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Designing applications for mobile use

Updated on March 3, 2022

In a modern business, users want to work on mobile devices because they are simple, convenient, and provide immediate access to content at all times. With Pega Platform, you can design and build an application in a low-code environment and make it accessible on a range of mobile devices.

During the design of your application, remember that mobile devices are much slower than desktop devices. As a mobile app developer, focus on performance aspects even more than in web applications. Apply the following best practices when you design an application for mobile use to guarantee a modern, consistent user experience.

    Define the mode of operation:

  • In the initial stages of application design, decide whether your mobile app should support offline mode. Offline-enabled mobile apps require additional configuration and have limited support for certain features, such as actions or user interface controls.
    For more information, see Designing applications for offline mode.
  • Design a consistent, simple, and efficient user interface:

  • Design a mobile-ready application by using the out-of-the-box user interface elements, design templates and default rules that either Cosmos or UI Kit provide.
  • Apply a responsive and adaptive user interface design to ensure that the content of your application is displayed correctly, regardless of the type, size, and operating system of the target device.
    A responsive user interface helps you optimize a single design or layout across a variety of devices and sizes. An adaptive user interface determines what is displayed on the screen, based on conditional logic and the context of the layout.

    For more information, see Designing the user interface of mobile apps.

  • Prepare external developer accounts before you start creating your mobile app:

  • If you plan to generate an iOS mobile app bundle, set up an Apple developer account.
  • If you plan to distribute your mobile app in Google Play, set up an Android developer account.
  • If you plan to send push notifications to your Android mobile app users, set up a Firebase account.
  • Ensure that mobile devices can run the mobile app effectively:

  • For Android devices, ensure that the target mobile device has the following apps installed and updated regularly:
    • Google Play Services
    • Google Chrome, Firefox Browser, or Samsung Internet Browser
  • Test your mobile apps often, at all stages of development.
    Important: Android emulators and iOS simulators are suitable tools for testing your app during development, but do not use them for production purposes.
  • Test your mobile app on target mobile devices to ensure that your app looks and behaves as expected.
    Important: Hardware specifications of a mobile device, as well as the design and data of the app, are factors that might impact the performance of the app on the mobile device.
  • For smaller changes, use the Pega Mobile Preview app for testing.
    Important: Do not use Pega Mobile Preview for production purposes.
  • Ensure that your Pega Platform environment is ready for mobile development:

  • Use only one unlocked ruleset for mobile app development. If you want to make changes in multiple rulesets, use branches.
    For more information, see Branches and branch rulesets.
  • If you want to share rulesets between applications or between versions of the same application, ensure that the rulesets are locked.
    For more information, see Configuring ruleset version settings.
  • If you want to share rulesets between applications or between versions of the same application, ensure that a shared ruleset does not contain a mobile channel interface rule instance. An instance of a mobile channel is bound to only one Pega Platform application version – the one within the context of which it was created.
  • Place the unlocked application ruleset, in which you save your mobile channel and related rules, at the top of the application stack.
  • Designing the user interface of mobile apps

    Ensure that your application dynamically adapts to the screen of a mobile device by following the UI design guidelines for mobile apps. This way, you can build an application with a responsive and adaptive design that works on a range of devices.

  • Adaptive and responsive mobile interfaces

    Adaptive and responsive interfaces help your application successfully reach users through a variety of channels. By using Pega Platform features to build an adaptive and responsive interface, you can ensure that your application displays correctly on any mobile device.

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