Monday, July 17, 2017

Visually Impaired People gets the Power to Feel the World with Microsoft’s New iPhone App

microsoft iphone appp


The world is advancing in rocket speed. We are not far away from entering a futuristic world of Hollywood Sci Fi films, courtesy the continuous technology enhancement. We get to witness so many new, innovative invents but there are few sections who remain in complete oblivion.
I am talking about the visually impaired section of the world population. I will not refer them as unfortunate ones but they are unfortunate enough to the extent that they fail to see the modern developments or just plainly enjoy the beauty of mother nature. They are the deprived section who has to depend on someone or the other to accomplish few of their basic day-to-day task.
However, technology did not deprive them totally and the result is the brand new iPhone App developed by Microsoft. This particular application has been build with the sole purpose to give an extra pair of eyes to the Blind population.
Seeing AI is a smartphone application that make use of the device’s camera, backed up by Microsoft’s Machine Learning and Image Recognition algorithms, to detect and describe, in an automated voice, the nearby people, text and objects.
So how does this application function??
The app user need to point his or her phone’s camera at a person or any object and the application’s embedded automated voice will tell him or her what that object is or who is the particular person and how is that person feeling.
Sounds Interesting Right??
Let me brief you on the multiple benefits that the blind section can derive from this app:
  • The app recognizes your phone’s saved contacts and notify their physical location from you.
  • Describes anybody who is within your vicinity and also the emotion he or she is feeling
  • Read those texts for you which comes into view of the camera lens.
  • Read out loud the room number plate
  • Scan and read documents for you
  • If you need to read a document from a sheet, the app’s voice assistant will guide you to hold the document properly and also will inform you on the text formatting
  • Identifies currency bills at the point of cash payment
  • While shopping in the local store or scanning the home pantry, the application identifies the food products and read out the description mentioned on it’s container. You just have to point your camera lens on the product’s bar code, the camera scans it and narrates the above details.
  • The application also describes the scene around you.
Summing Up
Being visually impaired steals you of the ability to see and enjoy the mesmerizing world around. It also makes you dependent on others. People help you out of pity. But you don not have to be pitied and guided all the time. Microsoft’s own researched application has Artificial Intelligence imbibed into it that serves as your extra pair of eyes. Now you can do almost all the task on your own and you do not have to depend on someone’s pity for guidance. Moreover, you can atleast experience, if not view, the beauty and the modernity by getting an apt description of the world that you are living in.

However, this particular smart phone application is only available for free download for the iPhone users in the United States. There is no word on when this will be made available for other countries and for the android phone users.



Friday, July 14, 2017

9 Unbeatable Reasons to Pick up Android Platform for Your Business Mobile Application



Are you stuck in choosing the fitting platform for your new venture mobile application???


Well! You are not the only person who suffers from such a confusion. There are others like you in the market.
The current situation has convinced the business organizations that the main key to sustain in the competitive world lies in the smart phone applications. However, one of the main cause of dilemma for the budding entrepreneurs is to decide on which platform will it be lucrative enough to develop their organization's mobile app.


The market is just crowded by such options, you can choose from. We can suggest a couple of such platforms for you here:


However, android platform has proved to be the most viable option and there are a few convincing reasons behind that will persuade you enough to opt for this option over the others.


Allow me to brief a few such factors that make this platform the popular choice for young corporates’ out there.


Top 10 reasons that make the android platform the viable option to develop business mobile app:


  1. Low Investment & High ROI- Low cost of app building with free tools and devices available in the market, reduces the initial cost of production. The wider customer base means your app reaches a much bigger audience. So it is obvious your ROI will increase.
  2. Open source platform- Android is an open-source platform where you can develop the app without shedding any annual fee.
  3. Powerful Development Ecosystem- Android facilitates app building by novice players using different tools and devices such as Android’s SDK. Also, there are many tutorials and informative documentations for amateur builders. All you need is to develop one particular app for your business and have it distributed across a wide range of devices- be it tablets or handsets, thereby reaching a wider range of users.
  4. Global Reach and well acclaimed- Android phone users are more compared to its immediate competitors, ensuring a wide range of viewers for your app.
  5. Inter-application integration- If you are unaware of coding, you can still develop your own app by yourself and upload it in the Play Store using any of the popular Android app makers.
  6. Freedom from collaboration- If you develop your app on an android platform, it is not imperative for you to sign any agreement for using any development tools for your app building. Even you can hire codes from other developers or use your previously written codes in other projects to speed up the development process.  
  7. Open market to distribute the apps- The Google Play store is an open market place that allow full freedom to the users to sell, distribute and publish the apps as and when required.
  8. Multiple sales channel- You do not need a single market to distribute your mobile app. You have the option of the third-party marketplace or you can create your own distribution and sales channel. Use your own promotional tools to reach your end users.
  9. Demographical Presence- It is an established fact that iOS phones are for affluent mostly. Android, on the other hand, is highly popular with comparatively lower income group. Now it is upto you which platform will you choose. Android app will fetch you bigger audience but iOS app will give you a niche market but high spenders.

Summing Up


If you wish your business to win a competitive edge over the other key players and sustain in this continuous changing environment, then it is advisable for you to commence your business operation by first building a mobile application and launching it in the App store.


The above factors are strong enough to convince you for choosing the Android platform to build your mobile application on. Do not think that the other options are unworthy. Each have their individual set of Pros and Cons. For an amateur, this  platform is the viable one.



Monday, July 10, 2017

Can I Manage Mobile App Development with UI/UX?



Nowadays, every business needs an app of its own to flourish in the market. With 2 out of 4 people using smartphones, it becomes inevitable to enhance the overall experience for the user. A poorly designed app without UI/UX will just not flourish in the competition.
Personally, even if an app were to be of great utility for me but wasn’t aesthetically appealing, i would choose any other app over it hands-down. For the success of a mobile application, it is utmost important that the users have a pleasurable experience while interacting with the mobile as well as they are captivated by the visual appeal of the mobile application.
UX or User Experience enhances the customer satisfaction by providing a pleasurable experience improving the usability , ease of use and level of interaction with the end user.
On the other hand, UI or User Interface enhances the look and feel of your app. UI Designers are mainly focused on the graphic design of the mobile app.
The perfect balance between UI and UX will help you create an app that will be able to strike the right chord with your users.
Now, UX and UI are some of the most most confused and misused terms in the mobile app development field. Lets look at both of them in detail to clear the confusion at the same time establish that not one but both of them are equally important for any app development project.
User Experience (UX)
As explained earlier, User experience design (UXD or UED) is the process of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the customer and the product.
Strategy and Content:
  • Competitor Analysis
  • Customer Analysis
  • Product Structure/Strategy
  • Content Development
In addition, from a marketing perspective, good UX leads users to interact with you and provide feedback on how to improve your product. This is critical information that you may only be able to get from your users.
It has been found that companies focusing more on the overall user experience generate better review and also have a positive feedback. This goes a long way in establishing your market and increasing the user base.
User Interface
User interface is the complement of UX - User Interface Design decides the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity of your app.
A UI designer has the following tasks :
Look and Feel:
  • Customer Analysis
  • Design Research
  • Branding and Graphic Development
  • User Guides/Storyline
Responsiveness and Interactivity:
  • UI Prototyping
  • Interactivity and Animation
  • Adaptation to All Device Screen Sizes
  • Implementation with Developer
The UI, alone, increases app sales and, in the long run, reduces your company’s customer support costs.
Some of the apps with best UI/UX –
Peach
This light-hearted and warm app has been the rage on Twitter ever since its release. Mostly, Peach is all about gifs, emojis and other en vogue elements that strike the fancy of Millennials and Post-Millennials. The light-hearted ‘peach’ color scheme and illustrated icons truly reflects the feeling of fun.
This extremely useful app helps you get rid of the after-holiday ‘blues’ in style. Not only useful, its beautiful too! Lovely gradients and good visual weight on how much calories you’ve burnt make up the minimalistic and beautiful UI of Movesum.
Flipboard
Flipboard is an extremely popular digital social magazine that aggregates news from web and social sources and displays them in a magazine like form. Flipboard’s use of transitions to ‘Flip’ through pages imitates real world reading and gives the user gratification of progressing through the content rather than one long stream of never ending information.
Conclusion

A picture can speak a thousand words. The right tune can move the soul. And, a well-developed user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) can make or break your product. Having presented to you all the benefits of a good user experience and interface, one should understand the importance of the same and implement it in your app judiciously.


Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Mobile App or Mobile Website: Which one you Will Choose for your Business



Are you an entrepreneur or the owner of an already established business??

Then, the above question must have caused a lot of headache for you. Launching a mobile app or stick to the mobile optimized website, is definitely a reason of dilemma for enterprises today.

A revolution, long started in the telecom industry, was initiated by the introduction of Mobile handsets. Simple and portable, this device was, initially, meant for communication. However, over the years it has proven to be a lot more than a mere communicative device. Presently, it has become imperative to own a mobile phone or our whole world will come crashing down. From the day-to-day activities to conducting important tasks, we are highly dependable on this small device. So if you own a business organization, it is very important for you to either develop an app or a mobile optimized website for your enterprise. However, which one will suit your purpose depends entirely on your understanding.

The war- ‘Mobile Application vs Mobile Website’, will continue but we can at least have an understanding which one you can opt for.


Let us try to understand the benefits drawn from both the smartphone application and website.

Advantages of owning a mobile app and mobile optimized website for your business:

  • Establish brand value- Developing a highly informative, innovative and attractive mobile optimized website or an app speaks a lot about your company and develop your brand value.

  • Cater to consumer demands- Are you aware of the buying behavior and characteristics of your target customers?? if the answer is no, then you need to do your homework first. It is highly favorable if you identify the target user base first and then develop either an app or website based on their requirement.

  • Linked to social media for promotion- Social media is, undoubtedly, one of the best business promotional tool. You can easily add a social media button on either of the two option.

  • Easy updates- Periodic updates is crucial for your website an app to survive in the continuous changing world of technology. This will keep your customers happy by offering them real-time solutions. Quick and hassle free update is possible for both options.

  • Customer interaction for quality customer service- Live chat window is an option that is available for both Mobile app and it’s counterpart. This is the quickest way to get a customer response or feedback and immediately addressing the same.

  • Security to the users- Security is the top priority for both the business operations and users. It must be protected through a strong password especially if it contains confidential user information. Both Mobile app and website can be made highly secured and fortified.

You can enjoy the above-mentioned advantages from both the phone app and website. However, there are certain distinct beneficial attributes of mobile application that is not possible to introduce in a website. Let us discover those features.


Benefits drawn only from your business Mobile App:

  • Quick access and cut out waiting time- Our generation is highly impatient and if they have to wait a little longer for your mobile website to load, then they will immediately switch over to another site. Web browsing, usually, requires a user to launch a web browser, enter a URL and wait for the site to load, depending on the server. On the other hand,  it only takes a second to launch a mobile app because the majority of the information is stored in the application itself making it possible to function offline.

  • Better customer engagement- It is always easy to locate the exact application on playstore that can best match the user requirement. This is not possible with mobile websites. User need to input the matching keyword and the multiple options will show up on the web page, and each of them need to be visited individually to make the right choice. Businesses uses apps over websites to instantly connect with their end users.  The point of a mobile app is to seamlessly connect and interact with customers.

  • Location based component like Uber/OLA Application- Provide your users with location-based relevant information. Specially if you plan to offer service similar to Uber or OLA, then Mobile application is the right option for you.

  • Deliver real-time information- Some app like Lift, helps users grow habits by tracking their behaviors. If your business idea is anywhere closer to this particular app, then you can think of programming a unique mobile application.

  • Key competitive advantages- If you are an entrepreneur and your idea does have few relatively similar competitors who have already launched their websites, then you must find out whether they are available on the play stores. If not, then  launching a mobile app immediately for business will give you a key advantage over your competitors. Or else, build your app that can be distinct enough to catch the user attention. Ex: Mailbox is an email app designed only for mobile devices.
 
Summing Up

Developing a website for an organization has always been the perfect option to reach out to the target viewers. With the advent of Mobile phones, just creating a website is not enough. You have to build a mobile optimized website and more importantly, an application for the user smartphone. Then again the conflict remains here- which one will you choose for your business. No doubt you can perform many functions both on the website and the application. But there are few advantages that push smart handset apps way ahead in the competition to mobile optimized applications.
Current stats says that revenue of the mobile app market is enhancing and is somewhere exceed to around $189 billion by 2020.


However, If you develop both for a company, then you will get double benefit. You can receive traffic for your website from your mobile application. Example, if you own an app and a mobile website for your retail business, then you can request your app users to access your site through the app itself. The percentage of web traffic from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets is increasing at a rapid pace. Currently, it stands at 25% of all web traffic.