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Contact us

Contact us | Mindera

Transforming Finance with technology

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Designed to enhance security, drive innovation, streamline operations and optimise the customer experience, ensuring you stay ahead in a rapidly evolving, highly competitive market. 

Combining strong finance technology expertise with a deep understanding of your business, we focus on compliance, scalability and efficiency, we help you future-proof, achieve sustainable growth and cut operating costs.


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Develop tailored, cutting-edge finance solutions

Transform the customer experience through personalised and intuitive digital products that provide quick and easy access to your services anytime, any place. 

Our deep financial services knowledge combined with operational efficiencies will reduce the time and cost for product and feature development, while helping you remain compliant with regulations, minimising risk.

Digital product development

Increase speed, efficiency and performance across your operations and support the latest tools and products by modernising legacy systems and integrating new technologies.

Technology Strategy

Increase operational efficiency, flexibility and scalability, enabling clients to adapt quickly to market changes, by developing a cloud strategy tailored specifically to your business needs, whether full migration or hybrid.

Cloud migration

Optimise technology system performance and innovation, minimise downtime, maintain compliance, improve SLO metrics and reduce the burden on your technology teams with our bespoke managed services solutions.

Managed services 

Connect your debit and credit cards to a Curve Wallet to earn, save and manage your money like never before.

Card Management

Expertise

Case Study

See how our tech solutions transform businesses with real results and impact.

Euronext transforms the investor experience new app

> We crafted totally new software with enhanced UI/UX in less than a year.

###### Euronext Corporate Services


## The challenge
To enable companies to navigate their way through the complex capital markets landscape, Euronext developed IR.Manager. From managing key stakeholder relationships and providing access to a global database of investment professionals, to accurately profiling and targeting institutional investors and optimising workflow, the innovative desktop and mobile app is the cornerstone of the company’s offering. The mission given to software development partner Mindera was to make it even better by building a software-as-as-service (SaaS) version for greater flexibility and usability, with the ultimate goal of driving customer acquisition through an improved customer experience. 

This meant completely rethinking the old system to create a more intuitive cloud-based investment management software tool accessible whenever and wherever needed. It was vital that the apps for desktop, tablet and mobile devices could live together or run individually, so customers could quickly and easily jump from one to another. Interfaces had to be dynamic and extendable to enable tabular data and insights to be scaled easily. Finally, it was essential to ensure a seamless migration for users to the new SaaS version.

## The solution
Before the Mindera team could tackle the challenge, it was important to drill down into exactly what Euronext wanted to achieve from the project. Product design sprint workshops allowed the team to distil the usual fuzziness and ambiguity of initial ideas and concepts into a structured design strategy. This helped accelerate the create, test and launch process, and deliver a product that hit the mark.

After developing a clickable prototype, Mindera carried out quality assurance and testing with real users to verify the proposed solution. This enabled thorough exploration and definition of the main navigation pathways across mobile and desktop to ensure the application would be fully responsive. It also helped identify and prioritise those features most important to users, establish how they would function across desktop and mobile, and define the style guide and design principles. Regular design reviews were also held to iterate and discuss ongoing development with the Euronext team and stakeholders to ensure everything remained firmly on track. 

Underpinning the new investment management solution lay a microservices architecture providing benefits of cohesion in business logic, operational decoupling and ease of scalability. It also permitted greater independence of development effort, allowing multiple teams to make progress and iterate in parallel. This architecture design would allow Euronext to better control what apps would be released to different customers, allowing for progressive roll-out to smoothly manage the customer experience.

## The results


>1,000 downloads of the Euronext SaaS app within days of release.


You only need visit the Euronext website to discover how successful the new SaaS version of IR.Manager investment management app has proved to be. Descriptions like the "fastest, most responsive, flexible and comprehensive IR tool available”, tell the story of just how well it has been received.

In terms of usability, the "sleek interface" offers not only an "extensive range of features", but also delivers an "exceptional customer experience”.

So, it’s no surprise it’s proving popular among Euronext’s customers, with the app being downloaded over 1,000 times just a few days after was launched.

<hr />
 
- _[Transform your customer experience today with Mindera. Contact our team](https://mindera.com/contact)_

<hr />
 
## About Euronext
Helping companies handle the complexities of global capital markets, Euronext Corporate Services offers software and tailor-made advisory services spanning investor relations, communication, governance and compliance. The company serves over 4,000 organisations across 25 countries.

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Find out how Mindera developed a responsive, flexible and comprehensive tool to help fintech companies attract the right investors.
 

Mindera app helps Euronext transform the investor experience

DeadHappy future-proofs with scalable insurance platform

>Mindera took on responsibility for our existing insurance platform (from our US partner) in record time allowing us to transition away within a month

###### Dead Happy


## The challenge
Changing the conversation around death and providing customers with the chance to leave something of meaning when they die, DeadHappy’s fresh take on life insurance – no long and boring forms, irritating phone calls or shady pricing – is proving increasingly popular. But success was putting growing pressure on its insurance business systems. Faced a significant rise in customer numbers, DeadHappy urgently needed to:
- Improve scalability of the platform
- Create a more effective user journey to improve conversion
- Improve time to market for delivery of new features

With the aim of adopting a leaner and more agile working methodologies, improving the user experience, developing accessibility features, and making even bigger waves in the world of life insurance, DeadHappy partnered with Mindera. 

## The solution
To tap into the passion and dedication at DeadHappy, Mindera held an initial workshop to discuss the brand’s vision. This established how Mindera could support DeadHappy’s mission and create a scalable insurance platform that would be easy to adapt and use.

Kicking off with the articulation of the architecture, tech stack, and frameworks, Mindera put its resources and knowledge into a Sprint 0, a favoured bootstrapping approach to prepare the work ahead, defining high-level requirements and architecture, expectations, ways of working and an initial roadmap.

As the project began, Mindera supported the existing website so that the user experience wasn’t affected by the work being carried out. The team then built a microservice architecture based on the AWS cloud, React, GraphQL and Node to increase reliability and performance. This created a higher return on investment and improved usability.

## The results
The new web insurance platform Mindera developed for Dead Happy is easy to use, grows and adapts quickly, accelerates the release of new features and products, and has introduced the following key features:

### The ability to share a ‘deathwish’ with family and friends on social media
Beautifully illustrating Dead Happy’s mission to demystify death and help people take control, this function allows beneficiaries to be aware of the wishes of a person when they die. The new platform enables the sending of a million deathwishes.

### A new intuitive dashboard
Allows easy viewing of the customer’s deathwishes, which can be created, updated, and shared with family and friends. The dashboard is mobile-friendly and includes a clear call to action. Its introduction has driven an increase in DeadHappy customers managing their policies and sharing their deathwishes.

### A seamless user journey
Mindera provided seamless legacy integration, so that DeadHappy’s legacy platform could still be used (with no downtime) while having the ability to develop and release new features quickly. The new tech stack allowed the application to be backwardly compatible while enabling scalability. This has created a seamless user journey for DeadHappy’s customers.

### Multiple product offerings
Dead Happy’s original website offered life insurance as the sole product. Mindera refactored the PHP codebase to introduce the concept of multiple products. DeadHappy is now able to offer a range of products beyond life insurance, including near-death cover.

>DeadHappy’s new insurance platform is easy to use, grows and adapts quickly, and accelerates the release of new features and products.


<hr />
 
- _[Talk to our fintech experts](https://mindera.com/contact) about your business challenges_
- _Dive into more of [our fintech work](https://mindera.com/fintech)_


<hr />
## About Dead Happy
Founded in 2013, DeadHappy is a life insurance company formed to make it easier for people to talk about and plan for their death.

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Mindera helps the pioneering life insurance business develop a new web platform that’s easy to use, grows and adapts quickly.

DeadHappy future-proofs with scalable insurance platform from Mindera

Major insurance group goes agile with Mindera

>A working proof of concept was delivered in just 3 months

## The challenge

Finding it increasingly difficult to offer customised insurance propositions through digital channels, an insurance company with operations worldwide appointed software development partner Mindera to facilitate a major transformation project. The multi-million pound transformation programme set out to create a modern, scalable underwriting capability with model-driven risk selection and pricing, blending human judgement with data science. 

The project demanded significant technology replacement and operational change in terms of people and process, and crucially, there was a desire to adopt a different, more rapid approach to delivering the programme. At the same time, the insurance company was becoming increasingly concerned about the speed and cost of technology change in general across its European operations. It was time to look at things differently, and Mindera was brought in to help due to our experience in developing agile ways of working. 

## The solution

Through Mindera’s guidance, the transformation programme was set up to embrace agile principles and practices from the very start. Initially, we advised and led the insurer through an initial discovery phase, applying an innovative approach to validating the business case. This involved forming a small vanguard team operating in a lab-style environment (the team was coined ‘m-Lab’, short for Momentum Lab) and consisting of a cross-section of key stakeholders from multiple business areas, as well as business architects, change management leaders, technology and operations personnel.

With everyone co-located and working intensively together in a designated ‘team room’, a great deal was achieved extremely quickly – a classic example of ‘people over process’. A working proof of concept was designed and built in just three months, a timescale that would have been unimaginable under the insurance company’s conventional delivery process. 

Building on this early success, an agile methodology was developed for breaking down the programme into small increments. This ensured budget drawdown was linked with tangible outcomes rather than deploying excessive resources too early and potentially over-burning on cost. The programme plan was crafted to tackle areas of high uncertainty early, to reduce risk and build confidence, especially in the eyes of the programme steering group.

Leading on from the agile practices pioneered in m-Lab and then scaled up for the North Star programme as a whole, Mindera designed and led an agile transformation programme across the technology and operations division of the insurer’s European operation, securing executive-level sponsorship. An agile Centre of Enablement (CoE) was formed to act as the fulcrum for change and contained a cross-section of change agents from the company’s IT and Ops teams, as well as agile experts from Mindera. The CoE tackled:

- Building an 18-month transformation roadmap
- Assessing and modifying governance and control frameworks
- Introduced new tooling for agile planning and reporting
- Provided internal training (multiple cohorts, 100+ people)
- Hands-on coaching of multiple agile ‘pilot’ projects

Mindera also provided leadership in influencing lean management and delivery for a multi-million pound claims portfolio. This focused on the formation of an agile delivery team to test out ideas and become an exemplar in delivery, along with a review and redefinition of how technology demand was prioritised and agreed at the portfolio level.
 

## The results

The project was established as an agile programme for the global insurer, transforming incremental delivery and introducing new levels of transparency. This achieved a step-change in understanding and adoption of agile methodologies as the new norm for IT delivery for the company’s European operations. 

As a result, numerous benefits have been realised, including:
- Enhanced customer insight and understanding
- Insight-driven pricing and risk selection
- Machine-powered operations and processing
- Enablement through data, analytics and machine learning
- Production innovation for solution differentiation
- Adaptable tech-savvy organisation

## A global insurer’s road to agile with Mindera
- Agile training courses delivered across UK technology and operations teams (100+ people)
- Agile champions group formed to accelerate adoption
- Agile coaches provided to boot-strap multiple pilot projects and overcome organisational barriers

[_Deploy agile ways of working today with Mindera. Contact us now!_](https://mindera.com/contact)

[_Read another of our fintech success stories…_](https://mindera.com/blog/case-studies-euronext-ux-ui-product-new)

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How a leading insurance business deployed a modern, scalable, AI-driven underwriting capability.


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Mindera turns global insurer agile

Case studies

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DeadHappy

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Euronext Corporate Services

Empowering clients across industries with innovative tech solutions that drive success.

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Euronext

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Zopa

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Currency Fair

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Ledger

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Curve

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H S B C

Trusted by Industry Leaders Globally

Blog Article

Explore expert insights and experiences from Mindera’s brightest minds.

Mindera is a global consulting and engineering company with 1100+ people, delivering technology solutions across 9 locations — from Brazil to Australia. 

We work across diverse industries, from Fintech to the Public Sector, offering services in Data, AI, Mobile, and more.

We partner with our clients, to understand their customer journeys, their product and deliver high performance, resilient and scalable software systems that create an impact in their users and businesses across the world.

Mindera 

How will AI transform ecommerce?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a polarising subject. Often, people believe it will transform our lives and be the key to the future of business, no less with ecommerce. The extremist view is that AI could take over the world in a matrix-style machine coup. I’d like to argue AI is a powerful but incremental step that follows very similar patterns and characteristics of the millennia of technological advances that preceded it. Like many technologies, it can be used for good or ill.

## A little bit of history

Around 320,000 years ago, some of our ancestors found a better way of making stone tools: A technique called “prepared core” or Levallois technology, named after the Parisian suburb, where the first examples of its use were found. It meant good quality stone tools could be made reasonably quickly from a blank core of flint.

Artificial Intelligence seems like a far cry from hominin stone knapping. Still, I would argue it is just the most recent step in the progression of human technology that likely started with the humble rock. Before we get into why AI is an important but incremental step, not a transformation advance, I want to set out a few core concepts about how technology advances.

## How technology helps

The steps of technology advance typically allow us to either:
- Do something more efficiently
- Do something to a higher quality
- Do something that wasn’t possible before

More often than not, technology provides efficiency. Before Levallois, Neanderthals could still make stone tools. It just took longer and was harder to get the exact shape desired. Before the early internet, we could still send each other information via post or look things up in a library. Before the tractor, people could still dig fields and grow food; long before the nuclear reactor, humans could still boil water to power a turbine.

Examples of technology allowing something totally new are a little rarer, but pharmaceuticals are probably a good area, such as the discovery and then refinement of penicillin, which enabled the treatment of infections in a way that wasn’t possible before. Since then, mass production technology and genetic modification of the penicillium mould have made the process more efficient.

##Technology layering

Like the penicillin example, the internet is another group of technologies that build on previous steps. The internet is not one technology; it combines many things. For example, Transmission Control Protocol and Domain Name Servers and Hypertext markup language and so on.
Putting all this together with a vast host of other technologies means computers can communicate much more effectively and extensively than before. Most modern uses of technology are not one thing created in isolation but are an iteration of existing technology or the combination of multiple independent ideas used together to create something more meaningful/powerful.

##Technology isn’t always better

>AI, like many preceding technological advances, can do many things more efficiently, but often to a lower standard.

Technology can allow us to do something of a higher quality, such as laser eye surgery. However, I’d argue it tends to focus on efficiency and cost saving, and sometimes at the expense of quality. For example, Roman concrete from 2,000 years ago is better at resisting salt water, much more environmentally friendly, emits less toxic gas, and is much less likely to crack because it wasn’t used with steel reinforcement, which reduces the lifespan of concrete. 

If we compare Wikipedia to previous sources of knowledge, like going to a library, Wikipedia comes up short both in terms of accuracy and depth of information. One study estimates it's 80% as accurate as other sources. If we contrast digital cameras with film, digital cameras don’t take quite as good quality photos. Yes, there are, of course, countless examples of where technology improves capabilities, but it’s a mistake to think that something “more technologically advanced” is always better or better across all factors.

## AI in ecommerce

>The scenario where AI adds the most value in eCommerce is where it is processing unreasonably large sets of data.

Mindera recently helped a client map out how AI could help their ecommerce business. We found that many of the scenarios produced little value, and those that were valuable were typically harder or more expensive to implement, making them potentially important, but certainly not transformational or cost effective.

AI, like many preceding technological advances, can do many things more efficiently, but often to a lower standard. We grouped the use of AI into four sections with clear criteria/framework behind these four areas:

- Quicker wins
- Longer-term investments
- Risky investments
- Potential distractions

![Mindera AI for eCommerce.png](https://storage.googleapis.com/mindera-cms-media-uploads/Mindera_AI_for_e_Commerce_d33e5a8a84/Mindera_AI_for_e_Commerce_d33e5a8a84.png)

**Quicker wins**

The scenario where AI adds the most value to ecommerce platform development is where it is processing huge sets of data. It’s especially powerful when the data is messy and unstructured, as AI can be trained to navigate unstructured data and process it in a more efficient way than a person (at scale). What makes something a quick win versus a longer-term investment is the simplicity of the result. If the source data is large and the answer can be some form of binary yes or no answer, or score-based answer (such as 75%), AI is often a quick win.

For example, AI could find all the V-neck T-shirts in a catalogue of 100,000 products using only the images by first finding if it is a T-shirt and secondly finding out if it’s a V-neck or not. Of course, a person (even a young child) could do this pretty quickly and cheaply, but the power of AI comes when you want to keep re-processing a large data set to find dozens of attributes or the data set becomes millions of images.

**Longer-term investments**

These also need a large data set to be “understood”, often in multiple dimensions. In ecommerce, this could be understanding customers, products and orders, and the answer the AI is seeking might be a personalised recommendation, which is not a simple yes or no. This is a good use of the power of AI, but requires a lot of investment of time in building and/or training models to work a certain way. The extra dimensions add complexity and, therefore, effort.

**Risky investments**

These are pushing the limits of what is possible. For example, one idea in this space is that a user could take a picture of themself and then choose an online item of clothing and reconstruct the two together in a virtual try-on scenario. While it’s possible to do this manually with 3D modelling, it takes hours to build the objects. The idea is AI could do it in a quick and scalable way. This sounds great and could be transformational, but the challenge is getting good accuracy with limited data (say, just a photo or a few photos of a person).

Many start-ups are trying to do this specifically. However, if you ask 100 online shoppers how many use AI to try on clothes before they buy, I expect the answer would be zero or very close to zero.

**Potential distractions**

Most AI applications people talk about in the ecommerce space fall into this category, ‘potential distractions’. Taking for example the task of writing product descriptions for a dress found on fashion retailer, net-a-porter. Shown below are two different descriptions. The first, written by AI, is purely functional, simply offering product information, while the second, written by a person, has a warmth and style which is more engaging and reflective of the net-a-porter brand.

- _This maxi dress features a swirling striped pattern in a rich, luxurious cashmere-blend fabric. TheFabric.com's Ocon stripe dresses are made to flatter all body types and are perfect for an elegant evening out or a special day at the office. The waistband is made from stretchy cotton, and the hem is finished with an elegant draped skirt_

- _Gabriela Hearst's 'Ocon' maxi dress is an effortless way to inject colour into your wardrobe. It's crocheted from a blend of wool and cashmere in swirling stripes that are curved to enhance your frame. Style yours with a pair of statement earrings and heels._

AI with training and feedback can create better results than this. However, the time saved using AI and then having to correct mistakes manually or give feedback, as opposed to just writing a better description is not huge. So, as we explored earlier, we may end up with “good enough” for a small efficiency gain.

For some ecommerce businesses, this may be a worthwhile trade-off. For example, if there are many products and no descriptions and users don’t need accuracy in the description. Still, for many ecommerce businesses, it’s a distraction.

## To round up

The most expensive bread, the most expensive luxury handbags, the best Japanese carbon steel cooking knives and some of the fastest and most expensive cars all use some of the oldest production technology available, being largely or wholly handmade. This is because technology often makes things more efficient but at the cost of a slight reduction in quality.

AI can be used to improve quality, and it can undoubtedly make some processes more efficient, but it’s not trivial to make it do both. As such, it will follow the pattern of many preceding technological advances, changing how some things work and reshaping some roles, improving some areas but not being wholly or rapidly transformational.

The internet has no clear invention year. A message was sent in 1969 using some of the foundation technology of the internet, but you could hardly say the internet was invented then. It took decades to mature, and like the internet, over the coming decades, AI will evolve and gain adoption and reach new heights of success.

_Let’s work out the benefits AI can bring to your technology function. [Contact us today!](https://mindera.com/contact)_


## Key takeaways

- Technology can allow us to do something of a higher quality, such as laser eye surgery. However, it tends to focus on efficiency and cost saving, and sometimes at the expense of quality. 
- Mindera recently mapped out how AI could help a client’s e-commerce business, finding that many of the scenarios produced little value, and those that were valuable were typically harder or more expensive to implement.
- AI can be used to improve quality, and make some processes more efficient, but it’s not easy to make it do both. As such, it will change how some things work and reshape some roles, improving some areas but not being wholly or rapidly transformational.

## About the author

Dan Knight is FashionTech Vertical Lead at Mindera.


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Are we looking at an artificial intelligence-driven revolution in ecommerce? Mindera’s Dan Knight investigates…


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How will artificial intelligence transform ecommerce?

Are Your Websites and Apps Accessible?

>Always design with users in mind.

 
Delivering a better citizen digital experience is key for more than half (52%) of public sector technology decision-makers, according to the report [‘UK Public Sector Must Accelerate Digital Transformation To Achieve Digital Maturity’](https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/industries/infrastructure-government-healthcare/digital-maturity-in-the-uk-public-sector.html) from KPMG and Forrester. It’s a cornerstone of the Government’s push for digital transformation of the public sector. 

Realising this vision demands making digital tools and solutions universally accessible, so they can benefit the one in five UK citizens with a long-term illness, impairment or disability. In fact, the UK’s 16 million registered disabled people, according to [Government figures](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps), are likely to need care and public services even more than the rest of the population. However, most public sector websites and mobile apps do not currently meet accessibility requirements. For example, a study by the [Society for innovation, technology and modernisation](https://www.socitm.net) found that four in 10 local council homepages failed basic tests for accessibility.

This is not only a problem for citizens. While threatening digital transformation goals, it also comes with a legal risk. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 say public sector organisations must make their websites and mobile apps more accessible by ensuring they are “perceivable, operable, understandable and robust”. Plus, an accessibility statement must be published on each website. The benchmark is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [2.2 AA accessibility standard](https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/helping-people-to-use-your-service/understanding-wcag). 

The Government Digital Service (GDS) monitors public sector bodies’ compliance on behalf of the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It does this by examining a sample of public sector websites and mobile apps every year, and can ask for information and request access to intranets, extranets, apps or any public sector website. 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in England, Scotland and Wales and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) in Northern Ireland enforce the requirement to make public sector websites and mobile apps accessible. They can use their legal powers against offending organisations, citing breach of the Equality Act 2010 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to carry out investigations, and instigate unlawful act notices and court action.

Beyond the legal ramifications, accessible websites and apps help public services and care reach and serve more citizens faster, more efficiently and more effectively. A greater number of health consultations and treatments, for example, can be carried out remotely, reducing the burden on the GP surgeries and the NHS when they need it most. 

So, what does digital accessibility look like? Well, not like this:

 
![unnamed.png](https://storage.googleapis.com/mindera-cms-media-uploads/unnamed_a5650d5ab5/unnamed_a5650d5ab5.png)
_A CAPTCHA screen prompting the user to enter distorted black text into a text box for verification. Buttons for Continue and Cancel appear below._
 

![Screenshot 2024-12-18 at 15.13.36.png](https://storage.googleapis.com/mindera-cms-media-uploads/Screenshot_2024_12_18_at_15_13_36_fcc5f419e8/Screenshot_2024_12_18_at_15_13_36_fcc5f419e8.png)
_A CAPTCHA challenge with a 3x3 grid of street photos. The instruction says, 'Select all images with a bus.' A few images clearly show buses in traffic. A verify button is below the grid._
 
 

Inaccessibility can start before someone actually reaches a website with the frequently used standard security gateways that detect if a user is human or a robot. As such, they are an instant blocker. The lack of clarity coupled with complexity frustrates and excludes many people with visual impairment, as well as individuals with conditions such as ADHD and disorders like autism. 

Here are examples of design techniques that can improve digital accessibility for a range of common conditions and disorders:

##Colour blindness
This inability to differentiate certain colours means sufferers can’t see one or more of the red, blue and green primary colours that make up the visual spectrum, or can’t identify colour at all. Overcoming this requires high-contrast design of readable and clickable elements. 

![17.1-Are Your Website and Apps Accessible Enough.png](https://storage.googleapis.com/mindera-cms-media-uploads/17_1_Are_Your_Website_and_Apps_Accessible_Enough_bf7ed5ddfa/17_1_Are_Your_Website_and_Apps_Accessible_Enough_bf7ed5ddfa.png)
_Comparison of high contrast and low contrast buttons: high contrast buttons are clear and easy to read; low contrast buttons have reduced readability due to similar colors and poor text visibility._
 
 
 
The use of an accompanying icon to illustrate the action indicated also helps increase perception and understanding.

##Dyslexia
For people with this learning disorder characterised by reading difficulties, long texts or very small fonts can make the condition worse. The following font has been designed to optimise the understanding of people with dyslexia. The distinct letters and lower bold styling make web and app text easier to read.

![Screenshot 2024-12-18 at 15.14.38.png](https://storage.googleapis.com/mindera-cms-media-uploads/Screenshot_2024_12_18_at_15_14_38_2e405d3534/Screenshot_2024_12_18_at_15_14_38_2e405d3534.png)
_A text excerpt describes the OpenDyslexic typeface, its purpose to aid dyslexic readers, its creator, and its open-source status._


##ADHD
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) makes concentration and focus more difficult. Incorporating the following design elements can make websites accessible to those with this condition: 
- **Predictability:** Features like sudden pop-ups and notifications, the use of automation that submits forms when the last field is completed without notifying the user, and hidden menus on certain pages, cause confusion to those with ADHD. Avoiding these elements and prioritising predictability make websites more readable.
- **Clear, specific instructions:** This is particularly important for online forms, where labels and/or instructions should be included. They will help all users, but are essential for those with cognitive, language and learning disabilities.
- **Avoid time limits:** People with ADHD are prone to anxiety, which means that time limits on website and app interactions can cause problems, particularly as sufferers are likely to need longer to complete certain interactions. Therefore, they should be avoided where possible, or clear notification provided along with as much control as possible.
- **Don’t use autoplay:** Instantly launching loud videos and flashing animated content is particularly distracting and can be distressing for people with ADHD. If they must be used, clear ‘pause’, ‘stop’, ‘hide’ buttons should be prominently displayed. 
- **Clean, clear, layout:** Simple designs tend to be more accessible, and they’re usually more appealing too. By maintaining a clean layout, you can keep users engaged and avoid overwhelming them with information. This is particularly useful for people with ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurocognitive conditions.

##Autism Spectrum Disorder
Here are five design features that can enhance the online and app experience for autistic people:
- **Give time to process information:** As with ADHD-friendly sites, remove any timeouts, auto-play features and pop-ups.
- **Don’t overload with details:** Keep a clear and consistent layout throughout web pages and documents avoiding large blocks of text to not overwhelm users.
- **Write in plain language:** Avoid using figures of speech or idioms, as these may be taken literally Don’t write in jargon and always write out abbreviations in full.
- **Add clear descriptive prompts:** Ensure navigation is simple to use, while clearly labelling actions that need to be taken. Also, consider adding summary boxes at the beginning of each page highlighting the key points made, and providing clear commands on forms.
- **Use simple colours:** Avoid anything too bright or contrasting, and keep the theme consistent across a page or document. 

##Visual impairment
The following techniques can increase accessibility to people with failing or no sight:
- **Avoid overlaying text on background Images:** Without enough contrast, it’s impossible for visually impaired users to tell the difference between the background and text. 
- **Make font sizes adjustable:** This is a simple but highly effective feature to help people read website content more easily.
- **Add alt text to images:** This helps disabled users and search engines better understand what a website image is about. Alt text should tell a visitor what they are looking at and how it relates to content through description. Avoid making the description overly complex.
- **Make your links and buttons descriptive:** This gives sight-impaired users more context, while also making it easier for sighted users to scan websites. Titles should also be descriptive because screen readers announce the title of a web page and the components within. 

##Deafness
Consider the following for better engagement with those suffering from hearing loss:
- **Upload videos with captions:** Video content is a powerful tool for engaging audiences. But without proper captions, it can be inaccessible to deaf individuals.
- **Alt text for images:** As with the visually impaired, provide concise and descriptive alt text for all images to help deaf users who use screen readers to understand visual content.
- **Transcripts for audio content:** Offer detailed transcripts for all audio content, ensuring that deaf users can access the information through text.
- **British Sign Language in-vision translation:** This adds an additional layer of accessibility to videos. It involves having a BSL interpreter visible on the screen, translating the spoken content into sign language in real-time.

More accessible websites and apps are better for everyone, not just those with disabilities. To ensure yours are compliant, choose a web and app development partner that thoroughly understands digital accessibility design principles, and work together to create something that everyone can get the most out of and maximise inclusivity. 

 
 
## The digital accessibility universe:
- **1.5 million** people have a learning difficulty (Mencap)
- **1 in 10** people have dyslexia (NHS)
- **Over 2 million** people in UK suffer sight loss (RNIB)
- **1 in 5** adults in the UK are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus (RNID)
- **1 in 7** people (15% of the UK population) are neurodivergent.
- **18.5 million** people have a speech, voice, or language disorder. (Accessible Communications)

<hr />
 
_[Contact Mindera today](https://mindera.com/contact) to ensure your digital projects have accessibility built in from planning to launch and beyond…_

 
##Key takeaways
- To optimise the citizen experience and digital transformation, public sector websites and apps should be accessible by everyone, especially the UK’s 16 million disabled people, and those with other conditions and disorders. However, most do not currently meet accessibility requirements. 
- This is a legal requirement, with Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 saying public sector organisations must make their websites and mobile apps more accessible by ensuring they are “perceivable, operable, understandable and robust”.
- Beyond the legal ramifications, accessible websites and apps help public services and care reach and serve more citizens faster, more efficiently and more effectively. A greater number of health treatments, for example, can be carried out remotely, reducing the burden on the GP surgeries and the NHS when they need it most. 
- There are several design techniques that can be used to increase accessibility depending on a specific disability, condition or disorder. Incorporating as many as possible into digital channels increases their reach, usability and effectiveness. 

<hr />
##About the author
Bruno Machado is a Quality Assurance Engineer at Mindera.

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Delivering better, more inclusive access to public services.


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Are Your Public Sector Websites and Apps Accessible?

6 Steps to Successful Mobile App Development

>Mobile app development demands a deep understanding of the target customer and the function of mobile devices.

 
As an entire process from ideation and design through to execution and launch, mobile app development demands a deep understanding of the target customer and the function of mobile devices. You might think that mobile app development and desktop app development are similar, but many factors set them apart, such as reliability, accessibility, usability and responsiveness to user interaction. The reality can be that development roadmaps end up being very different.

Mobile app success depends on many factors, including technical expertise, marketing strategy, and engineering capacity. It must be sensitive to constraints in budget and meeting specific deadlines that are important for product release. Mindera’s agile software development approach, team autonomy, and self-organisation help navigate these obstacles. Choosing the right product management methodology really impacts the journey the software development team will embark on from the get-go.

##Android or iOS

Whether to build for Android or iOS (or both) depends on several factors. Critical among these factors is knowing the target audience, the customer demographic, and understanding the adoption and usage of different devices in regions where the business operates, which is an ever-changing picture.

Another consideration is functionality and the richness of the user experience or UX; these influence the choice of platform and technology decisions to elect native development or a cross-platform approach and which language or framework is best. Then there’s the budget to consider, whether it is affordable to support multiple variants to maximise reach and deliver an optimised user experience. All of this requires making the right decisions at the right time.

There’s a lot of overlap between Android and iOS mobile app development. So, here’s a basic six-step breakdown covering both to provide a flavour of what’s involved: 
### 1. Define app requirements and scope
 
Understanding an organisation’s needs and goals for their app is critical. At Mindera, we use the ‘Sprint 0’ process to achieve this, setting up a three-day workshop where we get to know our client and gather detailed information on product requirements, features and functionalities.
### 2. Design and wireframing
 
Once business goals are understood, we craft a visual plan of the app's layout using wireframes or mockups. Here, we consider the user interface (UI) elements to make the product user-friendly and will frequently meet with our client to get their feedback on the process.
### 3. Development, development, development!
 
Our software engineering teams work their coding genius in various languages and frameworks, for example, Java or Kotlin for Android and Swift or SwiftUI for iOS. The wireframes are carefully refined and referenced so we can implement the required functionality. Applying agile methodology, we constantly apply software testing processes, iterating and refining as we go.
### 4. Testing and Quality ssurance
 
Of course, it’s essential to test the products you’re developing thoroughly, and we do just that on various Android/iOS devices and by using tools to help with automation. In this stage, we can identify any bugs, crashes or issues and work on them accordingly. We also look at app performance, cybersecurity and responsiveness.
### 5. Client review and feedback
 
Regular review and feedback with the client, often daily, is crucial, and we actively encourage this at all stages of development. After all, our goal is your goal; we want the product to be as polished and perfect as possible!
### 6. Deployment and launch
 
To launch, we need to prepare the app for app store submission, including creating app icons, generating necessary certificates, etc. For Android, signed Android Application Packages (APKs) must be generated and reviewed before the app can be published on the Google Play Store or other relevant platforms. For iOS, the necessary certificates need to be generated, and then the app has to be submitted to the Apple App Store for review.

Apps are then monitored post-launch for further bugs that may arise, and user feedback is gathered for future updates.

>Choosing the right product management methodology really impacts the app development journey the team will embark on from the get-go.

 
![The Mobile App Development Process flow - 1. Requirements and scope; 2. Design and wireframing; 3. Development, development, development!; 4. Testing and Quality Assurance; 5. Client review and feedback; 6. Deployment and Launch.](https://storage.googleapis.com/mindera-cms-media-uploads/3_6_Steps_to_Success_Mobile_App_Development_01_05d61f57b2/3_6_Steps_to_Success_Mobile_App_Development_01_05d61f57b2.png)
_Image: The Mobile App Development Process flow_

## Updates and adaptability

We are presenting a very simplified overview, and more steps can be involved in the iOS process due to cybersecurity features and guidelines from Apple. Moreover, this approach is not limited to creating brand-new apps. It’s equally applicable to improving existing app versions. This iterative cycle can be applied repeatedly for every new feature developers introduce.
Although similar, the process is also adaptable to the client's goals. For example, when we work alongside a client with a mature project, the mobile app development brings focus on areas like new features, technical debt, solving bugs and issues, roadmap challenges, etc.

## The app submission processes
###**Android**
Usually a “simpler” and shorter process than when working with iOS, the first thing to consider with Android, is that software developers have the challenge of testing the app on a wide range of devices due to a very diverse Android ecosystem. Luckily, Android Studio has an emulator which makes testing easier. A representative set of devices can be selected that cover different screen sizes, resolutions, and hardware capabilities.

Although a pain point for Android developers, by testing on devices with varying specs, software engineering teams can identify and address any issues that may arise on different hardware. They can also distribute a beta version of the app for further testing by sharing the APK file with testers or by using beta testing platforms like Google Play’s beta testing program. This broad device testing approach improves the chances of catching a wider range of bugs or issues so these can be resolved before reaching a wider audience. Firebase can also be used in the software testing process, to which apps can be uploaded and distributed without any kind of review on Google’s side.

Generally speaking, the Google Play Store offers a more lenient and quicker review process compared to Apple. Android apps also have greater flexibility when it comes to their distribution. Software engineers can publish an app directly on the Google Play Store or alternative stores, as well as on websites. This offers much more control over app distribution.

###**Apple**
While Google emphasises automated checks and algorithmic reviews for app submission, along with more flexibility, Apple’s review is more manual and often takes longer. This affects how long it takes for the app to reach the user (speed to market).

Compared to Android, there are fewer distinct device configurations, making testing for a wide range of devices less of a concern for an iOS software engineer. Apple runs a comprehensive simulator within Xcode (their development environment), which is fantastic for emulating various iPhone and iPad models. Therefore, different screen sizes and resolutions can be tested without needing the actual device. Apple also provides a TestFlight platform so engineers can invite specific users to try pre-release versions of the apps. There is a well-defined set of guidelines and security steps involved with Apple.

Cybersecurity and privacy are critical in this app submission process. To get an app published on the App Store, software engineers have to submit the app for manual checks to make sure Apple’s guidelines are met. A project might take a week for review on Android and sometimes up to three weeks on Apple. Usually, the app isn’t approved for the store in the first pass. The process is more iterative, whereby Apple will give feedback, which the software development team then work on until it is accepted. Incidentally, the three-week timeline is more for the first submission of an app. When the app has been in the store for a while, the submission time for any new versions can be as little as two or three days. Apple’s guidelines cover user data protection, app behaviour, and adherence to the Human Interface Guidelines.

Since July 2022, all the apps in the Apple App Store need a button so the user can delete their account immediately. It adds extra steps for our software engineers as Apple has to review our code. Conversely, we don’t have this barrier in Android development. However, ultimately, it is better for the user as they get a high-quality and privacy-secured app that they can delete whenever, without the need to contact customer support.

## Transform your customer experience today
Developed in the right way, mobile apps can make it quick and easier for customers to access and buy your products and services. They can also add critical value to their experience, driving loyalty. 

>It’s essential to test the products you’re developing thoroughly.

<hr />
 
_ [Contact us](https://mindera.com/contact) to discuss your application development_

 
##Key takeaways

- Mobile app success depends on many factors, including technical expertise, marketing strategy, and engineering capacity. 
- Whether to build on Android or iOS (or both) depends on knowing the target audience, the customer demographic, and understanding the adoption and usage of different devices in regions where the business operates.
- Due to plenty of overlap between Android and iOS, it’s possible to follow a six-step app development framework to drive success. 
- This approach is equally applicable to improving existing app versions. This iterative cycle can be applied repeatedly for every new feature developers introduce.
- Before going live, apps must be submitted to the relevant platform – Android or iOS – for approval. 

<hr />
 
##About the author

Pedro Vincente is Mobile Horizontal Lead and Software Craftsman at Mindera. He turns ideas into reality using code and fine-tunes ways of working to drive efficiency.

A person browsing online shops on iPad, focused on finding the fashion items to purchase.

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The right mobile application can boost sales and loyalty. Mindera’s Pedro Vincente explains the best approach to take. 


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Essential tips for successful mobile application development

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