Find news and information for the executive corporate security director, CSO, facility manager and assets protection manager on issues of policy, products, incidents, risk management, threat assessments and preparedness.
Issue link: http://sdi.epubxp.com/i/246277
alerts via text message or email. Beyond physical security apps, mobile security and mobile device management are important. There are apps in the marketplace that test network vulnerability and lock down access to device sensors. These can be a profitable addition to your traditional security services. have a lot of images, a darker background will contrast better against the light backdrop of professional product shots. You want to make sure the image stands out, so don't include a pattern or anything that will distract from the content. What about Security? How to Design a Security App Apps for your employees to take on site will most likely be used on a tablet, which gives them a lot more real estate to work with. When designing any app, you should start with the basic elements of design. The most important thing is to keep it clean — you want the message to stand out, so do not let key information or graphics get lost in fancy backgrounds or fonts. The layout should be concise with the information or photos as the focal point. Functionality is critical to an app's success. If the app looks great, but is cumbersome to use, your employees or customers will not use it. The user should have easy access to the key features with a simple interface and presentation. Research similar apps to see how they handled their layout for menu placement and other design aspects to get ideas. For example, my firm built the WESCO Data Center App (available on iTunes) that they use for distribution. The app is divided into categories like "data center solutions," "location finder," "news & amusement" and "settings." This information is neatly displayed using a menu wheel — a clean way to make a menu more interesting and more fun to use on a day-to-day basis. If you are using your app to display photos or videos, the content should be well-organized. For WESCO, we gave videos their own category instead of including them in the catalog of products to keep it simple. With videos, it is best to have the video play on two-thirds of the screen. Dedicate the bottom third of the screen to thumbnails and a title description to allow easy navigation between videos. Your app should follow your branding. The font should be easy to read and consistent — choose one and use it throughout the entire app. The font family may have bold or italics options that you can use to emphasize words, but do not go beyond that. Professional apps should not use a curly or script font; instead, keep it simple and easy to read. Color choices are also important. They should be simple, visually pleasing and work well with other colors. Contrast is key with text — if the background is a dark color, use a white or light gray color for the text. If you Tablets allow each user to set a password, but the app itself should also be password-protected. In addition to requiring users to log in, make sure the app logs the user Have videos within an app play on two-thirds of the screen with the bottom third for thumbnails and a title description to allow easy navigation. out if the app closes out or the tablet goes idle. The user should have to log back in every time — even if annoying, it is a security feature used by a lot of apps with secure information. You also want to avoid going through third-party or proxy servers to access information. The most secure apps connect users directly to whatever service they are accessing. For example, a banking app would connect directly to the processing company's mobile banking site or the financial core's banking service. There are also apps available specifically for mobile security purposes. For example, SnoopWall (www.snoopwall. com) allows users to take over control of their phone in the event it is lost or stolen, preventing anyone else from accessing their data. Myntex for Blackberry (www.myntex. ca) provides a security swipe of the device. For network vulnerability testing, Websense (www.websense.com) is an app that authenticates or identifies users for user- or groupbased filtering. ❚ Christi Johnson is a graphic designer at Franklin, Tenn.based Metova (www.metova.com), a custom mobile app development firm. www.SecurityInfoWatch.com | SD&I; | January 2014 45