Pre-planning your mobile application design
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I was confused to select the title of this article. There were 4-5 random things in my mind and I was unable to decide how to arrange them in a proper order. Pre-planning is always essential before creating any application (particularly developing a mobile application. Please refer Article-1 where various issues are discussed).
Before starting application design one must ask himself, “Why?, At the end, what purpose will be served by the application? Who will be the end users of the application? As soon as the developer figures out the answers, he is able to choose the platform on which he starts his design and development. Most likely he will go for native Qt (Pronounced Cute and believe me it is really cute), SDK or for HTML/Javascript/CSS. Choosing a proper platform means you will succeed sooner or later. One can visit and compare application design platforms available at Nokia Developer website http://www.developer.nokia.com/Design/Design_process/Getting_started/Compare_device_platforms.xhtml and take an appropriate decision to choose the platform for his application.
The next thing comes is a group discussion. Let everyone in the group toss his thoughts and ideas even if they are funny or crazy. Discussion is like an iteration process. At every stage of application design, it is essential.
Documentation should be prepared, in parallel, while designing an application. Documentation plays an important role in any application design whether it is a desktop or Web or mobile application. Documentation is a process where your thoughts come into words. Your words make sentences and these sentences can help you to make the application design more precise. I have seen many programmers avoid documentation coz it is very tiring and time consuming process. Using the documentation always helps in the flow of application. The final draft of the documentation can serve as a better user/operational manual also. One should use various documentation techniques available nowadays like Flow chart, Data flow diagrams, Task flow diagrams etc. A well written documentation can increase the productivity, marketing, faith and confidence on designing an application. The developer will overcome each and every loop-hole in the design while documenting the application.
Any curious programmer can visit http://www.developer.nokia.com/Design/Design_process/ where the above method has been briefly demonstrated and explained. Although a programmer can directly download Nokia QT SDK and start designing his application, it’s always better to go through a development cycle for achieving long term results. Thanks.
