What did I do?
Grocery Lover: Shopping List
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id954960772?mt=8
I know I know - what another grocery list app?! Yes, no, kind of
You can find it out on your own. Maybe you find my app different (self-learning, easy, animations, history) than the other ones
Anyway, since I created everything from scratch and on my own here are my takeaways. After 3-4 months of development I am smarter because of following:
CODING:
* You should code faster! Dont waste ur time to make everything 100% perfect. 95% is enough and saves u a lot of time!
* If you encounter a problem and try to google it, but you cant find anything at all related to your problem - something is really wrong!
* Because thousands before you MUST encountered the same problem (of course not if u develop some crazy new **** - NASA style) but otherwise every problem is somewhere described on the net. Sometimes when my function X is not working, I googled it but couldnt find anything. Instead of looking for another source as problem, I spent even more time on google :/ Dont forget point 1
* If you take code from github posts, be prepared and accept even they (with 100 forks) might have bugs and problems. That cost me days of analysing my code, while the problem was in the git code
* If you encounter a problem during development, FIRSTLY ask yourself what is the behaviour you want to accomplish. Yes function B crashed because of C, but is C what you really want?
* Xcode/Simulator even in the latest version might have bugs - so sad!
* You need to have a beta phase and implement crash reporter sdks in your app
* Invest as much or double of your coding time into the UI design as its important for your success. The users will take it for granted that your app works and doesnt crash! They dont care how you implemented it. They just care about how they experience the app, which is through the UI
* Take breaks (days) during your development process! I know it seems like you waste your time instead of sitting on your Mac and develop, but see it more as getting new energy to succeed.
* The app business is not a sprint its a marathon!
UI DESIGN:
* Your colours need to be fresh!
* Dont use any standard ui elements from xcode - what I mean is buttons or switch elements,
* Use shadow and fading effects
* Use smooth animations
APP STORE:
* Once you got your 5 screenshots for the App Store, test it in a kind of fake appstore. Your screenshot looks good? The App Store has a white background with a small font, does your screenshots still fit into this setting? If yes, upload them
* I used a mix of text and picture in my screenshots, but realised (after I submitted it) that the font is to small! And be aware of that this is what the user sees first. Based on that he decides to download or swipe away, so make the best out of it!
* If you want to have the Optimised for iPhone 6 and Plus text on your side consider this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26252320/still-not-optimized-for-iphone-6-and-iphone-6-plus
* The languages supported by your application will be screwed up if you use (like me) appirater to let your user rate the app. Appirater is not the problem, modify the xcode setting to achieve the desired settings
WEBSITE:
* My smart banner (iOS) is not working why??? - Put the right appID in your meta tag
* You should allow users to put their email addresses into some interface to collect and inform them if you have a major update
* I used dropbox as kind of repository. I know, so lame! Dont do it
* I was thinking I just take some fancy bootstrap template (many are free, I dont pay for that) adapt it with my text and it will work perfectly on mobile and desktop browsers. You are wrong, if you dont have any HTML/CSS knowledge. Copy and Paste will break your neck here. Get more familiar with this topic if you plan to do it on your own
Thats all. There are plenty of online tutorials out there so dont worry the answers are somewhere. As soon as you receive your first positive comments you will know that your hard work was not wasted!
I wish you all the best developing the next BIG thing.
Grocery Lover: Shopping List
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id954960772?mt=8
I know I know - what another grocery list app?! Yes, no, kind of
You can find it out on your own. Maybe you find my app different (self-learning, easy, animations, history) than the other ones
Anyway, since I created everything from scratch and on my own here are my takeaways. After 3-4 months of development I am smarter because of following:
CODING:
* You should code faster! Dont waste ur time to make everything 100% perfect. 95% is enough and saves u a lot of time!
* If you encounter a problem and try to google it, but you cant find anything at all related to your problem - something is really wrong!
* Because thousands before you MUST encountered the same problem (of course not if u develop some crazy new **** - NASA style) but otherwise every problem is somewhere described on the net. Sometimes when my function X is not working, I googled it but couldnt find anything. Instead of looking for another source as problem, I spent even more time on google :/ Dont forget point 1
* If you take code from github posts, be prepared and accept even they (with 100 forks) might have bugs and problems. That cost me days of analysing my code, while the problem was in the git code
* If you encounter a problem during development, FIRSTLY ask yourself what is the behaviour you want to accomplish. Yes function B crashed because of C, but is C what you really want?
* Xcode/Simulator even in the latest version might have bugs - so sad!
* You need to have a beta phase and implement crash reporter sdks in your app
* Invest as much or double of your coding time into the UI design as its important for your success. The users will take it for granted that your app works and doesnt crash! They dont care how you implemented it. They just care about how they experience the app, which is through the UI
* Take breaks (days) during your development process! I know it seems like you waste your time instead of sitting on your Mac and develop, but see it more as getting new energy to succeed.
* The app business is not a sprint its a marathon!
UI DESIGN:
* Your colours need to be fresh!
* Dont use any standard ui elements from xcode - what I mean is buttons or switch elements,
* Use shadow and fading effects
* Use smooth animations
APP STORE:
* Once you got your 5 screenshots for the App Store, test it in a kind of fake appstore. Your screenshot looks good? The App Store has a white background with a small font, does your screenshots still fit into this setting? If yes, upload them
* I used a mix of text and picture in my screenshots, but realised (after I submitted it) that the font is to small! And be aware of that this is what the user sees first. Based on that he decides to download or swipe away, so make the best out of it!
* If you want to have the Optimised for iPhone 6 and Plus text on your side consider this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26252320/still-not-optimized-for-iphone-6-and-iphone-6-plus
* The languages supported by your application will be screwed up if you use (like me) appirater to let your user rate the app. Appirater is not the problem, modify the xcode setting to achieve the desired settings
WEBSITE:
* My smart banner (iOS) is not working why??? - Put the right appID in your meta tag
* You should allow users to put their email addresses into some interface to collect and inform them if you have a major update
* I used dropbox as kind of repository. I know, so lame! Dont do it
* I was thinking I just take some fancy bootstrap template (many are free, I dont pay for that
) adapt it with my text and it will work perfectly on mobile and desktop browsers. You are wrong, if you dont have any HTML/CSS knowledge. Copy and Paste will break your neck here. Get more familiar with this topic if you plan to do it on your ownThats all. There are plenty of online tutorials out there so dont worry the answers are somewhere. As soon as you receive your first positive comments you will know that your hard work was not wasted!
I wish you all the best developing the next BIG thing.