IoT or Internet of things are physical objects with sensors having processing abilities, a software to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet and other networks. Today, IoT is connecting the world and to stay connected businesses are heavily investing in IoT from security systems to mobile applications.

Therefore, if you want your IoT solution to be a success, you need to have a shift in designing perspective, manufacturing and support for your applications. Here are some best practices one should follow:

Requirement Analysis - IoT manufacturers often try to implant new and exciting attributes in their products. The ultimate goal is to deliver a product that meets core needs with required features that can be enhanced depending on the future requirements. IoT products can be complex at times which makes it compulsory to conduct extensive prior user research to make your IoT application stand out in the market. The questionnaire includes what products to build, what features to include, which platform to choose, scalability options, etc. Such surveys help in defining the scope of work, estimating the time and budget required to take off your product to market.

User-Centric - To get one’s priority right, product designs in the IoT world are more focused on how the mobile appears, feels and how it works. Mobile app development cannot be an independent process and hence we need to take a holistic as well as integrated approach while designing your app. Today, customers are well versed with mobile devices, so we make sure to fill in with good aesthetics, comfortable yet attractive look, feedback mechanism and built-in navigation to ensure easy installation, registration and updating.

Attention to Integration - For a successful IoT application, seamless end-to-end integration is a must. IoT mobile application interacts with device’s hardware and firmware, making it necessary for integration to be fast and seamless. Firmware and mobile developers work together to create specifications, hence reducing the chances of delays, poor documentation, and bugs. To keep up with the deadlines and quality assurance, an Agile approach is idle.

Quality Assurance - Often, quality of an application is compromised by IoT manufacturers because it takes time and effort to test the product and rectify the prevailing issues. But, in IoT applications, you can never be sure how an app will behave to a new update and what new bugs might come up. Since an IoT device is a complex interplay involving hardware, software, firmware, mesh networks and communication pathways, every testing has to be conducted in the context of everything else by taking a holistic approach. We test your application at all levels- device, cloud, user-experience including look, feel, navigation and responsiveness.

Extensibility - IoT requirements are bound to change over time hence, making the right decision to enable extensibility is extremely important. Investing in mobile app extensibility means embedding future capabilities, to get the most out of your development.

The potential in IoT mobile development is huge and its ecosystem includes all aspects of connected devices, including sensors, networks, firmware, OS, protocol, cloud and analytics are coiled in multiple ways to yield new outcomes.

We developed an application, Galcon, for managing irrigation systems for cities and agricultural fields. The application allows users to manage a collection of advanced irrigation controllers to receive alerts and manage advanced irrigation programs on a controller located in a field or city.

Our Metrycom is resource and workload management web-based applications for performing preventive maintenance on high voltage lines. Metricom’s MetriSense is based on innovative sensors deployed at an interval of hundreds kilometres to detect potential power failures.

Another application developed with the help of Flutter for easy daily weighing of babies, B-Scale. Our app connects to the weighing facility with the help of Bluetooth, and displays data, saves history , compares to international standards and throws alerts if required.

We developed an application that acts as inventory management, Agrowiz for monitoring and control of the production line. We follow best practices while developing IoT applications starting from requirement analysis following a user-centric approach giving attention to integration and quality assurance, thereby enhancing extensibility.