Did you know that 42% of all companies today have a mobile app to extend their reach to their audience? It’s true. And, if you’re one of the many companies today looking to bring a new app to the market, we hope that this blog can provide an immense amount of benefit to you as you navigate this exciting new chapter.

Now that you’ve decided to move forward with bringing an app to the market, comes a big decision: Do you build the mobile app in-house? Or, do you hire a dedicated mobile app development service?

Unfortunately, so many companies set out to develop an app only to find they are understaffed on resources or, worse, they have to take critical developers off of key projects to develop the app. Often, as you might assume, this leads to mobile app development projects getting tabled while other more important projects take priority. Luckily, there are third-party app development firms that can help.

If you are considering developing a mobile application for your company, plenty of options are available. And as a trusted Los Angeles-based app development firm we felt it would be useful to explore the benefits of a mobile app development service and consider the choice of hiring outside help or keeping things in-house.

In the following piece, we’ll look at Three key considerations when bringing an app to market, whether you decide to forge that path in-house, or with a trusted app development firm.

Planning is Everything

This should go without saying, but planning is everything. Often, planning means many different things, however, when bringing a mobile app to the market. Whether it’s planning what methodology you’ll market your app, or the physical planning of how the different components of the app will stitch together, planning is the first critical step. 

One way to attack this stage is to gain key stakeholder buy-in within the company on everything that needs to be present in the application. For instance, if the app is going to be a financial banking app, you better be sure to get key technical and executive insight on what financial-related features are needed in this particular application before getting developers involved.

In this pre planning stage, it can be incredibly valuable to aggregate this data and keep a physical list of all of the features and components needed. Writing down all of the needed features will help aggregate a resource map. What’s a resource man you ask? A resource map identifies all of the resources and individuals required to complete a particular project. 

Once you’ve identified needed features and resources, you’ll be able to take a better look at your next step. Do you have the required internal resources to bring this app to the market on your needed timeline? If the nest steps seem concerning, working with a trusted app development service may be the best bet. 

Wireframes Are Your Friend

Once you’ve gathered key stakeholder buy-in, it’s time to take that pre planning stage to a more tangible stage, the wireframe. A wireframe is a design methodology where the unique screens of an application are designed in a mockup format. Services like Miro or LucidCharts are great tools to help your design team create physical representations of the mobile application. 

Through our years of experience, we’ver found this stage incredibly valuable to organizations for two very distinct reasons, continued buy-in and validated designs. See, when you develop a wireframe, it allows you to continue to gain input and buy-in from key members within your organization. It’s incredibly valuable to keep key stakeholders engaged throughout this development stage, because neglecting to do so can have serious ramifications down the road. 

Consider that some major design changes come out of the wireframe development stage and key stakeholders are not updated on these events? See the problem. Yes, so do we. We’ve seen this far too many times where the design considerations early on look incredibly different from the design status following the wirefrom stage. Keep everyone engage and avoid serious trouble down the road.

Test, Test, Test

If you’re not testing constantly, it’s time for a change in approach. Testing should be the number one thing that is kept constant in the development process. Whether that be testing the functionality and validity of the application itself, or testing how the application runs on different devices to ensure it works on various operating platforms such as phone, tablet, and different operating systems, testing is key.

Why is this so critical you ask? Well, we’ve seen many applications delivered by well esteemed organizations fail to exhibit the proper resolution on particular platforms, or even various common operating systems, making large populations of your marketbase feel that your app simply won’t work for them.

Interested in learning more about how to maximize your ROI On Mobile Apps, click here to read more.

Consider Dogtown Media

Dogtown Media understands how important your mobile application is to your business. We are more than just developers you hire. We are your partners, working in lockstep with you to create the best mobile application possible for your business that connects with your target audience. We get to know not just your project but your company and the people who make it a success. Take advantage of our free consultation to speak to our mobile application development experts.

Digital innovation in healthcare is positioned to be the single greatest driver in improving patient outcomes, extending life and creating a more equitable future for populations around the world. 

As healthcare organizations look to digital innovation to solve real-world healthcare challenges, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—a US federal agency that provides health coverage to more than 100 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Marketplace—released an update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposal (the “Proposed MPFS/Rule”) that formalizes a new innovative branch of healthcare known as Remote Therapeutics Monitoring (RTM). 

Until now, RTM has largely acted as an addition to the more well-established Remote Physiological Monitoring (RPM) system from the regulatory framework perspective. Now, with the addition of five CPT codes – a uniform coding practice for medical services and procedures to streamline reporting, and insurance claims -, RTM will stand on its own as a formal medical service.

As a mobile applications development organization firmly committed to supporting mHealth app development, we believe that mHealth applications are the future of healthcare, and remote therapeutics monitoring will have a tremendous impact on the landscape of digital health. Let’s take a closer look at how remote therapeutics monitoring will change the world of healthcare, starting with making a big splash at the 7th Annual Neurological Disorders Summit.

About the 7th Annual Neurological Disorders Summit

The 7th Annual Neurological Disorders Summit is a healthcare symposium hosted in the heart of San Francisco with the intent to provide a unique opportunity for neuroscientists and physicians to share their research and experiences with the leaders in their fields. The program includes keynote speeches from internationally renowned scientists. Each of these speakers helped to shape the modern concepts of neuroscience. In addition, there will be sessions for oral and poster presentations. Presentations in these sessions will provide an overview of the cutting-edge technologies being used to address difficult therapeutic and theoretical issues in neuroscience.

NDS-2022 is unique in its approach of encouraging a dialogue between the basic and clinical scientists. We expect to have these dialogues both during scientific sessions and networking time. We hope to make the summit particularly educational and inspiring for young scientists who will get an opportunity to interact with leading experts.

How This Year Will Further the Conversation Around Remote Therapeutics Monitoring

This year, the 7th Annual Neurological Disorders Summit is set to showcase the value remote patient monitoring provides to the medical community by hosting Dogtown Media in collaboration with the National Institute of Health to present Remote Monitoring of Patients with Neurological Disorders. Marc Fischer, CEO and Cofounder of Dogtown Media, a Los Angeles-based mobile app developer, is set to present the talk, sharing his unique perspective on the value of remote patient monitoring. 

Marc Fischer CEO and Cofounder of Dogtown Media, exuberant about the opportunity to speak at such an esteemed event noted, “Telehealth health apps and wearable devices are opening up new possibilities for patients. Bringing hospital services to the home is the future of healthcare.” 

Moving Forward

As a premier mobile app development house, Dogtown Media has launched over 200 apps, and counting. Our team is experienced in creating solutions for a wide range of platforms, including iOS, Android, HTML5 Web Apps and more. Headquartered in Venice Beach, California with a presence in San Francisco, New York City, and London. Since 2011, our team of hardened techies We offer specialized packages to satisfy a range of needs and budgets, from rapid prototyping for startups to full-featured interfaces for international enterprises.

If you’re interested in learning how Dogtown Media can help bring your remote therapeutics monitoring solution to the market contact us. We’d love to help!

Congratulations! You’ve determined that your business needs a mobile application to reach your customers and provide them access to the products or services you offer. Now comes a big decision: Do you build the mobile app in-house? Or, do you hire a dedicated mobile app development service?

 It is worth noting that the answer to this question isn’t always as simple as it may initially seem. Using a software development service to build your mobile app is mostly project-dependent. And while that seems to answer the question at a high level, the topic of this article requires a little more exploration.

 If you are considering developing a mobile application for your company, plenty of options are available. And as a trusted Los Angeles-based app development firm we felt it would be useful to explore the benefits of a mobile app development service and consider the choice of hiring outside help or keeping things in-house.

Mobile App Development Services 

As you might guess, mobile application development services are in the business of making mobile applications. This statement may seem obvious, but it is worth noting that, like any other business, not all mobile application development services are the same or are the right fit for every project.

 Mobile application development services do much more than just create an application for a client. They are involved with every step of the development cycle, from ideation to launch and sustainment.

 These companies have skilled and specialized employees with the right combination of expertise and training. Some mobile application development services specialize in a particular operating system (OS), while a larger firm may handle multiple OSs and other software applications.

Using a Mobile App Development Service

For most decision-makers, no matter the size of the company or the scope of the mobile app project, one of the biggest concerns is budget. Budget and time are forever factors on a project and, for many, a source of stress. Keeping a mobile application project in-house can help reduce the project’s overall cost, but it could impact the company and the employees tasked with the work in other ways.

 It might make sense to task employees with the right skill sets to develop the mobile application for smaller projects. Despite the split in time between their routine jobs and the mobile app project, the cost savings could ultimately be worth it. However, it is tough to replace a team of experts solely focused on the mobile app, despite the probable increase in the overall budget.

 It is worth noting that hiring a freelancer falls under the same category as outsourcing a mobile app development project. Many skilled freelancers can complete a mobile application project. However, one person will always have difficulty matching the skills that a dedicated team brings to the table. Still, if a freelancer fits your project, they should be considered.

Benefits of a Dedicated Team

There are many benefits to hiring a mobile application development team. Potentially the most apparent benefit is experience. Even a relatively young mobile application development company will have experienced individuals on its team. One of the best ways to judge the merits of a mobile application development service is to view its portfolio of work. The types and number of projects completed are significant indicators if the company is the right fit for your mobile app.

 When you hire a mobile application service, you hire a team of dedicated individuals who specialize in each of the major areas typically associated with a mobile app development project. These areas include design, development, testing, and sustainment.

Better mobile application development services bring more to the table than just the needed skills and expertise. The team members assigned to the project will get to know the company, the culture, the employees, and most importantly, the target audience of the mobile application. This process does take some time as outside individuals won’t know the company as well as its employees do. However, the time and effort are well worth it, resulting in a mobile application that meets customers’ needs.

Consider Dogtown Media

Dogtown Media understands how important your mobile application is to your business. We are more than just developers your hire. We are your partners, working in lockstep with you to create the best mobile application possible for your business that connects with your target audience. We get to know not just your project but your company and the people who make it a success. Take advantage of our free consultation to speak to our mobile application development experts.

The term Metaverse exploded into the public lexicon with the rebranding of Facebook to Meta. Since then, the Metaverse has become a trending topic, the catchphrase of CES, and something of a meme. While there seems to be a common acceptance that the Metaverse is real – or will be – there are still many questions and uncertainty of what the Metaverse is, how the metaverse words, and why it’s important.

As a leading AI app developer, we’re laser-focused on staying ahead of what new technologies are coming to the market, understanding how these new technologies will influence your business and what implications these new technologies have on the app development space as a whole.

So, to deliver on staying on top of these new evolving technologies, we thought it would be useful to dig into what exactly the metaverse is, and why it’s important for you to understand this significant technological trend.

What is the Metaverse

The Metaverse may be catching on in social and tech circles, but the term goes back to 1992 when it was used in a book titled Snow Crash by author Neal Stephenson. The Metaverse in the book is described as having life-like avatars interacting with each other in a three-dimensional virtual reality world. The Metaverse of today could look and feel very similar, and there have been elements of this VR world found in modern digital experience.

 A real-world version of the Metaverse intends to combine virtual reality and augmented reality to create a digital world where real people depicted as digital avatars can interact with each other and the virtual environment. The height of the vision for the Metaverse is a place where you could work, play, explore, and travel virtually with almost anyone from almost anywhere. The bedrock of this somewhat nebulous vision is a reimagining of the internet and what it means to connect to each other digitally.

Why the Metaverse Matters

Once you get past the possibilities and appeal that the metaverse promises, it is not hard to imagine how the Metaverse can be used for commerce and profit. Microsoft and Meta are investing heavily in the Metaverse, and these companies and others have established virtual and augmented reality hardware and software already on the market.

 Buying and selling digital goods and services are far from a new concept. The video game industry is a prime example. A standard business model is for game development and publishing companies to offer their games for free, banking on the in-game purchasing of digital items and currency that change the look of a player’s character and accessories. In some cases, these digital purchases provide paid advantages over non-paying players.

 Beyond just video games, the rise in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency will have a significant stake in the economy of the Metaverse.

So, why does this matter for businesses? Well, those companies that are acting early and investing in digital experiences or apps to position around this adoption of the Metaverse, may win big if the Metaverse truly grows to become what its proponents suggest. For instance, many clients seeking an iPhone app developer in Los Angeles have reached out to inquire how they can position their app development strategy to align with this insatiable buzz of the Metaverse.

NFTs, Blockchain, and the Metaverse

Blockchain and NFTs currently exist in the digital world and are compelling alternative payment forms compared to traditional currency. Both will be a pillar of whatever the Metaverse becomes. Blockchain is the foundation that cryptocurrency is built on. A blockchain is a distributed database shared across a computer network. Because blockchains are immutable ledgers that can’t be edited or deleted, that makes them the perfect storage for cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

 Like a blockchain, or more accurately because of it, NFTs have become a very popular way to represent digital ownership on the blockchain. NFTs are heavily used in the video game industry, and a new subset of the sector is blockchain gaming. The concept allows players to turn their progress in the game into cryptocurrency through NFTs.

 As the Metaverse will rely heavily on the blockchain, it’s easy to see how cryptocurrency and NFTs will be the digital assets of choice for buying and selling in the digital world. It is not hard to imagine, for example, a new definition and direction for the traditional real estate industry.

 Instead of buying a brick-and-mortar home, a real estate agent, using a virtual avatar, will show clients a three-dimensional virtual home. The agent and the buyer – also using a virtual avatar – would complete the sale using cryptocurrency and ownership of the digital home established using NFTs. This hypothetical example sounds like a video game, but it could be real and here sooner than we think.

Moving Forward

In some ways, the Metaverse is already here, and many people engage with it daily. The future of the Metaverse, what shape it will take, and the further immersion of our real world with a fully-realized digital one, is only a few years away.

Nowadays it seems as though every time we open our smartphones we are bombarded with advertisements for new mobile apps ranging from fitness to gaming. In fact, it is estimated that over 750 apps are released on the iOS App Store every day from over 748,000 application publishers, suggesting that custom mobile app development has progressed into a rather streamlined process.

To serve our Los Angeles community, we dedicate immense resources and time investment to thrive in these new cutting-edge technologies. With the help of Dogtown Media, you no longer need to rely on internal resources to get the job done. Partnering with us means you have a trusted advisor in your corner who is an expert in all things development.

Now, because mobile application development has become more accessible and simplified over the past few years, many new developers are skipping the basics and diving headlong into the development industry. And, who could blame them? After all, with countless open-source application builders and programs to choose from, mobile app development has never been easier. In this case, however, “quick and easy” doesn’t necessarily translate to success. 

Did you know that nearly 80% of mobile apps fail within their first year on the market? This is largely due to the fact that most applications fail to provide necessary components such as proper functionality, continuous updates, or adequate security. In other words, by instilling the fundamentals of application development within mobile apps, developers garner a much higher chance of consumer approval on the market. 

Throughout this article we will be discussing some of the primary fundamentals to consider when designing a mobile application. With this information we hope to provide you with development insights to use as you strive to produce an application that is adaptable, intuitive, and built to withstand the massive influx of new applications entering the market.

Developer Accessibility 

One of the least thought about, yet most important components of mobile application development is ensuring that the framework of your app is “developer-friendly”. With most open source application builders, developers typically do not have direct access to their app’s core infrastructure. And, if they do, it often consists of obscene amounts of complex code that developers must spend hours upon hours deciphering. 

As a result, developers may be unable to offer proper updates and app improvements, ultimately rendering the app unusable as bugs are found and operating systems are updated. Hence, the core supporting infrastructure or your app should be designed in such a way that it is accessible for your team to go in and create updates, offer support, and improve the overall functionality of your application.

The User Experience

Arguably the most crucial component of any mobile application is the user experience it provides for your consumers. For an app to be successful, you must ensure that it behaves in a manner that your users expect when they interact with and use your app. In other words, it is critical for your app to be intuitive, engaging, and most importantly, user-friendly. 

Oftentimes, the release state of an app isn’t quite up to par with how its users expect it to perform. And, while this isn’t out of the ordinary, it’s vital that you collaborate with your target audience and consumers to understand their demands from the app as well as any improvement recommendations they have to offer. Ensuring the optimization of your app’s “real-life experience” is bound to garner approval from your end users. 

Adequate Security

Similar to developer accessibility, another commonly overlooked component of mobile app development is security within the app. Depending on the type of application, developers may be responsible for storing and safeguarding sensitive information from credit cards to social security numbers. For instance, mHealth applications hold the responsibility of storing confidential patient health information, and must remain in compliance with HIPAA guidelines. In other words, with cyber crime on the rise, there is no margin for poor security when protecting this data. 

With that in mind, a strategy to consider with the development of your mobile app is to consider a “security by design” approach. More specifically, this concept simply means to incorporate security measures during the design process of the application. These security measures can include anything from data encryption to anti-virus software within the application, as well as routine penetration testing and vulnerability scanning conducted on the back-end. 

In Conclusion…

Now, there are certainly other fundamentals involved with mobile app development that we could have talked about. However, we chose to focus on the three that have the highest potential to either make or break mobile apps. And, by leveraging the information we provided throughout this article, we believe that you will have the necessary tools and tactics to create a mobile app that exceeds consumer expectations. 

You’ve probably heard about cloud computing being offered by companies like Amazon and its

Consequently, many application developers are now starting to use cloud-centric platforms for mobile app design due to its numerous advantages and features over traditional application development. As a Los Angeles App Development agency, we’ve worked with many companies that have questions about cloud computing as they explore their next app idea. Hopefully, this article can shed some light on the importance of cloud computing, where it fits in the app development life cycle and considerations regarding your approach to cloud computing.

How can cloud computing benefit your mobile app development? We’re so glad you asked!

Throughout this article, we will be discussing some of the many ways cloud computing can positively impact your mobile application development. With these proven benefits, we believe that you will not only be able to optimize the application design process, but you will also have the tools necessary to produce high-quality mobile apps geared to provide users with a seamless in-app experience. 

Time Reduction: Say Goodbye to Unnecessary Time Consumption

In today’s competitive digital business landscape, efficiency is everything. The amount of time spent on a given task is arguably the most important factor in any form of business operation, as it can make or break the financial performance of an organization. 

One of the biggest complaints we hear from mobile app developers is that the application design process consumes too much time. From designing the framework of the app to testing its functionality, traditional mobile app development has the potential to eat up hours upon hours of a developer’s time. 

Enter Cloud Computing.

Currently, developers who utilize a cloud-based development platform are experiencing a significant reduction in the time taken for mobile app development. This reduction in time is a vital asset for developers as it lessens the time to market period, allowing their applications to gain ground over the competition. 

Because these cloud-centric development platforms come standard with key components such as advanced integration, stronger security and pre-installed application programming interfaces (APIs), mobile app developers are now able to spend less time on the development of the app and instead apply this time in other areas of the application design, such as new features and   app upgrades suggested by users. 

Compatibility: Cloud-Based Mobile Apps Function Across Multiple Platforms

Which platform do you prefer; iPhone or Android? No matter what your preference is, you’ve most likely come across apps that are only available on one platform or the other. 

This is because traditional mobile application development doesn’t permit developers to construct a “one-size-fits-all” app. Rather, most developers have to choose a platform to utilize. And, if they wish to make the app available on another platform as well, then they are required to completely recode the application in accordance with the other platform’s framework. 

Sounds like a handful, right? In fact, these compatibility issues can cause strenuous headaches for developers, typically resulting in lengthened time to market and a lesser quality end-product. 

Fortunately, cloud computing technology provides developers with the ability to launch their applications on various platforms, such as iOS and Android, without the need for re-coding. This is because cloud-centric platforms do the hard work and optimize applications for use on numerous platforms, allowing developers to focus solely on the features and design of the mobile application. 

And like we discussed prior, this minimized workload allows mobile app developers to cut down on unnecessary time consuming tasks and direct their efforts towards the implementation and functionality of the app. 

Scalability, Reliability and Recovery

As mobile apps continue to progress with our digital age, users are becoming increasingly demanding of applications that demonstrate strong reliability and recovery services. 

Unfortunately, traditional mobile application development can create nightmare scenarios for developers when faced with scalability, reliability and recovery issues. For instance, application updates and security patches with traditional app development often render mobile apps unusable until these issues are resolved by developers, due to the complexity of altering the application’s framework.

With cloud computing technology, however, developers are able to continuously fix and update their applications without pulling the app out of commission. This ability is not only instrumental in providing users with a seamless experience while using the application, but it also drastically reduces the time needed by developers to address these issues. 

In addition, cloud-centric platforms promote advanced data recovery through the use of cloud servers which store the application’s data and back it up regularly, in turn preventing critical data from being lost in complications such as data breaches.

Here at Dogtown Media, we’re dedicated to providing our clients with cutting-edge applications, built on a matured foundation of experience. With over ten years of experience in the app development industry and countless accolades, we’re confident we can bring your next mobile application from idea to reality.

Reach out to learn more!

Mobile is the future. At Dogtown Media, we help you build your dream apps and technologies. Known as Los Angeles’ finest, we’ve delivered brilliantly created and intuitive products that help companies digitally transform. We are a proud team that puts our money where our mouths are.

With that in mind, we are absolutely excited to announce that we have teamed up with Top Design Firms, a creative portfolio site, for their inaugural launch!

Brought by the creators of Clutch, Top Design Firms is a new platform that is designed to help companies stay in the know about different industries and services providers. The site encompasses the IT, design, development, and marketing spaces, helping users find the right firm to help their unique needs.

According to Top Design Firms, we rank among the top 100 in 2021 in the category of artificial intelligence app development. As service providers, this highlight means a lot to us. Our team’s growth, dedication, and excellence is paying off, and this new partnership will take all those to a whole new level.

Want to know how we made it on their list? The Top Design Firms’ team evaluated our company based on a set of criteria, screening our past projects, recognitions, and market position. Our strong presence on Clutch also allowed us to rank highly.

With 27 reviews as of press time, Dogtown Media is honored to be a top-performer on Clutch. Here are some of our clients’ phenomenal reviews:

The fact that they’ve done this before for several other health systems is great. They know exactly how to tailor their product and what to ask the client. Their team has really perfected the art of this. They’re responsive and quick to make any improvements or changes. Dogtown Media is great to work with.”

— Senior Management Associate, Atrium Health

“As a program manager, having Dogtown Media always deliver on their promises is a big plus. They’ve never let me down. I also appreciated their ability to generate a report in the fashion requested. It serves everyone who works on the detailed aspects of the project and gives staff at the senior management level an overview of progress. We were very pleased with their work.” 

— Engineering Consultant, Biotronik

Ready to transform and innovate? Get in touch with Dogtown Media and let’s work hand in hand to bring your ideas into reality. Send us a message today and schedule a free consultation with our team. 

We’re pleased to announce that earlier this month, Dogtown Media has been featured as one of the top recognized organizations in the category of Los Angeles app developers by industry-respected software and application review platform, Techreviewer! First and foremost, we’d like to give a huge thank you to all of our clients who have given us the opportunity to turn their mobile application ideas into a reality. Without your trust in our ability to turn your unique app ideas into a reality, none of this would be possible!

We also want to give a huge shoutout and thank you to our dedicated team. Spread across three continents and twelve time zones, we’ve built a dynamic and diverse team of highly skilled individuals who over the past ten years have turned this organization into a top-tier development organization. We couldn’t be more appreciative of this prestigious award and the team who have helped make this possible.

Offering verified ratings, reviews, and feedback of development firms, Techreviewer is an industry-recognized B2B service platform dedicated to helping businesses identify high-quality development organizations that match the unique financial and technical qualifications they seek in a technology partner.

From healthcare app development, to quality assurance and software testing, Techreviewer aims to provide information and rating on a wide array of development companies acting as a one-stop-shop review platform. Whether you’re looking to develop the next best IoT application or to expand on your mHealth application offering, Techreviewer can be a great place to help find the right technology partner that meets your unique qualifications. 

Throughout the year, Techreviewer provides a variety of evaluations of development companies based on segment, geographical location, development niche, and other factors. Their team of dedicated industry experts examines qualities such as client feedback, demonstrated success and expertise in the space, market adoption, quality of service, and other critical factors to determine the verified Techreviewer rating. 

In this process, hundreds of organizations are reviewed and only a select few make it into the list of top app developers in Los Angeles, so we are truly appreciative of this award! Backed by this recognition and other industry-recognized awards, we are determined to continue to provide top-tier app development services for our clients and hope to continue to receive esteemed recognitions in the future!

About TechReviewer.co
Techreviewer is an industry-trusted tech rating and review platform that compiles lists of top development, design, and marketing companies. The sim of the Techreviewer platform is to help organizations find the best development companies that align with their unique technical requirements. Companies trust Techreviewer based on their focus on providing accurate, research-backed information regarding the organization they are reviewing.

After crossing our 10 year anniversary (woohoo! We’re excited too) we’ve done some reflection on our Journey. From a small Los-Angeles mobile application development shop, to a remote-multinational team, we’ve reflected on process for bringing applications from concept to fruition for our clients and thought it would be valuable to our readers to share some of our insights. After helping bring over 200 mobile applications from idea to the app store, well, we’ve truly seen it all. And through this experience, we believe we can really help organizations as an advisor as they embark on their journey to create a mobile application for their clients. 

It’s this process that has helped us understand what types of applications fair well for clients and what application ideas require some additional growth before entering the research and development phase. In the following sections, we’ll look at five design considerations that should help grow that next idea into a viable application ready for custom mobile application development.

Education for Your Clients

One of the best places to start when considering how to bring value to your clients is by providing them educational services via your mobile application. Take for example our work with Worldwide Breast Cancer. Worldwide Breast Cancer (WWBC) is an American nonprofit that reaches over 200 million users in 22 languages in 90 countries, providing educational services for breast cancer awareness. Visitors of WWBC are educated on the 12 signs of breast cancer, when to get a mammogram, determine their risk for breast cancer, and much more. 

In this application, WWBC aimed to provide breast cancer information to its users in an approachable and engaging format. This emphasis on education led to building an intuitive mobile app with user-optimized screens and organized navigation to enable users to educate themselves. Further, the platform allowed users to book screening appointments with local FDA-certified centers, educate themselves on how to prepare for different breast tests, and provided with recommended questions for their visit.

This emphasis on enablement and education allowed WWBC to grow their userbase and empower users that didn’t have easy access to a computer with the same critical educational material regarding breast cancer.

Training for Your Internal Team

Another way to provide immense value through your mobile application is to offer training services. As we all know, we all use our phones to a significant degree throughout the day. By creating training-based applications that are designed to skill-up your internal team, you can effectively turn that smartphone into an enablement platform helping your team gain access to the skills and training that is critical to their day-to-day role.

A great example of this design approach can be seen through our work with Google. In this project, Google was seeking to build a mobile application called Google Train Up used to train retail employees on how to sell Google products. This project aimed to build in an incentive structure to encourage Google employees to use the platform while also designing the application in such a way that users found fun and enjoyable, increasing the likelihood that they would continue to use the application.

By focusing on this balance between training material, an incentive structure, and enjoyment, organizations are often pleasantly surprised by the high use and value generated by these internal mobile applications.

Communication Platform

Another major use for mobile applications is to enable communication. One project that is a particularly good example of this is our work with the United Nations. The United Nations, specifically ESCAP a division of the UN that oversees the Asia-Pacific region, wanted to develop a mobile application to enable communication with key stakeholders in the region and notify a population of 1.5 billion people of upcoming events, emergency situations, and educational information. 

One of the critical design considerations in the development of this application and something that should be a top priority for any organization considering developing a mobile application is the management of personally identifiable information or PII. Whenever an organization is working with the personally identifiable information of a user (a process that is common in these types of communication platform applications) it’s critical to be aware of how that data is being stored and processed.

Many organizations don’t realize that by storing PII they take on an incredible amount of responsibility along with it. If intentionally or unintentionally, PII is exposed, a given organization can sustain massive compliance fines. This being said, it’s critically important to work with a trusted development organization or advisor to advise on the development and management protocols for storing user PII.

Answer a Need

Lastly, answering a need is understandably a critically important design consideration. And in our opinion, the best way to assess if you’re effectively addressing a design consideration is to consider some examples of success in this area. One example that stands out here is our work with the University of Oklahoma. In our work with the University of Oklahoma, we set out to develop an application that enhanced student experience on campus. 

The application aimed to help students find parking using a real-time parking IoT tracking and e-voucher system as part of the University of Oklahoma’s drunk-driving prevention program known as SafeRide. The staff at Oklahoma University realized that parking was an issue for students. It caused traffic challenges, congestion and made it challenging for students to get to class on time.

By building a parking application for students, the University of Oklahoma and our team were able to address a challenge and provide a solution. The results? Wide-spread adoption of the application. Here, one of the critical aspects that drove adoption was the fact that the application truly answered a challenge for students, improving their lives and making it easier to park and attend classes.

Looking to develop an application? Consider reaching out to our team! We’d be happy to help take that application from idea to reality.

In late 2020, Alphabet – the parent company of Google – solved one of biology’s most challenging problems with the help of AI – predicting the structure of proteins. Alphabet’s DeepMind – a branch of Alphabet dedicated to the development and progress of AI – built AlphaFold, an AI designed specifically for this task and to everyone’s surprise…it worked.

Alphabet’s attempt to develop an AI that could predict protein structures was hugely successful when AlphaFold won a biennial protein-predicting challenge called CASP; something that hasn’t happened before in the history of mankind. Founder of the competition, John Moult, a computational biologist at the University of Maryland was astounded by the results noting “It was the first time a serious scientific problem had been solved by AI.”

Today, being able to predict protein structures in a repeatable verifiable method will undoubtedly accelerate the development of drugs and vaccines, reshape how organizations engage artificial intelligence app development and provide key insight into how diseases work, all thanks to AI.

AI and the Fight Against Chagas and Leishmaniasis

Flash forward 9 months, Alphabet’s DeepMind is on the hunt for another biological breakthrough, this time targeting some of the world’s most challenging diseases Chagas and Leishmaniasis. Chagas and Leishmaniasis are two of the world’s deadliest parasitic diseases transmitted by hosts known as assassin bugs. These two diseases alone are known to affect up to 23 million people worldwide.

The Challenges Associated with Deadly Parasitic Diseases

Unfortunately, today’s drugs and therapeutics are widely ineffective at treating both of these diseases and even worse “patients affected by neglected diseases like Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease rely on outdated treatments that are sometimes toxic, have serious side-effects, and are often not fit for purpose,” London-based Alphabet-owned lab known as Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative lead Ben Perry said.

For those affected, Chegas and Leishmaniasis can produce flu-like symptoms, rash, loss of appetite, Diarrhea, vomiting and in extreme cases without medical attention, death or permanent health complications. Understandably with 23 million people affected each year, primarily in underserved and neglected communities around the world, a more advanced medication or therapeutic to treat these parasitic diseases could be a game changer.

AI and the Future of Medicine

Now, after the massive scientific discovery made by AlphaFold related to predicting protein structures in late 2020, DeepMind may have the needed key to providing new advanced medication and therapeutics to fight changas and Leishmaniasis. Many diseases including these two deadly parasitic diseases are linked to the roles of proteins in catalysing chemical reactions and fighting diseases. By being able to predict and understand protein structures – specifically related to these parasitic diseases – DeepMind’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative now has the insight to provide medication or even a cure for these diseases. And AI isn’t only accelerating discovery in the world of biology and protein structures.

Just this week a new AI designed by the UAE has been proven to improve breast cancer detection, avoid unnecessary biopsies, and improve patient experience. The AI known as Mammography Intelligent Assessment (Mia) is the first AI-enabled monogram reader for breast cancer screening that is available commercially. By training the advanced AI Mia with millions of mammogram images, Mia is now producing mammogram readings that are as effective as a mammogram reading delivered by a consulting radiologist. Also Los Angeles-based UCLA’s Deepcell looks to build on these advances in AI-driven medical diagnostics to expand cell morphology to identify and sort cancer cells from clinical cytology cells.

Of course, this has far reaching implications for the medical industry, medical personnel and radiologists. Will AI augment how Radiologists diagnose and offer medical services, or will AI offer a low-cost alternative to diagnostics?

As AI continues to uncover the answers to biology’s biggest mysteries, what can we expect for the future? Could AI tackle some of mankind’s most challenging medical challenges such as cancer, aging or vaccines for tomorrow’s novel virus? It seems that only AI will be able to provide the answer to that question. With AI sweeping the competition at CASP and cracking the code of Leishmaniasis and Chagas, we are optimistic that we will continue to see massive medical and biological breakthroughs in the near future.