In Focus

How to build apps cheaper and faster

Michael Leis
Apps Posted on April 16, 2009

A vast array of app-development options

Marketing departments are feeling the downturn squeeze. They have fewer resources, yet technology continues moving forward. Thus, departments are challenged to maintain their existing online presences while continuing to experiment in various portable and social media.

After you've mapped out your brand strategy for content and determined where your audience spends most of its time online, you have multiple options when it comes to making your content more portable and sharable. The resources you rely on will depend heavily on how advanced your in-house capabilities are. In this article, we'll take a look at some of the myriad app-development services out there, broken down according to the level of in-house sophistication required. 

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Comments

Michael Leis
Michael Leis April 27, 2009 at 11:47 AM

Chris,

Thanks for leaving the comment, you're bringing up a very blurry distinction that I often think about when working with clients or writing these articles. Even in the evolution of this section of iMedia: it started (and is still currently titled) "Desktop Applications." However, over the past three years, it has encompassed portable technology termed as widgets and apps.

I'm not so sure about the line you're drawing though. Is it the context within which the interaction takes place? Aren't iPhone applications Dashboard widgets in the context of the capabilities of the device, and the dynamics at play in the physical world where that interaction is taking place?

Is Facebook Connect a widget when it's in the context of other sites, and an application when the information generated from it appears in the live stream within the framework of the user experience of facebook.com? Or is Facebook comprised of widgets, collected in applications, presented through the site?

I'm not sure I have any of these answers. In some situations, the terms are practically interchangeable -- although maybe widgets are becoming the single-purpose cogs of larger community engagement application engines.

In terms of the "quick and easy" I completely agree. The fun is running the marathon: defining the strategy, launching the presence, and streamlining it over time as the brand adjusts to the audience's interaction.

The purpose of this article was to give folks a handle on where to get into the game quicker and easier. Faster ways to experiment hopefully means faster understanding of what is meaningful and relevant to the community that brand is trying to engage via portable technology methods.

Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham April 22, 2009 at 2:31 PM

Michael,

You cover the widget space well. However, I have to make the point that there is a big difference between a widget and an application. A widget, yes, is portable content (or I would hope so and not just an ad), but most of the time it lacks any sort of real, continued value for the end user. Widgets are only relevant to the individual.

Applications on the other hand, found on Facebook, increasingly so on other social networks and, of course, the iPhone, are social and relevant to the community's social media creates. Widgets push a brands message to individual audiences, while applications enable brands to engage communities and if done well and right, in the right context.

This does – applications that is and so should be the case with widgets – take effort and it should. It shouldn't be quick and easy. If it was, what would be the fun of that in reaching your targeted audience(s) in meaningful and relevant ways?

Chris Cunningham