For What Platform Development

Before deciding to design for one or several platforms, you should consider everything that affect the development, from resources and complexity to the type of user that you want to target.

Currently operating systems with greater market penetration are Android and iOS, in that order. Including most of the cake spread, while the third is a bit more disputed, with active participation of Windows Phone to earn that spot.

Scope or exclusivity

Designing for a popular operating system like Android supposed to get a scope and a greater amount of potential users. However, different screen resolutions and operating system versions available make more complex the experience of designing for Android, and -in certain extent paying the price of being available to more people.
On the other hand, designing for iOS means focusing on a smaller more exclusive market and simultaneously. Apple does not have the same amount of users that Android phones nor circa- but still has the advantage of being more consistent in screen resolutions and operating system versions (easier upgrade). Therefore, these factors do not pose a major impediment to the design. See More At:- Android Application Development Company

Meanwhile, Windows Phone runs with a disadvantage against these two giants, but growth of the labor Nokia and HTC has given him some hard-recently Microsoft, the giant behind Windows Phone, has acquired Nokia-. While on the number of users, is now out of contention, is a futures market can grow.

So if you really want to design an application 'for everyone', is beyond dispute that should at least be available for

Android and iOS.

Personality users

Every operating system has users-geographical, demographic, and psychographic characteristics that differentiate conduct ales-. Although at first glance may seem unimportant, knowing the type of user gives some clues about who will use the application and, above all, what is expected of her.

In general, we can say that iOS users give greater value to the user experience, are interested in the details and have a higher than users of other platforms socioeconomic profile. For this reason, they are more accustomed to paying for applications. Someone using iOS is fond of consistency, to see everything in its place and prefers not find too many surprises. This is due in large part to Apple is a closed and restrictive when approving applications system design rules which ensure certain quality and regularity in their apps.

Android for its part, is an open operating system, open source for the contributions of users and companies often give a personal touch. This defines a more open to new ideas user applications that break paradigms and present alternatives to differentiate, which sometimes means running into a bit chaotic applications beyond Google's latest efforts to establish more clearly its guidelines general design. Likewise, being in a greater number of terminals with different price range, Android has a massive reach.

Finally, Windows Phone is an operating system that is attracting users who love simplicity that conveys it’s flat and devoid of frills interface. It is associated more with the practicality over aesthetics and therefore, seems to focus on users who prefer a good experience through simple navigation.

Working alone or in teams

Addressing a project is a way that can become quite long, depending on the complexity and scope of development that has the app. Produce an application requires at least two people: designer and developer.
The designer will be responsible for defining, among other things, the general structure of the screens and elements of interaction, interface design and preparation of files to send to the developer, who in turn, will ensure that the application ceases to be a set of screen images, programming functionality.

Between the two can define general aspects of operation, the project scope and expertise of use to be achieved with the application. In fact, working together can complement the knowledge of each other on the field. For example, a designer may pose a particular interface, but the developer must be aware of this design to indicate the complexity of development. Moreover, a developer must propose the functionality following the advice of usability designer. Thus, working in tandem, can be obtained high quality applications.

Small teams allow a form of flexible work: it is always easier and faster to agree with a person with two or three, but somehow limit the quality of the project and the complexity that can aspire.

The above is the basic minimum group, but if we talk about ideals or a Dream Team, the team can be much larger, including a project leader to deal with the overall coordination, specialists in information architecture and usability, designers visual, expert developers a platform, illustrators, and even editors and QA personnel -control of quality- to ensure the desired quality of the application.

The disadvantage of a larger team is that it implies a greater effort of coordination between the parties and a lot of management that is multiplied by each participant. No more is always better, so that when more people are included in the group, it is necessary to define in detail the role of each in the project, to be really helpful and not the opposite.

Excellent quality products, such as IA Writer of Information Architects, were developed by companies with relatively few employees. These same people sometimes do not even share office. Projects with digital formats can be performed by distributed in different parts of the world, with project management tools such as Basecamp, equipment and, of course, good communication.

Means

Before you begin, when deciding which platform to be developed, it is important to know what you need to have to reach the awaited day of publication of the app, especially preparing to go and calculate the necessary investment. And this applies both to people and knowledge as teams.

If a designer is carrying out the project and need to find a developer that complements the company, sometimes you do not know exactly who to look for and what profile should have this partner. Keep in mind that different platforms require different programming knowledge.

Android

Android applications are programmed in Java using Android's own libraries, so that at the level of programming, a developer with strong knowledge of standard Java should not have too many problems to start being part of the life of the world android. To program applications for this operating system is indistinct have a Mac or a PC, with Windows or Linux-. You can download the Android Studio software and all necessary materials to develop a web app from developer Android.

At the time of development, Android Studio allows simulators using different devices, or get a more realistic performance test terminal on the computer.

iOS

A programmer who wants to start doing magic developing for iPhone and iPad should have a basic object-oriented programming, which will then allow a more seamless transition to Objective-C, the programming language used in this criteria.

In terms of hardware and software to develop applications for iOS, a Mac is required for the Software Development Kit -SDK- which in this case is Xcode, the official Apple software development for iPhone and iPad, free download.

The code can be tested directly on the simulator-a representation of the phone that allows you to see how the code- behaves inside the computer, which is used for most cases but has some limitations and is not completely reliable, because often behave more faster than it actually does on the phone.

Windows Phone

A programmer who has been working in C # is a good start, as this is the programming language that, along with its own Windows Phone libraries, make a possible application.

Who is not a big fan of Windows will have no choice but to use, at least, Windows 7 on your computer to develop. The consolation is that can be installed on a PC and the virtual machine from a Mac. And speaking of software, you also need to have Microsoft Visual Studio. The free version is enough to develop apps, but clearly paying a full version has access to many more amenities.