William

I’ve been rewriting parts from my report for a while now, to see the full report please go to this part of the website. These 4 I’s will help you in defining the quality of your app. in consideration you will be able  , in consideration you can easelthis model

Defining app quality for useful apps

The definition of quality in this report derives from Juran’s (1993) “fitness for intended use”.  This definition basically says that quality is meeting or exceeding customer expectations. In addition, Deming (1982) states that the customer’s definition of quality is the only one that matters. At this time, there are no definitive guidelines for assessing the quality of apps. The following model employs four factors defined by the Sound (2010) concerning how well an app fits consumer needs and expectations. For this research, the model is integrated differently and further expanded with horizontal and vertical axes. This model attempts to explain how consumers perceive apps and why they are attracted to them. Apps are classified in terms of interest and quality of design. Quality of design (vertical axis) refers to aspects needed on a functional level, while the horizontal axis refers to the content offered and how it inspires and informs the consumer. The model grasps the most important factors influencing perceived quality of a useful app. Please note that this model requires further verification and testing. Also, the factors are identified for the useful category of apps, the other two categories (entertaining and product enhancing) will have somewhat different definitions of what quality is.

Quality of design (X ax)

The 4 I’s of app quality

The 4 I’s of app quality

  • Intuitive: Easy to operate and logically designed. Create apps that make sense on where things are located and contain all expected information.  It is preferred to be exceptional in design, but always keep the interface simple and straight forward.
  • Interactive: Make the user more involved in a personal way by the using elements that these new media app devices offer i.e. touch input, GPS, accelerometer, camera or gyroscope. This can be referred to as the Wow-effect of using these new technologies. Furthermore the ability to easily share their experience is important.

Interesting (Y ax)

  • Inspirational: Move the user to try new things offer new possibilities. Be able to personalize and create a more fitting experience for the user.
  • Informative: Provide the user with new information and keep new information coming into the application to keep it interesting over time.

To start off this new series I want to look into some interesting apps in the next few weeks. As the kick off here is Dropbox. Dropbox is a program that lets you replace your USB sick with online storage. A movie says more than a million words, so check out the videos!!

The service is free for the first 3 GB, which should be enhough for most of us.  You can download the full desktop version here and I also added a full demo after the jump.

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After a server migration there has been a downtime of 2 days for the site, but I’m happy to announce that this morning the problem got fixed, with some help of my beloved hosting provider Neostrada, and the site is up and running again. It has also been a while since the last update was made for the site so this is a nice kick off.

Since it is finally becoming spring the Netherlands enjoy the weather today or just nyan on!!XD

Before I start looking at what I think should have the focus now I want to look back at one last part of my thesis. In my thesis I defined a model to categorize ’branded’ apps. The reason that I did this was to create a bit of understanding that not every app is build for the same purpose.  Please that Branded apps are, in this article, seen as a new addition to brands communication strategies that will create more brand value by enhancing the brand experience. more on this in the rationale of my thesis.

Types of value adding apps

Mashable reviewed 13 branded apps which they deemed successful. In this review, three categories were defined: useful, entertaining and product enhancing. Mashable’s categorization was, for this article, analyzed, discussed and improved to create a more fitting definition. These definitions are far from perfect and more categories could be added. However, this is a suitable way to define the different types of branded apps currently available.

Useful apps offer a useful tool or source of information to make life more convenient. For example, all the apps referenced in the data collection section of this paper, would be considered useful apps.Entertaining apps offer a game-like experience (active) or provide content to read or watch (passive). For example, see the Audi A4 app.

Product-enhancing apps offer additional content to use alongside the product, thereby enhancing it. For example, see the Nike+ app.

Each category offers opportunities and should be considered in the process of creating an app strategy. The framework for how these apps can be successful will differ greatly. Entertaining apps would need an approach closely related to the development of gaming. Useful and product-enhancing apps are more similar in approach, with product-enhancing apps requiring a closer link to the product and its features.  Due to the fact that useful apps where the most logical decision for the client the thesis was written for an additional model was created for defining the quality in useful apps.

Ok it’s time to begin waking up from my slumber. Its been amazing to see time fly with nothing on your back, but since I will be starting my new job in less than 2 weeks now I need to start focusing again. The total job description is until now undefined, but it will be at the IT-firm Capgemini as Consult and will have to do with new technological developments, ‘international’ business and  Marketing/advertising.

In these upcoming weeks I will spent some time on my blog going more into detail about some topics I found interesting or in the need for detailed analysis, explain the function of apps better, do some future platform forecasting and explain a bit better in a nutshell what my qualities are.

Even though I have not really written anything lately I have been busy doing:

  • Some looking into the potentials of Salesforce.com
  • Which now includes Radian6; a tool I needed ~8 months ago
  • Looked into how IT-outsourcing should  look in the future
  • Have fallen in love with Tumblr as a photo blog: altasia.tumblr.com/
  • Seen a discussion evolve that apps might not be the holy grail of 2011 that some people thought, but please keep believing it will be. Apps are here to stay.
  • How the topic seem to shift to Social enterprises and the importance of them. A topic which first got my attention with P2 for WordPress as a sulution in the further development of the intranet and later blow me away with social monitering in getsatisfaction, but now Chatter/Salesforce might get the claim trying to make the whole organisation social. Anyhow a topic in the need for further explanation and researched.
  • Android has started overrunning the smartphone market and has started to show up in more and more places which is starting to show the strength in this approach by Google. It’s always nice to see that this is happening, since I made already some analysis about this some time ago (link). This however could need an update.
  • The Q4 price drops in the tablet market(I’m starting to see 90 Euro tablets and Amazon just launched their first true tablet as well) has finally started to make it into an interesting market  after being in slumber for such a long time.
  • Realized that the field of in home centralized devices will become hot and happening within the next 2 years and probably the next big battlefield of the big tech companies Apple, Google, MS, Samsung, Sony etc.
  • Windows 8 could potentially be the change which MS needed to make to survive, does anyone have a clear road map of this development?
  • Could Instagram become the advertisers dream?

So that the lists up for now, please hit the jump to see some facts on my site performance over the past year.

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