Beyond Strategy: Building Your Mobile Capabilities

Transcription

1 Beyond Strategy: Building Your Mobile Capabilities TASSCC Technology Education Conference April 10, 2015 Presented by: Raj Polikepati Director of App Development Texas.gov

2 Agenda Objectives of Mobile Strategy Mobile 101 Technology Options API/Data Team Roles & Responsibilities Building Mobile Skills & Competency Closing Thoughts 5/6/2015 2

3 Identify Your Real Objectives Start by asking the rightquestions Will mobile Deliver larger benefits? Improve agency results? Reach a targeted constituent niche? Require a significant commitment? Include features that are needed? Be adequately funded? Benefit internal operations? 3

4 Identify Your Real Objectives Consider constituent and agency perspectives Constituent / User Easily accessible info High expectations Simple, easy-to-use mobile experience Different needs depending on service (1x/day vs. 1x/year) Speed and safety Agency Easy to interact with Transparent Timely responses Fiscally responsible Internal effectiveness / efficiency Maximize technology resources 5/6/2015 4

5 Mobile Features Geo-location Leverages GPS hardware on your device to pinpoint locations Searches for what s nearby (buildings, addresses, parks, restaurants, etc.) Provides turn-by-turn directions Enables sharing of location with others Geotags photos taken with phone Personal Data / History Information stored locally on device Contact info/lists GPS location Browsing & download history Cached data Images 5/6/ Google Maps Local Businesses Map My Run Find My Phone 54% of mobile users who download apps decided not to install a phone app when they discovered how much personal info they need to share in order to use it.

6 Mobile Features Camera Able to take digital still photos and videos Input device for other applications Scanner Object recognition to provide information about that object Web cam for video conferencing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Push Notifications Send information to users even when the app isn t in use Keep users updated on activity that occurs within the application(s) 5/6/2015 6

7 Technology Options -Landscape Full Capability Native Native Framework Hybrid Single Platform Multiple Platforms Responsive Design Partial Capability 5/6/2015 7

8 What is a Native Mobile App? Software developed for a specific mobile device platform and a specific language Pros Best usability, features, and overall mobile experience Richer functionality and graphical effects Full access to device functions and sensors Presence on the app store Fast startup and access (after initial download) Content is generally available off-line Users are generally more engaged with the application Cons Individual code for each platform Requires knowledgeable programming resource Limits audience Requires redistribution for updates and maintenance Requires app store vendor approval Increases privacy concerns 5/6/2015 8

9 What is Mobile Responsive Design? Serves the same HTML to every device and adapts its presentation based on the device s specific capabilities Pros Device and browser agnostic Easier to develop and support Improved SEO single code base Site not downloaded via an App Store No costly, future upgrades when new mobile devices hit market Consistent user experience across all devices Very scalable approach Leverage some phone features with HTML5 Cons Cross-browser and device incompatibilities Slower load times Content is not necessarily mobilefriendly When you are serving the same HTML, source order cannot be changed No app store presence, so limited discoverability 5/6/2015 9

10 What is Hybrid Mobile Design? Native mobile experience, with advantage of write once, run anywhere Pros Reaches widest range of devices Leverages same code as website Easier to develop & support App store presence Faster development process than native apps Provides offline modes for access without network connectivity Bill content delivered via web apps independently, such as by subscription Cons Performance slightly diminished Users expect similar experience as native app Software downloads from web required Available only through dedicated app stores Requires some app store approval and updates 5/6/

11 Feature Comparison 5/6/

12 Which MOBILEarchitecture is right for YOU? Start Here Yes Will the app be used frequently? No Will it be used by employeesor constituents? Yes Employees Do you have plenty of time and resources? No Hybrid or Responsive Design Responsive Design Web Application Hybrid Constituents No Is the app highly interactive? Yes Do you need to supportmultiple operating systems? No Native Yes 5/6/

13 Ongoing Ownership & Operations Considerations BEFORE you launch your mobile strategy - this is what you ll have to live with post-launch Operating costs all mobile initiatives have incremental costs including Native, Responsive Design, and Hybrid You will be living in a new world developer skills, social skills, constituent s mobile expectations Extremely fast-changing technologies need to keep up or else Consider a Think Mobile First design approach when developing new applications helps with usability and effectiveness of mobile and desktop apps 5/6/

14 APIs: Where Rubber Meets the Road Application is only as good as the data Write once; invoke everywhere Multi-channel delivery Desktop web/native mobile/responsive Kiosk/Over-the-Counter (OTC) Interagency integrations, data warehouse Open API Strategy Crowdsourcing App Dev Cross-Agency GovDelivery Lower cost of ownership 5/6/

15 APIs: SOAP vs. Restful 5/6/

16 API: Restful 101 5/6/

17 Mobile-Optimized APIs Supports Native, Hybrid, and Responsive Apps Restful API Versioning Progressive Enhancement Fine-grained Secured access Caching/CDN 5/6/

18 Roles & Responsibilities Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." --Henry Ford Product Manager User Interface/User Experience Experts Engineering Quality Assurance 5/6/

19 Mobile Product Manager Who? CEO of the App What s different? Mobile Ecosystem vs. business SME Extensive behavioral research Device-centric vs. consistent look and feel 5/6/

20 User Experience Expert What s different? Interrupt Driven Highly Contextual Device-centric design Design for limitations 5/6/

21 Engineering What s Important? Thrives in iterative/agile environment Instrumentation of metrics Focus on fine-grained API s (vs. composite services) PolyGlot(Objective C/Swift/Java(Android)/HT ML/CSS/JS) 5/6/

22 QA Pragmatic app testing Comprehensive testing on each device Right mix of real devices and emulators In-the-wild testing Attention to metrics Most importantly PERSEVERANCE!!! 5/6/

23 Mobile Skills and Competencies Responsive Web & Native Texas.gov Site Templates Contact Us Good resources on Team Treehouse Code School Lynda.com Apple ios Developer Android Developer Great Prototype Collaboration Website: Invisionapp.com 5/6/

24 Mobile Skills and Competencies For Responsive, start with a framework like Twitter Bootstrap, Gumby While developing, use the built-in responsive design view tool in Firefox or Chrome Highly recommend the Responsive Design book from A Book Apart Programming in Objective-C (6th Edition) (Developer's Library) - By Stephen G. Kochan 5/6/

25 Mobile Skills and Competencies Hybrid Mobile PhoneGap Appcelerator Titanium Mobile Angular UI Sencha Touch 5/6/

26 Closing Thoughts A scalable approach is always repeatable Experiment with approach from time to time Leverage API benefits for mobile governance Choices are abundant with pros and cons Adopt the tools that your team is most comfortable Mobile-First shift is less technical and more cultural Designated champion Product Manager Real use cases will get sponsorship!!! 5/6/

27 Contacts Raj Polikepati Director of Development Daniel Moreno Outreach Associate /6/

28