Building Apps for Real-World Problems: Designing for Usability and Scalability

Drawing on my experience in behavioral health and SaaS industries, I’ve learned that designing apps is more than an exercise in balancing aesthetics and functionality, important as that is; it’s about creating solutions that address real-world problems and seamlessly scale to accommodate growth and change, especially in today’s fast-changing digital landscape.

Whether it’s an enterprise-level behavioral health application or a SaaS solution for streamlining organizational processes, the core of successful app design lies in understanding your users’ needs, solving their problems effectively, and planning for long-term adaptability.

The first step in designing any app is identifying and gaining a deep understanding of each of the problems it aims to solve. This begins with thorough research—conducting interviews, analyzing workflows, and gathering user feedback, and so on.

For example, in the behavioral health industry, I contributed to the design of an application aimed at simplifying the ride selection process for individuals with developmental disabilities. Creating an app that works is always a given. The challenge is ensuring that it addressed the a wide variety of users, accommodating their varying levels of cognitive and physical ability. By working closely with stakeholders, caregivers, and end-users, we identified pain points such as difficulty selecting the right transportation and scheduling conflicts.

Our research provided the necessary information to create an intuitive, user-centered app that made selecting and scheduling rides a straightforward process for all users, regardless of their abilities.

In my work with SaaS applications, I’ve tackled real-world problems like optimizing ad placement within live-streaming platforms. The challenge here was creating a system that leveraged AI to recommend ad placements while providing users with actionable analytics in real time. This required a deep understanding of both the technical capabilities of AI and the needs of advertisers looking for insights into user behavior.

An app might have all the functionality in the world, but if users struggle to navigate it, the app has failed its primary purpose. Here are examples of projects and what factors related to usability I needed to consider.

In the behavioral health app I helped design, we focused heavily on accessibility and usability. Key features included:

• Streamlined User Flows: We designed the app to guide users step by step, simplifying ride selection by presenting options based on user preferences and abilities.
• Visual Cues: Clear, accessible visual indicators, such as color-coded vehicle types and schedules, helped users easily identify the best choices.
• Adaptive Interfaces: The app’s interface was tailored to users with developmental disabilities, featuring large, easy-to-read text and simplified navigation to prevent confusion.

These usability considerations not only solved the immediate problem but also built trust with the app’s audience, ensuring long-term user engagement.

For the live-streaming SaaS platform, usability meant providing users with actionable data without overwhelming them. We designed a live analytics dashboard that:

• Simplified Data Presentation: By using clean, intuitive visualizations, users could quickly understand complex data like user views, clicks, and conversion rates.
• Customizable Features: Users could adjust ad parameters in real-time using sliders and drop-down menus, making the process efficient and intuitive.
• Proactive Design Adjustments: Based on user feedback, I optimized the layout to include an ad carousel, making it easier for advertisers to manage multiple campaigns simultaneously.

In both cases, usability was not just about making the app easy to use—it was about anticipating user needs and designing for seamless interaction.

As you consider any app design, remember that usability isn’t just about creating a seamless experience for the app’s end users. It’s equally important to design tools and features that make the app functional and efficient for the client—the organization or entity that hired you.

Solving immediate user problems is crucial, but designing for scalability ensures the app remains relevant and functional as user needs evolve and the user base grows.

• Modular Architecture: The app was built with a flexible back-end architecture, allowing new regions, languages, and ride types to be added without disrupting existing functionality.
• Interoperability: It was designed to integrate with other behavioral health systems and services, creating a seamless experience for users as the app expanded.

• AI Learning Models: The system became smarter over time, adapting to changing user behavior and advertiser needs.
• Cloud-based Infrastructure: This ensured the app could handle spikes in user traffic during live events without performance issues.

By planning for scalability during the design phase, we avoided costly overhauls later on, ensuring the apps could grow alongside user needs and industry demands.

The real challenge in designing apps for real-world problems lies in striking the right balance between usability and scalability. Too often, apps sacrifice one for the other—focusing so heavily on user experience that they fail to scale or prioritizing growth at the expense of usability. However, when these two elements are integrated thoughtfully, the result is an app that not only solves immediate user problems but also remains a valuable tool for years to come.

For example, the behavioral health app succeeded because it combined an intuitive user experience with a modular architecture that allowed it to scale. Similarly, the SaaS platform’s real-time analytics dashboard was both easy to use and capable of supporting more complex features as the user base expanded.

• Prioritize Usability: Design intuitive interfaces that guide users seamlessly, anticipating their needs and removing friction from the user experience.
• Plan for Scalability: Build apps that can grow and adapt, using flexible architectures and technologies that accommodate future needs.

Designing for usability and scalability is both an art and a science. By keeping these principles at the forefront of every project, I’ve been able to create apps that not only meet users’ needs today but are also equipped to grow and evolve alongside them. Whether in the behavioral health industry or the SaaS space, the goal remains the same: to build apps that solve real-world problems effectively and create lasting value for users.