We are mourning the loss of a wonderfully creative and supportive collaborator, Jane Nebel Henson, who passed away last week. SITES had the great fortune to have partnered with her on the incredibly popular traveling exhibition, Jim Henson's Fantastic World, on the road from 2007 to 2012. The exhibition celebrated the creative genius of Jane’s late husband and creative partner, Jim who is known world-wide as the force behind Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, the Fraggles, and so much more.

As we worked with Jane, it became clear that although she was promoting Jim’s legacy, his genius didn’t stand alone. She was by his side from the beginning. They met in a puppetry class at the University of Maryland and together preformed on the program “Sam and Friends,” a 5-minute series of segments that aired on Washington, D.C.’s NBC affiliate. Side-by-side they created characters and performed. Jane took a break from performing to raise their five children, but was never far from the action becoming a talent scout and training many of the puppeteers who would perform on Sesame Street and other productions. She had an eye for talent . . . something we witnessed at the opening of Jim Henson’s Fantastic World at the Atlanta History Center. A number of local puppeteers were performing at the event and Jane gravitated to one in particular whom she thought had something special. They chatted and she even picked up a puppet of her own to perform a little impromptu skit with him.

When you saw that twinkle in her eye and that warm smile grow, you just knew some great stories were about to be shared. And she shared those stories, with us here at the Smithsonian, with the nearly one million museum visitors who saw Jim Henson’s Fantastic World, and with the ever-growing millions everyday who are entertained and educated by the characters that she and Jim created.

Deborah Macanic, project director for Jim Henson’s Fantastic World, fondly remembers Jane Henson:

My first introduction to Jane Henson was through photographs. I was leafing through dozens of photographs, preparing for a meeting about a potential exhibition on the “Muppet man,” Jim Henson. One photo in particular held my attention—a brightly colored image of Jim and Jane Henson, wearing matching royal blue sweaters and surrounded by their first group of cloth hand puppets, on the set of the 1960 TV show “Sam and Friends.” Jim, obviously confident and looking every bit the future star,  stared boldly into the camera; Jane, her soft, shy smile in perfect contrast, held an early version of Kermit perched cross-legged on her shoulder. The hand-scribbled caption read: Puppeteer Jim Henson and his wife on the set . . . .

Months later, after finally meeting Jane Henson in person, I listened spellbound as she walked the exhibition team through a magnificent story of love and dedication that grew from  a dream shared by two young students at the University of Maryland into a world-wide phenomenon that has touched millions of lives. From that point on, I could not imagine Jim Henson’s Fantastic World without Jane in it. If she at times chose the background, it was a sweeping landscape for a grand parade of characters, human and “puppoid” to dance across. If ever there was a dream whisperer, she’s it. My high regard and respect for her will inspire me forever.

Last week I picked up one of many newspapers that ran articles about her passing. The headline began—“Jane Henson, co-founder of the Muppets . . ."

>> Jim Henson's Fantastic World video playlist

>> Traveling exhibition website

It's not often that I'd walk down the hallway of our Washington, DC, offices mouthing the word "Sweet!" and freely delivering high fives to any hand that might be within reach. But, it also wasn't any old day. This was the moment that we found out that we'd received funding to build our first exhibition-specific app--joy, excitement, anticipation. Oh, the possibilities!

Fast forward 16 months. The excitement is still there, knowing that we delivered an engaging and educational product, but the lyrics from that old song "Ooh La La" by Faces (1973) keeps playing on my iPhone: "I wish that I knew what I know now, When I was younger. I wish that I knew what I know now When I was stronger . . ." Yes, there are lessons learned. Here are 10 things to think about when you're building your first app.

1.Do your homework ahead of time. Market research is a beautiful thing, especially when it helps you determine whether there's really a need for your app. Are there similar apps out there? Who's developed them? How can you offer something different or better? Among those which may be similar, what features are missing? What could be done more cleanly, in a more engaging way?

2. What's the point? Seriously, I know this seems like a 101 question, but ask yourself why you need an app. If the answer is "because everyone else has one, and we need to get in the game," then you should spend some time really making sense of what your goals are. If your focus isn't clearly defined, you may end up trying to do too many things. This walks hand in hand with the concept of determining a target audience. You really don't  have to appeal to the entire pantheon of people holding mobile devices. Be specific.

3. Find a central location to store and archive all of your communications. We used the web-based project management platform Basecamp, which worked exceptionally well. You can get a 60-day free trial and after that the prices vary. Other platforms include Zoho, Freedcamp, 5pmweb, and others. Best intentions, right? We started off being committed to our project management platform, but toward the end, when deadlines were tight and the stress was on, many of our decisions were made via frenzied, back-and-forth emails or telephone calls, which are much more difficult to keep tabs on. LESSON: Don't leave important project management details in your inbox. Put them some where safe, so there is an easily accessible record of your progress and changes.

4. Understand that all devices display content differently. Big screen, little screen, iOS 5, iOS 6.1, whatever. I always knew this, but I didn't really realize how profound those variations could be until we began testing on as many devices as we could get our hands on. Should you have to sacrifice one display for another, it also helps to know what your web analytics reveal about your mobile traffic. For example, about 79% of our mobile web traffic was originating from iPhones, iPads, of iPods. Will that translate to your app? It certainly depends on the subject, but we felt fairly safe assuming that the users we had surfing our website and accessing our social media content would be at least representative of those downloading the app.

5. It ain't over 'til it's over. The only time you should sit back and sing "What me worry?" is when the app has already been loaded in the market, and you've had ample time to review the content. Even then, there's a chance that something needs to be changed. Did you build in enough time to repost your code and have it reviewed again. On average, it takes about 6 days for Apple to review your content. Even if your developer will be handling this step, it may be smart for first timers to get some insight into the App Store review process.

6. Be in control of your content. This relates back to the first concept but also deals with your own access to information. Does your team have a path into the back end of the app? While it may seem easier to let your developer be the gatekeeper, you never know when something needs to be amended or when you need to port that content into another location.

7. Develop an action-step-oriented marketing plan early, as you're in the midst of creating the app. We certainly had the best intensions to do this, but the actual work of getting the app done seemed to vacuum up all of our time. In the end, we just had to birth our baby and imagine sending the cute pink or blue announcements when we had a moment or two to breath. Along these lines, I would add that including a marketing budget in your overall spending plan is imperative, even if you have to reduce the number of eye-popping effects in your app to accomodate some modest publicity costs. Can you hold back a few hundred dollars for a Facebook ad or for some clever print piece? It's worth it unless your business model relies on the "if-you-build-it, they-will-come" principle.

8. Be in it for the long haul. Some apps may have a complicated life AFTER they've been launched. Of course, it will depend on what kind of app you've built. Is it a crowdsourcing app or one that requires any kind of moderation of content, an app that uses a content management system which needs periodic updates and babysitting? If so, you need to think about who will maintain, review, and keep a general watchful eye on user-generated content and the CMS that manages it. If staff resources aren't available, will you have the capacity and the trust to involve an intern in the moderation process?

9. Think about numbers. What's your app worth unless you can determine how it's being used and who might be using it? App Store reviews are great--if you get them. What if you only receive four reviews (and they're not too kind)? Does that mean your project is an utter failure? First, you should define what success really means to you, and then you should have the ability to measure it. That's a rather meandering way of encouraging you to build some type of analytics into the app itself. At the end of day, you need some sort of analysis of what worked and why.

10. Look to the future. What do you want to happen when your app is getting a little grey around the temples? Do you want to let it live out its days just sitting around, or do you have the money and time to allow your product to evolve--based on user feedback, your own experiences with managing it, and a careful dissection of your analytics. Though it can be tough to convince others to keep a sort of rainy-day fund, a good practice is to hold some money back in your budget--with the idea that you may want to make changes to the app as time goes by.

Want to actually see the finished products? Visit our free apps for the traveling exhibition Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey and tell us what you think.