Traditional enterprise app design causing headaches with friction and misalignment between developers and designers
Traditional approaches to mobile app design and development in the enterprise are now linked to costly project delays and inefficiencies, according to a new study.
The survey reveals that a traditional approach to mobile application development for enterprises causes friction and misalignment between developers and designers, with 50% of respondents saying their projects fail to lock or get approved because of user interface issues.
With the explosion of mobile apps, business users are putting more pressure on developers and designers to deliver a large number of mobile applications with stunning and sleek user experiences. Kony, an enterprise mobility company, has unveiled results from a new sponsored enterprise mobility app designer and developer survey, which highlights key pain points in the enterprise mobile app development process.
The survey of more than 340 respondents from leading global brands reveals a clear gap in the mobile app design and development process specifically when it comes to user interface and user experience. This user interface gap and rework are the causes for many change requests, which lead to project delays and poor user adoption.
“Today’s IT departments are struggling to keep pace with the demands of their business to mobilize their enterprise,” said Dave Shirk, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Kony. “CIOs are faced with the challenge of rapidly delivering mobile applications for their businesses, and this survey sheds light on one of the biggest hurdles: business users, designers and developers don’t see eye to eye when it comes to user experience and interface design, which can cause costly delays and mobile app failures, leaving the business looking for a better answer.”
The study found that user interface is the main source of frustration, with developers saying the three main reasons for changes to the user interface are because the user interface designs never gets locked, the stakeholder identified issues in the user interface once they got to use the working application, and the user interface design failed to address one or more functional requirements.
Change requests also slow down development time; more than half of developers said that 25% to 75% of their projects receive change requests that impact the user interface. Moreover, nearly 40% of developers said it takes 25% to 50% of additional development effort to address change requests that impact the user interface. Approximately a third said it requires 50% to 100% more effort for development projects, and nearly 5% said change requests more than double the original development effort required.
Additionally, developers struggle with user interface and user experience. Designers cited communicating input back to developers on the mobile app prototype and successful collaboration with the developer during the development cycle as the most challenging aspects of working with their developer team to seamlessly create engaging mobile apps.
“To ensure mobile app success, businesses should take a holistic approach to mobile app development,” continued Shirk. “In the world of mobile, the software development lifecycle needs to begin with design. Mobile app design is often overlooked in the development process, but companies are finding that most mobile apps fail because of lack of user adoption caused by poor design and experience.
“Enterprises should design their app with a mobile perspective when it comes to look and feel of the app. Doing this in a collaborative way and leveraging cloud technology is far better than the classic design tools, which have zero functionality or relevance to support the rich and varied user experience requirements of mobile technology,” he concluded.
