sadly, there is no app for this
May 24, 2010 7:41 PM Subscribe
App development for idiots.
I have a good idea for an iPad reader app with a bunch of functionalities built in for a very specific kind of content in a very specific niche market. My company is interested in me having this thing built and testing it as a product. I do not know how to do this.
Can you give me some high-level pointers on how to manage a project like this? Right now, I'm just interested in making it - hell, just in being able to put out a polished request for bids. There will be marketing/sales channel/etc support later, if it gets to that point. But right now I need to know:
1) How do you find an iPhone developer you can trust? I'll certainly post it to projects, but how else do you find people to approach? Does it make more sense to go with one guy or with a company?
2) What goes into a well-organized package when requesting bids? What are the different pieces called? Right now I have a very well-sketched outline of what the thing is, what it does, and why. I have features I need and features I could let go mapped out.
3) I am assuming this thing will need a lot of time to develop, a serious time to polish and make pretty and not awful on the UI front, hard design work on the content itself, and a giant buttload of time for testing. Am I missing a giant piece of the puzzle?
I've been tasked with this because I know the content. I am eager and ready to learn the other part of it, though - except I don't know where to start or what it's even called. Any and all advice, suggestions for reading material, etc. would be gratefully and humbly accepted. Please hope me!
I have a good idea for an iPad reader app with a bunch of functionalities built in for a very specific kind of content in a very specific niche market. My company is interested in me having this thing built and testing it as a product. I do not know how to do this.
Can you give me some high-level pointers on how to manage a project like this? Right now, I'm just interested in making it - hell, just in being able to put out a polished request for bids. There will be marketing/sales channel/etc support later, if it gets to that point. But right now I need to know:
1) How do you find an iPhone developer you can trust? I'll certainly post it to projects, but how else do you find people to approach? Does it make more sense to go with one guy or with a company?
2) What goes into a well-organized package when requesting bids? What are the different pieces called? Right now I have a very well-sketched outline of what the thing is, what it does, and why. I have features I need and features I could let go mapped out.
3) I am assuming this thing will need a lot of time to develop, a serious time to polish and make pretty and not awful on the UI front, hard design work on the content itself, and a giant buttload of time for testing. Am I missing a giant piece of the puzzle?
I've been tasked with this because I know the content. I am eager and ready to learn the other part of it, though - except I don't know where to start or what it's even called. Any and all advice, suggestions for reading material, etc. would be gratefully and humbly accepted. Please hope me!
1. Whether you go with one guy or a company depends on the scope of the project. If there are developers at your company, even if they're not iPhone developers, they should be able to talk to potential contractors and get a sense of whether or not they know what they're doing.
2. Some developers are willing to work the details out with you, but you want as detailed a requirements document as possible. It should contain something like this:
- A description of the target users.
- A list of features (which you have).
- Use cases or something like them that describe how the user will use the application.
- Descriptions or mockups of the possible workflows. e.g. User slides along the bottom of the page view, then a new page is displayed. This could be done with hand drawings.
- Explanations of each kind of content to be displayed and how they should be displayed.
Basically, all of the planning you can do without actually coding the app. Sometimes it's not possible to get that detailed, but the more detailed you get, the more accurate of a bid the developers can make.
3. All of those stages will be involved, as well as possible grappling with the App Store reviewers, although they've been getting much better about that lately. How long each stage takes depends on the details.
If you're a programmer, this is a good place to start. Whether or not you're a programmer, the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines should be read so that you understand the conventions and idioms of the iPhone and iPad.
posted by ignignokt at 8:03 PM on May 24, 2010
2. Some developers are willing to work the details out with you, but you want as detailed a requirements document as possible. It should contain something like this:
- A description of the target users.
- A list of features (which you have).
- Use cases or something like them that describe how the user will use the application.
- Descriptions or mockups of the possible workflows. e.g. User slides along the bottom of the page view, then a new page is displayed. This could be done with hand drawings.
- Explanations of each kind of content to be displayed and how they should be displayed.
Basically, all of the planning you can do without actually coding the app. Sometimes it's not possible to get that detailed, but the more detailed you get, the more accurate of a bid the developers can make.
3. All of those stages will be involved, as well as possible grappling with the App Store reviewers, although they've been getting much better about that lately. How long each stage takes depends on the details.
If you're a programmer, this is a good place to start. Whether or not you're a programmer, the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines should be read so that you understand the conventions and idioms of the iPhone and iPad.
posted by ignignokt at 8:03 PM on May 24, 2010
1) Finding a developer you can trust should definitely involve reviewing their previous work, talking to their clients if they have any, and meeting in person. Do not contract this out to India or something, you do not know enough about the underlying implementation to guide the project successfully. People who are desperate for your money are probably not worth your time. A good developer is probably interviewing you as much as you are them, because they do not want to be stuck on some shitty product from a client is going to change their mind every week and be late on their invoices.
2) If I was developing an app like this, I would want as much functional detail as possible and a few ideas for the UI. UI does not have to be great or accurate, that stuff can be changed and improved within reason down the line. How a customer is going to be using the app is more important, and what it would do. I would also want to know how it interacts with any external applications. For instance you say it is a reader, where does the content come from? Overall, it sounds like you are taking a rational approach to this and you have done the work on your end.
3) I think you have most of it. Keep in mind that giant buttload of testing part. There is an old software proverb that goes "the first ninety percent of the task takes ninety percent of the time, and the last ten percent takes the other ninety percent". That last 10% is what makes everything actually work right and work together and what makes customers happy or pissed. Be pessimistic in your scheduling. If they said it is going to take a month for something, plan on having it ready in two. If it is done early, you can put more time into testing and refining.
Also... try to come up with a reasonable payment schedule ahead of time. Will the developer be paid by the hour, or by the work completed? At what point to they get paid (some before, some in the middle, some after)? Have concrete milestones, with something that they will be able to show you at that time. Be involved in that process. Try to find a competent programmer on your end who can at least look at the code as it progresses. Even if they are not iPhone developers, they can probably give you a rough idea of whether this person is competent, whether the code is maintainable, and how it is really coming along. Good luck!
posted by sophist at 8:51 PM on May 24, 2010
2) If I was developing an app like this, I would want as much functional detail as possible and a few ideas for the UI. UI does not have to be great or accurate, that stuff can be changed and improved within reason down the line. How a customer is going to be using the app is more important, and what it would do. I would also want to know how it interacts with any external applications. For instance you say it is a reader, where does the content come from? Overall, it sounds like you are taking a rational approach to this and you have done the work on your end.
3) I think you have most of it. Keep in mind that giant buttload of testing part. There is an old software proverb that goes "the first ninety percent of the task takes ninety percent of the time, and the last ten percent takes the other ninety percent". That last 10% is what makes everything actually work right and work together and what makes customers happy or pissed. Be pessimistic in your scheduling. If they said it is going to take a month for something, plan on having it ready in two. If it is done early, you can put more time into testing and refining.
Also... try to come up with a reasonable payment schedule ahead of time. Will the developer be paid by the hour, or by the work completed? At what point to they get paid (some before, some in the middle, some after)? Have concrete milestones, with something that they will be able to show you at that time. Be involved in that process. Try to find a competent programmer on your end who can at least look at the code as it progresses. Even if they are not iPhone developers, they can probably give you a rough idea of whether this person is competent, whether the code is maintainable, and how it is really coming along. Good luck!
posted by sophist at 8:51 PM on May 24, 2010
The company I work for has done several iPhone and iPad apps including games, calculators and personal organisers. We are currently developing some iPhone hardware as well. All of them are for other companies, we are a product development company so we don't have any apps under our name on the store. Other companies come to us with a product idea, which sounds like what you're describing, and we create it for them. PM me if you want to know more...
posted by Joe Chip at 4:12 AM on May 25, 2010
posted by Joe Chip at 4:12 AM on May 25, 2010
How do you find an iPhone developer you can trust?
This is similar to finding a new employee. You look for referrals from friends and colleagues, you post on Craigslist and maybe on MeFi Projects. You can also Google for app developers.
Once you have candidates, you look at their previous work, you check references, and you talk with them about the process of creating the app.
You want to make sure that you can communicate with them clearly, and that they express themselves clearly to you. If you are left with a lot of questions you shouldn't blame yourself and your own inexperience.
Does it make more sense to go with one guy or with a company?
This depends on the scope of the project and how you want to be involved yourself. It might be less expensive to hire an individual programmer, but that will also leave you with the project management and design tasks. It'll be you and the coder, and no one else.
Going with a company -- even a small company -- means that the development team can include one or more people beyond the coder. That can help with the communication, it can also help with design, testing, etc.
What goes into a well-organized package when requesting bids? What are the different pieces called? Right now I have a very well-sketched outline of what the thing is, what it does, and why. I have features I need and features I could let go mapped out.
It sounds like you're in pretty good shape. The more detail you provide, the better. But the people you hire to do the job can also be responsible for completing mockups and nailing down the details before the coding happens.
If you want to keep working on your design, here's an article about tools for mocking up iphone apps.
I am assuming this thing will need a lot of time to develop, a serious time to polish and make pretty and not awful on the UI front, hard design work on the content itself, and a giant buttload of time for testing. Am I missing a giant piece of the puzzle?
As Sophist points out, the debugging and polishing always takes a long time. The submission to the app store is its own discrete process that you'll need to learn about. It would be helpful to have the developer you hire assist with that.
The other thing you should plan for is updates. If you want to have a successful iPhone or iPad app, you should expect to rev it frequently. This is still a relatively young platform, and you won't get the UI just right the first time out the door. Your users will have feedback and suggestions; you should plan on incorporating those into app updates if you want to be successful. Apple also regularly updates their OS or makes changes to the App Store in ways that you'll want to respond to in your app. Bottom line, you should plan on having an ongoing relationship with this developer.
Like Joe Chip, I'm also in the iPhone business. I'd be happy to chat more if you want to MeMail me.
posted by alms at 9:41 AM on May 25, 2010
This is similar to finding a new employee. You look for referrals from friends and colleagues, you post on Craigslist and maybe on MeFi Projects. You can also Google for app developers.
Once you have candidates, you look at their previous work, you check references, and you talk with them about the process of creating the app.
You want to make sure that you can communicate with them clearly, and that they express themselves clearly to you. If you are left with a lot of questions you shouldn't blame yourself and your own inexperience.
Does it make more sense to go with one guy or with a company?
This depends on the scope of the project and how you want to be involved yourself. It might be less expensive to hire an individual programmer, but that will also leave you with the project management and design tasks. It'll be you and the coder, and no one else.
Going with a company -- even a small company -- means that the development team can include one or more people beyond the coder. That can help with the communication, it can also help with design, testing, etc.
What goes into a well-organized package when requesting bids? What are the different pieces called? Right now I have a very well-sketched outline of what the thing is, what it does, and why. I have features I need and features I could let go mapped out.
It sounds like you're in pretty good shape. The more detail you provide, the better. But the people you hire to do the job can also be responsible for completing mockups and nailing down the details before the coding happens.
If you want to keep working on your design, here's an article about tools for mocking up iphone apps.
I am assuming this thing will need a lot of time to develop, a serious time to polish and make pretty and not awful on the UI front, hard design work on the content itself, and a giant buttload of time for testing. Am I missing a giant piece of the puzzle?
As Sophist points out, the debugging and polishing always takes a long time. The submission to the app store is its own discrete process that you'll need to learn about. It would be helpful to have the developer you hire assist with that.
The other thing you should plan for is updates. If you want to have a successful iPhone or iPad app, you should expect to rev it frequently. This is still a relatively young platform, and you won't get the UI just right the first time out the door. Your users will have feedback and suggestions; you should plan on incorporating those into app updates if you want to be successful. Apple also regularly updates their OS or makes changes to the App Store in ways that you'll want to respond to in your app. Bottom line, you should plan on having an ongoing relationship with this developer.
Like Joe Chip, I'm also in the iPhone business. I'd be happy to chat more if you want to MeMail me.
posted by alms at 9:41 AM on May 25, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
They'll have released several successful iPhone applications.
posted by furtive at 7:54 PM on May 24, 2010