Coding for idiots?

January 4, 2016 11:45 AM

I want to make an app for my own use. I know basically nothing about coding and don’t know where to start.

So I’ve been looking and looking for an app I can use to collect data, but I can’t find one exactly like I need. I would like to make one, since I have very specific idea about what it should do. The problems is that I have no idea how to code.

I don’t particularly want to be good at coding; it’s a skill that seems difficult to master and frankly isn’t relevant to my job. I want to learn enough to piece together this silly little app, then use my silly little app on my own. I was able to build a website by googling around, using templates, and looking at enough source to piece together what I wanted. I was hoping I could do something like this for what I perceived to be a simple app; however, thus far I'm having trouble with that. Are my expectations here reasonable? Where do I even start for the basics? Do I just need to suck it up and pay someone to write this for me? Help!

posted by a hat out of hell to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

You'll probably need to describe the app in greater detail before we'll be able to say for sure.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:52 AM on January 4, 2016

also, android or iphone or something else?
posted by andrewcooke at 11:55 AM on January 4, 2016

Yeah, could you describe more specifically what you want the app to do? "Collecting data" is vague but makes me wonder if you couldn't use a web form tool combined with some kind of app connector (Zapier/IFTT) to avoid having to use code. I taught myself JavaScript to make simple web apps and scripts for mostly personal use--it's been rewarding but is a big commitment. If you want to look into the basics, I think Codecademy's free lessons are great.
posted by raisindebt at 11:56 AM on January 4, 2016

Hey, Mr sively just made his first app this weekend! He knows nothing about coding. He used the MIT App Inventor. It's free and online, and that's all I know about it. But it worked, and the app works, and Mr sively was very pleased with himself.
posted by sively at 12:06 PM on January 4, 2016 [9 favorites]

If it's for iOS, I strongly recommend the Udemy course called The Complete iOS 9 Developer Course - Build 18 Apps, by Rob Percival. I did the iOS 8 course and it's really detailed and the pacing is great for a beginner. Everything on Udemy seems to be perpetually 95% off, so $10, which seems kind of scammy, but I had a great experience with it.

He also does an Android course, but I haven't done that one.
posted by Huck500 at 12:06 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Again it sorta depends, one man's trivial app is another's NP-complete approximation. Do you have a link to the site you saw? Android is basically Java code with extra libraries to access the phone specific tools like GPS or the camera, some issues are a bit fiddly.
posted by sammyo at 12:07 PM on January 4, 2016

Zoho Creator may be of interest to you. It has a steep learning curve but I was able to make a fairly complex database and the input app associated with it in about two weeks. If nothing else, it's free to try (and might even be free long-term depending on your needs).
posted by teremala at 12:07 PM on January 4, 2016

Response by poster: It would be iOS. What I want is really specific and weird, and I'm not totally sure I'm even using the right vocabulary. I want to record my patients' successes out of attempts for different tasks. I would like to make something where I can select the child, have a + and - button come up, and use them to record successes out of trials (John had 7/10, Sarah 8/9, etc). Ideally, I would then be able to export that info to a spreadsheet and save it for the day, but just tracking it for the day would work for now? Ugh, I feel like an idiot even trying to describe it, sorry if this doesn't make any sense.
posted by a hat out of hell at 12:09 PM on January 4, 2016

Yeah, that's very much within Zoho's capacity, and much simpler than the thing it took me a fortnight to figure out.
posted by teremala at 12:11 PM on January 4, 2016

google forms with a bookmark to the form. You get the results in a spreadsheet. I'm sending you an example
posted by bdc34 at 12:20 PM on January 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Swift is a decent starting point for novice iOS developers. You could start with free course materials from Stanford. Some other online classes are listed here.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:44 PM on January 4, 2016

Seconding Google forms. It's super easy to enter data on a phone and it is easy to manipulate once it's in the spreadsheet. I also use an add-on called "form ranger" that will auto fill a drop down menu from an existing spreadsheet and automatically update when the spreadsheet changes, which might be useful if you add new patients with any frequency.
posted by clockwork at 12:46 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

+ Google Forms, which exist for this kind of thing. Don't boil the ocean.
posted by mkultra at 12:50 PM on January 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

There are a number of different ways to tackle this, and only you can decide which one is best for you.

In addition to the above methods, I'll point out that you can also do this with that old small office/workgroup standby, FileMaker Pro: build the solution in the FileMaker desktop app (for which you'd need a licensed copy) and use FileMaker Go (which is free) to run the solution to your iOS phone or tablet. FileMaker has been around for 30 years (!), and consequently it's an application that you may have already used in some capacity. If you have, it is very easy to build a desktop solution and port it to your iOS device, something that may cut down on the learning curve significantly.
posted by mosk at 1:13 PM on January 4, 2016

Why wouldn't just pencil and paper, on maybe a little tiny notebook, work for recording the successes/failures, then you could just type that into a spreadsheet every day?

I'm not necessarily advocating this, just hoping that your explanation will make clear the kind of coding that would be required.
posted by amtho at 1:44 PM on January 4, 2016

I just used google forms to make a thing to track fruit and vegetable consumption across multiple people for a contest we're having, and the results all go to a spreadsheet. It was very easy, and accessible via my phone.
posted by garlic at 9:31 PM on January 4, 2016

Just saw you mentioned "patients" and wanted to just mention that there may be HIPAA considerations to developing an app, even for personal use.

I'm not up to date on HIPAA standards at all, but I believe that if any information is stored on a mobile device, there are some requirements that need to be met (even if you're not transmitting the data anywhere). This could be as simple as ensuring your iPhone has a lock screen with a password (but again, I don't actually know)

Maybe read through this: https://github.com/truevault/hipaa-compliance-developers-guide?
posted by czytm at 8:18 AM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Re HIPAA, at a minimum: your computing device, whether mobile or not, needs to be password protected, you need to be mindful that other people aren't "shoulder surfing" when you view it, you need to follow appropriate protocols for destroying all data when the device dies or gets upgraded, any CDs etc used for data storage need to be secured at all times under lock and key (locked briefcase, locked file cabinet) and shredded before disposal. If it is mobile, take precautions to secure it physically. If you have it on your phone, make sure you don't set it down somewhere in a public restroom where you might forget it, etc. You cannot email this information to anyone ever. You need a more secure means to transmit PHI than email.
posted by Michele in California at 9:42 AM on January 5, 2016