1. The Idea - "Know your idea"
So you have an idea for an iPhone App, great! that's the first thing you need.
What does your idea do? How does it look like? What problem does it solve? Who are your clients? Does it exist already? if so, how can you improve it?
These are some of the questions you should ask your self once you have an idea that you want to develop, define your idea, give it meaning, decide who your clients are and find out how your product help your clients. your goal is to "know your idea" from start to end, the more information you can extract from your idea the better your development process will be.
Knowing your idea will help you know better what your app will need, once you know your target audience it is easier to decide which colors you will use, which functions you will need, how "big" your project will be and much more!. Try it out!.
2. How Does It Look Like ?
Another great (and very important) thing to do is to Sketch your idea.
Get a notebook and a pen, break down your idea into screens, how will the home screen of your app looks like? how does the last screen looks like? your drawings can be as simple as you like, this stage helps you figure out which features you will need in your application, it helps you prepare for development and gives you great information about how your UI (user interface) will function and will look like.
Plan a simple UI, use only the features that your app needs to deliver your idea, try not to add features that will complicate the app and make the UI harder to understand, remember that users won't spend much time on trying to figure out your application, the more comfortable and easy your app feels, the easier it is for your users to use it.
Once you have a good idea on how your app looks, take some time to pick the right colors for your idea.
3. Make Decisions:
Your application will be better and more focused if you make some decisions before development.
- Decide how long you want the development process to take - This won't be a "contract" with your self but it will first give you a good idea on how long the development should take, allow you to know when to start preparing for other stages like advertisement, set boundaries for your self (we all need them) and allow you to focus on what's really important for you in this app instead of having no frame to work on.
- Paid or Free ?
Knowing your price before developing will allow you to know your expectations from your product, if you plan to sell your product for $4.99 your users will expect more then an app that being sold for $0.99, if your application will be free you might want to add advertisement (iAd, adMob). - Promotion
There are many ways and approaches to when and how promote your app. some say it is better to start promoting your app before you even write the first line of code to build a bigger client list that may buy your application on the day it is published, others suggest that you will first focus on building a good app then make efforts to promote it. explore this subject and make a decision on which approach fits your application the most.
4. Develop
You know your idea from all aspects, you know how it looks like, you decided how long it will take and made other important decisions before developing, now you can start!
Arrange your files and folders on the project, make sure the project will be accessible for you, create folders that will help you get a "cleaner" development process.
A great idea is to create "Helper" folders, if you found a good example online on how to perform an action that your app will require, save it in a special "Examples" folder so that later you could easily go back to it without searching your computer too much. Save helpful links in a special development folder, create arranged folders both in XCode and also in your computer. accessible information is valuable and will help you get things done quicker and better.
Backup your files - Loosing everything you already did won't help you...
5. Test
Let your friends (and basically anyone that pass by you) try your application, even during development. getting feedback from people will help you create a better application, you can get many ideas from others about how your idea works and how good it is, don't let anyone bring you down, most will suggest that you improve this and change that and will generaly tell you how they will make this app better, remember that you are the developer, check other ideas and suggestions given to you and change only what you decided to be worth it.
There is no replacement to a field test of your product.
6. Upload!
Once you are pleased with your product, get it out there!
Here are few important things to remember:
- Your app is rated according to amount of downloads - The more you get, the higher you are on the list.
- Great Images capture the eye, people buy (and download) apps mostly by visual contact, make an amazing icon!
- Present your App by what it does - Look at successful app pages on the app store and learn from them.
- Control Publish Date - be ready with your advertisment for the day your app lunch.
- Send promotion codes to your friends, bloggers, websites and anyone you can think of, ask for review!
When I think about the app store I like to imagine it as a giant shopping mall, I have a small shop in that mall and it's my job to not only create a great product but also make sure that shoppers get to see my product and want to get it.
Research the web and find information that will help you create better products, there are many great web-sites out there!
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