Your search for a software development company must diligently focus on the necessities and ignore the non-essentials. Once identified, you will need to draw up a legal contract with the company that exhaustively defines the nature of your working relationship with the company and the duties and responsibilities assigned to the said company. This is a process that requires attention to detail and a prime focus on mitigating any and every risk associated with working with a software development company and the process of software development in general.

Here are 4 ways of ensuring that the risks to software development are mitigated considerably.

Understand the Contract and then Sign on the Dotted Line

Typically, you will be presented with either a Fixed –Price or a Time and Material Contract. In the former, the risk related to cost overruns is assumed by the developer while in the latter, you are burdened with it. At first glance, you might think that there is no doubt that you must choose the ‘Fixed Price’ contract. But think about it for a second. Developers aren’t fools; they will ensure that they will take into consideration the prospect of cost overruns, while determining the fixed cost of the project development.  You are paying for it, but you just don’t realize it.  When it comes to a Time and Materials contract, you are going to pay the developer on an hourly basis, so there is a case where the developer might feel it’s worth his while to extend the period of the development to bill some more hours to you.

The bottom line is that both contracts have some risks linked to them. You will need to ensure that you are able to read between the lines of the contract and ensure that each and every deliverable related to the project, is stated explicitly. Otherwise, you are leaving space wide open for potential disputes.

Tweaking Advance Payments

Most software companies will ask for an upfront payment. This could be half of the total cost of the project, if it’s a major investment on the part of the client, or it could even by a full payment if the size and scope of the project is not really that big. But, the problem with such advance payments is that you are bearing the risk of the non-performance of the developer. This is a huge risk and you will need to mitigate it. This can be done by trying to work out a payment deal with the developer that has you making a payment that is time bound. This means you will pay for a week’s worth of development; once the week is out you can take a look at the work done, and then move forward for the next week’s payments.  When you are making advance payments, your focus should only be on minimizing the amount that you pay as much as possible.

Beware of Kill Switches

Oops!  If you forget about this risk, your software is in danger. One of the reasons why experts ask for due diligence before you choose any software developer to work on your project is because there are plenty of crooked developers out there. These are the kind of developers that won’t think twice about working a kill switch into the application that they are developing for you. In some circles, this switch is also known as an extortion switch. In the event there is a payment dispute between you and the unscrupulous developer you are working with, all they will do is press the switch and shut your application down, remotely. Do what you will, but you will have no other option but to pay up. One of the ways that you can get around this blackmail is that you have a contract that categorically makes mention of such practices and prohibits their use.

Beware of the Disappearing Act

The internet has paved the way for plenty of “enterprising” elements who are out to make a quick buck and fool gullible people who think something that’s said on the internet must and will be the absolute truth. There are plenty of people who call themselves freelance developers, playing the field on the World Wide Web. Their modus operandi is simplicity itself. They have a wonderful looking website, a fantastic portfolio, and they respond immediately to quote requests from potential clients. These quotes are often bottom of the barrel that anybody will find attractive. They ask for a limited upfront payment, which is also something that attracts potential clients. When the payments are made, there is no word from the developer. The developer and your money will have disappeared.

It’s very easy to avoid falling into such a trap. The first step is to choose a developer or a development company, that has a physical address and the second step, will be to visit that address and have a face- to-face conversation. At the cost of sounding repetitive, I want to say once again that the key is due diligence. Only work with a company or a freelance developer if you are absolutely sure about their credibility and reputation on the market.

There are plenty of other ways that help ensure, you minimize the risk associated with software development. But, these are enough to push you in the right direction. The important thing is to take all your decisions after a lot of forethought and by evaluating and analyzing everything that you think will go wrong.

Designers would love it if they had to design a brand purely in the aesthetic sense and not the commercial sense. But, the problem is that we are not living in a “perfect world”, and all brands are created with a certain purpose in mind. The very nature of the brand makes it an entity that is driven by pure commercialism. The brand needs to conform to the objectives of the company and if it doesn’t then it is deemed to be unsuccessful. Today, brands are a crucial part of the marketing mix of companies and empower their efforts to gain wider acceptance amongst their target audience. One could define branding as a place where both the marketing considerations of the company and its graphic design meet.

The application of design principles to branding efforts is one of the ways that designers are able to build a high performance brand right from scratch. There are various tools and designing concepts that can be used to ensure that the awareness of the brand, its recall and its impression are of a very high caliber and improve the businesses reach by a very long way.

Impressive looking logo is crucial

Your brand needs a logo. A brand without a logo is like a fish out of water. Look at the most successful businesses out there, behind each successful business is a successful logo. Usually, the logo design should begin right when the company name is being designed; this means when the seeds of the business/organization/ company are first sown, work should begin on the logo. A logo should exude confidence and must look balanced. It must be the perfect visual representation of the company, nothing more and definitely, nothing less.

Typography Consistency

An often ignored, but an equally important part of branding is consistent typography. Designers must be careful with respect to the selection of the font size and style. It’s of paramount importance that the selection of the typography must be such that it can be used across all mediums and related marketing collaterals. A complete branding experience is a product of diligent efforts and an important determinant of this diligence is typographical consistency.

Selection and Definition of Colors

You not only need to choose the right colors, but you also need to define them in the appropriate manner. Careful palette selection and the subsequent definition of the color will ensure that there are a number of suitable color options to choose from, for the brand across various media.

Branding

Finally when the aesthetics are complete, the brand needs to be introduced to the real world by using it in various marketing collaterals. The brand needs to be successfully applied to business cards, web design, company brochures etc. The success or failure of the brand can only be determined when it is applied to specific marketing collaterals.

User interface design or user centered interface design makes a web application or software more user-oriented, so that users are able to optimize its use. Today, both websites and web applications are no longer limited to the desktops, but are also being built for the mobile platform. Whatever the nature of the platform, the importance of usability remains the same and so do some of the core principles that determine user centered interface design.

Let’s take a look at some of the principles that have a significant role to play in ensuring that the design interface is user friendly.

Understanding the Users is the Key

The reason why, understanding users and their goals is important is because your users are going to have no interaction with the core components of your web application, website or software. What they will actually be doing is experiencing the system as a whole, so if the UI doesn’t consider this fact, the system won’t be able to meet all the goals and objectives of the users. This is why it’s important that you are able to understand the users, their needs, and what is it that they require from a particular system. This will help you provide them with a UI that helps them access the various features and functionalities of your system in a manner that is effective and comfortable.

For this, you need to begin by identifying the users, the functionalities that they want; their objective for using the kind of system that you are developing, their technical expertise and experience and also understand the ways in which they would like to interact with their software or web applications.

The UI should be Easy to Understand and a Joy to Use

If the user not enjoying using your UI, it means you have failed to offer a great user experience. Let’s take the example of an iPhone app. What separates the successful apps from those that end up a failure? Is it the features and the functionalities? Do successful apps have brilliant programming that makes them enjoyable to use? The answer to these questions is a big No. What helps them stand out from their competitors is the degree of usability of their UI. Their interface is very easy to use and users don’t need to spend time understanding its nitty-gritties. It’s the UI that determines whether the app is a big hit with the user or not. This same brand of thinking can be applied for all systems, whether it’s a website, an application or software or something else. Using the most familiar navigation structure and design elements will work more than trying to make the UI as inventive as possible.

User are looking for constancy

A principle often ignored by developers is that of consistency. Your UI should be able to ensure that users are able to maintain their spatial orientation. Users are looking for a consistent look and feel, but it’s not just limited to the design. They are also looking for consistent response from the actions performed on the interface. Users are bound to feel disoriented if there is a marked change in the navigation links and the action buttons are not found where they usually are. By ensuring that all elements of the UI are consistent with the expectations of the users, you are ensuring that they don’t need to put in a lot of effort for understanding its use.

Consistency makes for simplicity and it is simplicity that wins appreciation from the users and nothing else.

Allow the UI and users to interact with one another

Allowing your users to offer feedback ensures the thumbs up for an UI. Everybody loves a UI that they can interact with and not just one way interaction, but a dialogue. As can be imagined, this is difficult and not many user interfaces are able to form a dialog with their users. But, you can use certain elements that can act as a catalyst for creating a dialogue process. One such element is ‘labeling’. Yes, something as simple as labeling the UI will ensure that it makes more sense to the user. Another great way of initiating a dialog with users is by integrating a feedback mechanism within the UI. Something as simple as a feedback form will do the trick and will work wonders for your UI.

As can be imagined, these four principles are not the only principles you have to keep in mind to ensure a UI that is not only reliable, but also offers optimum performance. But keeping them in mind will definitely set you on the right track.

Validation and Testing are an integral part of designing mobile website. This is what will ensure that the website is mobile compliant and will work on the smartphones and tablets available on the market. What’s more, it’s only testing the devices on the various usability parameters that can ensure that its bug free.

The Unforgiving Nature of Mobile Browsers

As compared to desktop browsers, mobile browsers can be quite unforgiving. You misplace a few HTML tags and you have a problem on your hands. More importantly, the fact that mobile browsers are not as powerful as desktop browsers means they can’t handle more code, and therefore the markup for mobile websites must be perfect. With their small footprint in memory and on disk, mobile browsers don’t have the robustness of their desktop counterparts.

So, testing and validation is important.

Initially, you can check the markup that you have been developing for your mobile website using normal desktop browser, by using the same set of tools that you validate traditional sites with, for e.g. W3C validation etc.  Once the validators confirm the accuracy of your markup, you need to take the website through a series of live testing.

Crucial Mistake

One of the cardinal sins of mobile website testing is thinking a web browser or a desktop computer will help perfectly simulate the mobile experience. No doubt you can always test the functionality of the site on a web browser or a desktop browser, but you won’t be able to test your mobile website in a comprehensive manner. You can’t expect to replicate the mobile environment completely on your desktop. There are plenty of other things that need to be considered when it comes to mobile platforms such as the packet sizes of the mobile operation, content mime types, functionalities of the specific devices amongst various others.

So let’s take a look at some of the ways that can help you exhaustively test your mobile website.

• Buy a variety of Phones

Agreed this will be expensive, but not if you just buy a handful of phones that are representative of the mobile brands that your target audience is using. . What this means is that you will need to identify the kind of smartphones that your target audience is using and buy some of them. This idea is usually good for you, if your mobile website is not a one off thing and you will be developing more mobile websites or applications in the future. There are 5 mobile OS that you will need to test your website for, namely iOS, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, Android and Symbian. So, purchasing smartphones that are specific to these mobile OS will be a good idea.

• Using Emulators

You don’t have to buy emulators as they are freely available online. What these emulators allow you to do is see images in context and also the general layout of your mobile website. The disadvantage of using emulators is that they are real devices, so you can expect a perfect environment for testing, but the advantage is that they are free, so you shouldn’t avoid testing on them. Think of testing on emulators as the first step towards getting a bug free, mobile website.

• Taking the Help of your Friends

It’s the easiest way of testing your mobile website. You can ask your friends to lend you their mobile devices for some time. Use them to test your website. You might have used your online emulators to test the website thoroughly, but there is no denying the benefits of testing the website on a mobile device. You might like this ‘way’ of testing rather than buying mobile phones, but asking your friends will limit your testing on those phones that your friends have. What if they are only using phones that use the Symbian and Android OS? You will still need to test your website for iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.

It’s advisable that you use a testing strategy that is a combination of all the three ways listed above, but at the end of the day, it’s your choice. But, whatever the option you choose, it’s important that you keep testing, till you are absolutely satisfied.

 It was inevitable and something that was just waiting to happen. Adobe has announced that it is moving away from Flash software and is embracing HTML 5 for mobile devices. Industry watchers say that this was a move that was predestined; HTML 5 has emerged as the universal standard for displaying rich media on the World Wide Web, and Adobe was going to realize this fact sooner rather than later.

This is great news for those smartphone and tablet users, especially those using iPhone and iPads who couldn’t view Flash coded media on their devices.

Steve Jobs Proven Right

Back in April, 2011, Steve Jobs didn’t have nice things to say about Flash and said that it wasn’t a great choice for viewing rich content on mobile phones because it was closed, proprietary software and did not offer support for touch based mobile devices. He also said that the time of HTML5 had come and its time developers started to use this language instead of Flash as it was an open standard and allowed media content to be directly embedded, without need for middleware. Many experts dismissed this as rant, but it seems Adobe was taking notice.

HTML 5 for Mobile Devices

Adobe has abandoned developing Flash for mobile devices, and has woken up to the realization that it’s HTML 5 that is way ahead and not Flash when it comes to mobile platforms. All major mobile devices support HTML 5, which means that it has emerged as the definitive choice for the creation and deployment of content across multiple mobile platforms.

Adobe’s shift speaks a lot for HTML 5 as a universal standard for putting rich media content on mobile devices conveniently and efficiently and in a manner that ensures the highest standards or reliability. As more and more users are starting to access the internet through mobile devices, it makes perfect sense for development companies to start developing HTML 5 tools. This is why Adobe’s, move towards using HTML5 development tools such as Adobe Air etc. to build HTML 5 websites and applications for mobile devices isn’t surprising.

Flash Isn’t Dead

Adobe will continue to develop Flash for PC. Its aim is to use Flash for offering PC users advanced gaming experiences and premium video solutions, which also includes 3D graphics.  But, when it comes to mobile devices it’s shifted its attention to HTML 5. It realizes, as many other companies have realized that HTML5 is the future of mobile development and its increasingly getting difficult to justify the use of Flash for developing and deploying mobile compatible content. That’s not just working any more.

So, when it comes to mobile development, its goodbye Flash and Hello HTML 5.