Introduction to Mobile App Development

The slide deck from a talk I gave at Google Campus on 29th Feb 2016, on behalf of the fine folks at General Assembly.
The goal was to help people from any background understand how they can play a part in app development.

Transcript

1. Introduction to MOBILE APP Development 1 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
2. Rob Stearn MOBILE APP DEVELOPER NOTONTHEHIGHSTREET 2 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
3. "Can I develop an app?" "Do I need coding experience?" 3 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
4. YES & YES 4 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
5. "IT'S COMPLICATED..." 5 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
6. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY APP? ▸ A program that does one thing and does it as well as possible. ▸ Something a person interacts with. ▸ Something other software interacts with. ▸ Installs on a mobile device 6 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
7. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY DEVELOP? 7 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
8. "You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology - not the other way around." Steve Jobs 8 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
9. "Can I use my skills to play a part in the development of an app?" 9 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
10. "Can I use my skills to play a part in the development of an app?" ▸ Design it. ▸ Build it. ▸ Test it. ▸ Release it. ▸ Measure it. 10 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
11. ▶︎ DESIGN IT. 11 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
12. DESIGN: RESPECT THE PLATFORM 12 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
13. DESIGN GUIDELINES ▸ Apple Human Interface Guidelines. ▸ Android Material Design Guide. ▸ Microsoft Mobile Design Guide. 13 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
14. Example: CINEMA CLUB 14 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
15. 15 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
16. 16 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
17. 17 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
18. DESIGN: USER STORIES 18 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
19. WHAT ✔ HOW ✘ 19 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
20. DESIGN: REQUIREMENTS 20 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
21. WHAT ✔ HOW ✔ 21 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
22. DESIGN: DATA 22 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
23. DATA > INCOMING ▸ User Input ▸ Hardware Sensors ▸ OS & Apps on device ▸ Data feeds 23 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
24. DATA > OUTGOING ▸ External APIs & Servers ▸ Social Media ▸ Display ▸ OS & Apps on device 24 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
25. PROTOTYPING STATIC & dynamic 25 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
26. POP PROTOTYPING ON PAPER 26 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
27. BUILD habits WITH YOUR USERS 27 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
28. DESIGN > BUILD HABITS ▸ Update content regularly ▸ Communicate that change: notifications, email ▸ Incentivise usage: recognition vs reward ▸ Build community ▸ Give value: value creates desire 28 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
29. Psychology is more powerful than common sense 29 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
30. STORY 30 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
31. DESIGN ▸ Respect the platform you're on ▸ Write user stories & requirements ▸ Consider data flow ▸ Test with prototypes ▸ Build habits with your users 31 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
32. ▶︎ BUILD IT. 32 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
33. BUILD > LANGUAGES ▸ iOS: Objective-C, Swift*, C, C++ ▸ Android: Java, Kotlin, Go*, C++, C ▸ Windows Mobile: C#, C++, C, HTML/CSS/JS 33 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
34. BUILD > TOOLS 34 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
35. THERE'S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO learn to code. 35 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
36. BUILD > LEARNING self guided learning ▸ Online Tutorials: Ray Wenderlich, Big Nerd Ranch, Lynda.com ▸ Resources: Stack Overflow, Forums, Developer Documentation ▸ Community: Meetups, hackathons, Conferences ▸ Books: O'Reilly, Sybex, Wiley etc... 36 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
37. BUILD > LEARNING Guided learning ▸ Online Courses: Coursera, iTunes U, Codeacademy ▸ Institutions: General Assembly, Birkbeck, UoW 37 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
38. BE BETTER THAN YOU WERE YESTERDAY 38 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
39. STORY 39 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
40. 40 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
41. BASIC > DESIGN > AEROSPACE > RETAIL > SYSADMIN > WEB > SUPPORT > RETAIL > IOS DEV 41 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
42. BUILD > HIRING Hiring is hard 42 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
43. BUILD > HIRING ▸ Personal Experience ▸ Personal Recommendation ▸ Developer Community ▸ Online Contributions - Github, Stack Overflow ▸ Recruiters 43 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
44. BUILD > HIRING ▸ Experience vs Flexibility ▸ Broad vs Deep ▸ Remote vs Local ▸ Contract vs Permanent 44 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
45. WORKFLOW ! ▶︎ ✏ ▶︎ # ▶︎ $ ▶︎ ☁ 45 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
46. STORY 46 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
47. BUILD > WORKFLOW ▸ Set a coding standard ▸ Insist on Unit Tests* ▸ Define what 'Done' means ▸ Select a planning tool ▸ Embrace a version control system 47 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
48. BUILD > WORKFLOW A FEW WORDS ON TECHNICAL DEBT 48 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
49. TECHNICAL DEBT WILL ALWAYS EXIST IT'S ONLY A PROBLEM IF YOU DON'T HAVE A REPAYMENT PLAN 49 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
50. LOCALISED & ACCESSIBLE 50 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
51. BUILD ▸ Learn you can build it yourself ▸ Hire flexibility & fit over cheap & flashy ▸ Implement coding standards & processes ▸ Plan for technical debt ▸ Ensure code is localised and accessible 51 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
52. ▶︎ TEST IT. 52 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
53. TEST > WHAT SHOULD YOUR APP DO? UNIT TESTS TEST EACH FUNCTION IN THE CODE WRITE THE TESTS BEFORE THE CODE 53 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
54. TEST > WHAT SHOULD YOUR APP DO? INTEGRATION TEST THE FLOW THROUGH THE CODE SCRIPTING THE USER STORIES 54 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
55. 55 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
56. TEST > WHAT DOES YOUR APP DO? ANALYTICS ADD LIVE MEASUREMENT TO THE CODE REQUIRES CAREFUL PLANNING 56 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
57. TEST > WHAT DOES YOUR APP DO? BETA TESTING TEST WITH REAL HUMANS ON REAL TASKS TRY FORMAL AND INFORMAL SESSIONS 57 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
58. TEST ▸ use unit tests to assess code quality ▸ begin with the test and work toward the code ▸ follow the path of execution with integration ▸ consider what to measure and what not to ▸ value the feedback from users most of all 58 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
59. ▶︎ RELEASE IT. 59 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
60. BUILD relationships 60 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
61. RELEASE > BUILD RELATIONSHIPS ENGAGE WITH THE GATEKEEPERS ▸ Communicate ▸ Attend events ▸ Study the press 61 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
62. RELEASE > BUILD RELATIONSHIPS SOCIAL MEDIA 62 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
63. RELEASE > BUILD RELATIONSHIPS JOIN THE COMMUNITY ▸ Go to meetups ▸ Publish ▸ Stuff! 63 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
64. Platforms 64 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
65. MARKETSHARE 65 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
66. REVENUE 66 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
67. REVENUE MODELS ▸ DOWNLOAD - FREE - PAID ▸ IN-APP PURCHASE - NONE - CONSUMABLE - NON-CONSUMABLE - SUBS ▸ PASSIVE IN-APP - NONE - AD-SUPPORTED - AFFILIATES ▸ EXTERNAL PURCHASE - NONE - SALES - COMMISSION 67 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
68. CHOOSING 68 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
69. Example: GUMTREE 69 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
70. RELEASE ▸ Cultivate relationships ▸ Publicise the process and the result ▸ Create anticipation and desire ▸ Assess your revenue model 70 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
71. ▶︎ MEASURE IT. 71 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
72. MEASURE > 'TEMPERATURE' ▸ Twitter/Facebook/Other statistics ▸ Site visits ▸ Communication from users 72 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
73. APP REVIEWS != SUPPORT REQUESTS 73 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
74. THE RETURN OF ANALYTICS 74 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
75. MEASURE > THE RETURN OF ANALYTICS CRASH REPORTING 75 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
76. MEASURE > THE RETURN OF ANALYTICS INTEGRATING INFORMATION @ NOTHS ▸ App Reviews display in Slack ▸ HockeyApp creates tickets for bugs in Pivotal Tracker ▸ Git commits contain ticket refs from Pivotal Tracker ▸ HockeyApp sends daily digests of crash reports via Email ▸ Xcode Server reports results of Integration tests in Slack 76 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
77. MEASURE > THE RETURN OF ANALYTICS ETHICS 77 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
78. MEASURE > THE RETURN OF ANALYTICS > ETHICS TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR DATA If you decided to use a free analytics library: ▸ what are their privacy policies? ▸ Are your users paying with their data and yours? ▸ Are you ensuring that peoples data is anonymous? ▸ Are you asking for their permission and acting on their answer? 78 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
79. DID YOU KNOW? THE T&CS FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS REQUIRE YOU TO PROVIDE A WAY FOR USERS TO OPT OUT? 79 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
80. MEASURE ▸ Don't rue every user who opts out as missed data. ▸ Make it point of pride that you respect peoples privacy. ▸ Respect anonymity requests. ▸ Be transparent about data usage and dependencies. ▸ Fulfil your obligations. ▸ Remember statistics can be manipulated 80 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
81. NO 81 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
82. ▶︎ REPEAT. 82 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
83. SUMMARY ▸ Design ▸ Build ▸ Test ▸ Market ▸ Measure ▸ Repeat 83 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
84. "Can I use my skills to play a part in the development of an app?" 84 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
85. "Can I use my skills to play a part in the development of an app?" YES 85 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
86. THANK YOU to GENERAL ASSEMBLY & GOOGLE CAMPUS 86 — © Rob Stearn, 2016
87. Rob Stearn WWW.COCOADELICA.CO.UK UNWRAPPED.NOTONTHEHIGHSTREET.COM SLIDES BUILT IN @DECKSETAPP 87 — © Rob Stearn, 2016