If you have just started off with developing games for computer or mobile, we completely understand your unbridled enthusiasm and passion behind your latest career move. However wouldn’t it be good benefit from nifty bits of suggestion based on our own experience? These points will help you avoid repeating a mistake that has happened in the past and take advantage of the hard learning’s of others. So here we go –

1. Avoid exploring complex ideas first – Games genres such as First Person Shooter (FPS) are hard to develop and it ultimately saps up the energy and time out of you by the time you are done. Are you ready to invest such a long development time without worrying about its time to market?  Can your first project compete effectively against popular games like Call of Duty? Isn’t it better to start small, gain valuable experience and then move on to bigger things?

GoodWorkLabs tip of the day – Irrespective of the size of your project, make sure that you break your project into manageable tasks, get it executed, get it tested and step back to enjoy the results

2. Don’t ignore prototypes – Prototypes helps you determine whether an element, sound or character you are adding is necessary or redundant. It helps you cut down on wastages and help you check if your game, in its simplest form, is engaging. This will present you enough reasons to put in dedicated development time and efforts.

GoodWorkLabs tip of the day – If time is on your side, go ahead with creating 3-4 prototypes. This helps in mitigating risks by knowing that at least one of the designs will click.

3. Note it down – Make full use of the Game Design Document (GDD). It will help you keep your thoughts organized and going in a single direction. Be it characters, user interface, soundtrack or gameplay, keep all of it in tight control by noting it down.

GoodWorkLabs tip of the day – Many times random thoughts might come up which may or may not be used in the current project. Keep a section “Miscellaneous’ for such random/extra stuff.

4. Don’t test on friends – Reach out to complete strangers (who are gamers) for their unbiased advice that can improve your game. Break away from the comfort zone of test play with your friends.

GoodWorkLabs tip of the day – Did you know that you can take the latest build of your game to show off to general audience in trade shows, game festivals or events?

5. Don’t ignore marketing till the very end – If you do something well, learn how to sell it well too. Focusing only on technical aspects without getting the test play to a larger unbiased audience will lead to coverage problem upon release.

GoodWorkLabs tip of the day – In addition to marketing to publishers or app stores, make sure you also connect with the end user and incorporate their feedback for better success.

Here’s wishing you all the very best for your indie game development endeavor. Write in to us and share your feedback on how effective was this post in your first games development effort.

As a business owner looking to expand your online presence, you might have typically experienced the whole-hearted dedication with which web designers and developers focus on getting the website design aspect right. But are you confident that the site has been well coded and that any coding issue doesn’t impact the SEO or user accessibility chances of your website?

Why is it critical to get the programming right?

As a web surfer yourself, you might have come across a number of poorly rendered websites that look good but suffer from one coding problem or another. Since you will not be able to see the poor coding, but just its harmful impact, you will simply close the site and move on. This is precisely what happens to badly programmed websites; the business owners lose prospective clients, are ignored by Google algorithms and can also land you in legal trouble.

When it comes to industry standards in W3C compliance, programming and markups, you do not have to be a developer to sense a potential issue. The below 3 reasons will be good indicators to alert you of a problem with coding of the website that you can then bring up with the web developer and get it corrected.

1. SEO – This is a key reason why your website needs to be well coded. Try comparing two websites – one with good markup and one with poorer markup. Google will readily rank the website with good markups better than the other one. Elements like character encoding, RSS validity or valid metadata denote a W3C compliant website that will in turn be favored by Google.

GWL tip#1 – Try using a validator program such as one on http://validator.w3.org/ that checks the markup validity of HTML or XHTML pages

2. User accessibility – Imagine closing out your website to a certain section of people because of accessibility issues. You are not only excluding possible revenue generating audience but also face a probable legal infringement lawsuit. Having a well coded site means that it will work on older browsers or older machines. It also means that people with disabilities can still access the website with ease.

GWL tip#2 – Try out the W3C knowledge resource http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web/principles to see how you can implement this particular factor within your website

3. Usability of backend – With so much content generation and social media sharing these days, it is no surprise that a good content management system helps maintain the freshness of the site with periodic content updates.  Having a CMS integration also helps engage better with customers and in sales conversion.

GWL tip#3 – In case your company has in-house team of developers, let their creativity flow out with a little help from http://modx.com/

You can even go one step further and proactively ask your developers if these responsibilities are being performed by them. This way you do not have to wait for the problem to crop up and then get it rectified. As they say – prevention is better than cure!

Businesses looking to set up an online shopping portal are often put off by the intimidation of escalating costs at the development stage. While e-commerce portal brings in remarkable results thanks to shifting customer preference and the deep penetration of mobile, the prospect of high development costs is a key reason why most e-commerce sites do not get past the ideating stage. By investing in the best WordPress hosting, e-commerce businesses can optimize performance, reduce unexpected expenses, and improve operational efficiency—all of which contribute to cutting overall development costs.

If you want to know which are the pain points as regards costs during e-commerce development and ways to circumvent them, then read on…

1. Hosting – One of the critical elements of e-commerce portal is the space needed to store descriptions, databases, high res images, payment gateway integration, individual integrations and security programming. Many companies face disconnect between the products they have listed on the site versus how much space is required to store them. Most e-commerce stores start small, with a handful of product categories and few seller networks. This calls for smaller hosting space. However, hosting space should not remain constricted but rather be flexible as per the growth of the store. Such smart managing of hosting space will help save a ton on overall development costs.

2. Strategic Planning before actual development – Both client and developers have been guilty of not putting in enough time and efforts at the planning stage simply to save some time. However the benefit of investing dedicated time into meticulous planning far outweighs the negatives.

As a good developer you would start off with a brief questionnaire to know more about the client and its target audience. Some of the key questions to be answered at the planning stage would include –

1.   Knowing about the customer (e.g.- whether B2B or B2C)?

2.   Knowing about the best way to attract them to the portal

3.   Pointers on heightened customer experience during online shopping

4.   Key add-ons/third party/individual integration to the site

5.   Handling scalability and growth in future

6.   Handling scope creeps or revisions to schedules and estimates

Answers to these will help to decide on an appropriate choice of platform and back-end before you commence with the actual coding. If this starting point seems overwhelming to you, it will be good to hire the e-services of a good consulting firm. The investment and time will definitely help in a streamlined e-commerce portal development process.

3. Choose the right platform- Each shopping platform has its pros and cons. You need to be aware of what suits your project needs best and then decide on an appropriate platform in order to keep development costs low. For instance, Magneto is a good choice if you need thousands of products to be put up on the shopping portal. However it tends to be very heavy. On the other hand, Shopify provides a hosted platform that guarantees 99% up-time, complete data security and competent tech support.

While Shopify may take a bit more time to customize the storefront, OpenCart provides a lot of flexibility in modifying the look and feel of your digital store. Also when we consider the compatibility and pricing of plug-ins, the open source OpenCart platform offers plug-ins that is around 30-40% cheaper than official Woocommerce plugins. On the flip side however, people have had problems with OpenCart tech support.

Considering above factors will certainly help you keep both costs and time of development in check.

A successful app development for iOS entails close collaboration between iOS developers and graphic designers. Any disconnect between the two delays the app development process, leading to an infuriated client. In order to ensure seamless workflow between developers and designers, we have listed below a few practical and easy to follow tips for designers that save time, reduce iterations, and speed up the iOS app development process significantly-

1. Honesty at the mock up stage – At the initial stage, use only those deigns in the mock up that delivers value to the full developed app. At the mock-up stage there are a lot of unknown variables that need to be accounted for

a. will the app being developed be the right fit for your designs?
b. will your design respect the dynamism or uncertainty of real life and adjust well to actual elements, layout, data, or content?

This tip will make certain that developers’ screen mock-up truly depicts how the app will look like at the stage- i.e. when not all information is at hand.

2. Close collaboration – Constant and open communication is a must between developers and designers. As a designer, you can sit with developers and see how your designs get programmed into living entities within the app. This helps maintain overall consistency of the color and theme of the app and prevents any disconnect with what the designer delivers versus what the developer expects.

3. Avoid redundancy – If possible and applicable, you can deliver a similar set of elements as a template that can be customized further by developer and then applied appropriately. For instance, if you are designing a button element, there need not be separate buttons for ‘ok’, ‘cancel’, ‘submit’, ‘search’ etc. Developers can easily add the label upon blank buttons wherever required.

4. Design prototypes – There are tools that help designers convey a dummy depiction of how different elements will be arranged and brought together. Developers will get a sense of the different action, navigation and animation put together by you and thus remove any confusion. You can try out tools such as Invision and Proto.io to create such productive design prototypes.

5. File delivery – Developers already have a lot going on to accomplish app development. Some useful piece of advice for designers to help reduce overheads on developers would be-

a. Sorted delivery – You can make folders per screen of the app and dump all images in it. You can also put in a screenshot of entire screen with placement of various elements to avoid confusion.

b.Consistency – You would need to ensure that all elements are consistent. For instance all images should be .PNG (and not a mix of .JPG and .PNG)

c. iOS oriented – Images need to be both high res (for retina display of recent iOS devices) and low res (for older iOS devices). Also follow the universal naming convention (for e.g. suffix high res images with “@2x”).

These steps will ensure that the deliverable can be easily used by developers further in the app development process. Got any other useful point to add to the above list? Write in to us and let us know.

In today’s frantic technology driven world, mobile app have created a strong niche in a short span of time. When 25% of international media and marketing executives view mobile as the most disruptive force in their industry ¹, it is time to sit up and take notice Having a small business app developed for its service/product offerings could help give emerging and nascent businesses a solid platform to chart the growth map by capturing the formidable mobile audience.

The need for such apps is further corroborated by the fact that by end of 2014, mobile usage is predicted to overtake desktop usage ². Having said that it is essential to know what features can help in sustained interaction and engagement that will in turn help close sales and earn business through the mobile. Today let us have a glimpse at some of the must-have features which could tip the scales in your favor:

1. Seamless Social Media Integration:

Before everything else, this clearly is the need of the hour! We are living in a world of social media boom. You simply cannot undermine the importance of this aspect. Having mobile apps and social media business pages separately proves cumbersome for smooth management and increases abandonment rate. Hence, business apps need to be seamlessly combined with the respective social media profiles.

2. Location Based Services:

You can employ this strategy to give your company increased chances of business from mobile users in the vicinity. You can showcase your outreach with the help of location check-ins. Moreover, you can optimize customer satisfaction by giving them area specific offers, discounts, and special prices.

3. Customizability:

In a world of mobile revolution, people have gained heightened app sensitivity. That’s right! Users want their apps to represent their preferences, tastes, hobbies and likes. They need the power of customization. Changes like appearance modifications, notification settings, saving personal information and managing order history need to be incorporated within the app for best results.

4. Simplicity:

Apps with simple yet enticing interface and navigability will promote ease of understanding, improved readability, and seamless internal mobility. Too many advertisements and offers can act as deal breakers. ‘Minimalistic’ is the new buzzwords adopted by leading players such as Apple to great effect.

5. Payment Processing Methods:

Make sure that your customers have access to single button payment features [Credit cards, bank transfers, online banking, etc.] so you never get to miss ever a single business sale due to cart abandonment or long-winding checkout process.

6. Timely yet Relevant Communication:

Push emails and push messages optimize customer communication by a significant margin. Users will appreciate getting to know about new offers, deals, discounts or early bird rewards that will sweeten their online purchase.

7. Monetary Management:

Take care to have a robust and secure gateway and backend to –

• Integrate Bank Accounts
• Monitor payments and sales
• Manage payroll and orders anytime, anywhere
• Track Invoices

8. Shipping and Delivery Management:

Allow your precious customers to get real time updates regarding the whereabouts of their package information once the payment has been done. Keeping them informed about the status of delivery till the time it reaches them instill a sense of confidence in customers’ minds – a factor that possesses a great recall value.

9. Comprehensive Feedback System:

Give your users the power to communicate with you directly or indirectly via comments, periodical surveys, FAQs, discussion forums and forms. Getting a chance to review and post feedback provides further impetus to customers to try out your business app again as they know that their comments are being acted upon.

1 – As appearing in http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/mobile-applications/8-statistics-every-business-should-know-about-mobile-0363048

2- http://www.convinceandconvert.com/mobile/7-mobile-marketing-stats-that-will-blow-your-mind/

Rapid prototyping is nothing but submission of mock-up design (wireframes) about how a system should look and function upon full-fledged release. The system can be anything – a software, an app or a website. With rapid prototyping, stakeholders get a glimpse of what the fully ready design will look like and how it will behave. This will then undergo validation from leadership executive, developers, designers and other associated stakeholders.

The core purpose of this activity is to ensure that all perspectives are clearly factored in when doing actual development and thus save costs, time and effort in multiple iterations afterwards. When prototyping, you need to focus on the key/common functionality that will be used the most. Anything that is new, complex or routinely used functionality but needs security will definitely go through prototyping.

The process

The three key stages of rapid prototyping process include –

1. Prototype – is the development of sketches or simulations that mock-up the actual solution
2. Assess – this is then shared with key stakeholders for their review and feedback
3. Revise – all feedback is incorporated into the prototype and made ready for further fine tuning

As more feedback keep getting added the prototype grows in scope and assumes a full-fledged pre-development design. The term ‘Rapid’ refers to the quick time in which the mock-up goes through a series of iterations to evolve into something concrete.

Fidelity in prototyping

Fidelity refers to the amount of effort/time involved to make prototype nearer to the actual product. So, low fidelity (wireframes) will be a rough pencil sketch far removed from the actual working system (more practical in the initial iterations), while high fidelity is as realistic to actual system as it gets – by use of high end simulator tools (this will be practical when all feedback has been collected and incorporated into the prototype).

Depending on the stage at which the development happens or the end objective of the prototype, fidelity can also encompass one or more of the below dimensions of fidelity –

1.Visual fidelity – This tackles the look and feel aspect of prototyping. It can range from rough pencil sketches of the mock-up to hi-fi stylized versions. More focus should be on the UI aspect here.

Juicy Tip – Don’t go high end in the first stage itself as the mock up is bound to take shape and evolve further post gathering feedback from stakeholders. As the process progresses, you can bring in individual elements such as color, graphics, high-res images etc.

 2. Content fidelity – This tackles the way content placement will affect the overall look of the application or website.

Juicy Tip – Start off by placing dummy text (“Lorem ipsum…”) into the rough sketches just to fill up the blank space on layout. As the design keeps getting better you can replace this with actual content to gauge its impact.

 3. Behavioral fidelity – This dimension shows whether the prototype will be static or dynamic / interactive when presented to stakeholders.

Juicy Tip – Initially, keep interactivity to the minimum as focus should be on layout and visual appeal. Later on you can add elements of interactivity to make the behaviors as similar to actual system as possible. This way the subsequent iterations can be utilized for usability testing and user experience.

GoodWorkLabs specialises in User Experience (UX) for software products, mobile apps, games and enterprise products. Request for a free quote for your UX, prototyping and design needs.