Ten necessities for a Mobile App.
So you have an idea for a mobile app that you want to make and you're ready to get started on it. You fire up the development environment and it's time to code. Whoa!! pump your brakes before you get to deep and carried away with coding here are ten necessities for your next mobile app project. 1. Add analytics and crash reporting from the start. Sometimes we want to build the app and get it out there and then go back to add analytics as an after thought. You should build this into your application from the beginning just go ahead and make this part of your setup. Analytics can provide helpful data about who, what, when, where and how about your application. Flurry (http://www.flurry.com) is one of the most widely used. You can add realtime crash reporting to respond and fix crashes early and have an immediate update ready for your users, this can make you a hero. I recommend Crittercism (www.crittercism.com) or some other tool. 2. Pencil design and walk thru your apps interface and flow with a typical user. Jumping right in and building an application can cost your client or your company thousands of dollars and countless hours or work. Designs can change and it's a lot cheaper to erase or trash a sketch. Design all you app's interface using pencil and paper (try UI Stencils - http://www.uistencils.com and walk-thru the screens with one or two friend or family members. This will help yo)u create an affective UI and identify problems with your application's flow, usage and interface early. 3. Create multiple deployment targets Having multiple deployment targets can make life much easier. This allows you to distribute builds for different environment settings (i.e. UAT, Live or QA), create free and paid versions of your app. Having multiple targets keeps your binary's in order. 4. Don't forget to add social sharing. If you are going to put out an app make sure that your users can share it with everyone else they know. Leverage their network of friends, family and colleagues. MLM's have been doing it for a long time, letting others share with their network. Don't forget to put social sharing in your application (Twitter, Facebook, Email, LinkedIn) you get the idea. 5. Plan on and build localization from the start. You may not want to think about it right now, but at some point your manager, customer or even your users may want localization. If you've ever tried to go back and localized an already built application it can be a nightmare. But if you plan for localization from the start then this can ease the burden of doing it later. If possible create localized strings file that can be used later for translating. 6. Blog about the development process. Some companies and developers are hush hush about what they are building and that's understandable. But blogging about the app that you are building can serve multiple purposes. One it can help build a buzz about your application if people are regularly reading your blog posts. It can also serve as a postmortem documentation for what went wrong or right. Finally it can serve as therapy if you get frustrated then write!! 7. Recruit non-biased users to beta test your app. By nature when we work on things by instinct we want our family and friends to look at it and tell us what they think. Sometimes our family and friends want to be nice and supportive and that's all fine and dandy. But when you are developing an application that will be use by more than just your friends and family (hopefully) you need unbiased opinions from people who don't know you or care about your feelings. Don't be afraid to recruit outsiders to evaluate your app. I use TestFlight (http://www.testflightapp.com) (iOS only) to recruit testers to try out my application or you can go to UTest (http://www.utest.com) they have testers all over. 8. Start a submission verification checklist early and check off as you go. When I developed my first app for the iPhone and it came time to submit well my binary failed the verification. It failed because I was missing some things and I had to learn the hard way (pulling my hair out) trying to figure out what I was missing. Lessons learned, after that I created an app submission checklist and you can find plenty online, I use this checklist to make sure my app meets the guidelines. You can check off items as you build your application, this way when it's time to submit your application it's already compliant. 9. Marketing starts the moment the idea is solid. All to often with mobile apps we want to wait till it's done before we start marketing, but that's not good. Imagine if movie studios waited till the day the movie hit the theater to start telling the public about it. Needless to say that ticket sales would not be good and mobile applications are no different. You should put out teaser videos, blog, information, screen shots, sketches, descriptions, potential pricing etc. This can generate interest in your application long before it hits the app stores and you can figure out your audience and how to effectively reach them. 10. Execute your marketing plan early, often and continuosly. Once you have your mobile app idea solidified start the marketing engine rolling and keep it going and do it often. It's just like the commercials on TV or songs on the radio the more we hear it, see it or read it; the more it sticks in our mind. Now that doesn't mean be annoying there are subtle ways of doing suggestive marketing. Find what works for you app and execute it as much and as often as possible. In summary these may not be your ten, but these work for me in my experience and this may change for me as I grow in this business. I'd love to hear what you think or share your ten necessities for your mobile app.
