 Today, I'll show you how to make an iOS app. In 9 steps we're going from idea to App Store! Let's get started. When I came up with the idea for Crest, one of the iOS apps I built, I wanted to help people reach their goals more effectively. The idea of the Crest app is to help people go from long-term goals to daily tasks. Here are the next steps I took to go from idea to App Store: - Sketch the app idea
- Do some market research
- Create mockups of the app
- Make the app's graphic design
- Build the app landing page
- Make the app with Xcode and Swift
- Launch the app in the App Store
- Market the app to the right people
- Improve the app with user feedback
In today's lesson I'll help you make progress with your app idea, and show you what next steps you can take. I'll walk you through the app development workflow and give you helpful tips to build a great iOS app. Let's get started! 1. Sketch Your App Idea Every app starts with an idea. It doesn't need to be big, disruptive or clever. Just an idea is good enough. Sketch out your app idea with pen and paper. Define how your app works and what its features are. The goal here is to make your idea tangible. Try to be as "lean and mean" as possible. That's called a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). When you focus on what matters, you speed up your app development process. And it becomes easier to make changes later. Ever notice how great apps do one thing well? It's tempting to make an app with a lot of features. Doing this only obscures the one thing your app is good at. Don't overestimate the importance of ideas. Your app's success is determined by "idea x execution". Making an app that works well is more important than finding an idea that is perfect. 2. Do Some Market Research Many app developers skip market research. It's important, though! Before you make an app, you want to know if your app idea is any good. Ask questions like: - What are alternative apps and competitors in the marketplace?
- What do potential customers want? What are their needs and desires?
- How much should I charge for my app? What's a good business model?
Accurate market research can save you from making mistakes early on. You validate your assumptions and assess the wants of potential customers. Two kinds of research are especially helpful, and easy to do: - Find out what mistakes your competitors are making
- Find out if people are looking for an app like yours
In this article I'll show you exactly how I used Google Trends and Keyword Planner to measure demand for a simple to-do list app. Did you know? I've got a super helpful blog for iOS developers at learnappmaking.com/blog. New tutorials and articles are published every week – and hundreds of thousands of iOS developers use the blog to level up their skills. 3. Create Mockups Of Your App A mockup is a rough sketch of your app's layout, user interfaces (UIs) and flow. It's a great idea to make mockups before you code your app. Here's an example: 
Mockups don't include: - Fine-grained UI elements
- Exact positioning of UI elements
- Complex color schemes and effects
A mockup shows you what an app looks like, without the distraction of unnecessary details. It's a functional instead of aesthetic approach to your app's design. Form follows function. And it helps you fix basic UI/UX problems early on. When you're making an app for a client or employer, creating a mockup is a good opportunity to show them the end result before building the app. You can guide them through the UI, by using the mockups, and help them see and imagine the complete app. 4. Make Your App's Graphic Design Now that your project is taking shape, it's time to make a graphic design. Your app's design includes pixel-perfect visual details, graphic effects, image assets, and animations. I recommend two approaches: - Do it yourself with a graphics template
- Hire a professional graphic designer
Professional graphic designers spend years practicing and perfecting their craft. As an app developer you need to play to your strengths, and that means outsourcing work you're not particularly good at. If you want to go it alone, don't reinvent the wheel. Use a design template specially made for iOS apps to save time. Use the template's building blocks to create your own design, and then customize them after. You can use tools like Photoshop, Sketch and Affinity Designer to create the graphic design for your app. The end result (or "deliverable") you aim for, is a set of images and assets you can import into Xcode. You can't import a Sketch or Photoshop design directly, so you'll have to recreate it in Interface Builder and/or Xcode to build your app. You lay out views in Interface Builder, import image assets, and set up Auto Layout constraints, to bring the UI of your app to life. 5. Build Your App Landing Page Marketing is an often overlooked topic for app developers. Just because you made a great app doesn't mean that people will find it. Help potential app users find your app by creating an app landing page. Here's an example: 
This landing page explains briefly what the app does, who its for, and why it's a helpful app. The page also includes a call to action (CTA) to sign up for the beta. Your app landing page needs: - A clear headline at the top of the page
- A brief introductory paragraph or explainer video
- An app screenshot or iPhone mockup
- A call to action, i.e. to sign up or install the app
- A breakdown of app features and benefits
- A story about the app's creators, or an "About Us" section
Your landing page serves as a central point that you can lead people to. When your app is still being developed, you don't have an App Store page yet. Your app landing page can help garner beta signups at that point. Recommended tools: Strikingly, WordPress, LeadPages. None of those tools require knowledge of HTML. 6. Make The App With Xcode And Swift We're finally here. It's time to build your app! Now that you've laid the groundwork for your app project, building the app itself becomes much easier. You've created mockups, your app's design, and taken the first steps in marketing your app with a website. Way to go! You build iOS apps with Xcode and Swift. Xcode includes a project manager, code editor, built-in documentation, debugging tools, and Interface Builder, a tool you use to create your app's user interface. Everything you need to make an iOS app! Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language, and it's the default programming language to build iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS apps. If you're learning iOS development today, I recommend you learn Swift instead of Objective-C. You can divide app development into two categories: - Front-end: This is the part of the app you can see. It includes layout, view controllers, navigation, graphics, user interaction, animation and data processing.
- Back-end: This is the part of the app you can't see. It includes databases, data storage, networking, and user management.
Imagine you're building a Twitter app. You build UIs to create and view tweets. Newly created tweets are saved in the database, and previously stored tweets can be read from the database. A great number of tools can speed up the app development process. Here's a quick pick of my favorite tools for building iOS apps: - Xcode, Interface Builder and Swift for iOS development
- Balsamiq Mockups and Sketch for graphic design and UI/UX
- CocoaPods and libraries like Alamofire, SwiftyJSON and PromiseKit
- Firebase, Parse Platform, Realm and Core Data for storage and databases
- Fastlane automates your app publishing workflow (among other things)
- PaintCode turns your visually designed UI elements into working Swift code
- The Apple Developer Documentation has super helpful articles, tutorials and documentation on pretty much every iOS component
- TestFlight is the default platform to beta test your app, to up to 10.000 devices
Learning how to code is challenging, just like learning any other skill. Swift, Xcode and the many development tools that are available today make it easier than ever to make your own apps. Want to level up your iOS development skills? I'd love to welcome you in my flagship iOS development course. You'll learn how to build iOS apps from scratch, get helpful support, and free updates for new iOS, Swift and Xcode versions. » Learn more 7. Launch Your App In The App Store Now that you've built the app, it is time to launch it in the App Store. Here's how: - Prepare your app's title and meta data with iTunes Connect
- Upload your latest app build to the App Store with Xcode
- Apple reviews your app, following the App Store Review Guidelines
- When your app is approved, it's published live in the App Store
- DONE! People can now download and install your app
Making an app, and publishing it in the App Store, is AWESOME!! It's quite a thrill, and a great feeling to have built something, put it out in the world, for others to see and experience. Congrats! When you've published your app, the work doesn't stop. You get early user feedback, do more market research, improve your mockups and designs, and build new features. You launch the next version of your app in the App Store, and the cycle restarts again. It's an iterative process. It's how your skills & your apps get better. 8. Market Your App To Reach The Right People App developers are problem-solvers. Your app solves a problem for someone, and that's what convinces them to install and use your app. But is that all there is to it? Marketing helps to make change happen. Changing from an old solution to a new one, for example. As an app developer, part of your work is helping people make that transition. Do you need marketing as an app developer? HELL YEAH! You want your ideas to spread, right? Your product gets better when the right people benefit. Marketing is a way to reach those people. Marketing is the voice that tells people who you are, what you stand for, and how you're different from available alternatives. Marketing is about trust, empathy and making a connection with people. It's not about being dirty or salesy, or about interrupting people, or selling crap no one wants. How you want to market your app is up to you. So, what's next? You need to promote your app! Here's some ideas: - Start a blog and use content marketing to tell people about your app
- Submit your app to curated platforms, like Product Hunt
- Get local publicity and build a connection with influencers in your field
- Create an onboarding campaign for new app users
- Optimize the keywords of your app with App Store Optimization
- Focus first on getting 1 user, then 10, then 1000, then 10.000
- Use the network effect to build a product that's better when more people use it – like a telephone – and help people share your app with others
- Set up an App Install campaign on Facebook, or use Search Ads in the App Store
Whatever you choose to do: stick with it. 9. Improve Your App With User Feedback Real user feedback is important for making an app. How do you get feedback? Some ideas: - Use app analytics and heatmaps to gather quantitive data
- Use surveys and interviews to get qualitative data
- Talk to your users regularly and build a personal connection
The easiest way to get feedback from the users of your app, is to simply send them a personal email to ask how they're doing, and how they're using your app. You literally ask: "How are you using my app?" The key is "how". You don't ask if they like your app, or how they want to see it improved, or what they think about a new feature. You can ask those questions, but they're likely to give you opinionated answers. What you need is real-world answers. When you've collected some feedback, make a list of potential improvements, and fix the items in these two categories: - Fix things that are obvious mistakes
- Fix things that are easy to fix
Don't make it too complicated, it's not rocket science! Improve the things that need to be improved, and quickly launch a new version of your app. What's Your Next Step? Pfew, that's quite a workflow! At this point it's smart to figure out at what stage you are. What's your next step? See you tomorrow for Lesson 3 of this course! —Reinder
PS. Got a friend who could benefit from what's inside this email? Feel free to forward this email to them! They'll thank you for it :-) | 
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