You cannot create an application without knowing whom you are creating it for. You may have some basic understanding about possible user behavior, but without thorough analysis on user requirements and user behavior your application would be more like an educated guess. It’s the only way to create user-centered application and prepare marketing strategies.
The main aim of user analysis is to find out what exactly the user needs and analyze how the users would interact with the technology that you will present before them. There are no fixed guidelines on how to proceed with the analysis. However there are few questions that you should be able to clearly answer after the analysis.
These questions are:-
Who are the final end users of your application?
It is the most important question and also the simplest one to answer. Every application project starts with a basic understanding of the target audience that this application will cater to. The idea conceivers have a basic vision about whether they are making it for general populace, or for people who are engaged in a specialized set of business, or if they are creating an entirely custom application to provide solutions to an organization. The job of the strategists thus is to engage in interactions with the user and find out why exactly they need the application and what they want their application to do.
What is the targeted age group?
Age group always plays a factor in the final designing of the application. For example applications targeted at school going kids tend to contain easy to understand graphics and easy to use features. Applications made for adults tend to be efficient and full of features. Another interesting thing to note is the point that very young and very old users tend to accept radical innovations in user-interface more easily. For example a 60 year old who never got the opportunity to become habitual with windows operating system will find Ubuntu much easier to use than the youngster who was born and brought up with windows systems.
What the main Geography that you are hoping to popularize your application?
Finding the target geography is also important especially in determining the devices to target and the technology to use. For example a restaurant mobile application would be targeted at users who are living around that restaurant. Using this information you can analyze what type of devices are popular in the region (Smartphone, Tablets, pocket pc etc.) and thus which type of technology is more suited to get the job done (Android, iOS, Windows, Hybrid, HTML5 etc.)
What is the occupation group that your are targeting?
Again, occupation also plays a major role. For example if you are making a online transaction app for general populace you would fill it with lots of confirmation messages, but if you are making it for bank executives you would need to reduce these messages. They will only hinder in the process. Applications targeted at professionals tend to be efficient and in some case stuffed with features.
What are the devices that you need to target?
Finding the target devices tend to simplify the task of finding the right technology. In addition it also helps greatly in marketing and revenue generation campaigns. For example in mobile games industry, paid games are generally launched for iOS devices first before android as they tend to generate more initial revenues than android counterparts. Similarly general desktop applications are first made for Windows users than Linux or MAC because Windows has more penetration than the either in desktop segment.
What is the technology that you need for your application?
Technology plays a vital role. Once you have clear understanding of target devices, technology to use narrows down automatically. Also how the application would be used is also important. For example a website created for in-house use by an organization contains heavy usage of JAVA, XHTML, and JSP, whereas a website made for general public use employ more SEO friendly technologies like CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript.
Last minute advice
The whole process of finding answers to these questions involves lots of brain storming session, question-asking surveys, and information researches. As you may have noticed each question is somehow related to the other, therefore there is no fix checklist or procedure to finding the answers. It’s more of an organic exercise and answers will start appearing as you progress in your client and user interactions.
If interested in this article and want to consult our certified experts, feel free to make a call on toll free number +1-877-284-1028 or visit https://www.algoworks.com/.
Rachit Agarwal
