Decide if you need a mobile app - digital guide

What to consider when deciding to build a mobile app.

Before you begin

A mobile app is software used on smartphones and tablets.

This guide should be used as a decision-making tool when deciding whether you need a mobile app.

This guide was developed in collaboration with Service Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, Public Transport Victoria, VicRoads and the Department of Government Services.

The Victorian Government’s preferred approach is to have mobile-responsive websites. Victorian Government departments or agencies should only create a mobile app if user research indicates a need or functionality requirement that can only be delivered by a mobile app.

The following standards must be met

Privacy

Comply with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014(opens in a new window).

Refer to the Protect privacy - digital guide for more information.

Security

Comply with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014. Refer to the security framework and standards on the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner website(opens in a new window)

Accessibility

Comply with the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Disability Discrimination Act 1992(opens in a new window) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.0(opens in a new window) AA standard. Refer to the Make your content accessible(opens in a new window) standard.

If your audience is primarily people with disability (for example, National Disability Insurance Scheme clients), your site must pass the test for the AAA standard.

Branding

Apply Brand Victoria. Mobile app icons are small so it’s important to choose a simple icon. Refer to Apply Brand Victoria(opens in a new window), written for digital.

Getting it approved

Discuss your decision with your Digital Management Committee (DMC) or equivalent.

Before any development begins, you should demonstrate how you’re going to support the app for its life cycle.

Ensure you have a product owner within your organisation to manage ongoing improvements.
Ensure you have capability and funding for ongoing support and maintenance. If you don’t have internal capability for ongoing support and maintenance, identify an appropriate vendor partner to provide this and an internal resource to manage the vendor.
Ensure you have ongoing capability and funding to support customer inquiries.
Document a plan for decommissioning the app, including how you will remove the app from the market once funding ends. The Australian Government has a guide for decommissioning a website(opens in a new window) which can be used.

Open all

1Conduct discovery research

Understand your users

Your research should help you answer the following questions:

What are your business objectives for the app?
What do you want to achieve with the app?
What’s the user need for a mobile app?
Can these user needs be met with a mobile-responsive website?
Are you confident the target user will download and, if necessary, configure the app?
Do you have any technical reasons why an app is necessary? For example, geolocation, push notifications, offline or remote access, resiliency or privacy reasons?
What kind of app would your users need – native, hybrid or progressive web? Is there a user need to build an app for smartwatches?

Refer to the Research user experience(opens in a new window) guide for more information.

As part of your discovery research you should consider other ways of delivering your information:

an Application Programming Interface (API); refer to understand the API design principles (opens in a new window)
a data feed into existing apps that are widely used (working with the WOVG API team(opens in a new window))
making it available on an open portal like DataVic (opens in a new window)
if you need to present data, consider using MyVictoria (opens in a new window)

Users are more likely to access your information using an app they already use (such as Google Maps or Apple Maps) than download an app with a narrow purpose.

Check if a similar app already exists

Assess your app idea against all existing and past government mobile apps. Use the Victorian Government mobile apps list(opens in a new window) to check if a similar app already exists.

Post a query on the WoVG Digital Group on Yammer(opens in a new window) to start your research and ask if your app idea has been tried in the past.

Ensure you’ve scanned the government’s digital landscape for similar apps, including within your agency.
If similar apps were found, make sure you engage with the business unit or agency behind that app to benefit from their lessons learned.
Review and evaluate the analytics and any other available intelligence from existing apps.
Consider opportunities for close cooperation with other agencies so they can benefit from your experience.

2Define your requirements

It’s important to think about what your app will need in terms of functionality, features, accessibility and platform requirements.

Define what features you require from a device’s operating system. For example, using the device’s native operating system (iOS or Android) or being usable offline.
If you’re planning to take payments, make sure you consider the additional costs to take payments in-app. Many apps redirect to a website to take payments.
Confirm which devices and browsers you’re targeting. Ensure these browsers support the technology you want in your app. Caniuse.com indicates how well browsers support various front-end web technologies.
Design your mobile app to meet accessibility requirements from the start.
Decide if the information or service your app provides needs to be available in additional places such as on a website. If not, the app might be said to be discriminating against users who cannot see the information.
Identify whether your app will need to use any data. If so, ensure the data will be easy and inexpensive to find, upload and maintain.

Continue defining your requirements as you design, develop and test your app.

3Design and develop

Refer to Design and develop a digital presence(opens in a new window) to help guide you through this stage.

4Test, iterate and validate

Mobile app development is an iterative process. This means that you should continually make changes and improvements to the app in a series of cycles. This ensures the app continues to adapt to user behaviour and shift to meet user needs as they evolve.

Ensure you have analytics tools integrated to help you understand who is using your app and how they’re using it.

Use the analytics to observe usage patterns and understand where to invest future development efforts. For example, if a feature isn’t being used, you might decide to remove it in your next iteration.

A mobile app is never ‘done’. It’s important to continue to observe usage behaviour, test and validate new ideas, identify improvements and add new features.

Use the Victorian Government app account

The Victorian Government app account provides users with confidence and trust that they are downloading a verified Victorian Government app.

Mobile apps should not be published under the names of external vendors.

The benefits of using the Victorian Government app account

There’s no cost involved.
Increased trust by being listed as a verified Victorian Government app.
Your app won’t be forgotten about if staff leave or it is no longer funded.
Citizens can find all Victorian Government apps in one place.
You’ll have access to an established audience.
When machinery of government changes take place there’s no need to change the store name.
No need to maintain your own app account across iOS and Android.

Get in touch to request to list your app in the Victorian Government app account on Apple and Google.

Tell us what you think

This guide has been designed for Victorian Public Servants. We welcome your feedback.

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Governance

Updated 15 January 2025

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Decide if you need a mobile app - digital guide

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Before you begin

The following standards must be met

Privacy

Security

Accessibility

Branding

Getting it approved

Understand your users

Check if a similar app already exists

Use the Victorian Government app account

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Decide if you need a mobile app - digital guide

On this page

Before you begin

What does the Victorian Government recommend?

The following standards must be met

Privacy

Security

Accessibility

Branding

Getting it approved

Understand your users

Check if a similar app already exists

Use the Victorian Government app account

Tell us what you think

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Join the conversation on digital