger screens, Apple is pushing the boundaries on what you can do on an iPad. With the functionality gap widening between iPhones and iPads, Apple decided to split iOS and give iPad its own dedicated OS called iPadOS. iPadOS is built upon iOS but provides additional capabilities to build experiences that are unique to the iPad. I’m guessing you can still run your iOS apps on iPad but if you want your app to take advantage of the unique interactions of an iPad, you’ll have to create an iPadOS app development.

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Some of the features include:

• Side by side apps, expose, file column views for more productivity
• File sharing – iCloud drive folder sharing
• You can plug in thumb drives, SD cards, external drives, import photos from your camera
• Desktop class browsing on Safari iPad (desktop site instead of mobile site)
• Downloads manager
• Font customization
• Use and buy custom fonts
• Improvements for text editing using Multi-touch
• Lower latency from 20ms to 9ms
• Redesigned Pencil tools
• PencilKit API

It seems like they’re really focused on making it a productivity machine rather than a casual device to consume content on (which I feel was the main focus of the iPad when it first came out). The emphasis is on multi-tasking, multi-touch gestures and an all-new home screen with an ability to pin widgets. Some of the features showcased (pen drive compatibility, column view of files, sharing of folders) make it amply clear that the intent is to keep working towards it being a replacement for laptops.

SwiftUI

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SwiftUI is a new Apple framework that will allow you to create user interfaces with code. You can build UIs across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS apps and it also comes with out of the box functionality for interface layout, Dark Mode, Accessibility, right-to-left language support and internationalization. Xcode 11 has a new way to design UIs without having to write any code. I will be downloading the Xcode 11 beta to check this out.

RealityKit

I haven’t spent much time playing around with ARKit myself but I’m still surprised by how cool these experiences are each time I see them. I was really impressed by the new RealityKit announced at WWDC that will allow you to create interactive AR experiences from a library of 3D objects and models. This drag and drop RealityComposer will allow people to create AR scenes even if they don’t have an extensive background in 3D graphics or 3D modelling.

ARKit 3

Two improvements they’ve made to this latest version of ARKit is around People Occlusion and Motion Capture.In the first demo, Apple showed people walking around in front of and behind of objects without messing up the order that they appear in. There’s some sort of automatic depth detection going on so ARKit knows the show the object behind or in front of the person.

In the second demo, Apple showed that you can perform motion capture on a person without any special equipment. Just point and record!

WatchOS

The Apple Watch has come a long way since the Series 1 when it was a companion device to the iPhone. Later it can be a stand alone device too with SIM support. With the next version of WatchOS, you can build apps specifically for the Apple Watch without the need for a companion iOS app. There are also new watch faces, cool new APIs for things like streaming audio or to allow your app to run for an extended amount of time. The Apple Watch also gets its own App Store. Apple also showcased health capabilities with activity trends, hearing health, cycle tracking (available on the Health app on iPhone too) and a redesigned health app dashboard (using ML for determining which metrics to show you).

tvOS

The tvOS app gets design enhancements, ability to add multiple user profiles, in-sync lyrics and more. You can now use Xbox  and PS4 controllers with the new tvOS.

iOS 13

Announcements pertaining to iOS were expected to be the highlight of the Keynote. A few tech blogs had already highlighted features like system-wide dark mode, new designs for Apple’s own apps etc. For me, the emphasis of iOS 13 was on improving performance. Here are a few examples:

• Face ID unlocks 30% faster
• App downloads are 50% smaller, app updates are 60% smaller
• Up to 2x faster app launch speed

Aside from the above, dark mode was showcased. It gives a whole new playground for designers to think through the visual experience of their apps.

Apple has always offered privacy as a key differentiating factor relative to competition. In a significant move, they announced “Sign in with Apple” as an option to social logins. This option also has an ability to mask one’s emails ID when having to share it with other services or apps. With the ‘hide my email’ option the app would only see a randomly generated anonymous email address – an announcement which got a lot of applause from the crowd.

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As an extension of the privacy initiatives, Apple announced new features and hardware for HomeKit, its framework for smart home devices. On display yesterday was HomeKit Secure Video, which analyzes videos from smart security cameras locally before encrypting and uploading them to iCloud. HomeKit enabled 3rd party routers were also announced which have firewall safeguards for connected accessories.

MacOS

There has been a lot of buzz about Project Marzipan months ahead of this WWDC. Turns out it is actually Project Catalyst which helps developers bring iOS apps to the Mac. It will be made available in the next version of macOS – named Catalina. Another interesting announcement was Sidecar which enables an iPad to be used as an external device.

Other notable announcements include Siri’s ability to read messages which you can respond via voice and it works with any app using SiriKit.

Here’s a 13-minute round up of the key announcements:

Digital transformation is reshaping every industry and enterprises are finding ways to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment. Business leaders have acknowledged that organizational culture is one of the key aspects of driving business success. In a recent Deloitte study, 82% of the CEO’s and HR leaders agreed that culture drives competitive advantage.

No wonder prudent enterprises are going beyond integrating newer technologies to adapt to this new reality – they are revamping their organizational culture to digitally transform. Take for example the case of the Economist Group. The publishing business has always focussed on selling advertising space on its print and digital medium as a revenue source. However, digitization has lead publishing houses to offer integrated marketing solutions including customized content, events, etc. This new market demand requires enterprises to not just have the technologies to meet the needs of the new-age customers, but also a trained workforce to implement them. The Economist Group realized that for adapting to these demands, they will have to retrain the workforce and support them in working more collaboratively.

This approach was no longer about selling individual products for short-term it was about consulting and helping businesses and building long-term relations with the clients. To achieve the same, the company introduced its ‘’Fast Forward’’ initiative aimed not just at the sales team but also the support teams like finance, programme managers, event organisers, etc. The program included a learning-based platform with a UI similar to social media platforms and also had elements of Gamification to make the process engaging and encourage the employees to complete the training. The process involved everyone from the top management to the executives.

According to Michael Thomas, training director, the Economist Group–

“The program really pushed people to work collaboratively and to build relationships across different functional parts of the business. So we had sales working with events and finance and programme managers – it was very successful.”

An organization, in a digital transformation world, isn’t just a set of digital processes but also includes the work culture and the set of practices and attitudes that are key to implement digital transformation and succeed in a digital world.

So far, digital transformation has been about inculcating consumer-facing technologies or operational processes at some level but organizational culture is an aspect that is given the least importance when it comes to crafting a digital transformation strategy for any enterprise.

According to this study – almost 94% of the business executives equate “digital” mainly with technology, and only a small fraction that is, 6% defined it as “going beyond technology alone to reflect a mindset that embraces constant innovation, flat decision-making, and the integration of technology into all phases of the business.”

But why is it critical to include cultural transformation as an important, rather one of the most important aspects of an enterprise’s digital transformation strategy?

Here’s what Rob Roy the Chief Digital Officer at Sprint, said about how adding the ‘people factor’ to their digital transformation strategy, steered their journey in the right direction –

‘’We started using the phrase ‘digital transformation’, migrated processes and tools to be more digital, and created a dedicated business unit, and thought we’d automatically see that transformation happen. For example, we decided to do more sales online. When we set it up, we then tried to force customers down the digital path. But many of them weren’t ready. The spirit of what we were doing was correct, but a complete understanding of what we were trying to do wasn’t there. After six months, we learned that just because you say it, it doesn’t make it so. A digital transformation isn’t about digitizing a channel or simply doing more things digitally. It’s a much broader scope than that. We’re really looking to improve and simplify customer “moments of truth”—and all the supporting processes that build a true omnichannel, world-class experience. We’re now working with each area in the business to help everyone think and act digitally for the things they control. And we’re starting to see real gains in productivity, simplification, cost reduction, and building on earlier gains focused on sales.’’

The above example substantiates the fact that digital transformation will not happen in a company where the culture is not in place. However, on a positive note, business leaders realize this gap. In a Capgemini survey, 62% of the executives agreed that organizational culture is one of the biggest hurdle impeding the progress of digital transformation.

So what Exactly is a ‘Digital Culture’?

Company culture inculcates a range of attributes from a company ’s day-to-day operational processes to collective experiences and value system of the employees, leadership’s role, vision, etc. A digital culture has a different approach to all of these attributes vs a company which isn’t digitally matured. According to a report by MIT and Capgemini, digital culture comprises of the following attributes.

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• Customer Centricity: digitally matured enterprises look at everything from the customer’s perspective, their processes, internal and external, are geared up for simplifying customer journeys across every touch point.

• Innovation: a digital culture supports calculative risk-taking, go beyond standard processes and adopt disruptive technologies in order to explore newer ideas.

• Data-driven Decision-Making: the use of data and analytics to make better business decisions.

• Collaboration: a digital culture, is collaborative and encourages the creation of cross-functional, inter-departmental teams to optimize processes and increase efficiency.

• Open Culture: a digital culture reaches out for partnerships wherever necessary, instead of trying to do everything in-house.

• Digital First Mindset: a digital culture works on a mindset where digital solutions are the default way forward.

• Agility and Flexibility: a digital culture instils speed and dynamism in decision-making and accelerates the ability of the organization to adapt to changing demands and technologies.

As stated by TN Hari, Human Resources Head at Big Basket (a leading online grocery platform of India)

”In today’s digital world, it is imperative for organizations to adopt advanced technologies to improve efficiency and remain competitive. However, every organization will be having their own digital requirements and hence their own unique digital transformation journey. To bring change and align the organization for digital transformation, it will be important for business leaders to identify what kind of digital transformation their organization needs and the outcomes, even more important will be communicating this to their teams and aligning them to the vision of the organization.”

Challenges in Achieving a Cultural Change

By now we have established that digital transformation requires a cultural turn-around for any enterprise and it can be an uphill task to reshape the set processes, attitudes, behaviours and practices to adapt to the new digital reality and the challenges can be many and intimidating.

Here are some challenges that business leaders might face while revamping their organizational culture for the digital world:

1. Inertia in letting go of existing processes and culture

According to an HBR study – one of the most baffling problems which business executives face is employee resistance to change. An enterprise built on traditional and rigid processes and culture will naturally be averse to change because sticking to old processes is easier for employees than starting from scratch.

As pointed out by Professor Deborah Ancona MIT Sloan School of Management –

“Employees will resist because they still see the old behaviours as critical to their success and central to who they are while seeing the new norms as risky.”

Precisely why they continue to stick to their good old ways, and in the process, lose sight of the new envisioned goals and values of the business. However, in a digital world where technology is an integral part of people’s life, it is easier to establish the benefits of adopting newer technologies, if communicated in the right manner; and this onus lies on the business leaders.

As TN Hari, rightly puts it across

‘’We are reaping the benefits of digitization in our day-to-day lives. People are already accustomed to using technology to simplify their personal lives and they understand how it can ease their routine and mundane tasks. Then why will they not look at digitization from a similar perspective in their work lives? To bring about change, it will be critical for business leaders to show their teams, what’s in it for them? How technology will help them improve their efficiency and accelerate their progress in the organization.’’

2. Infrastructural costs

Driving a digital culture is not just a human thing, rather it needs a full-fledged infrastructure in place. This infrastructure, unlike the traditional IT systems, has much more than some hardware and legacy software platforms. It requires a range of things including products, mobile applications, social, cloud, data analytics and automation, all this can mean a huge cost to the enterprise and hence acts as an impediment.

3. Resource allocation

Adding new digital processes introduces a slew of newer tasks to the workflow of an organization. With newer operational tasks being added, there is a need for allocation of resources who can tactfully navigate through the newer processes. However, at times enterprises are not geared up to scale their resource allocation within that time frame, and that makes digital transformation difficult.

4. Inefficient adoption of automation

A digital culture focuses highly on automation. Which means moving away from the manual processes. Most people comfortable in a traditional culture are reluctant to let go of the manual processes that they have been using for decades and are always iffy about breaking off their comfort shells and adapting automation. And thereby, even when infrastructural processes are in place, automation is not effectively implemented in the enterprise.

5. Upskilling challenges

Digital literacy amongst the employees is one of the major roadblocks when it comes to instilling a digital culture. For employees used to traditional processes, it will require proper planning of a training module to incorporate digital competencies in them, which can be a challenging task. Businesses will need to invest heavily in organizing training sessions and mentorship programs to ensure success.

How to Create an Organizational Culture to Accelerate Digital Transformation

According to a study by Mckinsey, culture is the number one barrier when it comes to digital transformation.

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As complex it might sound to solve this part of the puzzle, planning ahead with the right strategy will ensure success for enterprises while getting ready for a digital future.

Here’s is how business leaders can lead the way for instilling a digital culture in their enterprises:

1. Define what digital transformation means for your organization

In broader terms, digital transformation might mean adopting technologies to improve efficiency and simplifying lives for your customers. But, every enterprise is at a different stage when it comes to their digital transformation journey, and hence individual organizations will have their own definition. It is imperative to know where your organization stands, and where do you want to reach and why.

It is important to identify answers to these questions and even more important is articulating it to your team and aligning them to the bigger picture. So that they don’t see technology as a threat or inconvenience, they see the bigger picture and technology as an ally to reach there, together.

2. Encourage disruptive thinking

Technology is disrupting industries and turning norms on their head. In a scenario like this, if your team keeps doing things the way they did or thinking the way they did, the organization will remain where it was albeit with the implementation of some digital platforms. For your team to appreciate a digital culture business leaders should reward disruptive thinking, ability to take calculated risks and even creative failures.

3. Imbibe leadership characteristics in employees

Change is never easy, thus it requires dynamic leaders to lead the way and bring change. Leaving this task to just to the C-suite of the organization will only delay the progress. Business leaders should identify leaders across functions to lead the way. Organizations can encourage leadership characteristics by creating opportunities for employees. For instance, a North American financial institution that was undergoing a digital transformation made it a practice to rotate meeting leaders, which empowered a wider variety of people in meetings. Enterprises should encourage leaders to become mentors to their team or encourage action.

Breeding leaders will need decision makers to give independence to their teams and let them make choices and decisions and feel safe while doing so. For instance, to signal change at Cisco, executives in certain divisions gave up their offices, so the company could create team rooms; the company also started allowing employees to choose the workspace and tech tools that best fit their individual roles.

3. Don’t hire for the ‘job’ hire for the organization

In a digital world where technologies change every fortnight, it is rather short-sighted to hire candidates for a ‘specific job’. Digitally mature organizations allow employees to wear multiple hats. Thus, hiring for a specific skill or tech speciality will leave you holding a lot of outdated talent. Instead, businesses should list down the qualities that will lead to a bigger, stronger, forward-thinking organization. Prudent leaders should work toward creating a workforce that will move your company and digital culture forwards.

4. Revisiting organizational operating model

In most organizations, a change in culture is first run as a pilot with the senior executives of the company. If the pilot is successful it is then rolled out to the company. However, the drawback of this approach is the traits of the executives with whom the pilot is conducted and approved, do not exist in the broader organization. The approach that applies to a mid-level manager may not work for the intern. Hence, there is a mismatch in the motivation levels within the organization to adapt to the new culture. To bridge this gap it is important that organizations re-look at their basic operating models, review systems, etc. New practices need to be implemented basis the context of the various organizational functions. Rolling out a generic strategy might not work. For instance, while embedding a digital culture, Adobe Systems abolished its annual performance management reviews, replacing them with real-time “feed forward” sessions that focus on upcoming goals.

In another example, leaders at a life sciences company reviewed their company’s “DNA statement” to ensure that the principles and the company’s systems supported the new digital culture.

In Conclusion:

As rightly pointed out by Ian Rogers, Chief Digital Officer at LVMH –

“The big moment for an organization is when they have embraced the fact that digital transformation isn’t a technical issue, but a cultural change.”

To reshape your organization’s culture and making it digital ready will require business leaders to think beyond the realms of technology. Dig deeper into their employee attitudes, organizational processes and not shy away from reshaping and altering whatever is necessary to accelerate their digital transformation journey.

The banking & finance industry has seen tectonic changes over the last few years. With the advent of smartphones and mobile applications, many consumers choose to bank on their mobile, buy financial products on digital platforms, reducing their dependence on visiting a branch or brick & mortar office. Living in a digital world has created its own set of challenges for both end users and enterprises. Alongside this digital savvy, demanding consumer is another audience (in developing markets largely with a rural bias), which is yet to experience the entire gamut of banking services. They are expected to fuel the growth of the entire banking sector, driven by rising incomes.

Earlier, a bank account at a branch was for life. Today, switching brands to suit one’s financial needs – be it investments or loans, is easier than ever before. So there is no room for complacency in the banking sector as brand loyalty cannot be taken for granted. Millennials – a sought after segment for many categories are earning and their trust factor vis-à-vis banks will be measured solely by digital experience of services. They would be a demanding lot as they seek self-service dashboards, are comfortable with humanized banking with natural language support and demand curated recommendations on financial products.

Our interactions with consumers tells us that they have a stronger emotional connect with technology and new-age brands such as Apple, Uber, Amazon, and Google. The ability of some of such companies to blend experiences from the physical and digital worlds is also admired by consumers. The perceived ease of use and delight of digital-only products (e.g. Dropbox) is sought to be emulated across all digital experiences. Unfortunately, banks have not been known to provide great customer experiences either in the offline or online world. Nearly half of millennials using mobile banking are dissatisfied with the existing online banking services.

Many enterprises with no legacy banking experience may seek banking licenses with a digital-first and branch-less strategy. They can collaborate with FinTech partners to acquire and own segmented customers and offer a wide-range of services as opposed to legacy institutions, which were primarily a safe vault for deposits or lending to one-off needs. As compared to traditional banking brands, FinTech players anyway have an edge when it comes to better user experience.

In this context, banks are at a higher risk than ever before of losing customers. They will have to adopt a top-down strategy comprising five pillars of innovation covering Business, Technology and Operations.

Not just money-keeping but lifestyle enrichment

Banks remain one among the many domains, which can potentially own the customer for life and fulfil an individual’s aspirations and needs. Hence, banks can play a far greater role than mere money keepers. They can offer a suite of services to match both lifestyle and life stage requirements of individuals. This could include anytime advisory, spend analysis across financial institutions and touch points, life-style goal planning & tracking, consolidated analysis of assets & liabilities, need-based in-app marketing, rule-driven payments automation and more.

Based on lifestyle services (e.g. shopping, bills, recharge, tax, fees, EMI, ticketing, travel, transportation, toll pay, grocery, entertainment, donation, stocks, mutual funds, insurance, deposits, person-person payments) and past transactions, a bank can make just-in-time recommendations and make customized offers. They have an opportunity to be the single life-style app unifying loyalty, rewards and cash back with frictionless redemption. For example,our primary objective while revamping the app of a large private bank was to upgrade it from a merely transactional app to an all-purpose platform. We partnered with the client and created an app which wasn’t just a transactional platform, but offered a seamless and delightful experience to consumers, with features like one-touch payments, bill payment reminders, AR based smart ATM locator, etc.

Data of customers and their preferences should move across channels (app, web, wearables, bots, social, smart TV, kiosk, branch, call center, advisor, distributor) and will be expected to be available, rendered or resumed on most-preferred channel at that moment or location with secure authentication.

Customer Experience is the new business battleground

Many enterprises are familiar with the concept of Design Thinking and acknowledge its role in shaping customer experiences. But there is scope to apply this discipline across all aspects of a business. Many of the enterprise apps in the market may be colorful in design, but weak on purpose, interaction style or blending cutting-edge innovations. Enterprises too are grappling with the problem of app abandonment both in consumer-facing and employee-focused apps. There is ample scope for design thinkers and data scientists to partner with software engineers to create digital solutions, which delight.

Banks should think holistically to offer a great customer experience beyond just the digital interface. In the US, while lots of millennials use and prefer digital banking almost 50% of them wouldn’t even consider switching to a digital-only bank. Beyond the digital world, banks can also consider hybrid solutions – a personalized greeting at branch entry via facial recognition and BLE, extended service hours through virtual remote services, the option to have a video call with a bank representative, a plug & play service at a branch resembling a café and so on.

Don’t just thinks apps, think enterprise grade platforms

Gone are the days of IT teams executing monolithic applications from disparate vendors as sequential projects and siloed business units resulting in a roadblock to faster innovation to markets. Many large enterprises have now carved out separation of responsibilities between the CTO, CIO, CD and CMO. Enterprises should decouple Digital from Core via Open APIs (e.g. PSD2 Open Banking Standard in UK) and monetize services usage by partnering with best-of-breed service providers built on open-source technologies via a plug-n-play integration.

Each business application across business units should be well architected as a collection of cloud-ready enterprise-level micro-services that can be discovered, re-used and deployed across the Enterprise in its lifetime.

Automation which delivers better processes & results

Many financial institutions have only scratched the surface on operational process and customer interaction automation. Typically, it has been automation of easy mundane back-end jobs and less of a hybrid approach of humans and robot’s judgment working in tandem. Successful digital transformation initiatives must focus on enterprise productivity, contextual interactions and real-time recommendations with customer at the center.

Robotic Process Automation is one form of automation that enables an enterprise to be agile, lean, data-driven and customer-centric by speeding up tasks non-intrusively and 24×7 operational. RPA unifies enterprise-level data to bring context to customers, integrates regulatory compliance into SOPs with exception reporting, delivers always-on services and enrich human interactions. Hence, convergence of RPA and AI covering client and server-side applications must drive enterprise revenue and profitability, cross-sell to customer’s precise needs, prevent fraud and non-performing assets, as opposed to seen as disparate technological innovations.

Financial institutions must certainly bring automation to software development, deployment and rollout to markets faster. This would involve adopting Agile practices at scale. These could be in-house or with innovation partners by institutionalizing DevOps best practices of Continuous Integration, Deployment and Monitoring of services. Another area of automation is just-in-time marketing driven by AI, location intelligence, big-data driven customer profiling.

Actionable insights at the core of decision-making

Big or small decisions in enterprises are based on the right information. Today, the need is to go beyond information and depend on insights. Such insights can be drawn from every conversation, transaction, relationship, complaints, social sharing between customer and bank or between customers, and not remain siloed inside proprietary application as MIS reporting. In a 2018 survey, senior industry professionals placed open APIs, Analytics and Conversational Interfaces among the top 3 technologies which will have an impact in banking.

Analytics is enabled at edge of the network and at servers on cloud and utilized real time to bring value to customers. Such insights can be put to use in customer micro-segmentation, cross-sell and product holding analysis, customer profitability and lifetime value analysis to name a few.

Dashboards are useful, but the real value lies in interpreting the data in order to anticipate what your customers want faster and accurately  than your competition and acting on it.

Summary

Banking will remain across generations to come. The entities, actors, relationships will take different shapes. Financial institutions  must think customer-first and user scenarios to drive service features and not invest upfront in off-the-shelf products without knowing how to realize the enterprise vision on time and budget.

A customer-focused data-driven company, which measures critical moments of interaction to cross-sell or up-sell has an edge in the future. A reliable long-term partner who can provide the right advice, design a human-centric experience, engineer a scalable solution, and launch or enhance defect-free cloud-ready solutions to market is key to success.

Last Thursday, we conducted a webinar on how to build and grow an audience for mobile apps. The webinar was conducted in association with Pyze Inc., with Nikunj Sanghvi and Prabhjot Singh being the hosts. In case you missed the webinar, here some salient points discussed.

First, some hard truths:

• 77% of users never use an app again 72 hours after installing.
• 34% of app usage lasts less than one minute
• 92% of the 4+ million apps fail

It was emphasised that the chances of success will increase only if the app engagement increases and we give enough reasons for the user to keep using the app again and again. And the only way to improve app engagement is to make every user interaction memorable and delightful.

Further, the following tips were shared on building apps for growth:

1. Use device sensors & features: smartphones and mobile operating systems come with incredible features nowadays. Apps should attempt to make use of device sensors, integration with in-built hardware features, OS gestures to improve interactivity and engagement. The WWF Together app was showcased as a reference.

2. Appeal to user instincts & emotions: understanding the consumer and using insights about their behavior towards the category is a key element for success. This was demonstrated through the use of a ‘bargain’ (a trait common among Indians while shopping) feature in an e-commerce app

3. Architect with scalability and flexibility in mind: an app which scaled from a simple recharge and bill pay app into a full-fledged e-Commerce space one was showcased – the scalable architecture helped them build customizable UIs to showcase products in different verticals

4. Think beyond the app: in many cases, it helps to think of your offering as a service, and not just an “app”

5. Adopt new features and update often: frequent updates help apps to remain on top of users’ minds and drive increased engagement and growth.

6. Go native when applicable: a native app has access to features and hardware that a cross-platform app often does not

The second half of the webinar focused on organic growth. It was highlighted that while some top app publishers generate over
$1M of revenue a day, most app publishers make less than $500 a month. The key, it was pointed out is that app publishers who use data intelligence are growing while a majority struggle. Top apps from Facebook, LinkedIn, King, Niantic, Supercell & others use sophisticated intelligence to Engage, Retain & Grow users.

The 5 pillars of growth intelligence are:

• Deep Understanding of user behavior
• Behavioral User Clustering & Macro analysis
• Right-time per-individual Interactions
• Automate engagement, retention & growth
• Personalized content, experience & interactions

Want to know more? We have a recording of the webinar which you can watch at leisure. Just head over here to signup and we will send you the link.

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study suggests that out of 10,640 projects done by 200 companies across the globe, only 2.5% managed to complete 100% of their IT projects. Lack of planning, resources, and activities are some of the reasons for this rate of failure. However, organizations are now working towards reducing the rate of project failure. According to a report by Project Management Institute the project failure rate has substantially reduced from 70% to 55% in 2017. Some of the factors that have contributed to the reduction of failure rate are using a strategic approach to project management and adopting an Agile approach.

RFP is the first step towards starting the journey towards a successful project. From repeated delays in software releases, exceeding budgets to development issues these predictable obstacles can be avoided by writing a succinct request for proposal (RFP).

In this article, we have collated more than ten best practices to follow while writing an RFP that can build a successful digital partnership.

Project Overview

The first step to creating a quality RFP is to introduce the purpose of your proposal. Clearly state the goals, metrics, and ROI the RFP is designed to address. Be brief and to the point in this section, as more details about the project will follow in the subsequent section. The overview should provide a view of your business objective, baseline goals, and proposed solution.

Company Background

Clearly articulate your business and the services or solutions your enterprise provides. Chances are that the service provider is unfamiliar with your organization and has questions even after visiting your website. You should talk about what makes your company unique and why the project you are working on matters.

Project Goals & Target Audience

Clearly explain your goals and what you intend to accomplish with the project. Prioritize the goals so the vendor will understand the relative importance and can respond accordingly. Describe the end user or the target audience of the project. If there are multiple users clearly define each as this will help the vendor understand the overall scope and reach of the project. For example, the main target audience may be “consumers”, but be sure to define other user groups such as “administrators, content providers, suppliers, etc.” The clearer you are, the better the responses will be to the RFP, which in turn will allow you to make better decisions and produce more quantifiable outcomes.

Scope and Deliverables

This is the part where you will elaborate on the scope and key deliverables for the project. Describe the features, functions along with the associated deliverables with as much detail as possible. If you can, provide examples from other projects or describe how the end user will use the feature. If there is a specific technology you require, include that in the scope description. Don’t forget to define ongoing support requirements and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) as part of the scope. These are often overlooked at the beginning of a project and can cause cost overruns in the end. Include any documentation that supports the scope such as wireframes, technical architecture or user personas.

Project Timeline

Even though you may not know the actual timeline to complete the project, you should provide the desired dates for critical milestones. This will allow the vendor to provide reasonable estimates for the duration of each project phase. If there is a hard deadline to be met, be upfront about it.

Looking to craft compelling digital experiences for your enterprise? Here’s a handy template you can refer to. Download now.

Technical Requirements

This is one of the most critical section of an RFP. This will lay out all the technical and complex requirements of the project. This section should clearly outline both technical and functional requirements for the project. For instance, if your project requires a design solution to be done, then the details and the expectations like user-friendliness, accessibility, compatibility with multiple devices, etc. should be mentioned here. Some other key points that can be included in this section could be:

• Infrastructure requirements and guidelines – details of the infrastructure like a requirement of a cloud platform details of the deployment environment, etc. should be captured here.

• Operating model requirements – This should capture the dependencies and the expectations from the operating model from the vendor.

• Functional requirements pertaining to both front-end and back-end should be added in this section.

Main Point of Contact

Generally, there should be a single point of contact that the vendors can reach out to with questions and comments. It is also useful to provide the names and contact details for critical members of the client project team. For example, the technical and UX lead, project sponsors and SMEs. Allowing access to these people will improve the accuracy of the vendor’s response.

Budget and Selection Criteria

Be open about your budget, even if it is only an estimate. Providing the service provider with a target budget is a part of setting clear expectations and ensuring you get a quality response. Some clients do not provide a budget target in RFPs, assuming that the vendors will provide lower estimates. In actuality, the result is usually budgets that vary widely by the vendor which makes it difficult to accurately compare scope, effort, and cost.

You should also include the selection criteria you will use to award the project and evaluate the vendors. Vendors that do not meet those requirements should be excluded at the beginning of the RFP process, not at the end. This will save everyone time and effort.

Finally, in some industries (government, education and financial services), there are legal and regulatory requirements for selecting a vendor for a project. Be sure to address those in the preparation of the RFP.

Ongoing Support

One of the questions you must answer when preparing an RFP is, will the project require ongoing support post-launch? Some clients have their own in-house support team for bug fixes, maintaining uptime, providing reporting and analytics. For these clients, it is a best practice to include a “transition period” in the RFP that allows the vendor time and budget to educate the in-house support team on how to support the project long term.

If you will need the vendor to provide ongoing support, establish clearly the expectations around SLAs (Service Level Agreements), escalation and communication channels. Some vendors are not set up for long term ongoing support, and knowing that could be a critical decision point in selecting a vendor.

Provide Example and Samples

If your project has been inspired by other products in the industry, provide a few examples of it. Whether it is the design, the overall experience, or any other specific, discrete feature, explain what you like about them and why. When you give samples of the things you want, you are able to better explain your vision and clarify any doubts that the vendor may have.

The Format of your Proposal

Are you supposed to submit the proposal in a set PDF or an MS Word format? Are you required to sign and notarize the hard copies? Is there a specific font and format to be used (single or double space)? These are some of the questions that you need to keep in mind while writing an RFP. While all these may seem to be standard questions, it is often overlooked by the writers.

Final Thoughts

Great RFPs are easy to write provided you know what to include in them. These are some of the essential elements of an RFP that can help you forge lasting relationships with the vendor. Even though these points may appear overwhelming, but chances are that you already know about them and are including it in your RFP. But, this isn’t an exhaustive list of things that can be included. If you know where to put what content then you can make the vendor’s life easier in deciding whether to respond to the RFP or not.

An in-depth RFP shows that you have invested time in thinking through the details and are serious about the completion of your project. After all, the better the RFP is articulated, the better will be the vendor response.

An exhaustive, in-depth RFP is critical for selecting the right vendor and ensuring that there are no mismatches between the expectations from a project and deliverables. As they say ‘well begun is half done’, a well written RFP is the first step to ensure successful on-time project completion.

At Robosoft, we believe in simplifying lives through delightful digital experiences. Across enterprises, digital product owners and IT Services teams are responsible for initiating, overseeing and executing mission-critical software projects. All of these involve decision making which can impact the success of the project – from selecting the right digital partner to the writing a comprehensive RFP. Through a series of blogs, we will attempt to provide useful guides for such digital journeys. Our first one is about writing an effective RFP. We hope you find it useful. Got a suggestion? Write to us.

There are a dime a dozen technologies and mobile app development languages available today. Despite that, app developers constantly face the challenge of broken and interrupted links. It is important to select a technology that meets your requirements and can be used with ease by both the developers and users. With the advent of AngularJS in 2012, sitting in front of computers trying to find the right solution has become a thing of the past.

With mobile app development in AngularJS, mobile app developers are breathing a resting breeze as this programming language has freed them from looking for codes needed to achieve their targets. While AngularJS is a Javascript framework, the most recent, Angular is built on Typescript – a typed superset of Javascript. It is the predecessor of Angular. Before jumping to the benefits of using AngularJS for developing mobile apps, let us understand what this language is and how it has changed the app development landscape since its inception.

What is AngularJS?

To simply put, AngularJS is a JavaScript framework developed and introduced by Google.

AngularJS is a framework that makes designing of dynamic web pages efficient and is initially launched to simplify the creation of dynamic and web app. Since then, it has come a long way and is widely used today for restructuring JavaScript code. AngularJS is also used to gather data and also helps developers to maintain the code integrity of the application.

AngularJS works on building blocks, some of which are mentioned below:

• Directives for extending HTML attributes
• Rules to gather data into HTML
• Handling of Error and event
• Unit testing
• Binding and Routing
• Rendering of HTML and Controllers

AngularJS also helps in modifying J-query DOM libraries. Whether it is allowing the developers to maximize HTML’s functionality by adding constructs or abstracting DOM updates, AngularJS makes it streamlined.

10 Reasons you should use AngularJS to develop your next mobile app

• Creates a dynamic web application with AngularJS’s Model View Controller (MVC) architecture. The MVC segregates logic, process, and user interface into different modules, making the developing of website easy and simple while enhancing code quality.

• Improves the architecture of the app and boosts flexibility and functionality. It helps build robust workflows and accomplish results with only a few manipulations on JavaScript and HTML. With several templates, modules and other user interface effects, developers can customize the app and enhance the user experience significantly.

• Since AngularJS depends upon HTML to define the user interface (UI) of an application, it saves developers the time of defining the program flows in deciding what to upload first. Moreover, HTML is a far more straightforward language than JavaScript and is more declarative and intuitive.

• Mobile App Development with AngularJS is synonymous to simplicity and ease of use. With a simple coding script, developers can add AngularJS to an HTML page. Libraries can be added later to make modifications even at a later stage. The code is easy to maintain, and the enhanced and declarative UI helps to build an engaging app experience.

• AngularJS is a powerful solution that is extremely useful for developer hard-pressed for time. It facilitates parallel development with its modular capabilities and lowers the apps’ time-to-market.

• Its modular structure allows developers to organize codes into buckets based on its components, directives, and services. This is extremely critical in saving time since anyone familiar with AngularJS can refer to these buckets and reuse them. These modules also enable developers to ‘lazy load’, which allows the application feature to be loaded on demand or in the background.

• Mobile App Development with AngularJS makes it an achievable goal to divide the tasks across different team members while ensuring organized code. Once you have a precise understanding of this, you can ensure that you make the best of these modules. Developers can improve productivity with appropriate modules built.

• The code of AngularJS can be reused due to its modular structure. Depending on the developer’s choice, each module is either independent or dependent on each other. They have an option to reuse their earlier built component for a new application or reinvent the wheel. Just by copy-pasting the old codes, developers can save a ton of time and build apps in minutes.

• AngularJS for app development makes testing extremely simple with its AngularJS modules that are easy to manipulate. It allows the developer to load the required services and perform automatic testing by segregating the modules.

• Say goodbye to getter and setter functions when developing a mobile app with AngularJS since it relies on POJO (Plain Old JavaScript Object). POJO allows object manipulation by offering all the traditional JavaScript functionalities. Developers can add or delete properties from the objects and at the same time loop over these objects whenever necessary.

Now that we know the benefits of AngularJS, let us look at some of the use-cases and how it can be helpful in developing some of the greatest mobile apps. If you are working in a niche and want to gain impressive popularity, then you need to choose the one with its gestures and matches. If you are still to make a decision, then here are some popular AngularJS apps that can help you realize it’s worth using.

Popular Apps that use AngularJS

Review apps:

Many online review apps are built on AngularJS for its great user experience. Such app development with AngularJS provides critical information to readers who are about to take actions on the things they are interested in. These apps allow users to determine the best solution, make an informed decision and save a ton of money.

Apps for finding destinations:

A travel and destination finder app is best built on AngularJS for it includes dynamic features. These travel apps developed with AngularJS, make it easier for developers to create powerful, easy to use, intuitive apps while providing a great user interface.

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Weather update apps:

Some of the most weather update apps are built on AngularJS. One of the most common examples is Weather.com. With an interactive display, this programming language allows developers to create an interactive app that allows users to perform real-time activities without compromising quality.

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Content portal apps:

Popular apps such as Freelancer.com and Upwork.com are built on AngularJS. These websites are famously known for crowdsourcing content and need to be updated regularly. With such apps developed on AngularJS, developers can handle a large amount of data, crowdsourced posts as well as user information all while providing enhanced user experience.

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Interactive social media apps:

Some of the world’s most powerful and popular social media apps are developed with AngularJS. LinkedIn is one such popular app. This app not only handles a large volume of data but also requires an update of data in real-time. All this is made possible with AngularJS and its comprehensible features.

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Final Thoughts

AngularJS has become popular among developers for its ease of use and simplicity. This is especially useful after the advent of several marketing practices, which has made it difficult to find the real worth of products amid stiff competition. It is imperative to find the right development tool for your business no matter how challenging the task may be. That is where AngularJS is a clear winner presently for its myriad benefits and features.

A word of prudence: it is always advisable to consult the right technology partner before taking the plunge into developing a mobile app.

What is the similarity between Gmail, Sony PlayStation and Facebook’s Like Button? Besides being iconic product successes, they were all invented through experimentation.

Gmail was developed by an employee at Google while experimenting during the set-aside time for personal projects. Sony’s Playstation was created by an entry-level employee at Sony, while he was tinkering around with Nintendo and Facebook’s like button was invented during one of the hackathons at the company.

In all the above examples, what stands out is that all these companies take experimentation as a critical factor to accelerate innovation for their businesses. These forward-thinking organizations understand that a culture of experimentation cannot be built if businesses keep standard practices.

In the 2000s, W. James McNerney Jr. became CEO of 3M. He has had a successful stint at GE as a senior executive and brought some of those practices to 3M to improve the efficiency of the company and boost growth. He looked at narrowing budgets, created a leaner team, and implemented Six Sigma. Though, it seemed like McNerney’s plan was perfect, it did not yield desired results. Why? Simply because it did not leave room for experimentation in the effort to become efficient.

The company, which had invented groundbreaking products like Thinsulate, Scotchgard, Post-it notes, etc. was losing its innovation edge. According to this report: in the past, one-third of sales had come from new products (released in the past five years), but that fraction had since fallen to one-quarter.

In this age of digitization, business leaders understand the culture of innovation is critical to digital transformation and they are also realizing that innovation cannot be driven without a culture of experimentation. According to a recent research done by Deloitte and MIT, most business leaders identify creating a culture of experimentation within the organization is one of the top challenges for organizations to compete in a digital environment.

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The most innovative organizations foster a culture of experimentation in their organization. According to Jeff Bezos –

Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day….

Why experimentation is crucial for digital innovation

In a data-driven world where businesses have an avalanche for customer data generated with every digital interaction. While this huge amount of data is extremely useful in driving insights, it can also stifle experimentation. That is because businesses tend to look at data as a final word on what the consumer wants and follow a standardized process of delivering their stated needs and not understanding their latent needs or solve a problem for them.

One of the major reasons why traditional organizations do not adopt a culture of experimentation is the fear of failure. Exactly, why most of the digital disruptors are the organizations which do not follow a set pattern.

If Netflix opened just another brick and mortar video rental shop instead of an online portal, it wouldn’t be the where it is and the same thing goes for enterprises like Uber, Airbnb, etc.

According to Maile Carnegie, group executive of digital banking at financial services firm Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia,

‘’it’s fascinating how some young, digital companies experience failures every single day in their efforts to achieve their purpose, and they’re comfortable with it.”

Why experimentation is important to drive innovation

Today’s businesses are data-driven and however, that also means only relying on data to create solutions without testing and experiment can lead to failures, if not, it can also restrict an organization to explore the full potential of innovation.

According to an HBR research, companies which foster a culture of experimentation will see 5 times higher growth in revenue compared to those which don’t.

Most digitally maturing organizations understand this and hence they prioritize driving a culture of experimentation. According to a survey done by MIT, digitally maturing organizations are more likely to experiment and iterate.

How organizations can create a culture of innovation

Celebrate failures and learn from them

Like earlier mentioned in the article, most organization fail to adopt an experimentation culture due to fear of failure. However, business leaders must empower their teams to learn from failures. Some of the ways of doing this is:

• Encouraging employees to propose out-of-the-box ideas without having fear of any negative views.
• Rewarding them for pitching innovative ideas irrespective and communicating the same across the organization.
• Encourage brainstorming sessions which are cross-functional to have a different perspective.
• Acknowledge and encourage your team to drive insights from failures and share with a wider audience.

Business leaders should encourage their teams not to fear failures rather consider it as a critical step towards experimentation and failing forward. As rightly quoted by Jeff Bezos on Amazon’s innovation culture –

“One area where I think we are especially distinctive is failure. I believe we are the best place in the world to fail (we have plenty of practice!), and failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment. Most large organizations embrace the idea of invention, but are not willing to suffer the string of failed experiments necessary to get there.”

Testing and adapting fast

While experimentation is critical. Experimentation and iteration are critical for businesses to respond to digital disruption. Leaders should encourage their teams to learn from those experiments, iterate and adapt fast to drive the full potential of innovation.

Companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are constantly running experiments in an effort to continually improve prove the platform experience. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg estimates that 10,000 versions of his social media site are running at any given instance as it tries and finds small improvements

Companies should figure out how to experiment to compete in the future while also maintaining the core business so that they can perform in the present.

For instance, Cisco takes a portfolio approach to innovation investment, according to James Macaulay, senior director of the Cisco Digitization Office, “you need some highly predictable, highly reliable asset classes, so to speak, but you also probably want to have some moon shots in there that could potentially return a thousand-fold. We’re trying to balance predictability of returns while allowing for the opportunity of very high returns on investment.”

Remove silos and blur the lines of hierarchy

Another setback that organizations face while driving a culture of experimentation is organizational silos. To drive a culture of experimentation, collaboration is critical. In today’s digital landscape not just customers are digitally connected, various functions across the organizations too are connected. In that context, experimentation and sharing of ideas can happen at an inter-department level. Some times innovations come from areas least expected.

Like mentioned earlier in the article, the idea for the gaming device Sony PlayStation, came from Ken Kutaragi, a relatively junior Sony Employee who spent hours experimenting  — something that wouldn’t have happened in a siloed and an environment with a rigid hierarchy.

This can happen by encouraging and facilitate people across all departments to work together and collaborate on ideas. Also, having employees at every level to work together — often the best ideas come from the people who get their hand dirty while building a solution.

Another aspect of breaking silos is democratizing data – so that anyone in the organization can harness them for improved customer experience. For instance, at Uber, 50% of their employees have access to an insights database which helps to inform their decision making on a daily basis.

Create a top-down approach to experimentation

When it comes to driving change, it is critical that business leaders drive that change. Having the CXOs leading by example will create confidence in their teams to do so. More often, in a set environment leadership team are unwilling to change what is working for them. However, getting their buy-in is important for successfully transforming the culture. Business leaders could initiate testing and experimentation when the risks are minimal and then implement the learnings to bigger projects.

In conclusion:

To be competitive in a digital world it is critical for organizations to foster a culture of innovation where their teams have the ability to:

• Use agile methods to continuously test and innovate.
• Manage the knowledge interfaces among departments and team to brainstorm and derive insight from data and experimentation to accelerate innovation.
• To utilize the organizational and technical infrastructures to drive experimentation at scale in order to deliver digital transformation.

Digital technology has changed the way that companies conduct business. Mobile app development companies have begun integrating ways to track and gather user data in their products for research purposes. One study found that while the average American spent 9.4 hours online each week in 2000, the number had risen to 23.6 by 2018. This is a clear opportunity for companies to interact with their consumers.

A digital experience entails any interaction between a user and an organization that is only possible through the use of digital technology. Spending almost one full day a week online, the average American is a prime target to be reached in this fashion. Why not take advantage of it?

Three ways that you can provide a great digital experience that will engage new customers is by personalizing and customizing messages, integrating social media, and implementing intuitive and responsive web design.

Personalize and Customize

One of the best ways to find a solution to any problem is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Ask yourself, “What are my user’s motivations?” It is not an easy question to answer without some research. Thankfully, technology has made this kind of information more accessible by collecting user data whenever people use products.

You can create personalized messaging for your individual customers. For instance, a header that resonates with the user can grab their attention and break through the clutter. Personalized calls to action are 202% more effective than generic ones. Mobile app development companies can also help you develop personalized push notifications for your app’s users.

Netflix is one of the companies leading the way when it comes to personalization. It’s well known that the streaming service will recommend TV shows and movies based off of what you have already watched.

However, Netflix takes it a step further by customizing the programs’ images to highlight the stars you will recognize from shows and movies they know you have seen before and enjoy.

There are a lot of different forms of data that can help you personalize each customer’s experience. When you keep track of what they have purchased in the past, you can offer discounts and recommendations that they will be more likely to use.

Personalization and customization will help your digital experience stand out to users.

Integrate Social Media

In addition to spending a significant portion of their week on the internet, almost 80% of Americans have at least one social media account.

Your website should include links to all of your social media channels. On social media, customers can ask questions that you can answer directly in a short amount of time. Any time that customers make a positive comment, you can easily share it with all of your followers or connections.

Social media can foster a community and can help make your company appear more relatable. All of your channels should be active and fun in an attempt to spark conversations with your customers. Posting and sharing visuals and videos are a great way to get people talking or sharing.

Patagonia’s Instagram has almost 4 million followers and mostly shares images of people using their products. As an outdoor apparel company, they also share a lot of stories about causes that they think are important to their users and their brand, like sustainability and wilderness protection.

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Ecommerce sites often use videos to showcase products. Sharing them on social media gives customers the chance to see the product in use which was previously only possible by physically going to the store.

Social media is a great way for users to build a relationship with your brand and informing them about topics you will both find interesting and important.

Implement Intuitive and Responsive Web Design

Web design may be one of the most important parts of the digital experience. For many people, their first digital interaction with your brand on their computer is on your website. Make a lasting impression by incorporating visuals and easy-to-use navigation. Visuals can break up each page and help make the site easier to read while intuitive navigation will keep visitors from getting frustrated.

The entire site should make your branding stand out with its design and color. Your web copy should have fresh and distinct wording that matches your brand voice across other channels.

Cultivated Wit is a creative studio that uses its about page to show off the kind of copy that they like to write and the type of work that they can deliver. It’s clear that Cultivated Wit’s mission is to make complicated ideas more understandable and products more fun by using humor, slick design, and a creative use of technology.

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Recalling that the best way to provide a better experience for your consumers is by putting yourself in their shoes, think about how consumers would interact with your web page and direct them to the most important pages you want them to see.

A web design that encourages user interaction with your brand can increase engagement. Integrating a point system and competition can help you turn user interaction into a game and keep users coming back.

Building an easy-to-use site with game elements will give your brand another way to engage with users.

Make Your Digital Experience Worthwhile for Your Business and Your Consumers

Getting your customers to interact with your brand is the most important step toward getting them to repurchase.

If a consumer never interacts with your brand, then that person will never get the chance to buy your service or product.

Personalization and customization can stand out and grab your target audience’s attention. Then, integrating social media will help you build your relationship with your audience in a casual, more relatable environment.

Finally, an intuitive and responsive web design will make it easier for consumers to find things on your site and become loyal customers.

Create a valuable digital experience and watch your engagement, traffic, and sales increase.

With the App Store becoming no less than a battleground, app developers need to create icons that not only stand out but also provide an overview of the key functionalities. Even though there are a dozen articles claiming to educate on the importance of app icons, it is important to revisit the basics as an app icon is perhaps the first thing potential consumer notices about the app. It must tell a story, create intrigue and make the user curious enough to find out more.

Icon designing is a critical phase that requires in-depth brainstorming even before the development process starts. Your app icon and app screenshot is what your user will see first before installing it. If your app icon takes more than 5 seconds to think what it means, then it perhaps needs to be reconsidered.

In this blog, we will discuss the importance of an app icon and how to create successful icons that rank higher in the App Store.

No Second Chance to Create a First Impression

The icon of your app is the first point of engagement for a user. A great icon can increase downloads up to 560%! With a ton of options available in the App Store, the pictorial representation of the app is important to catch your user’s attention and keep them away from meandering for other options.

One company that does a really good job at this is Slack. It has made a mark on users with its simple yet elegant design. The earlier logo of Slack had The simple “S” symbol with a soothing color palette that made it easy to spot the icon among the crowd. The color theme of the icon is nothing short of nostalgia of colored gels put over strips of solid colors. They recently changed their logo keeping the color palette same.

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Let the picture do the talking

In addition to creating a great first impression, a quality app icon should also explain the basic features of the app to the viewers. For instance, a food app should be able to convey the genre of the app by using icons related to food or delivery person.

Take for example Clear Todos – a to-do app. Even though an old app, it has an upbeat and catchy icon that suggests how life can be better by having a task organizer. What sets it apart from around a million such apps is the colors that are refreshingly new and how each color behind the tick mark represents different rows and columns.

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Following the success of Clear app, several apps including Microsoft To-Do have borrowed the concept using a tick mark to stand out on the digital shelf.

Yet the Clear app stands out for its use of colors and its unique brand identifier in the app icon itself.

Cut Through the Noise

It is difficult to find an attractive icon and it is even more difficult to make one. If you create an image that grabs the attention in seconds, then half your job is done. By making your app unique and exquisite, you can cut through the noise and make your app recognizable. It is the first thing that will connect with people both on functional and emotional levels. While the functionality of the app does play an important role in increasing the recall value, what really sticks in the mind is the picture you use as the icon. Speedtest by Ookla is a great intersection of unique yet simple design.

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While there are just two colors used in the icon, the contrast of the colors and the concept of the speedometer creates a striking impression on the viewers. It does its job of telling the audience that the app is about measuring speed.

Other apps that describe its functionality through images include:

Measure app from Apple and Scanner Pro by Readdle

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Note: To begin, start with a brainstorming session and ask yourself – what do you want your icon to communicate? Then create an image that is unique with exquisite patterns and designs.

Importance of Icons for App Store Optimization

To generate more visibility and rank higher in the App Store, developers need to optimize apps as part of the ASO. If the icon is well designed and thought through, it will get more visibility and ultimately be downloaded by the user. To design eye-catching icons, it is advised to keep the design simple and appealing. Create an icon that is relatable to your business, grabs attention and looks good even when scaled to the smallest size. Also, the icon should look equally good when viewed in light and dark backgrounds.

Even before going on to the whiteboard, it is important to establish the purpose of the app icon. Decide if you’d want to create a functional or a branded icon. While using company names may work for branded apps like Uber and Facebook, functional icons can use objectives to describe the app. Once the purpose of the app is ascertained, you can then kickstart the creation of a successful app icon by having an exquisite design along with a cherry-picked color palette.

Small details go a long way to determine the success of app icons. When designing an app icon, keep in mind the minutest of details like image quality, the element’s creativity and the uniqueness. Even though there are no tried and tested ways for app icon designing, read the following tips that revolve around the three basic pillars: quality, design, and creativity.

Avoid Text

Keeping in mind the scalability of the app icon, it is never a good idea to have text on the icon. People will definitely have a tough time reading the text which you squeeze into such a small area. But in case you decide to have it, then Apple guidelines advise to emphasize words that relate to the actual content your app offers.

‘’Use words only when they’re essential or part of a logo. An app’s name appears below its icon on the Home screen. Don’t include nonessential words that repeat the name or tell people what to do with your app, like “Watch” or “Play.” If your design includes any text, emphasize words that relate to the actual content your app offers.’’ – From Apple’s App Icons guidelines.

Take for example Line social media app and Grab. Line App is a clear winner for its legible font and idea even though both the apps use the same color (green and white). Since Grab is a transportation app, it uses a font that also tries to signify roads. But this creativity also makes it hard for the users to read the name. Either way, refrain from using text in the app icon. Even if you have discovered the perfect word that will influence users’ actions, it is better to have it where it belongs – in the description.

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Choose Colors Wisely

Your color palette can create a lasting impression and get inside your user’s head. To choose the perfect palette, look at what your competitors are using and select a completely different color scheme. In other cases, if your brand has certain color guidelines, then stick to those. In some cases, you can even use the logo of the company as Facebook does.

If you’d like to take some color inspiration, then turn to the Strata app. The icon appears to be simple patterns. But what separates it from thousands of puzzle games is the color combination along with attention to details – whether it is subtle shadows, pastel palette or faint textures. The icon simply feels at home on the App Store!

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Pro tip: it is a good practice to have a background color in the icon so that it doesn’t blend with any background when users download it on their devices.

Keep It Simple

Make more with less if you want your app icon to be successful. Mixing more graphics in such a small space can lead to confusion. Remember that simplicity will underscore the theme of your app. To make your icon stand out, try using only one symbol but in a creative way! The language learning app, Duolingo’s cartoonish approach is very creative and comparatively offbeat from the boring flags and corporate icons. It insinuates that language learning doesn’t have to be serious with its icon, which looks like a hypnotic owl!

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Consider the App Store Sizes

There are so many handheld devices in the market with different screen sizes and display. Luckily, both platforms – Google and Apple – have detailed guidelines that can help designers clarify their doubts. Android API Guides for Launcher Icons is the Bible of all Android Developers while iOS Human Interface Guidelines For App icon is used by iOS programmers.

Follow their best practices and advice when you develop an icon. These manuals have all the necessary information required for adjusting icon to the different screen sizes. Below are some of the pixel recommendations and attributes by both Apple and Google based on the devices:

App Store

• iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 Plus: 180 x 180 px
• iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 5: 120 x 120 px
• iPhone 4s: 120 x 120 px
• iPad and iPad mini: 152 x 152 px
• iPad 2 and iPad mini: 76 x 76 px
• iPad Pro: 167 x 167 px

Google Play

• 32-Bit PNG (with alpha)
• 512 x 512 Pixels Dimension
• 1.024KB maximum file size

Don’t Forget A/B Testing

Since no one has the answer on how to develop the perfect app icon, A/B testing is the way to figure out what works best for your app. According to a study, testing app icons can increase app page performance by up to 26%. Conduct the test on specific elements like background, colors and small pictures. You can also test different letters or numbers placed on the image to see how it performs.

Conclusion

App icons have come a long way from being just the visual expression of the app. With millions of app available on the App Store, icons need to draw the attention of the viewer and compel them to download it. With so much riding on the looks of your icon, it is not surprising that so much time is spent on brainstorming on the icon design.

Designing an app icon is one of the most daunting tasks. But with an understanding of common aesthetic rules, you can make this as swift as a breeze and flourish on the digital shelf. Just remember, whatever you design, always provide a high-resolution image and keep it simple yet bold and friendly.