CorpComms Magazine

(1) Decide what you want the app to do

Is it going to be just an iPad version, or will it offer something different? It is essential that it works offline, so avoid too many external links, and, because it needs to work in meeting rooms where there may be no WiFi or 3G connectivity, portability is the key. Be careful not to end up with, what is essentially, a browsable PDF. It needs to look and feel like an application specifically written for the iPad.

(2) Remember your target audience

Undoubtedly, iPad is currently king. But this is a fastmoving market and by the time you decide to create an app for your online annual report and accounts, there may be a new kid on the block that is rapidly gaining popularity. The Motorola Xoom 2, the HP Touchpad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and many more tablets running Android 3.0 Honeycomb are on the market, and if you have many Indian customers you can be pretty sure that many of them will be using the Sakshat. Know your market and design for them.

(3) Ignore the iPhone

The iPhone's screen is just too small for browsing all the tiny figures and complex tables found in the 'back half ' of an annual report. It will not be used and will be a waste of your budget.

(4) Get senior management on your side

Find someone who is an iPad user to help persuade senior colleagues of its benefits. Load the Legal & General app onto your own iPad so that they can see what we have done. It will make it easier for them to visualise the possibilities. Use statistics to support your idea in discussions with senior management. There are huge environmental benefits to creating an iPad app, and it also has cross generational appeal. A recent YouGov survey found that 28 per cent of iPad users are aged over 55; this percentage is increasing.

(5) Navigation should be intuitive

It is vital that the app displays well when viewed in either landscape or portrait format. Too many 'report' apps do not display well in landscape because they have been based on a PDF report rather than a HTML one. Zooming is also important, especially with those tiny figures crammed onto huge tables in the report's back half.

(6) Keep it simple

Don't get too carried away. Don't change the navigational structure just because you can. For example, iSwifter now allows users to view a simulated version of Flash on their iPads but that does not mean an app should be filled with Flash. Spend more time ensuring your report works optimally for the greatest number of users, and in particular make good use of Javascript. And keep your brand team engaged from day one. The last thing you want to do is spend days designing your dream app, only to discover that brand have some last-minute objections.

(7) Remember the rules

Do not forget that this is an audited document. Your accountants will need to be made aware early on that they will also be signing off an iPad app as well as the usual paper, PDF and online versions. Ensure they have access to an iPad for this purpose, and that you have factored in enough time for them to do this. If they are using their own iPad, obtain that iPad's specific 40 digit long UDID number. This is because, at that point, your iPad app will not be live on the Apple iStore - your agency will probably have created a beta version that will only work on iPads for which they have the UDID number. But don't assume that your accountant knows where to find this number. The easiest way is to connect your iPad to a laptop, go to your device's control panel in iTunes, click on the Serial Number and then the UDID number is revealed underneath. These are not the same!

(8) Build in time for approval

It can take up to two weeks for an iPad app to be approved for the Apple iStore. This is pretty useless when you consider that you need your app to appear at a certain time on a certain day, and of course you cannot have confidential data appearing on an app before it appears on your website or elsewhere. If you load dummy text, Apple may refuse it. Therefore, consider loading up last year's data. You may find that the app 'goes live' the day before you want it to, but at least it's with the old year's data. If anyone happens to download the app from the iStore before they are meant to, they will get a reminder from Apple once the new data has gone live, which they then download as an update. Oh, and this should be obvious, but your app should, of course, be completely free.

(9) Tell the world

Once it's gone live, send out a press release and tweet to all your followers. Within minutes of Legal & General's app going live, it was all over the Twittersphere, and the Financial Times wrote about it the following day because we were among the first in the FTSE to release our annual report as an app. You will no longer be the first, but if your app is good and intuitive, and offers something different, you'll be the tweet of the town. And don't forget to plug the iPad app heavily on your websites. At Legal & General, on the front page of our HTML annual report and accounts we designed an iPad 'simulation' in Flash, so that web users have a good idea what the app is going to look like before they download it.

(10) Use a great design agency

In my opinion, Nexxar are at the top of their game. We have won a number of prestigious design awards - IR Society, CorpComms' DigiAwards, Strategic Planning Society - during our partnership with them.

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