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Top Reasons to Pick Ionic Framework for Mobile Apps

With the prevalence of mobile apps, it’s become important to provide the convenience of using them on all platforms. Companies are focusing on choosing the right platform to develop their apps. Since the inception of mobile app development, native apps had dominance over hybrid apps but later was often down sided for naïve user interface and sluggish performance. These were true until a few years back, but now things have changed drastically for the hybrid apps since the arrival of the Ionic platform. Ionic has streamlined the mobile app development across multi-platform applications adding a feather in the cap of hybrid apps.

The Ionic framework is the platform for building hybrid mobile applications for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and other mobile platforms. Hybrid applications are built for cross-platform use, using web tools. One can develop the application once and deploy it to multiple platforms without having to change the code base. 

Here are a few reasons to pick an IONIC framework.

·        Free and Open Source

·        AngularJS  and Cordova Plugins

·        Shorter Development Time

·        Less complexity

·        Reusable Code

·        Better UI

·        Easy Testing

 However, unlike Ionic native counterparts, hybrid apps run within a browser-based web view, which impacts the performance.

That being said, Ionic has been optimized to the point where a speed difference is very small. Another disadvantage of Ionic is that it requires plug-ins to access some native components. So, why do we care? Well, imagine you have an application that you want to release on iOS, Android and Windows and you're a web developer. Normally, you would need to hire a developer for iOS, one for Android, and one for Windows.

 Now imagine the same scenario but you're using Ionic. You haven't had to hire anyone and you still have three applications but you only have one code base to maintain. That sounds great. The ionic framework may not be perfect but it continues to improve both in speed and functionality. New features are introduced regularly into the hybrid framework making this framework a nearly complete replacement for any native application.

 Summary

Ionic framework fulfilling the gap between AngularJS and hybrid mobile apps. It has interactive UI components that can be compatible with iOS, Android, and other platforms. It takes advantage of the rich AngularJS and Cordova library for developing interactive hybrid applications.

Wanna explore the scope of Ionic powered hybrid apps for your product, Boston Technology Corporation will help you. BTC has expertise in developing custom mobile app development and enterprise mobility solutions.

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React Native – A Framework Developed by Facebook for Building Mobile Applications

As the foundation for mobile application, one must be known about React Native. React Native is a mobile application framework developed by Facebook for building mobile applications in JavaScript that can run at the same speed as native mobile applications. Firebase is a real-time database, authentication service, and blob file storage service backed by Google's cloud.

One can use Firebase as the complete backend. All of the post data will be stored in the database. The photos we will take will be stored using blob storage and authentication will be done using Firebase's authentication services. NativeBase is a UI framework that wraps React Native's components and provides several commonly used components like buttons, icons, cards, etc. It allows for an app theme so one can change the look of the application from one file instead of every component.

NativeBase is used to cut down on the reusable code one need to write. This will make mobile app development faster and mobile application have a more uniform look. MobX is a state management library similar to Redux. However, unlike Redux, MobX strives to be as simple as possible. It takes care of everything you normally have to write by hand in Redux and does it in an extremely efficient manner. You don't need a bunch of boilerplates or to worry about actions and reducers.

MobX handles everything for you. The only thing you need to do is make the data you are storing an observable and the component that is changing that data an observer. MobX takes care of the rest. 

 Boston technology Corporation – Enterprise Mobility

Boston Technology Corporation (BTC), a Boston-based technology company, provides enterprise mobility solutions for startups, medium and large enterprises. We help businesses to leverage the power of mobility by leveraging BTC's techno-functional service offerings such as Strategic Consulting; Mobile App Development (Android app development, iOS app development, Enterprise mobile app development), Web and Cloud-based Application Development, Apple ResearchKit, IoT and Wearables Integration, HIPAA Compliance Testing, QA Services and Analytics. Read more about our work and insights at  http://btchealth.boston-technology.com/insights/

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A Complete Guide To Develop First iOS Mobile App – Enterprise Mobility Solution

Here’s a complete guide to develop iOS applications. And maybe you've even tried a few already. But this is the time that many mobile app developers hit their first confusion point. And it's often unexpected because most of the time when you learn a new computer language you'll begin by making a very simple application. And the idea is that by writing one simple program. You'll instantly see how this new environment works and just how everything hangs together. With iOS mobile app development, you create that first simple app and you end up with more questions than when you started. So let's see why? First, I need to make a new Xcode project, there's an option on the welcome screen. I could also use the File > New Project. And just think project equals app. Whenever you want to make a mobile app, make a project in Xcode. And it's really just a way of keeping all the relevant files together. So it opens up the new project window, and we have a lot of choices here. Because Xcode isn't just for iOS app development. It's also used for developing programs on a Mac desktop for command line apps and services, for developing code libraries and plugins for the system. And more besides, so what we are looking at here is two main sections.

One for OS X development and one for iOS and again no surprises which section we are interested in. We'll be living in the iOS application section and with that highlighted on the left, what I see on the right is eight different project templates. Eight different suggested starting points for iOS app development. And we're going to come back and explore all of these, but for right now the one I'm going to select is this one called the Single View Application. This is kind of like the Goldilocks project template for beginning iOS app development.

It's not too simple, it's not too complex, its just right. It provides enough code for us to easily write an app without drowning it in a lot of convoluted information. So with Single View Application selected, click Next. Now, we have to provide some naming details for our application. Now this screen and all the information it's asking for can often seem like overkill to someone brand new to Xcode. But bear in mind, Xcode doesn't know if right now we're making a simple demo, or if this project might end up being a number one hit in the app store, sold to 10 million people.

So it wants to make sure you begin by naming everything well. And the most important thing is the first one, the product name. The name for your application. And then we've got Organization Name. If you're a solo developer, you might just put your own name. If you leave this blank, it will just end up using the username of whoever's logged in. Now this organization name is not technically very impactful or important.

Whatever you put here is just used in automatic comments when you make new code files. Now next is the company identifier, and you do need something here. The reason for this is that if you did end up putting this app on the app store, the product name itself, in this case, Hello World, wouldn't be enough to guarantee it's unique. There are over a million applications in the app store now. But by adding the name of my organization Even if that's just me, I should be able to make this unique. I won't ever publish more than one app called Hello World.

Now by convention, this company identifier is usually your domain name in reverse, Now notice that as I type, what it's doing is combining the product name, the name of my app and the name of my company to generate this unique name underneath it. It's what's called a unique bundle identifier, a name for the final packaged app. But don't worry too much about that. Now, if you don't have a domain here, don't worry too much about it. It doesn't follow this domain name.

So just put something generic, like your company. Below we've got Class Prefix. I'm going to skip over this. Whatever you type here, Xcode will insert at the start of any new class and code files you make. We're just doing demos, so I'll leave this blank for now. And then there is this Devices section. Mostly I'll be using iPhone because it's the simplest. And it will fit best in my reduced screen size. There is also an option for an iPad-only app, and one for universal. And a universal just means one iOS project that can alter its appearance based on what device it's running on.

Now, that would add a little complexity to a simple demo project so we won't do that yet. I'm going to choose iPhone. Click Next. And now it's going to ask, where do I want to save this, where do these project files go. And you can put the stuff anywhere you want. There is no magic location for storing your project from Xcode. So I'm just going to save this out to the desktop. You could them in your documents folder or anywhere else. Now if you see down, we've got a source control section. Xcode understands both Get and Subversion for source control, I will be leaving this unchecked, and then I hit Create.

And when you create this project, Xcode is going to go out and create several files for you. Over here on the left-hand section, we have what's called the project navigator in Xcode, a view of the different files in our project. I can single click any of these, and they will open up in the middle section, the editor. If I click a file that represents code, I get a code editor. And we have a few code files automatically created. AppDelegate.h, AppDelegate.m with some rather threatening code if you've never done this before.

If you click a file that represents a user interface like this main.storyboard, you will get a user interface editor. Now, this part of Xcode is also often referred to as interface builder because it used to be a separate program. And we get this blank canvas that seems to represent an iPhone even with the battery status bar here. Now like many other programming IDEs, Xcode let's write code, test code, design our user interfaces all in the same app. Unlike many other IDEs, it also lets you drag and drop user interface elements. And in Xcode, the place to find those is in the object library.

That's over here in the right-hand section of Xcode. Going to click the little option that looks like a box. You can also get to the object library by going to the View menu > Utilities > Object Library. If you come down you'll see a whole list of things you can do, I'm just going to grab this Label option, click and drag over onto the interface. While I keep the mouse held down we see that it can give us some lines to help us positioning. I'm just going to drag it somewhere into the center, double-click on it so it shifts into this blue editing mode.

And type in, not surprisingly, the basic hello world phrase. I could then grab it even rearrange it a bit. Let's go ahead and just prove that this works I'm going to come up here to the toolbar now there should be this section that might say iPhone retina for you it might say something else right now this is what's called a scheme we'll get into this later but it allows us different ways to run this app from Xcode. We have multiple options for the iPhone simulator. If we want to test it how it looks on an iPad or an iPad Retina or an iPhone retina three and a half inch versus four inches, above that we'd have the iOS device.

Which might show any plugged in iOS devices that I had. I'm going to make sure it's on the simplest here which is just the iPhone retina 3.5 inch. And then press the Play button that goes ahead and runs and builds our application. So Xcode handles compilation and it launches it automatically in the iPhone simulator. Loads the program into it and opens it up. So we get the rather unexciting Hello World showing up here. Now because I've got reduced screen, I'm seeing the simulator slightly shrunken down. You can see that the simulator is the program that's open right now.

And there are several options from the Hardware menu, things like what device am I looking at, I can actually change this. But in the Window menu, I also get the scale. If you have a big monitor you'll probably be at 100%. In which case you'll see things like the home button, it will actually look like an iPhone instead of just a window. I'm shrunk down to 75%. I could even go down to 50. And I don't actually see the home button. So if you are shrunk what you'll have to do is actually use a Cmd key to simulate it which is Cmd+Shift+H is like pressing the home button on a device. It takes us back to simulator home screen.

I can see that my Hello World app has just given us a generic app icon. We'll see how to change that later too. I can open that back up, see the rather unexciting hello world message and that's about it. I'll just go ahead and quit the simulator. I can either quit that or I can press the stop button behind here on Xcode that works well too. Okay, this was very, very simplistic, there's not even any behavior yet. But you're probably already starting to form quite a few questions. We haven't even touched any code, but still, why did we pick that single view application option when we made a new Xcode project? What does this storyboard represent and what can it do? What are all the code files and what do they mean? Which ones are important? If you clicked around a little further inside the storyboard, you might find all sorts of strange options like what does first responder mean? And this doesn't even get us to questions like how do I hook a button up and make it change the label.

How is this simulator different from a real device? In short, what is immediately important and what's not? And we're going to get to all of this, but we first need to take our perspective up a level about the best way to approach learning this all.

 About Boston Technology Corporation

Boston Technology Corporation (BTC), a Boston-based digital health technology company, provides patient-centric solutions for secure patient experience, engagement, and satisfaction.

Healthcare organizations and patients have hugely benefited by leveraging BTC's techno-functional service offerings such as Strategic Consulting; Mobile App Development (Android app development, iOS app development, Enterprise mobile app development), Web and Cloud-based Application Development, Apple ResearchKit, IoT and Wearables Integration, HIPAA Compliance Testing, QA Services and Analytics. Read more about our work and insights at  http://btchealth.boston-technology.com/insights/

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Infographic- Mobility transforming Healthcare

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Improve customer experience on mobile app: Strategies to follow:-

If you are into mobile app business, you might be well aware of the lengthy testing procedure that a mobile application development company has to go through before going live. However, we cannot deny the fact that the real test begins once the application goes live and the users start using the mobile app.

The result of this test comes in the form of ratings and reviews, which helps you to judge the image your mobile application has created in front of your target users. Not to be reminded that while the satisfied customers stay with you (as long as they wish), the unsatisfied never return back.

So, is it good to take that risk?

A better option

As there are millions of applications available, you need to have that ‘x’ factor in your mobile app development that makes you stand out of the crowd to get noticed.

Yes, you have picked it right! It’s better user experience. This is where alpha/beta testing of the app and further releasing it to a limited audience steps in as a better option.

No doubt that your mobile app idea has the entire caliber to win the people hearts, but playing safe is always a smarter step and eventually beneficial.

Influencing Customer Experience

As per a survey report, 52% of user won’t engage with your mobile application if they face poor user experience. The buyers today are ready to pay extra to avail better services. When we define ‘better service’ this includes 65% customers who expect a quick response within five minutes.

But wait!!

While everyone understands the vitality of good customer experience, not each one makes to the ‘list’. That’s why we are here defining the ways through which you can measure your customer experience strategy for a successful mobile app development business. Here we go;

1. Tools for analytics

Besides the integrated app store analytics and developer console, you can go with some of the third-party analytics tools, which can help you to have better insights on app usage.

The information that can be facilitated through this includes time spent, user demographics, location, other apps used simultaneously, data connection, etc. With the help of this data, it becomes easier for the developer to fix the issues and introduce a well-polished mobile app.

2. Analyzing ratings and reviews

Ratings and reviews are an unmatched way to find customer experience. Anything less than five stars means that you need to improve; ensure you work on them and get them fixed at the earliest. You can also add some new features to comprehend the previous errors.

3. Track the app sessions

Learn about the time users spent on your mobile application. This will help you to evaluate whether if the users are having any sort of difficulty in operating the application, or if they are not interested or have found some alternative.

The reasons might differ, but based on the study you can take measures to develop better customer experience.

4. In App feedback

This is a personal interaction with your mobile app users. Rather than allowing users to share their feedbacks in front of the million users in the app world, you can have their feedback internally and act upon it.

This won’t just let you keep your image clean outside the app store, but it will also help you to build trust among your users.

5. Using demographics

The user demographics will not just help you in understanding your app popular region or areas, but also it helps you to customize the application based on the age, gender, and region of your mobile app users.

If you successfully implement this particular measure, you have more chances of appealing the masses and retaining them.

6. Feel their feelings

You don’t always have to wait for users to share their likes, dislikes, and problematic areas in the app; you can try to find them by self. For this, you need to think like a user, feel like a user, and subsequently act like a developer.

Tools like Twitter mentions and Google alerts will help you to define how users feel about your application and in order to track them successfully; you can also use other online tools.

Conclusion

As a mobile app business owner, delivering best customer experience is the need for your business. Without the successful implementation of the same, you may have to face hurdles and obstacles for sustaining in this competitive mobile app world.

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How App Developers can Create a Popular Product

The goal of application development is to create something that will be a hit with users. The more popular the product, the wider its reach. And the wider its reach, the more you get to promote your ideas and products via your app. App developers must research their market and create an app based on the following guidelines.

Fulfill user expectations

People who download apps expect that they will help them in some way. The apps will make some tasks easier for them. They may want a planner that helps them organize their day, or gives them reminders when a deadline is about to expire. While there are “ugly” apps that are high on functionality, and therefore, popular, users in general judge an app by its looks the first time they come across it. Therefore, you should also create an attractive app that appeals to users. Make sure the fonts are large enough to read, and the page is not crowded with advertisements and too many buttons.

Easy to use

A phone is not used in the same way as a laptop. Typing on a mobile device is more difficult, and therefore, users need an app that requires minimum typed input. If your app requires lengthy typed responses from users, most people will stay away from your app. One prime example of apps gone awry is those that require registration. Apart from minimal typing, users also like easy access to what they are looking for. Unlike websites, most mobile apps have a single page format, and for good reason. On a mobile device, it is easier to access the information through a single page than go through multiple pages to find what you need. Another bonus is offline availability. If the user can connect to the app when an internet connection is not available, it will boost their confidence in the app.

Make the app functional across different platforms

Most large application developers are today offering choices to users when they download software. You will see large buttons on web sites indicating the mobile version of an application. Many users require a variety of devices to communicate, be it a computer, BlackBerry, Android, or Apple. The easier it is to synchronize the app across different platforms, the more users will like it.

It is a good idea to offer only a few simple functions on an app. Unlike a full scale website, an app is not meant to undertake many complex tasks. It is there to help the user when he or she is not near a computer. An app may be useful where a computer is not handy. Design the application accordingly, and watch the accolades come in.

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Enterprise Mobile Strategy: Next Step To A Better Application Development

Business is adapting to the changing consumer needs and evolving technology. All the business brands are looking for smarter ways to manage their workforce and revenue generation. The emergence of the smart phones, tablets and other wireless handheld communication devices has influenced the companies to knock at the doors of app development companies. Smart phone apps are the new big thing to help in creating an impressive and far spread online market. The development companies are coming up with various ideas and methodologies to support the client in maximizing their opportunities in the virtual world.

iPhone app developers are now stepping outside of their specialized zone and responding to the market by creating apps that are in-sync with multiple devices, be it a iPhone or any other device. Application development is reaching beyond its primary objective of site optimization; now it is helping the companies to grow a more productive management system. This integration is for the betterment of the users and obviously for the business itself.