How is Blue Label Labs different from its competitors?

First, we live and breathe cutting-edge/bleeding-edge technology, so your app will similarly be cutting-edge/bleeding edge with a long “shelf-life”. Second, with a perfect mix of local, domestic and international talent you are guaranteed to get the optimal mix of a high-quality product and a fair price. Third, you will be assigned a dedicated Program Manager (PM) after we’ve established a contract who will be your single point-person for all of your needs and questions. This PM will stay with you for the duration of your relationship with Blue Label Labs and is your conduit to all of the resources we have to offer, thus streamlining your communication and preventing you from having to repeat your message to multiple resources or play air traffic control. Our PMs are the best in the business and we’d be happy to introduce you to a projected PM (and project team) once we’ve got an estimate on the table to discuss. Fourth, the size of Blue Label Labs team (now 64 people strong) means you don’t have to worry about the “single point of failure” issue that exists at smaller shops of just one or two developers, nor the burden paying for the high overhead cost associated with larger shops. Fifth, we have a stronger focus on design than most other shops. We split our design team into two specific functions—Product/User Experience and User Interface. It’s a rare unicorn designer that is good at both thinking through flow and product decisions, as well as branding, colors, logos and overall User Interface. To that end, each project team has both a UX Designer and UI Designer staffed to ensure top notch design. Sixth, with over 7 years of operation and over 250 apps completed, we have both the experience and extensive re-usable code base to ensure your app is built as efficiently and as inexpensively as possible. Seventh, our QA and Testing methodology is rigorous and as important to us as the actual development—meaning your app will be as bug free as is possible. We have a dedicated QA Engineer staffed on every project. This engineer is not the original author of the code ensuring the highest quality results from the QA process. Please see the below sections for more details.

How does Blue Label Labs work with clients?

Blue Label Labs Labs begins most projects with a Discovery, Planning & Design Phase (Phase One). First, we determine the proper technologies and development schedule. Second, the Design teams inherit the User Stories that were drafted during the sales process. User Stories are simple one-liners that outline the activities your users will need to be able to accomplish within the app. These User Stories then get grouped together into meaningful features and feature sets. The Design teams work with the client to finalize the User Stories. Third, our design team sets out creating greyscale wireframes to illustrate how a user will move through the app (i.e., the user experience, UX). Fourth, we transition to full color illustrations/designs that have the final look and feel of the app (i.e., the user interface, UI). Fifth, the app designs are then uploaded into a prototyping platform called Invision that allows our team to create tappable and swipeable “hotspots” so that you can show the app on your phone or via a mocked-up phone in a web browser. At the same time, we draft a Functional Specification document that details the technical hows and whys of the project for the development team. Once that work is complete, we them move on to the Development Phase (Phase Two). The Agile development/engineering team works hand-in-hand with the Program Manager and follows the wireframes and the Functional Specifications to build the app. Our first development goal is the First Deliverable milestone—we call this D1; this is a highly functional build of the app that contains a subset of features agreed upon by Blue Label Labs and the client. We then begin an iterative process of finalizing the remaining features. At the same time, a QA Team builds a full test plan for the app. The QA Team continually performs functional and regression testing on the app, reporting issues to the Project Manager. Learn more about our process here.

How long does it take to complete the average app?

Typically, for our average 4 to 5-month project, the Phase One: Discovery & Planning and Design lasts for approximately 4 to 6 weeks, with Phase Two: Development and Testing Phase occupying the remaining 3 to 4 months. At the end of the Phase Two, the final app is prepared for Deployment. Deployment involves moving any web services and server side components to a production environment and submitting the app to the relevant app store(s).

How much does the average app cost?

If we were in full-swing on a new project, a client can estimate a cost of between $10,000 and $30,000 per two-week sprint ($20,000 to $60,000 per month) for the effort—typically billed bi-weekly. If Blue Label Labs is handling everything from Discovery, Planning & Design through to Deployment in an app store, total app costs average about $120,000 for one “platform”–iOS, Android, Web, etc. That said, it very much depends on the complexity of the design and development required for each individual app, we’ve completed full apps at costs of between $50,000 (a bare-bones, simple MVP/prototype) and $2,000,000 (a full featured, enterprise apps). We provide free, no commitment estimates to clients. After the app is submitted to an app store(s) or pushed live on the web, the Blue Label Labs team monitors the app store and customer reviews and deals with any issues, questions, delays or approvals that arise. We have a great track record with app submissions and make sure that the app submitted is highly likely to be approved without issue. Post approval, a maintenance agreement can be put into place to cover and small issues, minor app edits (e.g., color, image or text changes) and any bugs that might linger. At the end of the project, we will transfer all source code and project files to you and you will remain the sole owner of all IP in the app. After that time, we provide our services at an hourly rate of $120/hour for ad-hoc updates or at an hourly rate of $100/hour for a mutually agreed upon set number of hours in a 6-month retainer. The monthly maintenance cost for the average app is $2,000/month: in other words, a retainer of 20 hours per month at $100 per hour equals $2,000/month and guarantees expedited service vs. ad-hoc requests.

What is the difference between a Native App, a Hybrid App and an HTML5 App?

Native App: A Native App is an app written for a specific platform like iOS or Android—in other words, the app is written in the coding language used for development on that specific platform (Objective-C or Swift for iOS and Java for Android). When you build a Native App, you get access to all the hardware features exposed by the native code APIs and SDKs. For example, Apple iOS Push Notifications are one example of a feature that cannot be supported by an HTML5 App. The graphics and user interface of a Native App are far superior to any Hybrid or HTML5 app. You would choose this option, if you want to use the user interface components from Apple’s proprietary user interface libraries (i.e., the usability is better); you want full device hardware access—cameras, microphone, and geo-location; you want peak performance with no lag; you want users to be able to access the app off-line (i.e., without Internet access); you want access to push notifications and in-app purchase; and you want your app to de discoverable in the app store. On the downside, your code is less portable across operating systems and it is often the most expensive development option. It is our recommendation that if you plan to start a true, revenue generating, app-based business, this is the only viable option. Hybrid App: A Hybrid App is a form of web app that is deployed to a native platform like an iPhone or Android phone inside a native shell. This shell is usually little more than a web browser view (to display the HTML5 content) and some other hooks to allow your web app to potentially access some more hardware features that are not available inside a typical mobile web browser—e.g., push notification and in-app purchases. It improves code portability because if you want to port your app to another platform, you only need a native shell on that other platform to run it, the HTML5 content of the app is directly portable. These shells can be hand written, but can also be generated automatically by tools in the marketplace like React Native, PhoneGap, Cordova or Xamarin. These tools allow a developer to push the app out to multiple platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, Windows Mobile) quickly by generating the shell and packages required to do so automatically. This sounds powerful, and it is, but clearly creators of these third-party platforms have a lot of configurations and hardware to support, and thus, the solutions do not always work the same across all devices, and in practice, testing and hacking of special cases will be required by the developer to get proper functionality. You would choose this option if you want a balance between cost and usability; you want access to some (but not all) of the phone’s native APIs/SDKs and hardware; you want to be able to quickly deploy across multiple device types; and you’re not worried about high-end graphics. On the downside, because these third-party hybrid platforms (e.g., React Native, PhoneGap and Xamarin) need to support so many device types there are always implementation and usability issues to workout. In addition, you will only have access to the features of a new operating system 6+ months AFTER it is released by Apple, Google or Microsoft. In this way, your app will never be able to cutting-edge technology. While we are fully capable of building Hybrid Apps, it is our recommendation that this option is only viable for simple, lo-fi apps that are heavy on text and images, but don’t need much in the way of functionality or user interface. An HTML5 Web App: An HTML5 app is essentially a website with JavaScript code written to allow the app to perform dynamically, as opposed to a static website that you need to refresh to see the changes. It works interactively to make it feel like an app, but it is actually running in a web browser. It is essentially a website, which will support multiple viewports or screen sizes so that it works well on mobile. Because it is running in a browser, it is confined to what is possible within a mobile web browser. You would choose this option if you want to support multiple platforms with the same app/codebase; you want to deploy it on the web; you want the widest possible support across multiple device operating systems and manufacturers; and you want to be able to update your source files on your server and have them immediately deployed to all devices (i.e., removing the need for the app approval process). On the downside, your app is not discoverable in the app stores; it will never look and feel like a true mobile app; and you will have limited access to some of the software and hardware functionality of the phone (e.g., push notifications and cameras). It is our recommendation, that this option is only viable for view-only content where users are not expected to interact in any meaningful way.

Has Blue Label Labs ever transitioned an app the firm has built to a client’s internal development team? What is the typical process and how long does it usually take? Is there a fee for this?

Quite often Blue Label Labs transitions an app to a client’s in-house development team. As part of our regular transition for any client, we transfer all functional specs, wireframes, UI design resources, screen flow maps, passwords/certificates/credentials and source code to the client. We also have extensive experience working in tandem with a client’s existing engineering team. For example, Blue Label Labs will build the front-end experience of an app on top of a client’s existing backend web service and databases. These transitions are the quickest, averaging only a few days, since the Blue Label Labs team and the client team have already been working hand-in-hand for months. If we are handing over a complete project with no prior engagement with the client’s development team, then the transition can take a little longer depending on the support needed. This can range from a few days to a couple weeks. The transition is typically free of charge unless engineering resources are needed to facilitate the transition or the Program Manager is required to spend more than a week on the transition and training. We’ve even helped companies to interview potential new technical team members—e.g., developers and CTOs.

How does Blue Label Labs provide training to a client’s development team so that they could make app enhancements and how much would that training cost?

Along with all the project documentation and support outlined in the answer to the question above, we are happy to provide hands-on training to in-house developers/team members as part of the transition. There is typically no extra charge for this if only a few hours are required. If ongoing training is necessary, for example an in-house developer is not familiar with app development and requires a crash course, then we can offer our services at our hourly rate of $120/hour for training. We’ve even aided our partners in their hiring of their own technical/development team if/when the time is right.

How many designers and developers does Blue Label Labs have on staff? How many work on each client project? Where is the team located? Can the client talk directly to whomever will work on the app?

The Blue Label Labs team is comprised of 64 individuals across its UX Design/Product, UI Design, Development, Program Management, Quality Assurance, Sales, Marketing and Leadership teams. We have 6 Designers, 10 Program Managers, 35 Developers, 3 App Marketers—the remainder of the team is comprised of the Sales, Marketing, Operations & Leadership Teams. Depending on the size of the project, a team of at least 7 Blue Label Labs staffers will work on your project: 1 Program Manager, 1 UX Designer, 1 UI Designer, 1 Technical Architect, 1 Front-End Developer, 1 Back-End Developer, and 1 Quality Assurance Engineer—in addition to the technical and strategic oversight provided by Blue Label Labs leadership. The majority of our Design and Program Manager teams is based in New York City, Seattle and San Francisco areas. The Developers and Quality Assurance Testers are also based in the aforementioned cities, in addition to India-based team members. The Development, Design and QA Teams are managed directly by the Program Manager. The Program Manager is your primary point of contact and the liaison across all other Blue Label Labs team members associated with your project. That said, clients are welcome to speak directly with any individual team member as is needed.

Are projects priced based on “time-and-material” (i.e., hourly) estimate or a “fixed-price” quote?

Projects are priced on a “time-and-material” basis. With 7 years and 250+ apps of experience to our credit, we are able to produce very accurate estimates. We do our best to stay within budget or provide you ample warning if we think we may exceed our initial estimate so we can coordinate how to move forward together with you. Prior client references can vouch for the accuracy of our estimates and can be provided to you upon request.

Is Blue Label Labs able to guarantee that our app will be published in an app store?

Unfortunately, no application can be guaranteed for app store approval. However, Blue Label Labs has successfully built and deployed over 250 apps for the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores. We have a solid understanding and insight into what these stores will typically approve or disapprove of. We will warn you well in advance if any particular aspect of you project poses an approval risk. We have had a handful of instances where an app store has rejected an app for publication; not due to technical issues, but due to legal/business/terms of use issues; however, we successfully appealed ALL of these rejections and these very same apps are now in the app store for download today. We led these appeals on behalf of our clients at no extra charge. If your app is rejected due to technical reasons, we will make all necessary corrections needed to get approval at no extra charge. We are happy to connect you with some of our clients who did face some app store pushback to tell you about the rejection and our successful appeal.

What is Blue Label Labs’ policy regarding correcting defects and publishing an update in the app store?

We provide our services at a blended hourly rate of $120/hour for ad-hoc updates or at blended hourly rate of $100/hour at a mutually agreed upon set number of hours over a 6-month retainer. For example, a retainer of 20 hours a month for $2,000/month guarantees expedited service vs. ad-hoc requests. Ad-hoc requests are handled on a first come, first serve basis across all of our clients and development is based on our team’s earliest availability. The monthly retainer of hours functions much like an extension of the warranty period; issues are addressed within 24-48 hours and development will start as soon as the scope of the issue is defined. For those clients wanting a guaranteed 24 to 48-hour turnaround time on maintenance issues, a 6-month retainer is suggested.

What level of Quality Assurance is included and provided by you in your proposal?

A Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer is assigned to every project and builds a custom test plan for every project during the Discovery, Planning & Design Phase. During the Development & Testing Phase the QA Engineer continually tests the app using functional and regression testing. We test on a wide array of physical devices as needed for a given project. If we are building a backend web service and databases as part of the project, we will also have a set of automated unit tests that are run regularly to verify functionality.

What is Blue Label Labs’ quality assurance (QA) and testing methodology?

We believe that Blue Label Labs’ QA and testing methodology is part of our competitive differentiation. The fact that we dedicate resources to solely this function is something that sets us apart from other development shops for whom testing is simply an afterthought. At Blue Label Labs, QA is handled at all levels of development. There are generally 3 layers of QA/testing that happens for every project: 1.) Internal Development Team Testing Each Development Team has an internal QA Tester along with the Developer Lead who perform basic validation on bug fixes prior to builds being released to the broader Project Manager and QA team. Their validation is to ensure that items within JIRA, which we use alongside Trello, to coordinate team efforts and communicate with clients—are properly remedied according to their descriptions prior to “checking-in” or committing code. When items are resolved by the Development Team they are pulled into the “Testing Done by Dev Team” stack of Trello cards and/or within JIRA. When developing new projects, the Blue Label Labs Development Team will also be responsible for creating “unit tests” for our code so that we can quickly run a basic set of verifications. The dev team does the majority of their testing using iOS and Android app simulators. 2.) Dedicated QA Engineer Each project has a dedicated QA Engineer who sits independently from the Development Team who is responsible for: a.) Drafting a milestone based test plan which outlines a list of black box scenarios to verify and the expected results; b.) Performing smoke and full test pass runs against weekly and milestone builds; c.) Verifying and closing bugs that the Development Team has marked as complete; d.) Working with the Development Team to report issues and regressions; and d.) The QA Engineer takes items from the “Testing Done by Dev Team” Trello stack and verifies whether it is actually fixed. If it is, the Trello card is moved to the “Done (Verified)” pile, or sent back to the “Weekly Priorities” or “Product Backlog” stacks, as appropriate. The QA Engineer will generally perform their tests on 2-3 devices, depending on project requirements. 3.) Project Manager (PM) Testing The final QA gate is the PM who is responsible for quality of the entire product. They will also work with the QA Engineer to verify items have been fixed properly in addition to triaging new issues coming in from the client and the QA Engineer. The PM will appropriately schedule issues to be resolved based on their severity and importance. The PM’s testing is done on actual devices.

Can Blue Label Labs help me with Marketing and PR?

Absolutely. We aim to be your full-service app partner. Our Marketing & PR Offering is designed to help you launch your app and gain marketing exposure. Learn more about our Marketing & PR Offering here.

App Design & Development

Assisted Living Software: Creating an Ideal Experience

Assisted living: such is the fate for many individuals later in life or when some circumstance such as an injury or chronic illness makes self-care much more challenging – assisted living software plays a significant role in enriching the lives of patients and driving operations which is why critical that these solutions need to be top-notch.

We say “fate” specifically because of the somewhat bleak connotation it carries as transitioning to an SNF (skilled nursing facility) or accepting in-home care inherently means losing some degree of independence. Not to mention, virtually every established provider has at least a handful of scathing reviews which makes an already difficult process even harder. To create better experiences, great software can and should play a key role in enriching the lives of patients and staff as well as demonstrating value to prospects: it should be easy, considering the target audience.

With that in mind, we’re first going to look at some current models on the market delivered by different providers that range from comprehensive, full-featured systems to more specific use cases. From there, we’ll follow with a handful of ideas you should consider for features as well as the general UX (User Experience.)

Popular systems used by medical professionals in the market today

Most individuals and loved ones never ask for specifics on an assisted living center’s software – you just kind of expect that they have something in place that makes ‘this talk to that’ such things happen as they should. However, the reality is that software needs to be the primary driver in operations for the sake of customers and staff alike.

Of course, what matters most is usability and security. So let’s take a few different assisted living software solutions on the market to help demonstrate how these platforms fit into patient care by either providing a comprehensive set of digital services or by filling some valuable niche.

Cerner

As one of the most recognized medical software providers, Cerner offers a range of different solutions that can be custom-tailored for individual needs and scaled over time. They offer everything from analytics to CRMs, revenue management, global health services, and just about everything you can think of. They also offer an API that allows developers to both customize systems as well as securely interface with data for use in other HIPAA compliant systems.

PointClickCare

The PointClickCare platform offers turnkey solutions for a handful of systems with select services geared specifically for assisted living and senior care. They also offer a solution for home health care with tools specifically designed to assist and sync geographically dispersed teams with centralized tools for billing, intake, scheduling, and more. They also offer a robust API for additional customization and integration with their services.

OnShift

While out-of-the-box solutions from OnShift aren’t quite as expansive as the two businesses above, they offer a solution that’s designed to handle employee functions in senior care like scheduling, time tracking, payroll, and a few other features in this realm. They leverage their mobile app as a kind of hub for employees plus, they offer a talent acquisition solution to help fill roles quickly and cost-effectively. Unlike the above solutions, they do not offer an API so businesses are limited to features and customization options offered by the platform.

NetHealth

As an EMR/EHR-centered platform, NetHealth offers a powerful, collaborative solution for sharing medical data among both authorized providers and patients. The secure system is designed to allow easy access to health records, medication, and other medical data to help professionals provide optimal care plus, it provides useful administrative tools like a reputation management system. The patient portal provides a comprehensive dashboard as well as access to telehealth features like video conferencing. Businesses can customize the system as well as make use of NetHealth resources through their API such as their WoundExpert system for triaging and treating issues in the field.

athenahealth

Last but not least, athenahealth is our preferred system here at Blue Label Labs. Like other comprehensive solutions in this list, they offer a ton of well-developed systems such as their EMR service, telehealth solutions, population health analytics, and many more plus, their rich API lets us create highly custom experiences.

Must-have features for a modern assisted living software

There are a lot of different ways to create value in this market, whether it’s creating a competitive, full-featured solution or something more specific. Below are a handful of features and ideas that can help you deliver a great experience.

Training staff & patients

While this is more of a concept, you can think of education as a feature or set of features in your system. Though you will have some tech-savvy users, most individuals will likely need help to learn how to use your system efficiently: when you provide an app for customers, it will likely be among their first medical apps. And for others, it could well be their very first app!

Here, there’s a bit of intersection with accessibility – which you also need to accommodate – as a sizable majority of patients will have so little experience with tech (or cognitive impairments) that there’s literally no foundation for intuition to come into play. While many of us can easily flip through a new app and familiarize ourselves with the layout and features, understand that a good chunk of patient users will need help at every step for any number of reasons. It’s a good idea to create a tutorial system that comprehensively guides a user through every action with both visual and audio elements. Plus, it helps to create some kind of collateral that will help nurses and medical staff introduce the system.

To help staff, a solid tutorial and knowledge base is useful as well. Though these users will likely be more familiar with modern tech, it should still be easy to use and add clarity.

Insurance integrations

Most insurance providers make it fairly easy to process claims using web apps and other digital tools – it’s far cry from just 10 years ago where many providers were still conducting length phone calls, exchanging faxes, or using clunky websites to pull insurance authorizations and process in-network claims!

If your app has a billing feature, insurance integrations for your partner providers is a must. You can eliminate the special kind of hell that is dealing with insurance by integrating these tools, thus helping you provide accurate pricing and streamline processing.

Telehealth integrations

The silver lining of the pandemic is found in a lesson: virtual services make many processes much easier. Since video calling was called “Skyping,” businesses have been using these tools to bridge disparate teams into a more cohesive unit as well as save on significant expenses like when traveling just for the sake of honoring tradition and sealing deals with a good, firm handshake.

You can’t replace a handshake but you can use video calling to replace some in-office visits which allows medical providers to focus more on care by eliminating certain procedures like checking patients in, staging them in waiting rooms, and post-visit routines. This also saves the patient time and effort as removes the need to travel to appointments or post up in a waiting room only to get moved to a room where they often have to wait even longer.

Secure messaging for staff

Most tools for building telehealth video solutions (such as Twilio) usually offer features for building text and voice solutions as well. This is one way you can help protect privacy as offering in-app text messaging can circumvent the need for staff to text each other using their personal numbers. This is ideal for many in-home nurses and other medical professionals as many use their own devices so this helps keep their professional lives sequestered as much as possible. Plus, it’s convenient and can also connect with services like chatbots which can be designed to handle everything from customer service to supplemental mental health care.

Shareable notes

Certain information is useful when shared among staff but it doesn’t necessarily fit or belong in a patient’s medical records. It can be simple things like helpful information such as suggestions or “tricks” for a patient who is notoriously difficult with blood draws. It could be other information too such as some insight to help flatten the adjustment curve when new staff takes over for an existing client – maybe the patient is a mean old man but he warms up to you quickly if you get him to talk about old Studebakers.

It’s important for staff to be able to attach certain information among themselves outside a patient-facing record or messaging system. This allows staff to better engage over time as this tool can help build more insight into a patient’s life than just their medical data.

Interactive scheduling system for staff

Especially for in-home care providers, a flexible scheduling system that’s highly visible for users can help ensure there are no gaps in your service. Further, good company policies on labor trading, PTO usage, vacation scheduling, and so on can soar when staff has autonomy and a solid system in place.

Scheduling should work alongside the system in place for patient scheduling. Normally, in both assisted living facilities and in-home care, patient visit schedules are arranged on the business end based on the patient’s needs, These systems should work together seamlessly to remove the chance that someone is forgotten or passed up as this can have extreme consequences and adversely affect trust.

A patient portal

An informative dashboard, as well as comprehensive access to medical data, is ideal to have regardless of whether a patient will use it or not. For assisted living software, the trend is a bit different than what we see in digital home fitness where the goal is to compile and analyze as much information as possible. Here, it’s useful to be able to create unique views for patients around their needs.

For example, you might have a senior who is highly independent but suffers from diabetes – here, it would be ideal if information relative to this condition was highly visible (e.g. “at the top”) of a dashboard that’s immediately visible after opening an app. In other cases, you may have an individual who requires a couple of telehealth therapy sessions every week, meaning it would be helpful if this feature was immediately visible. There’s also a major opportunity for secure social and community tools that can be easily accessed from the dashboard.

A lot of times, those in assisted living situations require working with a power of attorney. Providing access to a portal where they can use features, see data, and pay bills, allows them to conveniently do more for themselves.

Detailed maps

A map tool is convenient for in-home care providers in more ways than are immediately obvious. Sure, it can help staff find a patient’s home but it can also be useful for analytics and auditing. For example, this can help provide insight into how long certain processes take and reveal opportunities to make improvements.

It’s not necessarily about learning that Mikey spends too much time chatting with a gas station clerk or Sara who loves to stick around and talk with her patients. These insights are useful to allow businesses to adjust expectations on a case-by-case scenario. For example, a process that might take thirty minutes with most patients takes an hour with geriatric patients – by providing businesses tools to acknowledge these issues, they can work to resolve them rather than leverage this data to find then correct a supposed fault from their staff.

There’s already a sizable amount of turnover with in-home healthcare professionals – this allows companies to cultivate better relationships with their employees and in turn, provide a better level of care.

Blue Label Labs can help you build your assisted living solution

Our experiences in healthcare and data-driven designs for strategy enable us to build great healthcare experiences for even the most challenging user groups. Get in touch with us today to learn more or discuss your idea today.

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