When You Need an App

An app is a program downloaded to a smart phone or tablet computer. There are zillions of apps.  Most people's mobile devices are cluttered with them.

Because of that, apps produce a lot of noise: that is to say that the clutter from all of those apps makes it more difficult to use the device.

Over time, people instinctively try to cut down on the noise and manage the number of apps they own. They prune, categorize, and delete the apps they don't need.

If you create an app, you're competing against a ton of other apps for a very small space on the smartphone.

Many small businesses that I meet are all over this craze and want to create an app. Ooo we've got to have an app, they say! So when I ask what it'll do and what value it'd bring to the user experience, they look at me puzzled. "It will tell them about our services and give them a fast way to contact us," they say, and I shoot back, "Oh ... like your website?"

Then I try to get them to think about how quickly such an app would be deleted because it's noisy. It doesn't add any real value or differentiation, so why would anyone keep it?

And that's the trick with apps. Good apps should enable the user to do something:

• it should be a tool;
• it should be a way to collect and review information;
• it should extend your customer service to the palm of their hand;
• it should be a way to reduce friction (calling or emailing your offices to get something done);
• it should be a way to share experiences with your products to potential customers in their social community.

Apps should empower a user. If an app doesn't do this, it's valueless, and will likely be perceived as clutter and deleted from the mobile device.

Meanwhile, companies should make their websites mobile-aware so that they change perspective to fit a smaller screen with less resolution. If a website isn't mobile-aware, it'll present itself as a site better viewed on a desktop machine, making it very difficult to read and access information. Companies should make their website mobile-aware so that they're easier to read, consume, and use, thus making it easier to work with the company.

But a website isn't an app. And even more horrendously, an app's purpose shouldn't be to just drag the user to a website. If you want to get into the app business, think about how the app extends the consumer experience and empowers their relationship with you. Otherwise, stick to the website, and make that as easy as possible to use on mobile devices.

R

GASMO Click-to-Run Installation Fails

Installation of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook against a machine running Microsoft Office 2013 Click-to-Run may produce the following error message following install:

"This Google Apps sync operation has failed. Please re-try after re-installing Microsoft Outlook (R) or contact you system administrator." [sic]

Aside from the apparent lack of attention to grammar, the problem is related to the pathing environment variable on the machine. Modify the path variable for your Windows computer, using these values; I recommend you put these at the front of the path variable:

For Windows 32-bit with Office 32-bit:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE15;"C:\Program Files\Google\Google Apps Sync\profileeditor.exe"

For Windows 64-bit with Office 32-bit:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE15;"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Apps Sync\profileeditor.exe"

For Windows 64-bit with Office 64-bit:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE15; "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Apps Sync\profileeditor.exe"

When you launch the Google Apps Setup Sync User, it'll now create a profile.

Buggy, eh?

R

No More PST Files

Microsoft Outlook uses a database format called a PST file.

The PST file has been around for a very long time. Decades, in fact.

As users receive email in Outlook, the size of their PST files grow. The larger it grows, the greater likelihood the PST file can become unstable and the data within it corrupted.

PST files also have maximum size limitations of around 10-12 gigabytes. 

Repairing a corrupted PST file is no laughing matter. It can take hours, and data loss is permanent. Imagine being told that all of your email for the last four years are simply inaccessible and gone. Not a good conversation.

These conditions forced users of Microsoft Outlook to create multiple PST files to manage their data and spread the risk between PST files.

This week, I migrated company that relied on multiple PST files to manage their data to Google Apps. In Google, every user starts with 30gb of storage space and suffers none of the same limitations. This allowed me to consolidate a user with 4 PST's, for example, into just one mailbox. This simplified things for the end-user and made it possible to see all of their folders anywhere they go.

Anyway, as a tech professional, it makes me happy to ditch using PST files and extending capability to users where they've been limited in the past.

R