Revised date: 10/02/2013
Between us Applification and you [customer name]
We’ll always do our best to fulfil your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.
So in short;
You ([customer name]), located at [customer address] are hiring us (Applification) located at Evolve Business Centre, Rainton Bridge South Business Park, DH4 5QY to scope, design and develop a mobile app. Of course it’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that.
You: You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organisation. You’ll give us everything we need to complete the project as and when and in the format we need it. You’ll review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.
Us: We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavour to meet every deadline that’s set and on top of that we'll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.
We will work with you to establish the scope of your app. We use a LEAN UX approach establishing a hypothesis statement for your app around which we'll agree an initial set of features to implement which validate or invalidate that hypothesis.
We adopt an agile approach to projects, our focus is to put software in your hands as quick as possible producing shippable software in the form of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
We create designs that work across all major mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile) with flexible layouts that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. We create designs iteratively and use predominantly Style Tiles moving quickly into actual Javascript, XML and TSS so we won’t waste time mocking up every template as a static visual. We may use static visuals to indicate a look-and-feel direction (colour, texture and typography.) We call that ‘design atmosphere.’
You’ll have two or more weekly opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. If, at any stage, you’re not happy with the direction our work is taking, you’ll pay us in full for everything we’ve produced until that point and cancel this contract.
We’re not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy. If you’d like us to write new content or input text for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
You should supply graphic files in an editable, vector digital format. You should supply photographs in a high resolution digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs, we can suggest stock libraries. If you’d like us to search for photographs for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
There are so many mobile devices it is physically impossible to ensure an app works perfectly on all mobile platforms. We do automated code testing as well as actual user device testing.
If your app includes a mobile or web app we will ensure it works in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Internet Explorer), Mozilla Firefox and Opera. We’ll also test to ensure Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 for Windows users get an appropriate, possibly different, experience. We’ll implement a single column design for Internet Explorer 7 and below for Windows and we won’t test in other older browsers unless you specify otherwise. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
Testing popular small-screen devices is essential in ensuring that a person’s experience of a design is appropriate to the capabilities of the device they’re using. We test our work in:
iOS: Safari, Google Chrome and Opera Mini Android 4.1: Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera Mini Android 3.2: Browser, Firefox and Opera Mini
We use an agile approach to projects which embraces change. There is no long term fixed price, we collaboratively agree a fixed set of functionality to implement in a fixed timeframe with a fixed price.
We can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by your good selves, or that you’ve permission to use them.
Then, when your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:
You’ll own the visual elements that we create for this project. We’ll give you source files and finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all elements of text, images and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.
We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license that you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise. We can provide a separate estimate for that.
We love to show off our work and share what we’ve learned with other people, so we reserve the right, with your permission, to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles and in books.
To ensure that you own the work you've commissioned we use OwnMyIP https://www.ownmyip.com to legally transfer IP ownership to you once a project is complete.
We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule.
Sprints are paid 50% upfront and 50% upon completion.
Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.
Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of [English and Welsh] courts.
Signed by and on behalf of Applification Signed by and on behalf of [customer name] Date [date]
Everyone should sign above and keep a copy for their records.