Roope Suomalainen, Director, Experience
If you don’t have an app, you do not exist in mobile space. As everyone knows, apps are the best way to provide your services to mobile audiences. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that you have a mobile strategy linked to your digital strategy as well as a clear understanding of your targets and your experience roadmap – how apps tie into your digital brand experience. You need to think about how to reward loyalty and harness marketing via social networking services, what the following releases on the road map are and how to maintain and update the base segment. This shouldn’t be different from other business development or similar projects you are working on. Basically, apps can support your existing business and act as marketing and loyalty tools as well as drive traffic to brick-and-mortar real world stores. However, perhaps the most interesting option would be to create new business based on mobility enablers like location, context and direction.

Once you know why you want to create the app, and you have the concept ready, you should consider the possible business models. Will the app be free, i.e. subsidised by other business or ad revenue? Should there be a freemium model, a subscription, perhaps a paid app or something else? The next topic to consider is the target segment: who are the customers, why would they choose you and what is the competition? Understanding and segmenting the customer base is also extremely important, as different people use different devices. This is where things often go wrong; the first apps may be created for iOS and Android even though customers might be using simple Java-enabled phones. Going directly to smart TVs and gaming consoles might also make sense. Even the smartphone game can be complex: for example, Symbian and BlackBerry combined have almost 70% of the market share in the Middle East.

Getting the business case, concept and customer segmentation right are the time consuming parts. When the groundwork has been done well, technical implementation is more straightforward. The key question there is whether to go native for each platform or utilize cross-platform technologies like HTML5 to reach a wider user base and a larger variety of devices. Unfortunately, there are still some challenges with cross-platform technology compatibility and it may not always live up to the promise. Selecting a right partner is important to make sure that your app’s usability and performance are on the right level and can be maintained to support future devices and functionality. You also need to consider whether to have the app use your existing web infrastructure or perhaps run it on a cloud.

The next hurdle to tackle is the publishing. First of all, managing global deployment with localization across multiple versions and platforms is a huge challenge. In addition, Apple’s App Store and the Android Market both have more than 500,000 apps and Nokia Store has more than 100,000 apps. How do you make your app visible to users and get downloads, where and when should you run your marketing and how do you ensure that your app is preferred to those of your competitors? Without downloads, there is no business case. Unless you have a unique idea and content that no one else can access, someone else might build a better app using your content and find a way to monetize it. It is amazing that the most popular Twitter and Facebook apps are not built by those companies themselves. Usability is really king in the digital world and even more in mobile, where the screen size is limited.

In addition to selecting the key smartphone and other platforms, it is a good idea to keep tablet users in mind as well. What works on a smartphone most likely does not work well on a tablet, and people tend to use the two in different situations and environments. Cars are also connected, through various technologies such as MirrorLink. Most TVs sold are Internet enabled, but you can also get your apps and services on the big home screen with a game console. The real opportunity lies in integrating all these different devices and ensuring a larger presence in your customers’ everyday life.

Mobile business opportunities are emerging and most of the technology is already in place. Now is the time to create the concept that will change consumer behavior.

For more information, please contact:
Roope Suomalainen, Director, Experience, tel. +358 50 564 5988, roope.suomalainen@ixonos.com

Sami Paihonen, VP, User Experience Design
Numerous times over the years, after attending one creative presentation or another by some well-known and respected design agency, I have found myself thinking “I liked what I saw and I agree with the reasoning behind the user interface (UI) concept… but there is so much missing”. This feeling has followed me over the years, repeating itself. Whilst design concepts can be creative when presented, having the responsibility to deliver them was not a very nice position to be in. I learned to understand that 80% of the work to make these design dreams come true was still missing.

I have thought about the “perfect” design agency many times over the years: what it would do differently, how it would make its products more ready, how it would actually push the boundaries – and execute that 80% that is still needed after any beautiful, well-crafted UI concept. The introduction of user experience (UX) didn’t actually help: 90% of any creative presentation by a design agency was, and still is, about UI. So eventually, random thoughts of learning from the best agencies in the world and combining those lessons into a more holistic view on user experience, providing greater value for companies doing services, devices or web sites, became a list of seven areas (The Magic 7) that define UX as I feel it should be. Not because it feels right for myself, but because it is right for the companies desperately seeking competitive advantage in a fierce business such as the mobile one.

Ixonos has entered the UX area from a new angle based on The Magic 7 UX thinking and we strongly believe that the real magic, even in UI, happens outside the screen. We also want to enter the UX area in a way where top talented people find themselves enjoying working for us and can develop into real specialists and change-makers in the UX domain. I am fascinated by our team already: individuals who can see the potential of our UX approach, combined with exceptional development forces, is a match that – simply put – is second to none.

Because Ixonos UX is present in everything we do, not even those of us working in the User Experience Design unit “own” it. We are champions in UI design, information architecture, visual design, design strategy, user research and demo creation, to name a few, but we still need those passionate developers, smart SW architects and creative back-end developers who can work with us to deliver that remaining 80% of the creative concept.

Ixonos will invest decisively into the UX area as an offering and an integral part of other Ixonos offerings as well as establish a truly global design agency born to make a difference. Our plan is not to become the biggest design agency out there – we simply want to be most innovative, creative and dependable UX agency there is. The roots of our company may be more on the development side than those of e.g. marketing or ad agencies, but we have turned this background into a strength. We are in the best possible position to deliver a very broad UX offering and get those projects done – in a true turnkey way.

We are very happy that so many companies have already found that our approach is on the mark and improves the success of their business. This motivates us even more and gives us confidence that our goals for UX are the right ones.

Simply because the best concepts are the realized concepts.

Welcome to follow our blog frequently. I hope you will find lots of exciting entries here from now on; our global design team will regularly publish articles on interesting topics. Stay tuned!

For more information, please contact:
Sami Paihonen, VP of User Experience Design, +358 50 502 1111, sami.paihonen@ixonos.com