Mobile applications are becoming an important part of the lifestyle of people globally.
Mobile apps have also simplified the way activities are carried. They can act as vehicles for economic development and help a country skip over development hurdles.
However, individual and national needs vary, especially according to geographical location, economic power, literacy and technological development. Therefore, mobile apps must be developed to match the needs of the prospective users.
To this end, Useful and Beautiful, a mobile product strategy and development company with clients in South Africa and Nigeria says it is focusing on the specific needs of African countries to develop mobile solutions to suit their target audiences.
[blockquote right=”pull-right” cite=”Lynette Hundermark, co-owner and founder of Useful and Beautiful“]“Data costs need to always be considered. After working on many successful solutions in South Africa, it was still not a matter of taking a South Africa user experience and launching that in the Nigerian market (because it was part of Africa), it had to be tailored specifically for the Nigerian market. Then, you have to soft launch with actual users, test, enhance and optimise this is an ongoing learning process. At the end of the day, it’s creating a solution for the people who will be actually using it – the masses.”[/blockquote]
Cross section of attendees at a Mobile West Africa event
A number of them includes M-KOPA, a “Pay-as-you-go” energy services for off-grid customers in Kenya and Uganda. Esoko, a communications platform in Ghana that allows farmers access to market prices and allows them to place buy or sell orders. Another mobile agriculture service providers include iCow in Kenya and mFisheries.
Others are Payment Pebble, a technology device developed to enable SMEs and large enterprises to make and receive payments via a smartphone or tablet and Weza Tele, a mobility solutions in commerce, supply chain and distribution and mobile payments integration.
Lynette Hundermark, co-owner and founder of Useful and Beautiful identified important factors app developers for the African continent must bring to the table to include screen of mobile phones and data cost.
Hundermark says that, “for most Africans, the mobile phone is their only means to a computing device and the Internet so it is vital to make efficient use such a small screen when creating mobile user experiences. Simplicity is key as the information presented has to be contextual and quick to get to.”
According to him, “data costs need to always be considered. After working on many successful solutions in South Africa, it was still not a matter of taking a South Africa user experience and launching that in the Nigerian market (because it was part of Africa), it had to be tailored specifically for the Nigerian market. Then, you have to soft launch with actual users, test, enhance and optimise this is an ongoing learning process. At the end of the day it’s creating a solution for the people who will be actually using it – the masses.”
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