summary
The purpose of most systems used in business is to "utilize the accumulated data," not just to introduce the system and be OK.
And the app is the "gateway to the system. It goes without saying that an application is necessary to accumulate data, but data will not be accumulated without the use of that application.
Even if you are told, "Please start using this today," if it is not easy to use, it will be shunned, and it may not be used at all.
To prevent this from happening, it is very important to make sure that there are no omissions in the input fields, as well as to design the site in such a way that people will say it is easy to use.
The goal of the system developer is to create a "state" where the app is used = the system is utilized = data necessary for business operations is naturally accumulated, and the Unifinity app is the gateway to this state.
Please utilize the Unifinity Platform so that you can create not just a "screen with a list of items" but an "input device consisting of screens designed for easy use" by taking advantage of the merit of being able to create applications with no code.
Some of you may be stuck at the point where you say, "Even so, how do I go about creating a screen?"
Therefore, this article explains what an application is and what to ask the users of an application.
1. an application is essentially an input device
Attendance information, daily business reports, calendars... In a word, tools and applications used in the business scene are "input devices.
Adding "mobile" to it means "a device that can be used to input data anywhere.
The starting point for the problem of slow and inaccurate reporting from the field ➜ delay or inability to make improvements ➜ should be the idea that "I am going to solve this problem by creating an input device that can be used anywhere.
2. 3 questions and 4 screens required for the application
Now, let me explain what information is needed to create that mobile application = a device that can be input from any location. These are the three questions we ask prospective users or customers, which are also the title of this article.
- Who will enter?
- What do you want to enter?
- How do you save and store the information you have entered?
The answers obtained from these three questions will help you organize the information needed for your application.
In turn, we will explain the purpose of the questions.
2.1. who will enter?
What you enter is what you report. Of the information to be reported, check with the user to see if it is necessary to know who entered the information. For example, if it is an equipment or vehicle inspection that requires a license, "who reported it" information is important, and if it is a store sales report, the store's information may be needed instead of necessarily the individual's name.
Once it has been determined that the "who" information is needed, identify the information that identifies the entrant.
The following are possible examples of information that identifies the input person.
- employee ID
- organizational unit name
- Distributor Code
2.2. what do you want to enter?
When users are considering the introduction of a mobile application, they may have a given requirement such as "I want to streamline inspection work" or "I want to digitize daily sales reports. This question is a confirmation to flesh out the requirements and make them a requirement. If forms exist, ask them to tell you about the item.
If there are no forms, we will interview the items required as inspection work being performed or daily sales reports.
Examples of items include "date performed," "type of work performed," and "amount of sales.
As stated at the beginning of this article, a mobile application is "a device that can be used to input data from any location," so it is also important to check "where the data will be input" as well. It is possible to input data at a work site, while visiting a customer, or while traveling by train, but it is also possible to input data in places where there is no signal, such as underground or on a rooftop, so it is necessary to consider "saving the data once in the application" in such cases.
If you are operating paper-based forms, it would be helpful to check whether you would like to add information that is only available on mobile devices (smartphones), so that you can propose an application that will be of interest to users.
- Photo
- GPS (location information)
2.3. how do you store and archive my entries?
The last question asks how the entered information = data is saved and stored.
If the input data is stored in a system (server), ask for the destination, and if paper storage is required as a form, ask for the form format to be provided.
The Unifinity Platform can output data to a separate screen for forms, convert to PDF data, or convert input data to a CSV file and attach it to an e-mail, so make sure you have the best data storage method for your users.
If you get a request to store data on a server, it will be useful information for later system construction if you can also ask "how you want to analyze" or "how you want to utilize the data accumulated through the application specifications".
If you already have a data storage location, again, organizing how you are using the data will help you better understand your business and provide hints when creating screens for your application.
3. create a screen from the answers obtained from the questions
Create a screen based on the answers obtained from the questions.
No matter how complex the system of the application, the following four screens make up the "input device" part of the application.
- Login screen
- overview screen
- input screen
- Form output screen
If you make this much, you can propose to the user, "That's the kind of application I'm talking about. Below is an example of a screen created based on the responses obtained from the question.
3.1. login screen
The purpose of this screen is to allow the system to recognize and identify "who is going to enter the information. In this example, the screen is designed for entering "Employee ID" and "Password". If necessary, add the "Department ID," "Dealer Code," or any other information about your affiliation.
3.2. list screen
This is the screen that appears next to the successful login.
In addition to displaying a list of reports created in the application, this screen serves as the starting point for operations such as creating a new report (the "+" button on the screen is the "New Create" button).
If respondents indicated that they also enter information while on the move, it would be a good idea to allow them to tap on the report they have created to update or modify it.
3.3 Registration Screen
What would you like to enter? This is a screen for entering the content of the report, which is created based on the answers obtained from the question "What is the report? This will be the main screen of the application. For items that require input of "date" or "numerical values such as amounts of money," try to improve input efficiency by displaying a calendar UI or numeric keypad instead of text.
If possible, after creating the screen, we will again check with the other party to see if there are any excesses or deficiencies, and adjust for any excesses or deficiencies.
3.4. Report Output Screen
This screen is used to output the information entered in the "Registration Screen" as a report.
Apart from registering the data, if it is necessary to submit the data to the customer or keep it as a form, we will create it. For the layout, it is recommended to create the forms based on the current forms or use the Excel import function if Excel data exists.
4. for app developers
Recommendations for Agile Implementation
Understanding the user's business" through the questions explained in this article is an important perspective in creating an application. However, it is very difficult to gain a deep understanding of a professional's work with just a few questions, so after some creation, a process of user review is required to perfect the application. Therefore, an effective approach is to use the period of screen design (the basic design process), which is subject to periodic user review, as the "agile period.
The idea is to minimize rework by conducting iterations (interviews → mock-ups) to ensure user satisfaction, and then studying the back-end and management screens.
The "Unifinity Platform" is a tool that can easily create screens and is suited to this type of development process.