Storyboard Pokemon Lifestyle

My take on “There’s an app for that” – Build VS Use

Estimated Reading Time:  4 minutes

/*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, It’s just some apps that I use on daily basis and my thoughts on use vs build… relating to UX of course (Welp there is always going to be UX on my post sorry…)

There is an app for that illustration
There is an app for that – Steve Jobs : Image Credit Gud Johnson

Warning this post is cheesy as a sweet mother of dabbing baby Jesus. If you are lactose intolerant please avoid this post.”
“There’s an app for that” is a trademark of Apple Inc and I’m not in any way involved with apple at the moment.*/

/*P.S. Sorry about the unstructured post format.
This post works best with mentioned music enabled on background*/

<day>

<morning>

Hashtag: Daily Routine
[Background music: T-Pain – 5 O’Clock ft. Wiz Khalifa, Lily Allen]

    • I wake up with an alarm
    • Start my day by, putting some toast on a toaster, checking emails on my phone and u know all o that morning life.
    • After I’m done with usual stuff like… eating.
    • I called an Uber to work.
    • Oh, my Uber is here.
    • But hey I need my coffee first thing in the morning (well ok not first thing maybe second, or fifth you count).
    • But I don’t feel like waiting in a long queue to get my coffee, but y’know cant start my day without a shot of 12 Oz cappuccino running in my blood.
    • Good thing there is an app such as Hey You and  Skip (again not sponsored), it helps me skip the queue and order my coffee while I’m still on my uber ride (10/10 for sleek interface btw).

</morning>

<ride>

Hastag: This bloke has a Spotify on his speaker (not even premium)
[Background music: Rather Be – Pentatonix (Clean Bandit Cover) ]

    • There’s a music playing on the uber background,
    • Welp!!! guess what? this Uber dude is playing it via Spotify.
    • How do I know that? Glad you asked… because

sometimes you just really really want to hear a certain song

    • If you weren’t able to understand that reference… I feel an immeasurable amount of happiness for ya mate… Either you are paying for Spotify premium or you are not using spotify in Australia. (It’s this annoying Spotify ads btw).
    • This uber guy turns to me and gives me this “awkwarrrrrrd” smile.
    • I pretend to not know what just happened by using “infinite scrolling option” between my apps (That’s my solution to awkward GTFO of that situation)

Storyboard Pokemon

</ride>

<work>

Hashtag: Fast forward usual UX stuff
[Background music: Ugly Baby – Stephen Lynch]

Um… I do all of my UX stuff, I ain’t saying much about this part since my website is all about UX… but this includes my journal, Sketch, InVison, whiteboard…

</work>

Hashtag: Don’t believe me? Just watch.
[Background music: Bo Burnham – God’s Perspective]

    • It’s almost end of the day and this band thingy tells me how I haven’t covered much distance today.
    • My good mate watch/band seriously you should see how skinny I am. You’d probably stop giving me these notifications and
    • ask me to stay at home, order pizza online and (oh btw there is this app/plugin thingy that tries every single gift coupon codes for you: its called Honey )and gain some weight

.

</day>

Despite the unintended promotion of all of these apps, I was just trying to show you guys how my everyday life revolves around a mobile app, and Yes there is indeed an app for everything. Welp if your argument is “but Sagun, there isn’t an app that can toast a bread for you” then… my good friend that is what toasters are there for but yes literally everything that you interact from the moment you take the step out of your bed to the end of the day, there is an app built for you. If you cant find one then you, my friend you just found your user-gap, a billion dollar idea, EXPLOIT IT!!!. I absolutely love this concept: you want to do something there’s a possibility that there might be an app or plugins designed to do so.

There is an app for that
Relatable Scenario | Source – Andreacollo knee surgery

This concept applies to UX or to be specific UI designs when it comes to “build vs use”. Every time someone asks me my opinion on “do they design or use the existing app and services?” My answer is always “it depends”. It’s up to you to decide. Personally, I assess them using a set of questions that I ask myself: do I trust these plugins or apps. Do I want something light or am I going to be ok with plugins taking care of your web/app? Is using plugin going to solve my problem with less effort ensuring my site/app is still going to be stable? How long will it take to load the content using the API from source? Or do I only design my own app when I cant find something flexible?

Being a security practitioner, my spidey senses are always tingling and this is where I think twice about “there is an app for that” principle. Let’s say I’m designing this WordPress based e-commerce website, I have top-notch security, everything is updated but what about the third party plugin that I’m using to make my image popup, is it equally secure. Probably its designed by someone from Nepal (not insulting… it’s mi hometown just like putting em reference) in their bedroom. In this case, do I trust these plugin and let go of my paranoia or do I just say “screw that, I’m making my own”? One more thing to consider while deciding build vs use is who else is already using it? are the users/early adopters trustworthy, and can we trust these apps with our user’s data?  That being said I’m not a big fan of using “only plugins to solve the problem” but I still use the concerns above to decide if I want to use the app that is already available. I mean I can trust Amazon Web Services to host my web apps but I wouldn’t trust Uncle Sams XYZ web services. Credibility and recognition also affect the temptation of usage, for instance, I’d use the bootstrap grid system, Paypal’s payment gateway API’s since it is already built, built with perfection there is no way I’ll be able to do something half as good as those things and half of the industries are already trusting and using it. But these apps/plugins are here to make our life easier so why not make the most out of it.

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