Guidelines for Mobile Application Development
Mobile application development is necessary these days, as most people use mobiles in their daily operations.
These mobile phones are essential for our daily activities due to the development of extensive network connectivity, even of course at remote locations in the country. A large number of mobile applications (apps) have indeed been developed by different ICAR institutes and organizations covering different domains/thematic areas/applications.
The development of these mobile apps could not be appropriately planned and coordinated on account of the sudden digital information explosion and also the diversity of agricultural produce and commodities. These mobile apps are indeed to be evaluated in terms of their usage, uniqueness, content management, technology standard compliance, navigational features, etc. Furthermore, several apps developed by ICAR institutes are available in the Play Store for one commodity or crop, which creates much confusion for the users. Mobile apps have also been developed in twelve Indian languages. The basic information related to these apps is the operating system, language, subject matter division, name of the institute, and its type. The search facility has been provided based on keywords.
Five basic problems are being noted in mobile apps that have been developed by different ICAR institutes, i.e.,
- Multiple apps for the same commodity and produce.
- The static nature of content in several apps.
- Older technologies.
- There is a need for further enriching content quality.
- Requirement of feedback mechanism.
Thus, there is no doubt an urgent need to make an integrated and coordinated effort while developing these apps so that one app for one crop or commodity can be developed by these organizations, thus making integrated efforts. This will help in providing precise, accurate, and timely information to the users, especially farmers, to increase production, productivity, and profitability. The appropriate mechanism does need to be put in place for addressing feedback and resolving issues submitted by the end users. The mobile apps will revolutionize the way an Indian farmer avails information on advanced agricultural technologies, seeds, varieties, and also livestock as per their requirement, thus leveraging the current accelerated Internet and smartphone penetration in India.
To avoid confusion among the stakeholders, there is, of course, a need to develop one app for one commodity and produce, and the contents need to be fetched from the centralized database or repository or even the content management system. This will rather help the developer in updating the contents of apps. This integrated app is the need of the hour, as all required information will then be fetched from a single platform or window. This approach will also help in installing and testing different mobile apps based on the desired purpose of the app. Later, these single-commodity apps can be further integrated as a larger window framework similar to a unified mobile app. Therefore, coordinated effort is required.
The app also needs to send time-to-time advisories and also alerts to the registered users and is also capable of doing and providing several required services based on crop, commodity, or produce. The payment gateway option can also be included in case of the purchase of any kind of material from the concerned institute or government agency.
What are more features of mobile application development?
• Information extracted from existing apps, if stored in a database, otherwise needs to be stored in an easy-to-use format.
• Exchanging the information via the use of APIs/web services in JSON/XML format.
• Filter, refine, and also display the useful and important information/knowledge in an easy-to-visualize manner.
• Validation of content/information from subject matter institutions.
• Integration of validated information in the app and also its upgrade.
Conclusion
Mobile devices have indeed become an integral part of daily life. The ease of access and right to information at the right time can be accessible at any point in time.
