For a long while, it looked like websites were the future for delivering software products, which was until the entry of smart phones. Once mobile phone technology developed to the point that you could access websites in the palm of your hand, the requirements for web-based applications changed once again. Now, developers needed to consider how smaller screens could present meaningful content. How could a touchscreen-based user interface operate where a mouse and keyboard used to be assumed? And how could people engage in a meaningful way when they had only five minutes while waiting for their coffee order?

Delivering a single application, available through desktop browsers and mobile phones, across a plethora of different operating systems and devices, has clear advantages for developers, but there are also challenges. The internet is a very large place and your product can easily get lost in the noise; how do you attract new users and how do you ensure that your existing customers keep coming back? One major response to this was the introduction of native apps (applications designed and built for specific platforms) for mobile devices. The iPhone launched with web-based applications only, but within eight months, Apple delivered the capability for developers to build native applications. These applications provided a more meaningful engagement with users; they were designed for the device they ran on, they could be found easily through a marketplace or app store, and once installed, remained a constant reminder on the device's home screen.

And so we enter a time where our target audience has become accustomed to software designed specifically for their device. A polished user experience is a must-have if companies expect to engage and retain their customers. Waiting for pages to load or dealing with intermittent errors are niggles that users are no longer willing to put up with. This higher bar for software delivery is now a well understood phenomenon, but the improvement in quality for software delivered through mobile devices hasn't yet been reflected on the desktop. Until recently, the browser was still king; long lists of website bookmarks are used in place of expecting applications delivered through a store and installed onto the computer. This, however, is changing and we're going to explore how to deliver a quality user experience through beautiful desktop applications.