The Many Hats Of An App Developer

This is a guest post by Rod Cambridge, author of the successful How NOT to write an app eBook.

As developers, we tend to focus exclusively on code as we attempt to create the next best-selling app. In doing so we fail to realise that, in reality, we need to be able to wear a number of different hats in order to give our app its best chance in a very crowded marketplace. For example as well as the development hat that we already wear so expertly, we’ll also need a research hat, a design hat, a marketing hat, a technical support hat, and more. Lets have a closer look at just three of these: 

The Research Hat

If it’s your intention to write a successful app, you’ll need to commit a lot of time to research.

Your pre-ship research will give you a better idea of the potential users of your app and what they want from it. For example, if you’re planning a social networking app to help mothers of newborn babies share tips and advice, find out when the local mothers and toddlers group meets up and attend the next session, clipboard in hand. You’ll come away with a wealth of information and, importantly, you’ll have started the marketing ball rolling with the mothers who answer your questions.

And what when your app has shipped? Too many developers neglect to collect user feedback at this important stage. This is unforgivable! There may be issues that you simply won’t know about until you ask your users for feedback. Careful research, both before and after your app ships, is crucial in order to understand what your potential customers want from your product and what your existing customers are actually getting. Ignore it at your peril.

The Design Hat

Your app has to look good and work well. Nobody likes using an app that seems like it was designed with a fork! So really think about the way that your users will use your app and design the interface accordingly. Users really notice the quality of the artwork in an app, so invest in this area. When your app is finally on sale, you really won’t regret it.

And while you’re about it, don’t forget your icon. Look at the home screen of your smartphone. See how the calendar and email icons are instantly recognizable? Why do you think they’re like this? The answer is that the people who created those icons put an awful lot of time, thought and effort into making them highly effective, visual representations of the apps they will launch when tapped. Your app’s icon deserves the same – so think carefully about it!

The Sneaky Hat

Look – it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. You’ve got to give your app every possible advantage over the competition – and that means being sneaky.

Back in the early nineties I worked on the team that built Dr. Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit for Dos and Windows 3. The AVTK (as we affectionately called it) was market leader, constantly getting great reviews from publications that tested it against our competitors. It was quite impressive the way we always had the best detection rates. I’ll let you into a little secret; we weighted those reviews in our favor. But how?! Review Mode.

Back then, chances of most users coming across a virus was pretty slim. This was before the explosion of the Internet, and so while boot sector viruses (like Form) were almost common, file viruses in ‘the wild’ were actually quite rare. Unless you were a reviewer, of course, with access to hundreds of viruses to test with.

So we decided to implement Review Mode. The idea behind it was sound:

If, during a scan, we only find one or two viruses then the chances are that we are running on a ‘normal’ end user’s computer. Therefore, run normally and find viruses in the normal way.

If, however, we find hundreds of viruses then chances are that the product is being tested by a reviewer. Therefore, scan in ‘grunt’ mode where we are extra careful to scan things and areas that normally won’t be infected.

Because the reviewers were sneaky and would do non-standard things with files in order to out-fox the anti-virus, they would be surprised that the AVTK would still be able to find these infections when the other products failed. The result? Fantastic reviews!

If your app lends itself to being run in a similar way, why not put on your sneaky hat and explore the possibility of adding a Review Mode? It’s not cheating; it’s simply changing the behavior of the app depending on the circumstances.

The bottom line

There are many more hats. As you forge ahead with your development efforts, don’t neglect to wear them, as they are an important part of any app developer’s arsenal.

Enjoyed the post? Get Rod’s How NOT to write an app eBook.

I’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter – @OrenTodoros