Your Journey With InspiringApps: Designing & Building User-Inspired Digital Products

2 months ago
Your Journey With InspiringApps: Designing & Building User-Inspired Digital Products Image

Your vision is just the beginning. At InspiringApps, we transform ambitious ideas into user-loved digital products. Our secret? A potent blend of technical expertise, creative innovation, and genuine collaboration. As one client put it, our team is ”unique in their ability to think outside the box…they invest themselves and improve your outcomes.” From nimble startups to Fortune 500 giants, we’ve consistently delivered solutions that exceed expectations and drive business success.

Ready to turn your digital dreams into reality? Let’s explore how InspiringApps can be the catalyst for your next breakthrough.

Strategic Product Planning: Laying the Foundation for Success

We begin with a comprehensive planning phase beyond defining functionality. By understanding your audience, the competitive landscape, and your business objectives, we create a product that resonates with users from day one. This strategic planning phase is more than features—it’s about building a product strategy that aligns capabilities with market demands, ensuring a successful launch.

We often recommend starting small with a minimum viable product (MVP) to achieve this. This approach allows you to test early versions with users and refine features based on feedback, maximizing the product’s relevance to your target audience. The feedback and analytics from real users help refine features, adjust priorities, and ensure ongoing relevance in the marketplace.

Our product management services help position your product for success even before development starts. From audience analysis and messaging strategies to crafting a compelling brand narrative, we ensure your product makes an impact right from the outset. Engaging in early pre-marketing activities, such as market positioning and competitive analysis, enables us to deliver a product that works and truly resonates with users.

”We interviewed a number of companies and selected InspiringApps because they stood out as clear experts in the field. They are very collaborative and tailored their approach to meet the needs and complexities of our project.”
—SCOTT POTTER, CTO AT PHOTOBUCKET

Our Process: From Concept to Reality

Digital product development isn’t a linear process. Our 100% onshore, employee-based, embedded teams adapt to your needs so we can seamlessly integrate with your existing processes. Here’s how we approach each aspect:

  • Planning: We define the core functionality, integrate product strategy, and set milestones to ensure the digital product aligns with your goals and user needs.
  • Prototyping: Before full-scale development, prototypes enable stakeholders to test the digital product’s interface and functionality. This early user interaction is key to informing further development.
  • Agile Development: We work in manageable chunks, regularly demoing progress to clients for feedback. Our agile approach enables us to quickly catch potential issues and adapt quickly, ensuring the final product aligns with your vision.
  • Market & Deploy: Our market deployment strategies are developed early in planning, ensuring a smooth go-live experience. Whether integrating with your existing systems or handling platform compatibility across iOS, Android, and the web, we ensure your product reaches users efficiently and effectively.
  • Maintain & Refine: Long after the initial launch, we continue to support your product’s evolution. Our process is designed to be cyclical, allowing for continuous improvements based on real-world performance and future-forward trends.

According to the Head of IT at Molson Coors, InspiringApps became an important partner that helped them create multiple enterprise apps. “They continue to work alongside us to make enhancements to them as our needs evolve. We highly recommend them.”

Ongoing Support: Evolving Your Product

While we offer a ”finish line guarantee,” our commitment to delivering high-quality digital products goes beyond that. Instead of focusing on the ”end,” we center on continuous evolution, ensuring your product stays relevant and successful over time. We offer:

  • Prototypes and functional MVPs designed to gather early feedback
  • Agile iteration plans with regular demos
  • Post-launch support, including maintenance and new feature development

”Thank you for all your help to make inHere a reality. We could not have selected a better partner. Your team is core to executing our vision.”
—BRIAN MAUGHAN, FIDELITY NATIONAL FINANCIAL

Insights from Experience: Best Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid

From working with Fortune 100 enterprises to scrappy startups, we’ve seen it all. One common pitfall we help clients avoid is the tendency to overbuild features before gaining user feedback. As Stacy Griffin, our Director of Operations, explains:

”As tempting as it is to build every feature right away, starting small with an MVP allows us to focus on solving your users’ core problems. Early feedback ensures that the product evolves efficiently as your users interact with it.”

We also emphasize platform compatibility. Complexity and costs can rise for clients with intricate back-end integrations or those developing for multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Web). Our experience with large enterprises means we’re well-equipped to handle these challenges while also advising when a more streamlined approach might work better.

Our client monkii explained that we went consistently “above and beyond” and “refused to settle for anything less than the best product. They truly care about their client’s success and insist upon quality, from how the app looks to the code behind it.”

Your Questions Answered

Whether you’re an established enterprise or an innovative startup, you likely have questions about our development process. Here are answers to some of the most common queries we receive:

Can you provide examples of digital products you’ve developed?

We’re proud of our diverse portfolio. While we often use the term ”app development,” we’re really talking about creating comprehensive digital products. These include mobile apps, web applications, and other software solutions that solve specific user problems. View our development work and its impact.

What is your development process?

We follow an agile, iterative approach to product strategy. This allows for flexibility, regular client feedback, and adapting to changing requirements.

  • Product management involves overseeing the product’s development from conception to launch and beyond, ensuring it meets business objectives and user needs.
  • Product design encompasses both user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, focusing on creating intuitive, engaging, and visually appealing digital experiences.
  • Product strategy is the guiding plan for the development and evolution of your digital product, aligning it with your business goals and user needs.

We’re not just aiming for a ”finish line”—our goal is to create a long-term, evolving digital product that continues to provide value to your users and your business.

How do you handle project timelines and budgets?

We work with our clients to establish realistic timelines and budgets. Our agile approach allows us to deliver value incrementally and adjust priorities as needed. We’re transparent about our progress and proactively communicate any impacts on the timeline or budget.

What kind of post-launch support do you offer?

Our relationship doesn’t end at launch. We offer ongoing product management and work with you to ensure your digital product performs optimally and evolves with your needs and user feedback.

How do you approach scalability and future-proofing?

We design with scalability in mind from the start. Our architectures are built to grow with your user base and accommodate future features. We stay current with emerging technologies and can advise on how to future-proof your digital product.

What is your approach to design?

We prioritize user-centered design. Our process includes user research, persona development, and iterative design. We create intuitive, engaging interfaces that align with your brand and meet user needs.

How do you handle data security and privacy?

Security is paramount in all our projects. We implement industry-standard security measures and can work with you to meet your digital product’s specific compliance requirements.

Do you have experience with MVPs and rapid prototyping?

Yes, we’re well-versed in developing minimum viable products (MVPs) and using rapid prototyping techniques. This approach enables quick market entry and iterative improvement based on real user feedback.

Can you assist with strategy beyond just development?

Absolutely. Our expertise extends beyond coding to include product strategy and design. We offer strategic consulting on various aspects of your digital product, including user research, market analysis, and product positioning. 

How do you integrate AI and other emerging technologies into digital product development?

We help our clients adapt to the changes that technology inevitably brings. By partnering with InspiringApps, you’re working with a team that understands how to implement AI responsibly and effectively to drive real business value.

Who will own the app?

You will own the finished product, but our commitment doesn’t end there. We offer ongoing post-launch support to help you refine and enhance your product over time.

Let’s build something together

Have an idea? We help clients bring ideas to life through custom apps for phones, tablets, wearables, and other smart devices.
Recent Posts

Digital Product Design

inHere App Honored for Innovation & Security by Fast Company

Boulder, CO—inHere has been listed in Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards, one of the most sought-after awards in the design industry, as an honorable mention in the Security category. Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards honor the designers and businesses solving today’s most crucial problems and anticipating tomorrow’s most pressing issues. This year’s honorees include projects, products, and services from Fidelity National Financial and InspiringApps, as well as Adobe, PepsiCo, Canva, and others.  Now in its 12th year, the competition features a range of blue-chip companies, emerging startups, and hungry young talents. It is one of the most sought-after design awards in the industry. Let’s Meet inHere Fidelity National Financial (FNF) partnered with InspiringApps to design inHere, a transformative app that redefines how consumers, real estate professionals, and title companies connect to complete real estate transactions. In response to the increasing threat of homebuyer hacking, which has become a multibillion-dollar fraud problem, inHere is more secure, seamless, transparent, and effective. inHere provides realtors, escrow officers, and consumers with a closed and secure ecosystem that ensures all communication related to a real estate transaction flows within one app. Innovation by Partnership Brian Maughan, Chief Innovation Officer at FNF, praised our partnership in this effort. “Thank you for all your help to make inHere a reality,” he said regarding InspiringApps. “We could not have selected a better partner. Your team is core to executing our vision.”  The partnership builds on InspiringApps’ real estate and national financial services expertise. Brad Weber, CEO of InspiringApps, added, “The inHere vision matched InspiringApps’ ability to deliver a unique, streamlined experience—a secure and transformative financial app that delights users.” Innovation by Design “So much innovation news these days is focused on AI,” said Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “This year’s Innovation by Design honorees are a reminder that it’s human ingenuity that drives invention.” The judges include renowned designers from various disciplines, business leaders from some of the most innovative companies in the world, and Fast Company’s own writers and editors. Entries are judged on the key ingredients of innovation: functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact, and business impact. Winners, finalists, and honorable mentions are featured online, and winners and finalists have been featured in the issue of Fast Company magazine on newsstands on August 29, 2023. Sought-After Credentials To see the complete list, go to https://www.fastcompany.com/innovation-by-design/list. To see the full list of honorees of Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards in the Security category, visit https://www.fastcompany.com/90934010/security-innovation-by-design-2023. To read more about our project, see https://www.inspiringapps.com/Development/7/inhere. About Fast Company Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication Inc., and can be found online at fastcompany.com. About Fidelity National Financial Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE: FNF) is a leading provider of title insurance and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries. FNF is the nation’s largest title insurance company through its title insurance underwriters—Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Commonwealth Land Title, Alamo Title, and National Title of New York— that collectively issue more title insurance policies than any other title company in the United States. More information about FNF can be found at fnf.com. About InspiringApps App development that makes an impact. InspiringApps builds digital products that help companies impact their employees, customers, and communities. Yes, we build web, mobile, and custom apps, but what we offer is something above and beyond that. What we offer is inspiration. Our award-winning work has included 200+ apps since the dawn of the iPhone. Our core values: integrity, respect, commitment, inclusivity, and empathy. Our guarantee: finish line, every time, for every project. Get in touch at hello@InspiringApps.com.

1 year ago

Business & Strategy

Enterprise App Development Services: Optimizing Efficiency & ROI

Running a large business smoothly and profitably requires a lot of effort. Mobile and web applications have the potential to make it easier and more cost-efficient to conduct business operations. However, enterprise app development is complex. Building an enterprise app can be daunting, even for companies with in-house development teams. Often, enterprises need an external specialist to concentrate exclusively on designing and developing the app. You need a partner with the reputation and experience you can trust to deliver a solution that fits perfectly with your business needs while saving you time and increasing ROI. InspiringApps is an expert in designing and building solutions for enterprise clients that improve operational efficiency, inform important business decisions, and create a lasting impression with their customers. Every enterprise is different, and our approach to enterprise app development services reflects that. We work as an extension of your team to understand your business, iterate through agile development, meet rigorous quality standards, and deliver a custom digital solution. Choose one or more of the following services for your business. Custom App Development Services Clean code and fast, efficient programming are only the beginning of what our app development team adds to your project. The InspiringApps team includes experts in custom iOS, Android, and web development, applying the latest technology trends to deliver custom software development solutions that delight and engage millions of users. Mobile App Development for Enterprises Mobile apps have been a part of our digital world since Nokia built the “Snake” arcade game into their first phones in 1997. Since then, mobile applications have reached every aspect of our lives: cooking, traveling, gaming, learning, reading, networking, and everything else.  There are many reasons to build a mobile app. A mobile app can enrich and improve your customer experience and connect your clients to your brand—all while they’re on the go. Discover our mobile solutions in iOS and Android app development: Our pure native solutions offer superior design, performance, security, and compliance, using Java for Android app development and Swift for iOS app development. Our hybrid app solutions apply frontend code (Javascript and CSS) traditionally used in web apps but packaged for the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.  Our cross-platform app solutions use the latest tools like Flutter and Dart to quickly deliver full features and functionality. “One of the things that separates mobile apps from web apps is that we have this opportunity to contain our data between multiple screens and lots of different places and still utilize it so that things load very quickly and you have a great and responsive user experience. Using all these tools, ensuring you play nicely with the server, keeps engagement high.” —WILL HELLING, LEAD IOS ENGINEER | INSPIRINGAPPS, BOULDER CO Web App Development Solutions for Enterprises Our custom solutions are modular, scalable, and robust. Whether you need an integration with enterprise systems like Salesforce or an encrypted, HIPAA-compliant solution for your most sensitive information, we will create a solution that meets your goals. We build web apps that: Use responsive web design. Feature a custom content management system (CMS).  Interact with servers using NodeJS for development. Use cloud infrastructures—like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Improve how clients handle data, maintaining large relational and non-relational databases for complex systems. InspiringApps’ web expertise runs deep. It’s been an integral part of our business since our founding over 15 years ago. Our developers have designed and delivered end-to-end web solutions for browsers and the cloud. “Experience plays a big hand. You’ll lean on that experience when you start building an app from scratch to know what areas you need to focus on and which areas you can punt down the road. To just do all the things all the time from the beginning is too expensive; it’s too impractical. So, it does take a practiced hand.” —JOHN SANDOVAL, LEAD WEB ENGINEER | INSPIRINGAPPS, BOULDER CO Strategic Architecture Solutions for Enterprise App Development Web and mobile app architectures are essential to your product’s success. Not only that but fixing a foundational problem can quickly drain valuable resources, especially when you don’t have an outsider’s perspective to consider.  InspiringApps has the expertise to implement architecture solutions at all development lifecycle stages. We’ll work with your team to integrate your product’s presentation, business, and data layers to create a fully structured app. Our services help to avoid costly maintenance issues down the road. “There’s the adage that there’s no silver bullet. It’s not ‘if,’ it’s ‘when’ some tool, framework, or architecture will fall apart. In large teams, as we’ve worked in the past, with 200 or 300 developers, the key to working well is decoupling things as much as possible and breaking things into logical components with loose coupling. We’ve been defining really clear application barriers for a distinct data layer, domain layer, and then, the application logic. The same thing goes for maintenance. When you have clear barriers in place, it makes maintaining things a lot easier.” —SCOTT KELLER, LEAD ANDROID ENGINEER | INSPIRINGAPPS, BOULDER CO App Design InspiringApps has collaborated with clients from a wide variety of industries. But a unifying quality of our diverse portfolio is creating experiences that delight users. We’ll work closely with you to understand your users and brand mission to convert this information into unparalleled web and mobile app design. Our app design services include the following: Digital Product Strategy UX Research UI/UX Design Brand Identity Design Our team’s ability to merge behavioral science and creativity in our app design approach will help you captivate users in a new way. Feasibility Analysis for Enterprise App Development The InspiringApps team is here to help you determine if a project is viable. Our concept feasibility analysis incorporates factors critical to the digital product lifecycle of enterprise application development. We review the following key areas: Technical Considerations: How will you build features into your app that address security, performance, and other important technical qualities? Product Economics: Does your product meet the needs of today’s users? Legal Issues: What legal considerations should you be aware of to protect your project’s authorship and revenue? Operational & Logistical Factors: Can you efficiently produce your app within the constraints of your project? Our team reviews the impact of these interrelated factors on your project. This information makes it easy to decide if a new opportunity is right for you. UI/UX Audit In today’s digital landscape, apps play a crucial role in the success of businesses. However, creating a seamless user experience (UI/UX) is vital to engage users and drive business outcomes—particularly across multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and web apps. How do you best interpret user feedback to prioritize updates when you’ve been so close to the development and may still need improvements? This is where an InspiringApps UI/UX audit becomes invaluable. Conducting a UI/UX audit is essential for enhancing the development and design of enterprise applications, as it helps ensure that the app meets the needs and expectations of its users. Our UI/UX audits comprehensively evaluate an application’s user interface and experience, focusing on deep quality testing, brand review, common personas, and user journeys. Shared among our development, QA, and creative teams, our process identifies actionable areas for improvement so you can take the right steps to optimize the app’s overall functionality and design. Technical Risk Analysis Anticipating technical risks within a rapidly evolving mobile app market is challenging. InspiringApps has a proven track record of giving clients tools to sidestep common pitfalls and easily launch mobile apps. Our team has extensive experience evaluating risks of platform rejections, security breaches, and feature overload (to name a few). We’ll help you approach technical concerns proactively so that you can stay focused on delivering an exceptional app. Accessibility Best Practices Our team has extensive experience developing B2B and B2C apps that embody the highest accessibility standards. We love applying our expertise in creating products that all individuals can understand and use to help clients create inclusive apps.  We’ll help you take a research-based approach to design web, Android, and iOS apps with accessibility in mind. Our services consistently result in accessible apps that align with industry guidelines and create more opportunities for user engagement. Code Review & Security Audit for Enterprise Apps Our code audits relieve clients of glitches and vulnerabilities in their products and enable them to deliver a secure, healthy app to their users. We’ll apply our experience writing 6 million lines of code (and counting) to identify structural problems in your code and strategize efficient ways to address them. Our tailored audits include deep code reviews and analyses that will allow you to keep your project moving forward. Internet of Things & Augmented Reality Although developing mobile apps for Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR) devices is relatively new, InspiringApps has extensive experience in this area. We continue to develop outstanding apps that work well with cutting-edge devices. We’ll collaborate with your team to ensure that critical features of IoT and AR apps—seamless design, perfect device pairing, and high performance, among others—are embodied in your digital product. SaaS Integrations The InspiringApps team has the expertise to build exceptional mobile apps for your Software as a Service (SaaS) brand. We’ll collaborate with you to create a plan for developing an app that meets the needs of your end users. We’ll then help you update your product to reflect operational excellence and provide on-demand access to the SaaS services your users value most. Executive Consulting The InspiringApps team has designed and built innovative apps for some of the largest organizations in the world. While tech companies often prefer to rely on the expertise of in-house developers, our experience building hundreds of apps can provide a fresh perspective on your project. Our team can work with your executive leadership to analyze risk and strategize ways to deliver top digital products. Tangible ROI Our design and development considerations streamline functionality and user experience with tangible ROI.  Companies like Coors and Toyota partnered with InspiringApps on enterprise apps that increased sales.  The award-winning app for our client Smartwool cut reporting time in half and improved retail service.  We built an immersive in-app experience for Gulfstream for prospective customers that garnered multiple awards.  The Explore Orion app showcased space-grade technology—designed and developed by InspiringApps. The inHere platform designed by InspiringApps for Fidelity Financial Services (FNF) has safeguarded financial futures for more than a million users. Innovative functionality and design are within reach. Whether it is a complex data solution, a custom integration, an internal app for employees, or an app that will deliver messages to the Moon, InspiringApps provides intelligent digital products that delight clients and end users with transformative results.  Let’s move your business forward together. Speak with our experts in enterprise solutions.  

2 years ago

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