App Savvy

Chapter 5. Getting a Working App

You may be frustrated that you still don’t know what your app is going to look like or how it’s going to function. Not to fear: with an initial validated concept defined and the right people now in place, getting a working app will be a smoother process. You’ll work with your team to break down how you are going to build the app, further refine your concept, and determine what the first version of the app you submit to Apple will include.

In this chapter, you’ll explore:

• Understanding your app’s roadmap

• Breaking down the features for the first version of your app

• An overview of the design and development process

• Managing the progress of your app

The Development Process

My purpose for waiting until now to describe the development process in detail is that many people who build apps are extremely anxious to “get started,” without really understanding what it means to get started. In particular, those who have the design and development skills to build an app without help often forgo the processes of researching competition, understanding what’s going to make their app different, and sketching the key screens of their app, and instead start building it right away. The result is a misinformed app that is doomed to fail before it even hits the App Store.

Here’s a secret you’re going to be very happy to know: you’ve actually already begun the development process...the right way. Most people associate “development” only with designing or programming. But the entire development process—at least when building apps intelligently—includes your efforts to outline your app assumptions, your initial wireframes, and the validation of those ideas and assets with your customers. Of course, there’s more to your app than what you’ve done up to this point, and even more than the actual programming that is soon to start. Although those in the software industry divide the various parts of the development process differently, here’s how I’ll refer to them in this book (noting what’s been accomplished and what will be accomplished in later chapters):

Strategy

• Initial research (Chapter 1)

• Development of the assumptions about your app (Chapter 2)

• Customer outreach, validation, and initial wireframes (Chapter 3)

Design and development

Design (this chapter):

• Colors

• Typography

• Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG)

• User experience

• App name, icon, and screens (including splash screen)

Development (this chapter):

• Technical architecture

• Programming

• Integration with external data sources

• Optimization/performance tuning

Quality assurance

• Testing your app and interacting with beta testers (Chapter 6)

• Building an app onto a device using Xcode (Appendix)

Launch

• Submitting your app to the App Store (Chapter 7)

• Preparing for the availability of your app in the App Store (the Launching Your App (Phase 5) section in Chapter 8)

As a reminder, from Chapter 1 and Chapter 3, you know that marketing is an ongoing process you’re following in conjunction with developing your app. I’ll continue to point you to Chapter 8 to help you keep building your marketing crescendo.