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318 Part 4 • the essentials of Design

Figure 11.15 Name of Designer or
A page containing many different Icon Set Supplier Facebook LinkedIn RSS Feed Twitter YouTube
Web 2.0 features.
Social
Networks Artbees
Pro Icons
Circular
Social BlogPerfume.com
Media
Free Social
Media icon Elegant Themes
Set

Amazing 3D pinkmoustache.net
social icons
Vintage
Icons for Nikola Lazarevic
Bloggers

Eventually, one goal you will have for developing a strategy for addressing evolving user
standards and conventions is to use text analytics (TA) software to interpret the qualitative data cap-
tured in blogs, wikis, and through other social media. Indeed, this is an approach you can recommend
to your client organization as you close the feedback loop created by establishing Web 2.0
technologies for consumers and employees.

Designing Apps for Smartphones and Tablets

As smartphones and tablets become more powerful and ubiquitous in organizations, systems ana-
lysts will need to conceptualize their software as apps. In the early days of computing, software
was called “programs.” Apple preferred the term “application.” When software was designed for
the iPhone and iPod, software was simply called an “app.” The word app became mainstream
with the introduction of iPhones and iPads that can run these small programs. Apple sells these
apps on iTunes much the same way it sells music. You can download an app and install it on
your iPhone or iPad.
Creating an app for a mobile phone or larger device like the iPad involves brainstorming,
imagining, preliminary screen design, user interface decisions, and detailed screen design. Many
designers like to work in Adobe Illustrator, but others prefer Adobe Photoshop. But before one
even attempts to use one of these packages, using a large whiteboard with a marker can be the
very best way to begin designing an app. Later in this chapter we will examine apps that are used
to create mockups, the preferred name for smartphone and tablet prototypes.
It is interesting to recognize that an analyst who develops apps will be trying to fill or create
a user need in a unique way. The motivation for creating the app often arises from the developer,
and usually not from formal requirements analysis performed for an organization. However,
there are numerous approaches and tools you have learned for display and Web design that apply
to app development as well as larger systems projects.
In this section, we’ll talk about designing for the small screens of smartphones and tablets. It
is interesting to note, however, that Apple requires developers to send in a 512 × 512-pixel icon
for the App Store. When you think about the fact that requirements for the original Macintosh
computer only necessitated a 512 × 342-pixel display, you take output design for smartphones
and tablets seriously.
Throughout this section, we discuss concepts useful in any operating system, whether for
Apple, Android, or Microsoft. We use examples from Apple’s iPad, which is the dominant tablet,
and iPhone, the dominant smartphone, at the time of writing this section.
1. Set up a developer account.
2. Choose a development process.