Principles of Developing Own Apps

Recently, I have started a pet-project to develop a Windows Phone 7 application - just for the kicks. I needed something to drive me into learning Silverlight and phone programming, so the best way is to dream-up something and build it. The entire project revolves around one primary objective - learning, and of course, the secondary objective would be to have fun.

Over the course of this project, I have acquired many knowledge both technical and non-technical, and developed a set of principles to get me going. These principles is what I would like to share with you today.

Principle #1 - Be Positive

If you ever had an idea for an app and shared it with others, you may no doubt encounter this statement - "Hey! You know what? There is already an app for that." For the most time, that is the truth but that doesn't mean you should just stop or you can't come out with something better. The first version of iPhone is basically just a phone with nothing special and yet it can still be successful.

So, the best thing to do is to be positive. There are times where you can really have a great idea but because when you first deliver it to people, they will try to "relate it" to something they can understand or already have. In today's connected world, ideas are built on ideas so there is no need to be sad if all that hours you spent thinking that you had a great idea and you found out that someone in another part of the world has the same thoughts as you.

Principle #2 - Stay Focused

Some of the people whom you shared your idea with can be very supportive. Particularly, if you have it developed and opened it up to a group of close friends or 'testers'. They will provide you with valuable feedback and this is where sometimes it gets confusing. Due to the excitement, they will also provide you with their ideas adding on to your already existing requirements. Some may even be bold enough to tell you that you need to change the entire concept.

They are not wrong. They are simply trying to help. But sometimes it could be something that is missing in an app that they were using and they look to you to fill that void. We need to remember that when we are conducting a 'field test' or a 'usability test', we need to stay focus on the app that we are building. The objective is to assess whether it functions to our expectations i.e. easy to use, don't crash and etc.

We need to stay focused on our goals and not let it stray. Yes, we will be bombarded with better ideas and all sorts but we need to ask ourselves one thing - are those ideas aligned with our idea. If they are, put them in a nice-to-have list for future, if they are not, still keep them in a user wishlist but never stray from your original idea.

Principle #3 - Keep it Simple and Stay on Track

There are times when we will be over-excited on a technology that we found and we are obsessed in getting the best designs or results with it. We will go on and on with it continuously asking ourselves "Can I do this with it?", "Can I do that with it?", "What if I do that?" etc. We may also along the way discover more new technologies to "play with" and we become fixated with them and start dreaming up new features for our app. Without knowing, we have strayed away from our original path for our app.

Therefore, we need to constantly remind ourselves to keep it simple and stay on track. Deliver our app first! The other cool and exciting things can be done when the need arise. Yes, we may want the best things out there but it is more important to deliver a version 1.0 out first.

Principle #4 - Verify Your Concepts

There are times when we really thought that our concepts will work but sometimes they are limited by the technology. We will discover that certain technologies are really not as accurate or reliable as we hope them to be.

Therefore, it is important to verify our concepts to make sure that the technology works according to our expectations. Some technology limitations may completely distort the usability of the app or create additional problems for us. Verify and prototype concepts early to avoid any major code changes late in the production.

Principle #5 - Beware of the Investor

If you are building your app for fun like me, you may not have thought about what you may want to do with it - Release it for FREE or maybe hope that someone would buy it for USD 0.99 or perhaps make some donations to you? Then you may accidentally stumbled upon someone who are really supportive to your idea and willing to put in $$$ to help you materialize your dreams.

Then you start dreaming about being the next facebook, next Instagram and the next Draw Something. Snap out of it! The Investor is merely looking at how to monetize your work. While that is good, they may also start to suggest commercial features into your app. And... if you have accepted their $$$, it is very difficult for you to say NO.

Therefore, we need to Beware of the Investor if you are doing apps for fun. You need to ensure your idea is not strayed or polluted. Do you think facebook will be successful today if it was launched as "Social Networking and Marketing System - Enterprise Edition" ?

The Golden Principle of Developing Your Own App

All the above is what I have experienced during my almost 2 months of developing a silly stupid app (which I have yet to release). I have gone through all the above situations, from idea creation to development, each time feeling confused, sometimes feeling defeated and depressed but I have managed to develop a principle after each encounter to stay strong. As the saying goes, "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger".

We need to understand that our ideas may not be great or workable, but maybe they can work as well. We will never know it if we never try. Yes, we will often be afraid that we will fail but think this - "It is OK to fail, but it is not OK to not try."

Finally, I would like to leave you with this golden principle which I have started practicing. It is no doubt that people will offer us ideas and suggestions, they may sound genuine, may or may not be aligned with our ideas, but we  need to have this in mind - "I am developing my app, if other people wants an app that behaves the way they wanted it, they can always build it themselves."