Latest Android Update Adds Built-In Malware Scanning

When you can’t find existing software suited to optimize your company’s unique workflows, it’s time to take matters into your own hands with a popular solution that is quickly catching the eye of Fortune 500 companies — developing your own internal app. Also called enterprise apps, internal apps give you the option to create a custom app that is designed to support the unique aspects of your workflow, and potentially make your employee’s lives easier. But, creating the app doesn’t automatically guarantee more productivity and efficiency — you have to make sure you’re developing an app your employees will actually use. Before you invest a lot of time and money, let’s discuss what to keep in mind and do when developing your enterprise app so your employees will use it. Your Employees Come First Unfortunately, employees won’t use an app simply because it’s there (even if you’ve built it specifically for your company). This thinking takes mobile use for granted: apps that deliver a poor experience or don’t meet user needs will be abandoned. In fact, the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies highlights that employees will use their own devices (and, by extension, the apps of their choice) to make work easier. The first step to avoid app abandonment is to consider who your employees are and what they will use your app for. Are they office workers who work from their desks all day? Are they on-the-road field workers? Do they work in warehouses or deliver goods cross-country? With your employees in mind, you next need to identify problems they face. For office employees, this could be coordinating schedules for meetings and project collaboration. For warehouse employees, it could be communication with other warehouses or those responsible for completing orders. Once you have identified their problems, you can start sketching out the solution your app will offer to improve their working experience. User Experience is Everything Developing an app that meets your employees’ needs is only part of the solution. An app that has a clunky or confusing interface will turn users away. According to a recent survey on user experience with enterprise apps, 83% of users think apps make them more productive, yet only 30% of users said their work app was intuitive. Just over half (52%) said their app was reliable or stable. The survey highlights the need for companies to focus on areas that enhance the user experience (UX). when developing their apps, which include: Functionality: Apps need to be intuitive to use. This includes a clean, simplified interface and easy navigation. Reliability and Stability: Employees need to know they can rely on your enterprise app to not crash or freeze. Speed: One study by CA Technologies found that 68% of consumers surveyed expected an app to load in six seconds or less (more than half expected a loading time of less than three). Apps that take longer are more likely to be abandoned by users. Usefulness: As we’ve already discussed, enterprise apps need to solve the problems of your employees. The Product Delivery Chain So what’s the best way to develop an app that equally addresses employee pain points and the user experience? App development has typically followed the delivery funnel approach, where product development takes top priority. Employees won’t see the app until it’s in the final stages of development. The end result is an app that might work but doesn’t necessarily meet the needs of end users. Instead, enterprises should focus on soliciting feedback along the way, which promotes collaboration from all departments along the entire development process. At Barefoot, we solicit feedback at almost all stages of development: we start with user interviews through a discovery phase, collect user feedback through the architecture and taxonomy descriptions, and finally build a functional prototype to demonstrate how the app will function, which we also use to solicit user input. Including feedback at every stage is complicated, but it’s necessary. Keeping communication channels open means that employees can explain their needs to developers and designers. Companies that take this approach will see less changes to the app, and higher adoption. Employees will feel valued knowing their needs are being addressed from the get-go. Ultimately, you’ll deliver an app that employees will enjoy using. Closing the Need Gap Companies need to consider the user experience and the development process before getting started on an enterprise app. Making changes after-the-fact can be costly in terms of development time and re-acquainting employees with changes. With apps playing an ever-growing role in our lives, companies are presented with a huge opportunity to provide true value to their employees and fix problems unique to their workplaces. Yet the current gap between employee needs and app quality is wide. By taking an employee-centered approach, you can take the lead in closing this gap. Your employees will thank you. Considering developing an enterprise app for your employees? Get in touch with us today for a free consultation.

Everyone who develops an app for consumer use has to face the question of price. Should your app be free to use? If not, what should you charge for it? These are difficult questions to answer, especially if you’ve spent countless sleepless hours thinking through every last feature of your app to make it the best it can be. Pricing your app is a bit more complex than classifying it as “free” or “paid.” There are four different payment models you could consider, based on a number of factors. Before you decide on an app price, take a look at all four models, the benefits of each, and then decide how you can choose the right model for your app. Meet the App Pricing Models Free The majority of apps in the Apple and Google Play store fall into this category. It’s interesting to note the contrast between the two stores. In the Apple Store, 61% of apps are free, compared to 92% of apps available for Android. This is due to Android’s open source software and the fact that it attracts more DIY, small-scale app developers. In this pricing model, your app will be free of charge to download and use. If you are looking to generate revenue from your app, your revenue stream would come through advertising and directing users towards a larger platform where people can opt into other charges. Free app developers understand their best shot to make money is not with an upfront download charge. Don’t underestimate the revenue that in-app advertising can bring — more than 80% of Facebook’s ad revenue now comes from mobile advertising. Free apps have the major advantage of being searched first in app stores. Freemium Freemium apps are free to download, but place in-app restrictions on what a person can do or access with the free version. This model acts as a teaser, giving people access to the basic functions of an app in order to hook them into paying for additional features. This includes encouraging users to buy new filters for their photos, extra lives or tools for their games, exclusive recipe content for cooking apps, or items for their virtual farm. Anything that requires the spending of real money to advance functionality in your app space. Remember, in order to get your users interested in the premium version of your app or the paid features, your free version must offer some engaging value at the basic level. This pricing model is ideal if you want to reap the organic traffic brought in by free apps, but think you have enough features worth monetizing. For some categories of apps, such as games, you may need to plan for regular updates and additions to your available in-app purchases in order to keep users engaged long term. Paid: One-Time Purchase In this model, users pay a one-time fee to download your app. Setting a price for your app will depend on a number of factors, including the demographics and interests of your target market, and competitor price points. Interestingly enough, $0.99 is not the most popular price. In the Apple Store, 12% of apps are listed at $2.99, and 8% at $4.99. These outrank the 6% of apps charged at the minimum $0.99 rate. One challenge of the one-time payment model is that users cannot try out your app before spending money on it — you’re essentially asking users to buy a product without testing it. This can slow downloads, unless your app falls under a niche market, doesn’t have much competition, or comes with heavyweight reviews. These kinds of paid apps are best for popular businesses that already have a large base of loyal customers. Paid: Recurring Subscription As opposed to charging users once to download your app, you may consider charging a recurring monthly or annual subscription. This works well for apps that produce fresh content on a regular basis (such as news apps) or those offering ongoing services (such as personal finance apps and streaming apps). One advantage of this model is that you may be able to charge users more in the long run than they’d be willing to pay in a one-time fee, generating a steady stream of revenue for your business. The subscription model also allows you to offer a free trial, which can lower the barrier to entry for new customers. This model does require you to make additional decisions, such as whether you want to bill monthly or annually, (the answers depend heavily on your target market and how the app is used). You’ll need to plan for the subscription model early during development of your app, as the app will need to recognize the time interval set for your subscription, and be able to accommodate changes in user subscription status, expired subscriptions and more. Paidmium This pricing model is a blend of the paid and freemium models. These apps require an initial download cost — plus additional opportunities for in-app purchases. The paidmium model keeps developers on their toes, but should only be used if a company is certain it can continue providing valuable content to users on a consistent basis. Choosing Your Pricing Model There are three major questions you should consider when choosing a pricing model for your app: Who is my audience? Survey results show that those in the baby boomer generation will be less likely to pay for an app than younger consumers, who have fewer reservations about spending money on app downloads. What are my competitors doing? If you are the only paid app among a sea of freemium apps with similar offerings, your product will drown. Look at the most popular pricing model for your competition and price your app accordingly. iOS or Android? The Apple Store has more paid apps than the Google Play Store. You may consider different pricing schemes, depending on whether you’re selling in one or both stores. Pricing for Internet of Things (IoT) Devices If your app is for an IoT device, scrap the regular pricing model schemes. Because these apps offer highly-personalized, on-demand services for IoT devices, they naturally demand an initial payment from the user for the actual device. Many IoT gadgets come with a selection of apps already installed by the company that produced the device. Consider whether your app would be better sold to consumers, to be downloaded onto their various IoT devices, or to the makers of the IoT devices themselves. IoT apps offer a range of services in one app (think of a home security app that can identify potential fires, intruders, and lock your front door if it has slipped your mind). While the app itself may be included for free, its provided services are not. As a result, IoT app companies are creating tiered payment models for customers, ranging from the most basic of services to higher paid tiers that offer more flexibility. This allows customers the freedom to choose their level of investment. IoT apps can also be pay-as-you-go. For example, imagine having an air conditioning unit that’s connected to the IoT, and charges you only for your rate of usage. We already see insurance payment models in which users pay for car insurance per mile driven; the rise of IoT vehicles will make it possible to not only pay-per-mile to rent a car, but also pay-per-usage for any IoT app services you may use while driving that car. The pay-what-you-use approach gives users flexibility in how much they spend for the services your app offers. Don’t Wait Until Release to Set a Price It’s best to consider the pricing model and price point for your app before you go into the development stage. This way, your development team can design and produce features that fit what’s needed for your revenue model — whether that’s elements to accommodate advertising, encourage in-app purchases, or direct users to a wider network. During development and design, you can always rework the pricing model as you add or remove features from the app. By the time you’re ready for release, you’ll not only have a well-built app but also a well-suited pricing model to go along with it, so as your app delights users it also provides you with appropriate revenue. If you need help assessing a price point for your app, Barefoot Solutions offers a full-service team to guide you in the process, from strategy and marketing to design and development — let us help you bring your app to life.

Depending on the reason, moving can be an exciting or a terrible experience. Either way, it’s a lot of work that no one particularly wants to do, even if you’re moving to the tropical oasis of your dreams.  Thankfully it’s 2015, and there are apps built for just about everything. From finding the right neighborhood to your specific home, app developers have thought of just about everything when it comes to moving. Let’s take a tour of how the typical moving process works, and the apps that can help you along the way.   Step 1: Get Hired By a New Company to Give You Money Maybe you’re lucky enough to transfer with your company, or the reason for your move is to accept a new position. But for the movers who are relocating based on heart’s desire or just plain needing to get away from Aunt Silvia’s cheek pinching nonsense, you’ll want to get the job hunt squared away or at least off the ground before you hit the road. One of the first places you’ll look is your LinkedIn app, and connect the heck out of everyone in your peripheral network. Then you’ll naturally get your resume up on Indeed and create job filters for the types of jobs you’re interested in. You can do regular job searches on their app while you’re waiting in line at the DMV to get your new license, and receive alerts when a new job in the area you’re looking in pops up. Yet once that lead trail dies down, another great place to look is Intro, an app network that connects via LinkedIn and Facebook to people within your particular industry. Intro introduces you (see what they did there) to new people in your social networks via the persons you have in common. It also alerts you to professional events and social meet-ups so that you can put on your game face and get that new job with your polished elevator pitch and knowledge of the weather.   Step 2: Find Somewhere to Put Your Couch  Ah apartment/condo/house hunting. Such a delight. If you couldn’t read through the blatant sarcasm, allow us to point out that hunting in this regard is nothing really fun at all. But do it you must, and fortunately there are plenty of ways to get it done. Craigslist is an old go-to, but for some reason they no longer support their mobile app. There are now however 3rd party apps that pull ads from Craigslist letting you, the happy househunter, browse from your phone. Two of the most popular, per the App Store, are cPro and Daily Craigslist. We prefer Daily, simply because the UX is a little more friendly and has this feature that lets you circle the listings you like. We like circling things. For Android users, the most popular is cPro again and then CityShop, in which case cPro is the better option.  Getting away from Craigslist is an app specific to the house hunt only. Padmapper, the app that makes, “apartment hunting suck less,” is ideal for drilling down to the locations of places you want to live to view all available listings. Once you download the app, switch on the location services and Padmapper will display on a map all available apartment and housing listings for rent. From there you can filter by price, bedrooms, bathrooms, and keywords, helping you find that new apartment that hopefully won’t suck.   Step 3: Hire a Strong Lad/Lady To Move Your Stuff If you own a truck, you know how annoying it is when every other weekend a friend wants to borrow your truck to move their kayak, couch, or worst yet, their entire residence. Don’t be that guy and get a moving truck. One of our favorites is BuddyTruk, for as they say, “Whenever You Need a Buddy With a Truck.” Available on both the App Store and Google Play, BuddyTruk links you to local people with large vehicles who will use their personal truck to get your stuff from point A to point B. The downside is, this is more the “Uber for Moving,” and isn’t so good for when you have a 3 bedroom home you need to move from Chicago to San Diego. A better alternative for this scenario is Ghostruck, which syncs with professional movers in your area and tell you exactly how much the move will cost. In fact at the time of this writing, Ghostruck is offering a 25% discount on your first move, so get to getting.   Step 4: Settling in to Your New ‘Hood You made it! You’re filling your piggy bank, you have somewhere to rest your head, and all your stuff is in one new place. Now, time to make some new friends - or get really good at solitaire if that’s your thing. If you’d rather interact with other humans, a solid first choice is MeetUp, a social network for strangers who like to do the same activities. Want to practice sprechen-ing your Deutsch? There’s likely a MeetUp group for that in your new town, and you’ll be able to flirt in the ever so romantic language that is German with new neighborhood darlings. No matter how normal or strange your preferred social activities are, Meet Up is a great place to join and check out some of the happenings in your city.  But how about getting to know the neighbors in your specific neighborhood? Nextdoor is “the private social network for you and your neighbors,” allowing you to connect with your neighbors directly in your neighborhood. It even requires a verification process so they can make absolutely sure you live in that neighborhood. Nextdoor is great for finding a new trustworthy babysitter, finding your lost pup, or when you’ve settled in and realized you don’t need 27 beer steins, can help you find them a new home. Moving is the worst, but thankfully there are plenty of ways to get there. Have an idea for a moving app? Ping us here and we can get it moving.