Tag: mobile

August 12, 2020

Why Your Brand Should Go Mobile

Advertising and marketing trends are constantly evolving, and to keep your brand in front of consumers, you’ll have to keep up with those trends. At this moment, all research is pointing to mobile. Many brands and companies have adopted this channel, and you should too. Here are a few reasons your brand or business should go mobile and some types of apps to consider.

Increase your Audience

This is one important reason to go mobile. Increasing your audience and consumer base can be challenging, but once you have momentum, a mobile app can grow your audience exponentially. A mobile app can fill a void in your business model allowing your company to scale and grow.

Data Collection

This could be one of the most powerful features of bringing your brand mobile. Your consumer base may choose to share more data with you via mobile if it fills a void or provides a much more personalized experience (read our blog about personalized mobile apps). Data is a powerful tool that you can use to increase sales, grow your consumer base, expand product lines, and much more. Data is one of the highest-priced commodities, so an investment in mobile is an investment that will most likely pay off very well in the long-run.

Now, if you understand the benefits of going mobile but are unsure how to deliver your brand via mobile, here are some types of apps your brand can use.

Entertainment Apps

Apps can be a variety of things, but some brands find that entertaining apps serve the best purpose for their brand or campaign. For example, Coca-Cola has numerous branded apps that entertain users and help solve some daily problems. The CocaCola® app lets users play games, watch videos, and earn rewards. This type of app offers a mix of entertainment and functionality, all while promoting the Coca-Cola brand.

Content Apps

A content app serves the purpose of providing users branded content right to their mobile device. Whether it is dinner recipes, fashion trends, or workouts, these apps deliver branded content to loyal consumers.

There are many benefits to bringing your brand mobile, as well as many different app types. If you’d like to learn more about the benefits and types of apps, visit our website at pioneerapplications.com or reach out to the Pioneer team.

pioneerapplications.com | #pioneerwithus

July 22, 2020

How Hotels Impacted by COVID-19 Can Re-Engage Their Travelers with a Mobile App

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and continues to impact businesses worldwide, it is hard to miss one of the most impacted industries, hospitality. Within the hospitality sector, hotels have lost a significant amount of revenue. As hotels begin to reopen, they are being met with low occupancy and wary travelers. How can hotels re-engage with their travelers, make them feel more comfortable and willing to stay, and combat low occupancy and lost revenue?

A poll shows that a smartphone is the most valued travel companion of 76% of travelers, while 70% of travelers book their hotel on a smartphone. In 2019, there were 204 billion mobile apps downloaded worldwide and 3.2 billion smartphone users. That equates to an average of roughly 63 mobile apps on each smartphone. This seems like a no-brainer, hotels, inns, bed & breakfasts, and motels should have a mobile app to keep up with the evolving hospitality world.

What can a mobile app do to help your hotel?

Reserve on Mobile

With a mobile app, your guests can book their rooms directly in the app. This is great for travelers who are on-the-go, stuck at the airport with limited access to a computer and prefer mobile.

Virtual Check-In

No longer will you force your visitors to stand in long check-in lines. With a mobile app, your guests can skip the lines, check-in, and access their room right through the app on their smartphone.

Showcase and Sell Add-Ons Before and During the Stay

Does your guest want a bottle of champagne waiting for them in their room when they arrive? No longer will your guest have to call and request this, they can order it in the app before their arrival. A mobile app gives you the ability to market and up-sell to your guests before and during their stay. Does a guest want in-room dining? No longer will your guests have to call and order; they can do it all right in the app.

Provide Updates and Information

The mobile app can help you communicate with your guests in an easy, efficient way that is personalized to each guest. You can opt to send notifications before the guest’s check-in to ensure they know how to access the property or ask for in-app feedback after the guest’s stay. The options are almost limitless on how and what you can communicate with your guests.

Customer Loyalty Program

You can now build optimal engagement with your guests by launching an in-app loyalty program. Guests can receive upgrades, accumulate points, manage their stay preferences, etc. A rewards program is a great way to boost sales and keep your customers engaged.

The options available to hotels with a mobile app are almost unlimited. The mobile app can boost sales via marketing and upselling, but it can also keep your guests engaged and provide a more efficient and pleasant experience for the guests. We at Pioneer believe that mobile apps for hotels will begin to take-off once travel becomes normality again.

pioneerapplications.com | #pioneerwithus

July 8, 2020

The (Justified?) War on TikTok

TikTok is a video-sharing social network service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based internet technology company founded in 2012.

The Beginning of the End

On June 30, 2020, users began noticing that the app no longer allowed them to access the platform in India. All users were greeted with a message that stated: “Dear users, we are in the process of complying with the Government of India’s directive to block 59 apps. Ensuring the privacy and security of all our users in India remains our utmost priority.” The banning of TikTok in India gave a significant blow to the company as India was the company’s largest market. Hong Kong has since followed suit this week with the company announcing it will no longer be available in the special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. Now the United States is on the verge of banning TikTok and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is citing security concerns for the ban.

Why Would the U.S. Ban TikTok?

The app has been repeatedly accused of being a threat to national security. U.S. Politicians are alleging that the company may “support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.” The company has pushed back stating that all U.S. user data is stored in the U.S. and there is a backup in Singapore, in May a spokesperson for the company said that these concerns are “unfounded.”

Will the U.S. Ban TikTok?

As tensions are rising between the U.S. and China, it appears that national security and politics play a role in the potential banning of TikTok in the U.S. Whether or not the U.S. will ban TikTok is still up in the air. We’ll have to continue to monitor the situation and see how the United States handles TikTok.

pioneerapplications.com | #pioneerwithus

June 8, 2020

The difference between a UX and a UI Designer

UX and UI designers are used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. To start, UI is user interface, and UX is user experience. Each one is incredibly different, and so are the tasks of a designer.

What does a UI designer do?

A UI designer is typically a more visual person. A UI designer creates the look and feel of the product through branding and graphic development, user guides and storylines, design research, and customer analysis. The UI designer is also responsible for the interactivity and responsiveness through UI prototyping, animation, and the adaptation for all screen sizes.

What does a UX designer do?

Unlike the UI designer, a UX designer is responsible for a variety of tasks. The UX designer is typically 33% marketer, 33% designer, and 33% project manager, and 1% anything else the project requires. A UX designer’s typical tasks vary from strategic to execution with content, wireframing, prototyping, and analytics in between.

As the differences are apparent between UX and UI designers, why do companies use the term interchangeably?

The answer to why they are used interchangeably isn’t too clear as these are relatively new fields. Still, most of the time, they are used together because the company is demonstrating that they have both designers or are versatile enough to be both.

Now that you know the difference between UX and UI, hopefully, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision when hiring a designer or even to look for a job as one.

If you’d like to learn more about UX and UI design, please visit our website at pioneerapplications.com.

pioneerapplications.com | #pioneerwithus

June 8, 2018

Florence: Development in the Mobile Gaming App Industry

Florence

Can you imagine a game on your phone that had no levels, no high scores, and no way to win? Is it even a game? Florence, an app that embodies this strange concept, actually won the title of Apple’s Game of the Year in 2014, breaking ground in the app industry.

If it’s not a competitive game, then what exactly is it?

Ken Wong, the designer and app developer, created the app as an interactive story-telling game for users. His gaming company partnered with a film studio in order to create the game in which you follow the life story of the main character, Florence. As you progress in the app, you see her go through relationships and hardships, delivering an entertaining game while invoking an emotional response in users.

It definitely changes the pace of the mobile gaming atmosphere, and will be a trend to watch in years to come with further gaming app development.

Check out “Florence” in the App Store today!

About Pioneer

Pioneer Mobile Applications is a one stop shop for bringing your app idea to life. It is our mission to provide personal, affordable, & reliable app development for individuals, organizations, and businesses by being with our customers from the idea stage to launch and everything in-between!

With several years of expert mobile app development experience, United States app design and development company, Pioneer Mobile Applications is committed to the success of our clients. Whether your business is at the idea stage, currently in development, or already has a million users, Pioneer Mobile Applications can help create an affordable, reliable, and beautiful experience for your users. As a United States app design and development company, Pioneer Applications prides itself on being a full service development agency. We don’t just make apps, we will take a simple idea and create an application personalized for your business. Our goal is to ensure that our clients are succeeding. We accomplish this by providing idea conceptualization, market validation, app design (user experience & user interface), iOS, Android, and web development, testing, and marketing! We are constantly keeping up with new technology as it comes along to be sure that your app is using the latest, most cutting edge tech. United States mobile app design and development agency, Pioneer Applications is a United States based organization that is a team player on every project both small and large.

We have over 5+ years experience working with all different types of clients such as BuzzFeed, UMass Amherst, All in One Music Applications and many more! Our strategic process provides quick turn around times which lets us keep development costs down, saving our clients money!!

Services

iOS & Android: We have multiple developers on hand to build your iOS and Android Applications. The code we create is always clean and easily understandable by other developers.

UI/UX: Design is a very important thing. Our User Interface and User Experience developers make sure that your app is beautiful and easy to navigate through. We’ll help you out with branding and ensuring your app is recognizable!

Project Management: When there are a bunch of different moving parts, things can get messy. Our project managers makes sure everyone is on the same page and getting their work done as efficiently as possible.

Sales & Marketing: We don’t stop once we’re finished developing the app; we want to make sure that your app gets users on it and help you get featured in the App Store. Our sales and marketing experts will help you get the word out and acquire users!

Our Process

Conceptualize, Validate, Brand, Develop, Test, Launch, Promote

June 2, 2018

Collections: App Development to Organize your Cluttered Camera Roll

Collections

Finally, an app developed to organize your thousands of screenshots and snapshots of important ideas and information you wanted to remember, but can no longer find in your photo albums.

App developers often have a hard time forming ideas for apps that are useful for consumers, but this idea combines organization and utilization to create a platform to help people keep track of their pictures on their mobile device- a very common problem faced by anyone with a cell phone.

Check it out on the app store: https://www.collectionsapp.co.uk

About Pioneer

Services

iOS & Android: We have multiple developers on hand to build your iOS and Android Applications. The code we create is always clean and easily understandable by other developers.

Our Process

Conceptualize, Validate, Brand, Develop, Test, Launch, Promote

May 21, 2018

Fujifilm App Development: Promoting Creativity

Fujifilm recently renovated their web platform and created a brand new app to keep inspiring photographers’ creativity.

Their new app includes articles keeping creators up-to-date with different events and photo shoots occurring, as well as giving tips and advice on photography and photo editing. They also plan to hold contests and sweepstakes to the photographic world a competitive edge and provide inspiration for users.

Download the on the App Store

August 4, 2017

Testing Localhost On Your Phone

Often times, developers find themselves in the situation that they want to test code on a remote device (ex. Their iPhone) from their local server(computer) rather than having to push it to a remote server each time there is a change.

For example, if you are creating a node.js application on your own personal computer and you wanted to see what it looks like on your cell phone. You would have to push the code to a remote server and load the ip address/ url on your phones browser.
Luckily ngrok helps solve this issue.

This tool securely exposes your localhost’s port to you network and creates a url that you can simply put in on a device on the same network.

Here’s how to use it.

Download ngrok
Run your application (ex. “npm start” for node.js) –> Note the port that your application is running on (ex: localhost:3000, 3000 is the port)
In terminal, just type “ngrok http <port>” where <port> is the port number that your application is running on
On your device, type in the forwarding ip address that is printed out.
All set! Test more efficiently!

October 12, 2016

How to Launch a New App

We talk about strategy all the time when it comes to developing an app, but it shouldn’t just stop there. With millions of apps in the App Store and Google Play Store, your app won’t magically become successful. This is why it is important to strategize how you are going to launch your new app. This blog post from ladder.io discusses an App Store Launch Plan that can help get you downloads fast, which is critical when it comes to mobile app marketing.

Overview of Phases:

Phase 1: Make sure everything works

Beta test your app
Build and test a final version
Seed early reviews

Phase 2: Get the word out!

Inform your insiders
Run ads
Make sure your App Store Optimization (ASO) is on point
Social, blog, and press

Phase 3: Keep the momentum

Re-engage your uses
Keep everyone updated when you update

Read it all here

October 3, 2016

Save Money! Design Your App

Having an app developed can sometimes be a little costly. This could become a burden when you have a tight budget. Luckily there are ways to help cut costs! One of these ways is to have a clear understanding of what you want entailed in your app. This includes creating a feature list, branding, and designing wireframes for your application.

Some of you may be great at design, some of you may hate it, but trust me when I say it saves time! You don’t have to be an all start designer to create wireframes and get your idea across. There are websites and apps that actually make this really easy too!

Color Schemes:

Coolors.co

Create, save and share perfect palettes in seconds!

Paletton

Logos:

Free Logo Design

99designs

Last, but not least do your homework. It is also crucial to find similar apps out there that have features that you want to include. This will help save time and help ensure that your app stands out!

Increase your Audience

Data Collection

Entertainment Apps

Content Apps

Reserve on Mobile

Virtual Check-In

Showcase and Sell Add-Ons Before and During the Stay

Provide Updates and Information

Customer Loyalty Program

The Beginning of the End

Why Would the U.S. Ban TikTok?

Will the U.S. Ban TikTok?

What does a UI designer do?

What does a UX designer do?

As the differences are apparent between UX and UI designers, why do companies use the term interchangeably?

Florence

Collections

Overview of Phases:

Phase 1: Make sure everything works

Phase 2: Get the word out!

Phase 3: Keep the momentum

Prototyping

Color Schemes:

Logos: