Facts that we experienced in every aspect of life and their reflections appearing before us constantly, can be interpreted as the laws of nature. This situation remains valid in terms of Information Technologies.

Lorentzian’s Wormhole

What are the expectations of people from mobile applications ?

Since the computers entered out lives,  desktop has been the most used part of operating system for end-users. Main reason behind this is that users who want to have an access to all applications end up filling the desktop with bunch of shortcuts and then whine about their computer operating slow. At that time, as an expert on this subject, you had 2 different options to make explanation : either you had to tell them not to keep that many shortcuts on desktop or tell them that if they use a better operating system, their performance can improve. Of course, it is always easier to explain and enforce the first option. So you went for the easy option or adequately put, you decided to use the shortcut.

The main reason this kind behind behavior is the desire to access to result by shortest way possible. This condition is the reflection of day by day acceleration in speed which, especially along with developing technologies, is the biggest need of the mobilized societies.
Our mobile world’s only remaining habit from desktop programming is the seeking of shortcuts which is reflected to end-users. This search manifests in the mobile applications in the smartphones. Nowadays, end-users still creating shortcuts for all applications without any concern for performance is an ongoing situation.

People demand, machines to ease their work and especially they want it those works to be done quickly. Main motivation behind them using mobile applications for the works that they are physically capable of, is those shortcuts. All of us often use mobile banking options in order to save some time and avoid possible troubles such as going to bank, waiting in line, dealing with employees.

Even the social life of societies are usually affected by this situation.  The most commonly used mobile application, Facebook, can be used as a shortcut to access friends. Instead of struggling and wasting time while trying to find beloved childhood friends, you can easily find all your classmates, get in contact with them whenever you want,  even share pictures with them and do many other social activities together in such a short time during the day. Desire to socialize faster and easier is, up to date version of common virtue, which is shared by society (Remote Socializing).

It is an expected situation for users to demand same shortcut access, which is provided by great hardware proficiency of desktop computers,  from smartphones which has lower hardware proficiency. However, mobile world does not offer that much hardware capacity. Therefore, this situation becomes a handicap for mobile programmers. Just like other fields of life, essence of programming kicks in at this stage.

Perception Management

You can materialize perception management with many different mechanisms. However, most effective one , especially in mobile world, is design or in other words UI  ( User Interface ). As an individual, who built his first application in 2008, my humble experience tells me that %50 of mobile applications are made of UI. This is the most important for you to manage perception in mobile applications. It represents only half of the application you built because the perception that you are going to create with your application can make you either king or clown. In your application, colours, toning of lines even curves of your icons are really important for people. I can still imagine some developer friends laughing at these. However, I have seen many people who face the truth in time especially in mobile world. This design polishes good qualities  and seals bad qualities, errors of this development like make-up. However, poor design which is wasted on well developed application might show you as a bad developer in the eyes of end-users.

While %50 of mobile applications are made of design, %40 of them are consisted of UX ( User Experience ). Despite having similarities and are tried to be shown as a whole, UI and UX are two distinct areas. They require separate improvement and design time. For UX, we can say that it is an area where design and improvement meets. However, user habits must be observed carefully. Within this perspective, techniques based on psychological and sociological observations,  may occur as a result of these habits.

Remaining %10 are made of codes. I am not going to comment on this more because I’m sure that you are all great developers or developer candidates. Unfortunately, those who are born into today’s mobile integrated world will somehow try to fit themselves in or they will never be able to become part of this world. However, if I have to make a suggestion, one key term that mobile developers, candidates,  project managers who came from desktop programming or different areas must not forget is,  “shortcut”.

Mobile world means speed. Unfortunately, this common saying,  ” improves in time “, won’t change the situation for project managers. Term ” in time ” lost its impact in progress of time.  Today, both acceleration of time and reflection of laws of nature to information technology is often seen in mobile life. Now, period  explained by term ” time ” is too short to be calculated. For instance, despite having huge amount of power and  information, Google still needs slightest bit of information you possess. It approaches towards this purpose because today, it is not enough to possess the most valuable thing at highest rate.

In a world like this, stereotypical theories and practices can’t be reflected to the applications as it did before. Some people can come out of blue and manage a communal power which is superior to yours thanks to the perception they created ( Perception Management ). He will achieve this by making himself accessible in an easy way. ( Speed ). Morever, he will create this structure with an idea that is less complicated than yours ( Shortcuts ). Those structures are obtained as a result of observation of ideas focused on main necessities and socio-psychological effects ( UI/UX/Development).

From this point on, I leaving the completion of puzzle to you. Google > Facebook > Instagram > Foursquare > Twitter > and maybe your application!

While leaving desktop programming aside, take the services from it. Connect those into the Cloud and create shortcuts from their pockets by providing best design and user experience.