How to create your first iPhone application
What if you were given a ruble every time you hear the expression "I have a great idea for a new application." Now everyone is talking about the same thing. iPhone has created an unprecedented innovation for people both in the society of programmers and beyond. And for those outside the development environment, this process remains a mystery.
This guide is intended to familiarize you with the process of developing applications for the iPhone, from idea to implementation and entry into the market. This topic presents the different ideas, methods, tips, and resources you need if you are going to create your first iPhone application.
How do you know if you have a good idea or not? First step: how solid the idea is. Step two: answer the question - does it have at least one indicator of success?
')
Task: Think, is it possible to include your application in one of the above categories? If yes, then it's time to prepare the necessary tools.
Below is a list of tools that you will need (items marked with an asterisk * are required, the rest are desirable):
Assignment: Remove the required tools.
What skills do you have? Are you a designer, with a brain inclination towards Objective C? A developer who cannot implement his ideas from a piece of paper? Or maybe neither, but you have an idea that you want to present to the market? Creating an iPhone app is like starting a small business. You play the role of Researcher, Project Manager, Accountant, Information Architect, Designer, Developer, Marketer and Advertiser in one person.
Remember that all good entrepreneurs know - you need a team to make a product successful . Don't get me wrong, you can of course do it all alone. But also in the process of this you can lose a lot of time, energy and.
Do not forget to give a non-disclosure agreement to all members of your team. Having a contract will make your team understand that you are professional and are serious about your business. Then they will not run away from you, taking your idea with them.
Task: Choose the skills that suit you. For the rest, hire professionals.
Market research can be presented as follows: “See what other people are doing and do not repeat their mistakes.” Learn from the good. The emergence of ideas about the concept of application development and design begins with an analysis of other (possibly similar) applications. Even if you see a lot of badly created applications, your mind will remember them as something you can't do.
Task: Answer the following questions.
If you want to create applications for the iPhone, then you need to understand the capabilities of the iPhone and its interface. Can you shoot a .45 gauge cartridge from an iPhone? Of course not! Can you shoot a video? Yes!
The good news is that you do not need to memorize the encyclopedic User Interface Guidelines in order to understand what works and what does not work in iPhone applications. Download and test as many applications as you can and think about the functionality that you want to include in your product.
Record in your:
Task: Download TOP 10 applications from each category and test them. Check out Apple's Guidelines for User Interface Design (Apple Guidelines for UI design) and write down at least 5 features that you would like to implement in your application.
Here we mean that you have already decided that your application will be meaningful and will have its target audience. Well, they are fans of your application, but who are they really? What actions will they take to achieve their goals in your application?
If this is a game , then probably they will want to set their record. Or maybe they play such a game for the first time - how will their experience differ from the experience of a person who plays this game all day?
If this is a utility , and your audience wants to quickly find a coffee shop, what actions will they take in the app to find this coffee shop? Where are they when looking for coffee? Usually in the car! You present the interface to the user, where you have to read a lot, move from page to page and touch the screen a lot? Of course not! This is what is meant by thinking through the design taking into account the real-life case.
Task: Create the characters of the people who will use your application. You can also give these characters names so that the script is as close as possible to reality.
By drawing, I mean drawing in the literal sense of the word. Draw 9 rectangles on a 8.5 Ă— 11 page and start drawing.
Ask yourself:
Drawing ideas on paper can push your creative beyond the limits of the possibilities of your imagination. You can also buy an iPhone Stencil Kit to quickly create prototypes of the iPhone user interface on paper.
Task: Create at least one page with a drawing of each screen of your application. Experiment with different navigation patterns, the texts supplied on the buttons and how the screens connect to each other. If you want to transfer your drawings to digital format, then you will need to look at the iPlotz tool.
If you are a designer, download Photoshop iPhone GUI template (iPhone GUI Photoshop template) or our iPhone PSD Vector Kit . Both are a set of iPhone GUI elements that will save you a lot of time. If while drawing the application you have already decided on the location of elements and the general view, then drawing screens will mainly concern the aspect of development, and not the creation of an interface.
If you are not a designer, hire a designer! This is the same as hiring an electrician to work with electrical wiring. You can go to the store and buy tools, do it all yourself, but who wants to risk and get a discharge of electric current? If you followed points 1–3, then you already have everything the designer will need to get started.
When looking for a designer, try to find someone who already has experience in mobile design. They may have ideas and tips for improving your drawn interface. When you publish an advertisement about the search for a designer, try to present the task in the best way possible and in detail. Also be ready to browse through a lot of portfolios.
Task: If you are a designer, start working in Photoshop. If you are not a designer, start looking for a designer.
Although this guide will continue, it will be good to take the developer to the team at the same time as you are working on the design. A conversation with the developer will help you decide on a technically feasible project that will fit your budget.
If you are an Objective C / Cocoa programmer, then open XCode and get started! Several forums in which you can register if you are not already there:
If you are not a developer, you know what to do - hire him! Determine the application you want to create - a game, utility, or something else. Depending on the application being created, different programming skills will be needed. Several sites where you can search for developers for the iPhone: Odesk , iPhoneFreelancer , eLance and any of the forums listed above.
So, how do you transfer your app to the Apple Store? The process of compiling your application and transferring a binary file to iTunes Connect can be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Xcode. If you are working with a developer, ask him to help you:
Task: If you are a developer, create a schedule for yourself and start. If you are not a developer, start looking for a developer for this project.
If a tree falls in the middle of a forest and nobody is around, then there will be no sound? Applications can easily remain invisible in the App Store. Do not let this happen to you. Prepare for a marketing campaign. Rather, you should have several marketing plans. Get ready for experiments. Some ideas will work, others, alas, no.
Task: Create a list of 20 advertising strategies that will be suitable for the target audience of your application. Work on it yourself or hire someone who has more experience.
There is nothing easier than working on your first application and dreaming about a billion new iPhone application ideas. Dream, but do not be distracted from the goal. Your first application should be successful, and engaging in multiple processes at the same time can weaken your passion and determination.
Task: Get out of there and finally create some kind of application!
This guide is intended to familiarize you with the process of developing applications for the iPhone, from idea to implementation and entry into the market. This topic presents the different ideas, methods, tips, and resources you need if you are going to create your first iPhone application.
1. Have a good idea?
How do you know if you have a good idea or not? First step: how solid the idea is. Step two: answer the question - does it have at least one indicator of success?
')
 | Does your application solve a unique problem? Before the bulb was invented, someone had to shout out “Hey, it's disgustingly difficult to read under the candlelight!”. Understand what to do now "disgustingly" difficult and how your application can make more comfortable the lives of those people who will use it. |
 | Is your application targeted to a specific niche? Despite the fact that there is no statistics for searching the AppStore, the scale of application usage grows with the expansion of applications in the AppStore. Find a niche with passionate fans (pet lovers, for example) and create an application that will be interesting for a specific category of people. |
 | Does it make people laugh? This is not predictable. If you can come up with something funny, you are definitely on the right track and your idea can be golden. Yesterday I pressed the red button "do not press" for 5 minutes. |
 | Do you create a better wheel? Are there any successful existing applications that do not need significant changes? Do not be content with just a list of wines, give winemakers the opportunity to chat with their fans. |
 | Will the application be interactive? Let's face it, many of us like just such apps. Successful games and applications attract users precisely by demanding action! |
Task: Think, is it possible to include your application in one of the above categories? If yes, then it's time to prepare the necessary tools.
2. Checklist tools.
Below is a list of tools that you will need (items marked with an asterisk * are required, the rest are desirable):
- join the Apple iPhone Developer Program ($ 99) *
- buy an iPhone or iPod Touch *
- Buy a Mac based on an Intel processor with Mac OS X 10.5.5,
- prepare a non-disclosure agreement (an example can be seen here ) *,
- Download and install the latest iPhone SDK if you don’t already have one
- spiral notepad *
Assignment: Remove the required tools.
3. What can you do best?
What skills do you have? Are you a designer, with a brain inclination towards Objective C? A developer who cannot implement his ideas from a piece of paper? Or maybe neither, but you have an idea that you want to present to the market? Creating an iPhone app is like starting a small business. You play the role of Researcher, Project Manager, Accountant, Information Architect, Designer, Developer, Marketer and Advertiser in one person.
Remember that all good entrepreneurs know - you need a team to make a product successful . Don't get me wrong, you can of course do it all alone. But also in the process of this you can lose a lot of time, energy and.
Skills checklist.
- The ability to recognize what works / does not work from existing applications for the iPhone.
- Market research,
- Definition of application functions
- Drawing an application
- Interface design,
- Programming (Objective C, Cocoa) (we mean that a native iPhone application is being created)
- Advertising applications and marketing.
Do not forget to give a non-disclosure agreement to all members of your team. Having a contract will make your team understand that you are professional and are serious about your business. Then they will not run away from you, taking your idea with them.
Task: Choose the skills that suit you. For the rest, hire professionals.
4. Do your homework: Market Research.
Market research can be presented as follows: “See what other people are doing and do not repeat their mistakes.” Learn from the good. The emergence of ideas about the concept of application development and design begins with an analysis of other (possibly similar) applications. Even if you see a lot of badly created applications, your mind will remember them as something you can't do.
Task: Answer the following questions.
- What problem should your application solve?
- which applications have you seen that perform the same function?
- How do users submit information to successful applications?
- how can you create something that works and make it unique?
- What value does your application have for the target audience?
5. Know the iPhone / iPod Touch user interface.
If you want to create applications for the iPhone, then you need to understand the capabilities of the iPhone and its interface. Can you shoot a .45 gauge cartridge from an iPhone? Of course not! Can you shoot a video? Yes!
The good news is that you do not need to memorize the encyclopedic User Interface Guidelines in order to understand what works and what does not work in iPhone applications. Download and test as many applications as you can and think about the functionality that you want to include in your product.
Record in your:
- How in good applications is the transition from page to page?
- How is the information organized in them?
- How much information do they provide to users?
- How do they take advantage of the unique characteristics of the iPhone: accelerator, scan options, zoom and rotate functions?
Task: Download TOP 10 applications from each category and test them. Check out Apple's Guidelines for User Interface Design (Apple Guidelines for UI design) and write down at least 5 features that you would like to implement in your application.
6. Define: “Who will use your application”.
Here we mean that you have already decided that your application will be meaningful and will have its target audience. Well, they are fans of your application, but who are they really? What actions will they take to achieve their goals in your application?
If this is a game , then probably they will want to set their record. Or maybe they play such a game for the first time - how will their experience differ from the experience of a person who plays this game all day?
If this is a utility , and your audience wants to quickly find a coffee shop, what actions will they take in the app to find this coffee shop? Where are they when looking for coffee? Usually in the car! You present the interface to the user, where you have to read a lot, move from page to page and touch the screen a lot? Of course not! This is what is meant by thinking through the design taking into account the real-life case.
Task: Create the characters of the people who will use your application. You can also give these characters names so that the script is as close as possible to reality.
7. Draw your idea.
By drawing, I mean drawing in the literal sense of the word. Draw 9 rectangles on a 8.5 Ă— 11 page and start drawing.
Ask yourself:
- What information should each of the screens represent?
- How can we deliver a user from point A to point B and point B?
- What proportions should buttons have in comparison with others and what should their size be (is it at all possible to touch this button or not?)
Drawing ideas on paper can push your creative beyond the limits of the possibilities of your imagination. You can also buy an iPhone Stencil Kit to quickly create prototypes of the iPhone user interface on paper.
Task: Create at least one page with a drawing of each screen of your application. Experiment with different navigation patterns, the texts supplied on the buttons and how the screens connect to each other. If you want to transfer your drawings to digital format, then you will need to look at the iPlotz tool.
8. Design time!
If you are a designer, download Photoshop iPhone GUI template (iPhone GUI Photoshop template) or our iPhone PSD Vector Kit . Both are a set of iPhone GUI elements that will save you a lot of time. If while drawing the application you have already decided on the location of elements and the general view, then drawing screens will mainly concern the aspect of development, and not the creation of an interface.
If you are not a designer, hire a designer! This is the same as hiring an electrician to work with electrical wiring. You can go to the store and buy tools, do it all yourself, but who wants to risk and get a discharge of electric current? If you followed points 1–3, then you already have everything the designer will need to get started.
When looking for a designer, try to find someone who already has experience in mobile design. They may have ideas and tips for improving your drawn interface. When you publish an advertisement about the search for a designer, try to present the task in the best way possible and in detail. Also be ready to browse through a lot of portfolios.
Task: If you are a designer, start working in Photoshop. If you are not a designer, start looking for a designer.
9. Programming.
Although this guide will continue, it will be good to take the developer to the team at the same time as you are working on the design. A conversation with the developer will help you decide on a technically feasible project that will fit your budget.
If you are an Objective C / Cocoa programmer, then open XCode and get started! Several forums in which you can register if you are not already there:
- iPhoneSDK (moderated by Erica Sadun )
If you are not a developer, you know what to do - hire him! Determine the application you want to create - a game, utility, or something else. Depending on the application being created, different programming skills will be needed. Several sites where you can search for developers for the iPhone: Odesk , iPhoneFreelancer , eLance and any of the forums listed above.
10. Transfer application to Apple Store.
So, how do you transfer your app to the Apple Store? The process of compiling your application and transferring a binary file to iTunes Connect can be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Xcode. If you are working with a developer, ask him to help you:
- Create your Certificates,
- Determine your application ID,
- Create your Distribution Initialization Profile,
- Compile the application
- Download to iTunes Connect.
Task: If you are a developer, create a schedule for yourself and start. If you are not a developer, start looking for a developer for this project.
11. Advertise your application.
If a tree falls in the middle of a forest and nobody is around, then there will be no sound? Applications can easily remain invisible in the App Store. Do not let this happen to you. Prepare for a marketing campaign. Rather, you should have several marketing plans. Get ready for experiments. Some ideas will work, others, alas, no.
The strategy of maintaining / increasing the number of sales.
- The inclusion in the process of social networks. If your users achieve good results in their favorite game, then it would be a good idea to make simple the action of recording an account or a record of a game on Facebook or Twitter. Think about how your application can work with social networks and create this functionality.
- Pre-launch advertising. Start talking about your application before it comes out. Write letters to people who write articles about your application and see if they will talk about your application before it is released.
- Schedule multiple releases. Do not compile your application at once with all the features you want to see in it. Create a list of your dreams and make sure that the application someday will contain all these functions. Then alternately add new features to the release by creating a new version of the application to increase the number of sales.
Task: Create a list of 20 advertising strategies that will be suitable for the target audience of your application. Work on it yourself or hire someone who has more experience.
12. Be purposeful and don't give up!
There is nothing easier than working on your first application and dreaming about a billion new iPhone application ideas. Dream, but do not be distracted from the goal. Your first application should be successful, and engaging in multiple processes at the same time can weaken your passion and determination.
Task: Get out of there and finally create some kind of application!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/67112/
All Articles