What influence over Application Development would you like to have?

[gladch]

Hi everyone,

Longtime lurker, this is my first real post.

I am a developer working on some applications for the Android platform and I am looking into how users would most like to have influence over the development and updating of their applications.

So I have a question for you:

If you had the opportunity to sit down the with developer of your favorite or most-used applications, what kind of things would you most like to have influence over? (additional functionality, interface, organizational structure, etc.) What would you tell/ask the developer?

Thanks,
Gladch

 

[icculusX]

i personally wish all apps were similar in UI, like the looks of them (but maybe not, haha ok i dono) You know what i mean tho?

 

[gladch]

I certainly understand, but I'm looking more for influence on an application to application basis.

For example:

I would like to be able to influence my text messaging application so that it organizes my texts in a different way. Etc.

 

[gladch]

Any input would be great. I'm just doing a little research to help provide the best applications!

Thanks!

 

[aminaked]

What would you tell/ask the developer?

As a developer, my question would be: why don't you give me your ideas first?

 

[jsh1120]

What would you tell/ask the developer?

As a developer, my question would be: why don't you give me your ideas first?

You raise a good point. My background is in public opinion research. One of lessons in that field is that people are NOT good judges of how they would react to hypothetical situations. "How would you feel if..." elicits, unfortunately, very unreliable information. A far better approach is to present a concrete stimulus (e.g. a UI) and ask users to critique it, not to provide development guidance.

Add to that experience a lot of years developing software (especially user interfaces) and I'm generally of the opinion that good software reflects a developer's "vision." In other words, it has a "personality" behind it. Of course, bad software frequently has a "vision" behind it, too. But I've never seen a good application that reflected the result of a focus group.