One way to think about designing a successful app regardless of the platform is to make the app almost invisible and design the experience. The experience is successful if the relationship ties the customer back to the company and therefore makes the brand useful. A useful app that gives the user a sense of enjoyment, information or a check mark on the todo list can do wonders for the longevity of the brand and its success.
 
At Rockfish Interactive I’ve had the opportunity to work on apps for great brands such as ESPN, Walmart, Listerine, Tyson, Silver Joe’s Coffee and Arvest Bank across many platforms such as iPhone, Facebook and online web apps. In all of these I always worked towards the experience the user should have while interacting with the app and defined the interface around that.
 
Applications should not be cumbersome they should use natural elements that enhance the experience instead of introducing a lot of new stuff. Don’t assume users will look for stuff because they won’t the application needs to be an extension of what I am already doing. Many great apps out there today already do just that and now we’re seeing a huge explosion in the mobile space that can provide a great extension of any brand if done correctly.
 
One piece of advice I received while designing an online banking application was to design the app the way that I would use it then get feedback and refine. This seemed to go well as the client was very pleased and the feedback was very minimal to the overall design. The client said the experience seemed spot on we just had to tweak a few colors and icons.
 
A great contributor to the success of your app is to have users provide feedback. I firmly believe unlike a website site an app design is never done and the more you listen to your users and refine the happier they will be. We hosted a user group of about 15 people the other night and the feedback was outstanding. We followed up the next day and ran through the list and discussed and itemized the crucial steps we needed to take before its launch in a few weeks.
 
Application design can be very rewarding for designers especially if it’s an app that you would get to use regularly. I’m pretty excited to debut a new app we’ve been working on at RFI in a few days to attendees at the F.O.W.A. (Future of Web Apps) conference in Miami and get more user feedback.