Apps are becoming a huge part of our daily lives. We check the weather, track our weight loss, do business, and stay in contact with friends and family thanks to the millions of apps right at our fingertips. Applications are relatively new on the direct marketing scene and, undeniably, they’ve had tremendous success. There is money making potential, whether it be designing or marketing these applications.

In light of all of this, when reading over a few articles on Mashable this past week, “4 Essential Tips for Conquering the App Development Process” stood out to me. Here are their tips…and a few of our own at Break Media Group.

1. Communicate Clearly:

Sometimes communicating an idea specifically to a developer can be the most difficult part of the process for “managers and ‘idea people’ who are not well-versed in technical areas.” If you’re an “idea person” responsible for communicating it a developer, think it through and practice actually articulating it to a few people before taking it to the design and development team. This way, you can bounce ideas off of them, answer basic questions, and fine-tune the idea a little bit better. “The important piece of detail that they should be conveying, though, is what the idea is and what they want the developer to create in order to solve the business problem.” In other words, the app can be wildly creative, but it has to add value; it must solve a business problem.

2. Aim for Simplicity:

“When communicating an app idea and its desired features, project managers should start with the big picture first.” Again–what is this app going to accomplish? What problem is it solving? Tedious details such as fonts, color schemes, and layout, can be super time consuming and take the forefront of the project development. I think the article said it best: “Details without clear context will create unnecessary complexity… and unnecessary details also multiply complexity.” So, the lesson in all of this? Keep it as simple and clear cut as possible.

3. Consider Complexity:

This is the other side of “Aiming for Simplicity.” When putting an idea into action (creating the application itself), complexity is something you are going to have to grapple with. Discuss it! Talk about the unpredictable, the unknown, the things that could go wrong. Then, put it into perspective. “Process needs to solve the problem of complexity. More importantly, though, process needs to help us cope with complexity, because it exists in everything we do, whether it’s whittling a piece of wood or developing a large enterprise application.”

4. Know Your Constraints:

I used to think constraints were a bad thing. But when developing an application, they are your guidelines and they keep your project focused. “If an idea is changed after development has begun, the idea is unconstrained.’ Having an unconstrained idea makes development more difficult, taking up more time and money to finish the initial iteration. As a result, ‘An unconstrained idea necessitates an equally unconstrained timeline and budget.”

Other cool App ideas/sites: www.ifttt.com and www.bestapps.com

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