The Joy of UX

By Roberto Parlavecchio, Senior Designer

Making the business of app creation a pleasure

Our goal at Shareable Apps is to help businesses reach more people, more often. We believe in empowering you to make your own app and get your business on the home screens of iPhones, Androids, Blackberrys and Windows Phones. But an online app maker is only as good as its ease-of-use. If it’s too difficult to use then the goal of democratizing app creation will be unrealized.

We’re passionate about making the process of creating your app as simple as possible. We spend time agonising over every aspect of the user interface to make it as intuitive as possible for the 99% of us who don’t have a degree in computer programming! But creating a great app requires quite a few steps and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time, so the saying goes. This is the reasoning behind implementing an accordion interface into the app designer. Stepping through each section of the app making process, allows you to focus on each task, one at a time. It’s similar to a wizard, only our interface is non-linear, so you can edit sections in any order you prefer.

“Good design is unobtrusive”

This is one of Dieter Rams’ ten principles of good design[i], and inspiration for some refinements we have made to the user experience in our latest update. Rams suggests “Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.”

Based on feedback we received during usability testing, we found that the combination of editing content and choosing options all at once could be overwhelming. By separating options from editing, you can now focus on your content.

Access to options and help are just one click away in their own tabs. This gives priority to content editing – an action you’re likely to perform on an ongoing basis – while giving lower priority to actions that may be performed only once or twice (changing options and reading help text).

The new interface gets out of your way so you are free to update your content in an uncluttered environment. This is important because it means we can deliver on our promise of giving you control over your content, instead of having to pay app developers whenever you want to make an update. Read more about what app developers won’t tell you (and how Shareable Apps solve these problems!) in our CEO, Adam Friedman’s post, Debunking the App Myth.

These are just some of the improvements already implemented in Shareable Apps. If you’re a registered user, log in to your account to experience the updated interface. If you’re new to Shareable Apps, sign up for free and create your own app.

We use it ourselves – you can see more articles like this, stay up to date with news, user experience updates and new features coming soon directly from our own Shareable App http://shareableapps.com/demo

Any feedback or questions about how Shareable Apps can help your business?  Contact us to find out more at support@shareableapps.com

Reference

[i] Sfmoma.org, 2012 http://www.archdaily.com/198583/dieter-rams-10-principles-of-good-design