-From this July 8 our website is renewed.

-With a design based on the biodiversity of Costa Rica, it will be sought to give a different experience to the user with better content consumption.

Time is always and with everyday minimalism gains followers, that is why from July 8 our users begin to live a new experience. With an inspiring mix between the entire digital development world and the tropical and animal environment of Costa Rica, Kambda is ready to provide a better and complete service.

Providing guidance and support to customers in the process of developing customized software solutions and high-quality, stable and highly scalable platforms continues and will continue to be our essence, however, with our new website, the experience will have a new impetus with more and better content that can be loaded in less time on any type of device thanks to Google’s AMP.

Emilio Acosta, CEO of Kambda, explains that what is sought with this site’s new look and feel is not limited only to give a new and better user experience, but also to offer a better information architecture with new internal pages of some of the services such as Digital Marketing.

He adds that with new digital marketing strategies being offered such as specific campaigns by sectors like web development for the medical industry, the new site will focus on the generation of new content for each service and industry and it will seek to attract more customers and users.

Migrations, architecture software, search engine marketing, mobile development, website, web app, social media marketing, SEO and web design will continue to be our main services and you can also find all the content that is available in our blog, where you can find publications relevant to the digital and development world.

Why Cross Platform Mobile Development?

In order to understand everything we are about to talk about, we must first clear out some definitions; what is it Cross-platform mobile development?

Cross-platform mobile development is the creation of software applications that are compatible with multiple mobile operating systems. Originally, the complexity of developing mobile apps was compounded by the difficulty of building out a backend that worked across multiple platforms. Although it was time-consuming and expensive, it was often easier to build native applications for each mobile operating system (OS). The problem was that the code built for one operating system could not be repurposed for another OS.

When starting to create a mobile application, developers always select an approach for building it first. Just some years ago, there was no other choice than to create apps using languages, SDKs, and IDEs belonging to a specific OS. Today, this is not the only solution. In particular, when cross-platform frameworks such as phonegap, React Native, Cordova appeared, it became possible to create a universal codebase that could easily be adapted to any of the platforms.

The Essence of Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Making software for a specific platform implies using only those development tools that were officially submitted by the person who maintains the OS. As a result, you get a solution that is fully adapted to the platform-specific capabilities. The received apps are fast, efficient, and can operate any of the software and hardware assets of the device.

The majority of such frameworks are based on the ubiquitous JavaScript. 75% to 90% of codebase remains consistent between app versions. The rest is the code that describes the access to platform-specific software and hardware capabilities. Thus, the development time and overall application budget to deploy the app to each intended platform are reduced. Moreover, the functionality and overall user experience with this approach are very close to native.

Today, it is easier for programmers to develop cross-platform apps. Newer approaches to cross-platform development include:

Hybrid Mobile App Development

Developers write the core of the application as an HTML5 or JavaScript mobile app and then place a native device wrapper around it.

Rapid Mobile App Development

Developers use code-free programming tools. RMAD offers business users the ability to quickly build and manage “good-enough” internal apps to address specific business issues.

Windows Universal Apps

One codebase for all Windows devices. The goal is to enable the same app to run on a Windows PC, tablet, smartphone, smartwatch or XBox.

Progressive Web Apps

Websites that look and behave as if they are mobile apps. PWAs are built to take advantage of native mobile device features, without requiring the end user to visit an app store, make a purchase and download software locally.

What are UX design principles?

UX stands for User Experience. This term originated a couple of years ago, even though something that seems basic and completely necessary, the tech industry has been talking about it somewhat loosely and often misunderstood. Being that, we want to highlight what user experience actually is.

What is the User Experience?

UX is understood as the work that is done to improve a product / service and that is functional, which will provide the user with a good experience when using it.

To go to the real root of what UX is we need to go back to the Industrial Revolution and the technological advances of the nineteenth and twentieth century, when businessmen saw ways to improve their work processes to optimize production time. Having that clear, let’s move on with the items below.

Top User Experience Principles

Make it ‘Digestible’

UX design has to be easy to digest in plain sight and prevent the user from having to spend hundreds of neurons in understanding what it is that they are looking at. When making decisions and executing actions, we need elements that guide us. Organize the information with a certain hierarchy using size, color and icons to highlight what is a priority and guide the user to find what they are looking for more easily.

In certain cases, it may be useful to include a site map in the footer that clarifies how the sections of the site are built for easy navigation.

Clarity Above All

Good UX design is honest. That is, it is decipherable for those who visualize it. Explain things to your visitors as they want you to explain them. Do not use complex terminology, speak your language and in the more sensitive sections such as prices and rates, get to the point.

A user will not click on a ‘buy now’ button if you do not tell them how much they are going to pay and what they will receive for it. Avoid the ‘free trials’ or deceptive demos that are going to take the user to go through a payment gateway, ‘wasn’t it free? ‘ -they will think.

Design Trust

Before asking a user to complete an action, we must gain it. In a website, the way to do it is by offering concrete explanations step by step, directing it towards an agile and simple conversion within our pages.

Let’s think about how Uber has done it, which has completely revolutionized an entire industry through a user-friendly app that stores the user’s billing information (data that the user would not feel comfortable sharing with a stranger) and facilitates the payment and transactions in the friendliest way possible.

A Familiar Appearance

It is normal that for designers to like to innovate by presenting elements and combining patterns. Still, web usability requires some consistency in the form so that the user recognizes what he is seeing.

The aesthetic layouts and the appearance of platforms such as that of Google provide clues on how to design styles and icons to get to avoid friction and generating confusion during an interaction.

B2B Social Media Tips

B2B is an expression translated as business to business and is used to define the interaction between manufacturers or producers whose clients are not individuals. A B2B business model can be, for example, companies that provide digital content and presence to manufacturers, either through blog entries, SEO services or social media marketing in order for them to attract their own clients.

This implies that the action focuses on the supplier of goods and services, and not on the end customer.

What is B2B and how is it different from B2C?

Therefore, B2B consists of the services that one company makes to another, designed to increase sales of goods or services.

B2C, meanwhile, also seeks to increase sales of the good or service of the company but the marketing efforts are made directly to reach the end customer.

So, there are 6 tips for a B2B social media marketing plan:

1.Rewards to Encourage the Appearance of Brand Ambassadors

82% of potential buyers seek recommendations and 74% say that word of mouth was a determining factor in their purchase decision. It is logical, therefore, to take into account a rewards campaign to retain customers and obtain prescribers of your brand and products.

While these types of rewards for brand loyalty are not new, the ways in which this practice can be implemented are changing rapidly.

2.Integration of Different Channels

Content marketing uses different channels to connect and communicate with customers (websitw, email, social networks, blog, video).

Integrating them in a B2B digital marketing plan will be essential to achieve the expected success, as well as knowing at what moment of the life cycle the user is at each moment (user journey).

3.Use Video: Youtube

Video has been experiencing its moment of glory for the last few years, and this is something that will not change any time soon. According to a study carried out by Google, YouTube is still the owner of this online format (with approximately 42 million daily visits).

And this is not all, in addition, YouTube has already become the second most important search engine for users around the world.

4.Instant Messaging

The growing use of messaging applications is also a proven fact.

According to the latest research of ‘Ofcom Communications Market’: “more than half of the total mobile audience used Facebook Messenger (61%) and half used WhatsApp (50%). The Snapchat mobile app had a reach of 28%, with 10.1 million unique visitors. “

Some big brands like IKEA or Amazon have been using these new communication channels with their clients for years, you can try them too for your B2B business communications.

5.Custom User Experience

Personalizing your customer’s experience is easier than ever and is accelerating rapidly through tools such as Hubspot and other solutions that help automate marketing. Use a mix of different social media platforms depending on your business model to provide better communication and experiences.

This is nothing more than to arrive with guarantees of success to your potential clients and offer them a totally unique experience tailored t their needs.

6.Marketing Based on Customer Loyalty

While the excitement of pursuing new accounts can be tempting, caring for existing customers is more rewarding and a more profitable way to increase revenue.

The first step to successfully execute a marketing strategy based on customer loyalty is to understand what your needs are and how you can satisfy them to improve the existing relationship. It is also key to know how to personalize the reward and maintain a regular contact by automating your B2B social media communications.

Ways to cost your software development projects

The time will come when the following question will be asked: how much money do I need to develop our next software development project?

What we aim with this article is to teach you how we cost our project so you can keep it in mind and allocate your own budget for software development.

To estimate the cost of a software development project, you will need two things, first determine the size of the software you are going to develop, using a unit of measurement, then you will need to know how many units of this measure your team can develop at a certain cost.

There are as many ways to estimate the cost and timeline of a software project as there are development languages. Research has shown that if a project can be broken down into small chunks of work, and each chunk is estimated, the estimates tend to be more accurate.

Here we have five factors affecting the cost of your software development projects.

Involving Business Stakeholders in the Software Estimation Process

Involving stakeholders early in the software estimation process helps to define more accurately what is important in the software development life cycle. This helps both the business leaders and the technology team gain a shared understanding of the project. It also helps to hold everyone involved accountable to the initial estimate.

Asking Why Do Most Software Estimation Projects Fail

The answer is simple, poor requirements and weak leadership. The technology in itself is rarely the cause of project failure. Great technology and developers will fail without good requirements and leadership. Beware of this red flag: leadership that cannot explain the end goals or the business drivers behind software during estimating sessions with the project team. Developers can’t develop quality code when requirements are not clear.

Building the Right Team

There’s more to a team than just developers. They need a good supporting cast and good requirements that hold everyone accountable. In order for the project to provide business value, users need to be able to use the application effectively. This means that the project must have good business analysts to write good requirements, which drive efficient development. The user experience is more than just how it looks. Include a designer on the project who can provide both an effective interface that is pleasant but that also facilitates meaningful user flow.

Good Software Estimation Metrics Should Reveal Problems Sooner

If the estimate is based on the developer’s velocity, then it is easier to determine whether a team is developing at the expected pace. Metrics allow you to identify team members that are not producing as expected. Rarely do all teams or developers produce at exactly the same speed. Some will work faster, some more slowly. If they are too slow, you can begin to investigate where friction occurs, from requirements to design, architecture, scope creep or lacking technical skills. Comparing actual velocity to original estimates allows stakeholders to identify budget misalignment sooner and take corrective action when needed.

Breaking the Requirements Down to Increase Transparency in Software Estimation

Begin by breaking the requirements down far enough so that each requirement can be built in a short time by a single developer. Any requirement that cannot be broken down may not be understood well enough for accurate estimation (with some exceptions).

This process will help the stakeholders understand what it will take to develop the software. Demanding more details upfront may seem to add time to project estimation, but the transparency it creates usually shortens the software estimation, improves quality and shortens the approval time through better understanding amongst stakeholders.

Mobile-first design is exactly as it sounds: sketching, prototyping and designing for a mobile first experience and then scaling up to larger screens from there. Mobile-first ensures that you deliver the right User Experience (UX) to the right screen.

With such limited space available on a mobile phone screen designing for that makes far more sense for the UX. Designers must prioritize the elements of the website that are most important to create a strong base to work from.

Mobile-first web design has been somewhat of a replacement for strategies such as responsive or adaptive design. Both these design strategies focus on the desktop, or the largest screen, first and then the design is just altered slightly to fit a smaller screen, leaving the smaller screen a bit of an afterthought for designers.

Then why should I use it?

Mobile-first is a little bit different. It uses the concept of responsive web design and takes it to the next level. Instead of focusing on designing a mobile version of the primary site, mobile-first design focuses on building a site that puts the needs of mobile users first. In other words, mobile-first design builds a platform that meets the mobile user’s basic needs and requirements before worrying about laptop and desktop users.

One of the biggest advantages of going mobile first is that your website is compatible with all different types of platforms. The site that you see on the mobile device should be quite similar to the one that will appear on desktop computers as well. With that said, sometimes it can be hard to visualize how exactly a site will look on the desktop when you’re working on a mobile-first design, so give both platforms a test and make any necessary adjustments.

And what are its benefits?

Progressive Enhancement:

In web design progressive enhancement refers to starting with a strong base of designing and building up to a larger design for desktop. By using the mobile-first design strategy the design of a website starts with only the most important elements providing a strong base to build on. It is far easier in web design to upsize functionality and software than it is to try and downsize what is there already.

Google Ranking:

After Eric Schmidt’s announcement at the Mobile World Congress in 2010, 8 years later Google followed up on the warning announcing that they now use mobile first indexing for over half of all web pages globally. Mobile-first indexing means that Google will look at the mobile version of a website in order to rank it before the desktop version. By using the mobile-first design strategy web designers can greatly increase the chances of a website ranking higher on Google.

Focus on Core Content:

The content that is displayed on a user’s screen has to be clear, concise and easy to understand. When done correctly, the mobile-first approach positively affects the tablet and desktop versions of your site, resulting in a more clean and polished look.

Easy Navigation:

While designing for mobiles, web developers usually add few items on the menu. The user has a better chance of navigating and getting to the intended destination. Drop-downs have been removed from many sites, and rightfully so.

In a previous article we talked about native application development, where we spoke about its many great advantages, but that being it exclusive it could not be used for different operating systems. Imagine you required to answer an email from your phone but that Your Webmail app was not compatible with your mobile’s operating system, if this was the case you would never be able to send the message. This type of issue would never happen if this service was offered via hybrid applications.

Hybrid applications are mobile applications designed in a web programming language, whether HTML5, CSS or JavaScript, together with a framework that allows you to adapt the web view to any view of a mobile device. In other words, they are nothing more than an application built to be used or implemented in different mobile operating systems, such as iOS, Android or Windows Phone, avoiding the task of creating an application for each operating system. In this way, a hybrid application can be adapted to multiple mobile platforms without additional code, but adjusting to some operational changes for each of them.

Hybrid mobile applications are like any other application for mobile devices: they are downloaded from the app stores of each Operating System, they are installed in different devices and are used to play, connect to social media, take photos and track your health among other functionalities. For the user, these look and feel like an application developed in a native language, either Objective-C or Swift for iOS or Java for Android, so a traditional user could hardly identify the language in which it was built. More importantly, users are not interested in the language in which an application was built, they are only interested in it working and responding well for the purpose that was downloaded.

Hybrid applications allow developers to reuse their web development skills and guide them towards cross-platform mobile development, so that they do not have to learn a whole new programming language that will probably take a lot of time, dedication and eventually free them to serve apps not limited to the platform language they chose to learn.

Speaking of the disadvantages, hybrid applications run with the web browser, which might make their performance a little lower than the native ones. But this difference is not usually that significant, they just run a little slower and their interface is a little less neat than that of the native apps since they do not have as much attention to detail and are more concerned with its applicability in all operating systems.

To summarize, the difference between both types of applications is clearer with the following example: a native app is like getting a tailored suit from a tailor that is unique and custom made, a hybrid App is like buying a standard suit from the store, it fulfills its function, at a lower cost without the comfort of a tailor’s suit, however, it is still functional.

Hybrid applications are perfect when we are starting in a digital environment if you need a management app, data processing, online store, CRM or any other application to reduce costs, development times and ease of use. Therefore, if you are looking to develop a simple application, which does not require large use of mobile components, an hybrid application is perfect for you.

To be able to answer that question, it is necessary to say that you’re probably looking to bring some structure and cohesiveness to your workflow. Project management methodologies provide an infrastructure for accomplishing projects. They’re a blueprint for how tasks and projects are planned, managed, and executed, from start to finish.

But with so many different approaches, that in some cases overlap, to manage the complexities of any project, how can you know which project management methodology is the best?

Project managers can help their organizations improve the way they implement methodologies in the most effective and efficient way while reducing the risks. But this requires much more than recognizing organizational priorities. You must have a deeper understanding of how each project management methodology can create the greatest positive impact, and how each can derail the likelihood of success for your organization.

Next we are going to review the most popular methodologies:

Waterfall:

The waterfall has been a fundamental project management methodology for years. It is sequential in nature and is used in many industries, most commonly in software development. It comprises static phases (requirements analysis, design, testing, implementation and maintenance) that are executed in a specific order. The waterfall allows for greater control in each phase, but can be very inflexible if the scope of a project changes after it is already underway.

Agile:

Initially it was developed for projects that require great flexibility and speed. To achieve this, Agile is composed of short delivery cycles, also known as “sprints”. Agile may be best suited for projects that require less control and real-time communication within self-motivated team environments. As a project management methodology, Agile is highly interactive, allowing quick adjustments throughout a project. It is commonly used in software development projects largely because it makes it easy to identify problems quickly and make changes early in the development process, rather than having to wait until the tests are completed.

Hybrid:

Although many teams will favor cascade or agile, the benefits of both approaches can create a hybrid project management methodology solution, in which the planning phase and requirements are carried out under a cascade approach and the design, development, implementation and testing phases follow the agile methodology.

Critical path method:

The critical path method (CPM) is a step-by-step methodology used for projects with interdependent activities. It contains a list of activities and uses a work breakdown structure (WBS) and a timeline to complete, as well as dependencies, milestones and deliverables.

Critical chain project management:

Critical chain project management (CCPM) differs from CPM in that it focuses on the use of resources within a project rather than project activities. To address potential problems with resources, buffering is integrated to ensure that projects are on time and that security is not compromised.

Six Sigma:

It was originally developed by Motorola to eliminate waste and improve processes and profits. It is based on data and has three key components: DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve and control), DMADV (define, measure, analyze, design and verify) and DFSS (Design for Six Sigma).

Scrum:

It is a part of the agile development framework and is also interactive in nature. “Scrum sessions” or “30-day sprints” are used to determine the prioritized tasks.

Data science is a discipline that is gaining strength in the world as it helps organizations, through the analysis of large amounts of data, identify new opportunities, provides answers to many questions that companies didn’t even know they had and allows them to identify problems in a more understandable way. The collection of large amounts of data and the search for trends within it allows companies to move much more quickly, smoothly and efficiently.

This discipline today applies to most areas in organizations, therefore, it is not isolated from software or web development. Read on if you want to know how they relate and what the benefits of using it are.

There are several roles involved when it comes to creating a new website, in addition to the designer, other profiles usually intervene such as an account manager, which collects and transmits to the team the requirements and valuations of the client; an SEO, which proposes elements that will help the subsequent positioning; a programmer, who values the difficulty and executes the implementation of the functionalities proposed in the web design. But in recent years data analysts have begun to intervene due to their ability to predict the future in certain ways thanks to already existing data. Why?

• Having metrics from other similar projects or niche studies can help define some visual elements, user experience and usability for the new website development, which will allow us to better reach the public we want with the characteristics that they value the most.
• During the testing phase, the analysis of the data will allow decisions to be made in a timely manner to make the necessary adjustments quickly before going to production. Having the necessary information to guarantee the best user experience will allow you to earn points even before going to market.
• If what we want to do is a redesign or optimization, having the historical data will allow us to identify points of friction, redundant elements, processes not completed and other variables that will allow us to make more accurate decisions and avoid errors.

Once the development has come out live, data analysis is also very useful because it allows you to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, usability of navigation, design, among others, and optimize the site in order to meet the proposed objectives (sales, leads, get new followers, among others).

Thanks to data science we can compile the right data. Apart from visits, page views, rebound percentages or time spent on the site, we can analyze many other metrics that are as or more important than these.

Now, in addition to analyzing what happened in the past, or predicting the future, data science allows you to apply cognitive analytics, which learns and understands the behavior of customers, with our products, with social networks, channels and services that suggest new ways of making your developments more enticing and attractive to your target audience.

The amount of information produced by different technologies has modified our environment. From the point of view of technology, economy has become a data and code driven economy, since we are generating thousands of data every second that we could analyze to identify behaviors helpful to the company or even consumers. The same goes for coding, today everything is programmable in terms of obtaining and generating data.

Digitalization allows us to apply technology in very specific aspects of a business, data science is one of the technological trends that helps us improve efficiency in the company and generate new experiences for clients. How are you going to start using it?

The software architecture process takes clients’ requirements, analyzes them and produces a design to obtain software that will satisfy their needs. Successful software designs must weigh the inevitable dilemmas that arise due to conflicting requirements; comply with design principles and good procedural techniques that have evolved over time; and complement modern hardware, networks and management systems. A strong software architecture implies having a lot of experience in theoretical and practical matters, as well as the necessary vision to convert what seems to be inaccurate business scenarios and requirements into solid and practical work designs.

Software architecture means defining a structured solution that meets all technical and operational requirements and, at the same time, optimizing common attributes of quality such as performance, security and manageability. In addition, it involves a series of decisions based on a wide range of factors, and each of those decisions can have a considerable impact on the quality, performance, maintenance and overall success of that software.

So, what is needed to master the principles that can transform a common developer into a software architect?

It is clear that a software architect requires a wide range of both general and technical skills. During the requirements analysis and review stages, the architect must work with the client, consult partners and other team members and act as an intermediary for managers, users and system administrators. By excelling in these general skills you can produce a better initial plan and a more precise set of requirements, which saves time and effort later.

The software architect must also possess the technical skills required to understand how modern software systems, frames, and hardware support the requirements; how network and operating system factors can affect design decisions; and how trends and changes in these areas will have an impact on design. After the initial requirements analysis, the software architect must also apply his technical skills around design patterns, communication and messaging standards, code capabilities, security issues and performance constraints. All of these require in-depth knowledge of the technologies that will be used to implement the final software. Their decisions on the structure and dynamics of the application are expressed in formal notation. To do this modern architects need to master UML, especially if they plan to use new technologies and especially those oriented to objects.

It is convenient to dominate the greatest amount of software technologies to be able to offer the best technological recommendations for the benefit of the project. Their decisions have an impact in the short, medium and long term. Important characteristics that define the quality of the application, such as performance, reuse, robustness, portability, flexibility, scalability and maintainability depend to a large extent on the decisions a software architect makes.