Breaking the walls in App Development
Life when analyzed in terms of happenings it always stands sinusoidal, good after bad after good, like the crest and trough, the only difference between the life of individual beings is that some have more good or bad time periods, so imagine a daily life problem (bad), faced by many around and you have hacked it with your idea. A problem could be any undesirable event that happens to be consuming unnecessary resources like time, effort, money, etc, or just not smart or simple enough. Apps like WhatsApp, IF, Twilight, Instagram, Pinterest, SHAREit, Foursquare, etc are some of such ideas that made a difference.
Developing an app around an idea is an intense experience; you create them, share them, help to add value to lives and make this world a better place. Every journey starts with a step, there is always a first time for everyone, I was a newbie once and here, I would like to share, stepwise, my experience with app building as a newbie.
1. Know your stuff
Understand the problem you are approaching all its depths and that your solutions stand true to all the circumstances put forth. Google your way out and use all the possible studies you can get before you actually start. Mind map the resources you may need so you stay focused and on track.
In my case, the problem was, the difficulty I faced in writing a technical paper for the first time, so my first app was about how to write a technical paper and get guidance from field-related experts, all with a few taps on phone, saving a lot of time and effort in the process of how to write compared to what to write. Googling all the resources a first-timer needs and mind mapping them to help a beginner get to pace helped me a great deal.
2. Before You Proceed
Now that your picture is clear about your problem and its solution you will have to focus on a few app aspects as to,
A. Whom are you targeting?
Whether technical people, non-technical people, teenagers, or any other category of people the app is going to be useful for. This helps to decide the lucidity and complexity level of your app.
Mine was a technical bunch so I had put my contents in a systematic and simple way.
B. Platform Choice?
- Whether Android, iOS, or Windows.
- Android was my choice of platform
C. Popular version of OS like iOS 7, Android 4.4, Android 5?
- So that the number of users to benefit are maximum.
- Around here Android 4.4 was quite common so it was my choice.
D. Compatibility?
E. App Classifications
- Native Apps: Specifically dedicated to a particular class that can take full advantage of the device features like the camera, the accelerometer, the GPS, the list of contacts, and so on. Example- Facebook App
- Web Apps: Web apps are not real apps; they are websites resembling native apps. Basically In-App browser designed mostly in HTML5, CSS, and JS.
- Hybrid Apps: Heterogeneous mixture of Native and Web App. Example- Evernote
F. Decide what app type to choose?
Before you choose app type keep the following points in mind:
- UI and UX
- Device features
- Offline functioning
- Discoverability
- Speed
- Installation
- Maintenance
- Platform independence
- Content
- Development cost
Web Apps type stood fit for all my requirements for my app.
3. Getting Started
For we mostly work in teams, first convey your ideas via presentation if required, to your teammates so you all share the same importance and approach towards the task at hand. Taking everyone’s view into account and modifying your own analysis, a design layout picturing every view of your app considering the choice of OS should be put on paper. Once the design layout is ready, a prototype of the layout could be made using services like Fluid UI which are available online.
Lack of skilled help and support I had to work on my app myself, which needed focus and motivation that I could derive from a chart of activities with deadlines set for every functionality.
4. Developing
A. Choose the required software for the choice of platform, Android Studio was mine as Android was my choice of platform
- Android Studio — Best for designing Native app http://developer.android.com
- Visual Studio Code — Visual Studio Code is a code editor redefined and optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications.
- xcode — Xcode is an integrated development environment for macOS containing a suite of software development tools developed by Apple for developing software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
B. The framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software.
Here is a list of all major mobile frameworks —
1. Flutter
2. Expo — React Native
3. Ionic
4. Mobile Frameworks Comparison Chart
Considering the software and framework the app could too be broken into smaller functionalities and efficiently allotted with charts and deadlines amongst your teammates. Also, stay connected and keep track of every task so distributed via WhatsApp, slack, etc. groups as per convenience daily so things don’t pile up or sum piece of this jigsaw stays missing.
5. Finally
Now that your app will be ready, last but not the least, presenting and marketing your app is also very important. You could make short videos and advertise your app using different apps available, yourself, or could even hire.
To sum up, though you may have worked hard enough, the app may be liked or still maybe not much appreciated, it may work the best or may encounter bugs but any of these results is unparalleled to the joy of creation, making things work and making a difference by returning a small bit of the favor we owe to the world. The effort invested always stays with us as an experience throughout our life and the app itself stays as an asset to look back to and feel the satisfaction and pride of accomplishment!
Gratitude
In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved.
-Linus Torvalds
