0
1
00:00:00,670 --> 00:00:04,240
Hello everyone my name is Angela and I'm an iOS
1

2
00:00:04,330 --> 00:00:06,230
and WatchOS developer.
2

3
00:00:06,370 --> 00:00:10,210
And I'm also one of the co-founders of the App Brewery.
3

4
00:00:10,300 --> 00:00:18,230
And today I'm going to take you through the entire journey of building an app from beginning to end.
4

5
00:00:18,310 --> 00:00:24,490
Now through my time working as an iOS developer I've worked in teams large and small and also been
5

6
00:00:24,490 --> 00:00:31,240
at the helm as a CTO for one of my own app based companies. And I'm very fortunate to have been recognized
6

7
00:00:31,270 --> 00:00:34,330
for some of the work that I've done throughout the years.
7

8
00:00:34,330 --> 00:00:38,900
Today I'm going to teaching how to make an app from beginning to end.
8

9
00:00:39,100 --> 00:00:45,400
Going from idea validation through to how you would design the app, through it how you would monetize
9

10
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:50,970
your app as well as development and marketing your app in order to get downloads on the App Store.
10

11
00:00:51,100 --> 00:00:56,170
So it's going to be a whirlwind tour of the entire process and I hope you're ready because we're going
11

12
00:00:56,170 --> 00:00:57,200
to get started.
12

13
00:00:57,430 --> 00:01:03,610
So it doesn't matter if you have an idea already or if you're still in the process of brewing one.
13

14
00:01:03,610 --> 00:01:08,770
This is one of the most important parts of your app development journey.
14

15
00:01:08,860 --> 00:01:13,170
How do you figure out if your app idea is a good one?
15

16
00:01:13,180 --> 00:01:19,740
How do you know if it's worth spending your time and your money and your energy to build this app?
16

17
00:01:19,750 --> 00:01:22,280
How do you know if it's going to be a good one?
17

18
00:01:22,310 --> 00:01:29,450
So one of the first pieces of advice that I give to students is to talk to absolutely everybody. If you
18

19
00:01:29,450 --> 00:01:30,670
are on a plane
19

20
00:01:30,670 --> 00:01:35,110
talk to your air hostess about your app idea. If you're in a supermarket
20

21
00:01:35,110 --> 00:01:37,750
talk to your checkout cashier about your idea.
21

22
00:01:37,930 --> 00:01:39,970
Everybody has a valid opinion.
22

23
00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:47,050
And by doing this you might just come across somebody who has a unique insight or who might be one of your
23

24
00:01:47,050 --> 00:01:49,030
apps customers in the future.
24

25
00:01:49,150 --> 00:01:52,080
And people who will give you advice along the way.
25

26
00:01:52,570 --> 00:02:01,480
Now whenever I tell people this the first question I always get is should I ask for an NDA or what's
26

27
00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:04,500
known as a non-disclosure agreement?
27

28
00:02:04,780 --> 00:02:12,190
Now this, for those of you guys who don't know, is basically a piece of legal paper that sort of prevents anybody
28

29
00:02:12,190 --> 00:02:13,530
from stealing your idea.
29

30
00:02:13,570 --> 00:02:18,540
But of course you would need the legal counsel to be able to back up that piece of paper.
30

31
00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:20,980
And it's rarely done.
31

32
00:02:21,220 --> 00:02:24,190
And one of my friends who works on Sand Hill Road
32

33
00:02:24,190 --> 00:02:28,110
so where a lot of the venture capitalists are based in Silicon Valley.
33

34
00:02:28,300 --> 00:02:35,830
You know he said that if a founder comes to him and the first thing they do is to slide an NDA across
34

35
00:02:35,830 --> 00:02:43,090
the table then he knows almost instantly that this guy is a newbie because anybody who's built anything
35

36
00:02:43,100 --> 00:02:51,130
worthwhile will know that the idea is only such a small part of the success of the product. And there's
36

37
00:02:51,130 --> 00:02:57,880
so much more to it including a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a lot of hard work.
37

38
00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:03,010
So my answer to this question is emphatically no.
38

39
00:03:03,010 --> 00:03:10,530
Try and get advice from as many people as you can without putting them off by having to sign an NDA.
39

40
00:03:10,630 --> 00:03:18,580
In most cases if it's a really good idea you can bet that probably five or six people across the world
40

41
00:03:18,910 --> 00:03:21,110
already have the same idea.
41

42
00:03:21,470 --> 00:03:27,120
And some of them are working on it and some of them are trying to get people to sign NDAs.
42

43
00:03:27,490 --> 00:03:31,790
Now the next thing that you need to do is a little bit of market research.
43

44
00:03:31,930 --> 00:03:40,150
So go onto Google go onto the App Store search for variations of your idea and see if anybody's already
44

45
00:03:40,150 --> 00:03:41,590
created it.
45

46
00:03:41,590 --> 00:03:48,310
Now the important thing to remember is that if somebody has already created your idea, that doesn't necessarily
46

47
00:03:48,310 --> 00:03:55,090
mean that you can't make it because you might have unique domain knowledge, you might know more about
47

48
00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:57,990
the topic than the other people who are making it.
48

49
00:03:58,030 --> 00:04:03,100
But there are also other things like you might create an app with a better user experience, you might
49

50
00:04:03,100 --> 00:04:07,330
create one that's far better designed than the existing products.
50

51
00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:11,630
There are unique angles that you can approach in every single idea.
51

52
00:04:11,830 --> 00:04:18,700
And remember that Facebook wasn't the first social network and Google wasn't the first search engine.
52

53
00:04:18,910 --> 00:04:23,490
So don't let it put you off, but let it inform you.
53

54
00:04:23,620 --> 00:04:30,340
You need to be aware of who your competitors are, what stage they are at and what is their development
54

55
00:04:30,340 --> 00:04:35,410
process and you can do a little bit of online sleuthing to find out all of this.
55

56
00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:42,330
Now if you don't yet have an app idea that you want to work on then I want you to keep in mind this phrase.
56

57
00:04:42,550 --> 00:04:50,500
Now I first came across this phrase when I was at Stanford and I came across this talk by Guy Kawasaki.
57

58
00:04:50,500 --> 00:04:56,290
Now for those guys who don't know who he is, he's probably one of the first employees at Apple and his
58

59
00:04:56,290 --> 00:05:00,020
official title was something like Chief Evangelist. Whatever 
59

60
00:05:00,100 --> 00:05:01,200
that means right?
60

61
00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:10,390
But he said something that really stuck with me. And he said that as a startup founder or as any sort
61

62
00:05:10,390 --> 00:05:17,200
of product maker when you're going about your day to day life, you should always keep this phrase in
62

63
00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:18,040
mind.
63

64
00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:22,600
And it's "If this then what...". Now
64

65
00:05:22,630 --> 00:05:23,520
what does that mean?
65

66
00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:25,990
Let me illustrate this with an example.
66

67
00:05:25,990 --> 00:05:33,610
Now back in 2016 there was this article in The New York Times and it had a title of something like "How
67

68
00:05:33,610 --> 00:05:36,980
to make anybody fall in love with you" or something like that.
68

69
00:05:37,150 --> 00:05:45,070
And it was an article that described the research of a sociologist who found that if you get two strangers
69

70
00:05:45,220 --> 00:05:51,730
to ask each other intimate questions that you might not ask a stranger or tell a stranger, you know there
70

71
00:05:51,730 --> 00:05:55,820
were questions like "If your mom and dad were both drowning in the sea,
71

72
00:05:55,840 --> 00:06:02,280
who would you say first?" And really intimate questions that you probably wouldn't ask a Tinder date
72

73
00:06:02,290 --> 00:06:02,950
right?
73

74
00:06:03,370 --> 00:06:10,690
But he found that if you got strangers to do this, it would accelerate their feelings of intimacy towards
74

75
00:06:10,690 --> 00:06:11,450
each other.
75

76
00:06:11,710 --> 00:06:15,290
And I found the article completely fascinating.
76

77
00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:19,080
And I remember seeing it all over my social media.
77

78
00:06:19,090 --> 00:06:24,100
It came up on Twitter and Facebook again and again. People were sharing it they were liking it and there
78

79
00:06:24,100 --> 00:06:26,950
was a lot of interest around it.
79

80
00:06:27,010 --> 00:06:35,980
So I thought to myself, if this then what? And I thought if people were interested in it, then they probably
80

81
00:06:35,980 --> 00:06:37,200
want to give it a go
81

82
00:06:37,270 --> 00:06:37,780
right?
82

83
00:06:37,930 --> 00:06:39,600
Maybe on their next Tinder date.
83

84
00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:45,230
But looking at a dense article on a phone is a terrible user experience.
84

85
00:06:45,250 --> 00:06:50,870
You would have to zoom in, zoom out, pan around to try and find the right questions.
85

86
00:06:50,890 --> 00:06:52,570
It's really not that fun.
86

87
00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:59,410
So I thought what if I spent two hours building an app that made the process a lot easier?
87

88
00:06:59,650 --> 00:07:05,710
So I created an app that would split the screen into two and you could lay your phone onto the table
88

89
00:07:05,980 --> 00:07:12,310
and both people can read the questions the right way round and the app would tell them whose turn it
89

90
00:07:12,310 --> 00:07:15,750
is and who should go next. And to complete the experiment
90

91
00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:22,270
the sociologist made these two strangers stare into each other's eyes four minutes straight.
91

92
00:07:22,270 --> 00:07:26,990
So I implemented that as well into the app. Even though it seemed kind of creepy
92

93
00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:29,810
I was trying to stay true to the original research.
93

94
00:07:29,830 --> 00:07:32,710
So then I uploaded it to the App Store,
94

95
00:07:32,770 --> 00:07:34,440
didn't really think anything of it,
95

96
00:07:34,450 --> 00:07:40,000
went to sleep and then a few days later the app went viral.
96

97
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:46,600
It was shared on Product Hunt and there were thousands upon thousands of downloads all because of this
97

98
00:07:46,690 --> 00:07:48,150
one phrase.
98

99
00:07:48,250 --> 00:07:49,210
If this
99

100
00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:50,060
then what...
100

101
00:07:50,110 --> 00:07:56,830
So I urge you as you go about your day when you come across something that's slightly strange or makes
101

102
00:07:56,830 --> 00:07:57,550
you think,
102

103
00:07:57,670 --> 00:08:04,330
then keep this phrase in mind and you might just stumble across some really good app ideas or even business
103

104
00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:05,040
ideas.
104

105
00:08:05,050 --> 00:08:11,850
Now the next thing that works really well for app ideas is when you scratch your own itch.
105

106
00:08:12,100 --> 00:08:18,100
So when you come across a problem during your day to day life it could be during your commute,
106

107
00:08:18,220 --> 00:08:20,340
it could be at your workplace,
107

108
00:08:20,410 --> 00:08:26,130
it could be when you're studying something that just completely frustrates you and you think why?
108

109
00:08:26,140 --> 00:08:29,070
Why does this problem exist?
109

110
00:08:29,260 --> 00:08:39,400
Well, those problems, if you come up with a good solution tend to be really good app ideas because you know
110

111
00:08:39,490 --> 00:08:42,300
as much as we like to think that we're unique,
111

112
00:08:42,340 --> 00:08:49,090
if you have a problem you can bet that somebody else across the world probably experiences the same
112

113
00:08:49,090 --> 00:08:51,420
pain with the same problem.
113

114
00:08:51,730 --> 00:08:59,560
And if you can create an app that addresses that problem and create a solution that you love, then you
114

115
00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:03,330
can be sure that other people would love it as well.
115

116
00:09:03,340 --> 00:09:08,990
So the next time you come across a problem don't just resolve to complaining about it.
116

117
00:09:09,070 --> 00:09:14,690
Think if you come up with an idea that might solve that problem for yourself and others.
117

118
00:09:14,890 --> 00:09:19,900
Now the next type of app ideas are what you might call "duh" app ideas.
118

119
00:09:20,020 --> 00:09:26,440
So this is when you go to your supermarket cashier or you go to your air hostess and you tell them about your
119

120
00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:30,220
app idea and they say, "Well duh. Of course it should exist.
120

121
00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:32,190
It should have existed yesterday.
121

122
00:09:32,350 --> 00:09:37,580
Here's my money please take it from me so I can buy this app that you are going to build."
122

123
00:09:38,050 --> 00:09:40,350
Well this is the duh type of app.
123

124
00:09:40,450 --> 00:09:46,130
And in order to achieve this kind of reaction there's two important things in the mix.
124

125
00:09:46,150 --> 00:09:50,440
One is of course having an idea that generates that kind of reaction.
125

126
00:09:50,530 --> 00:09:57,880
Something so obvious something that they really see the appeal of but two also being able to express
126

127
00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:03,060
your idea in a way that anybody can instantly just get it.
127

128
00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:10,210
So let's look at some of these 'duh' statements from successful companies that we know and love. For example
128

129
00:10:10,420 --> 00:10:13,570
Evernote. Remember everything.
129

130
00:10:13,570 --> 00:10:19,520
Who wouldn't want a second brain where you can stash all the bits of knowledge that you can't remember?
130

131
00:10:19,730 --> 00:10:26,380
Well duh right? Or Nest, Saving energy is a beautiful thing.
131

132
00:10:26,380 --> 00:10:27,700
Who can argue with that?
132

133
00:10:27,700 --> 00:10:29,740
Saving energy is a beautiful thing.
133

134
00:10:29,950 --> 00:10:30,980
Or GitHub.
134

135
00:10:31,150 --> 00:10:34,160
Build software better, together.
135

136
00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:42,040
So, when you come up with an idea think about how you can express the core concept of it in a single
136

137
00:10:42,580 --> 00:10:45,310
duh-like statement that generates interest
137

138
00:10:45,490 --> 00:10:50,920
and when you talk to people it seems entirely obvious why your app should exist.
138

139
00:10:51,010 --> 00:10:58,120
Now the next type of app idea I want to talk about are apps that fulfill a market vacuum. So a market
139

140
00:10:58,120 --> 00:11:06,610
vacuum is when there is a customer demand or a customer need that is, as of yet, unmet by any existing
140

141
00:11:06,610 --> 00:11:08,890
product or service.
141

142
00:11:08,890 --> 00:11:18,070
So for example, back when the iPhone 4s came out and the S stood for Siri by the way, so the iPhone 4 with
142

143
00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:19,220
Siri.
143

144
00:11:19,540 --> 00:11:24,360
Apple did a really good job of marketing Siri.
144

145
00:11:24,380 --> 00:11:32,650
Now we know today after you know Siri's been alive and well for many years that she is not that bright
145

146
00:11:33,070 --> 00:11:42,070
and she is probably only really good for reminders and timers as far as I can tell. But people didn't
146

147
00:11:42,070 --> 00:11:50,020
know that back then. They were sold on this idea of the virtual assistant, the PA who you didn't have
147

148
00:11:50,020 --> 00:11:56,910
to pay and a whole bunch of really awesome sounding taglines that came from Apple and various journalists.
148

149
00:11:56,930 --> 00:11:58,920
So people were really excited.
149

150
00:11:59,110 --> 00:12:06,040
But the problem was that not everybody could upgrade to an iPhone 4s right? You might be on the Android
150

151
00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:11,770
ecosystem or you might have just bought a brand new phone and you didn't want to upgrade.
151

152
00:12:12,100 --> 00:12:21,370
So that was a market vacuum and there was a company that spotted that market vacuum and they created
152

153
00:12:21,490 --> 00:12:23,390
SayHi translate.
153

154
00:12:23,740 --> 00:12:30,640
And what this app does is that you could press on one of the buttons to speak to the phone as if it
154

155
00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:32,220
were a real human
155

156
00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:38,530
and it would talk back at you in your language of choice. And it's like as if there's a little translator
156

157
00:12:38,530 --> 00:12:45,750
that lives inside your phone. And it simulates that whole Siri experience that you're lusting after.
157

158
00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:53,770
And by filling that market vacuum the people who made this out went on to do really really well because
158

159
00:12:53,770 --> 00:12:55,630
they filled the vacuum.
159

160
00:12:55,630 --> 00:12:57,850
Now let's look at another example.
160

161
00:12:59,020 --> 00:13:05,980
If you haven't heard of Flappy bird then I have to be incredibly jealous of you because I think that
161

162
00:13:05,980 --> 00:13:13,810
means that you spent the last two years on a Caribbean island with low Wi-Fi signals because this was
162

163
00:13:13,900 --> 00:13:16,250
an Internet sensation.
163

164
00:13:16,540 --> 00:13:19,920
Everybody wanted to flap their birds.
164

165
00:13:19,930 --> 00:13:25,330
Now for those guys who don't know, it's basically this game where you get a slightly chubby bird
165

166
00:13:25,570 --> 00:13:31,860
who has to flap its wings to navigate through a whole bunch of pipes in order to get as far as possible.
166

167
00:13:32,050 --> 00:13:37,690
And everybody got obsessed with this because of how difficult it was.
167

168
00:13:37,690 --> 00:13:46,390
And you could see Twitter lights up with people angry about how infuriating this app was and yet how
168

169
00:13:46,390 --> 00:13:48,670
addictive they were to it.
169

170
00:13:49,180 --> 00:13:57,940
But the drama came when one day the developer released a statement and said Flappy Bird was designed
170

171
00:13:57,940 --> 00:14:01,550
to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed.
171

172
00:14:01,870 --> 00:14:07,080
But it happened to become an addictive product.
172

173
00:14:07,150 --> 00:14:11,040
I think it's become a problem. To solve that problem
173

174
00:14:11,050 --> 00:14:13,230
it's best to take down flappy bird.
174

175
00:14:13,450 --> 00:14:16,300
It's gone for ever.
175

176
00:14:16,330 --> 00:14:19,420
I mean life doesn't get much more dramatic than this
176

177
00:14:19,420 --> 00:14:22,590
in the developed world. This was it.
177

178
00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:31,120
So he pulled the app overnight off the App Store and it was gone forever literally and people couldn't
178

179
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:32,990
flap their birds anymore.
179

180
00:14:33,130 --> 00:14:38,870
And you have no idea how much anxiety it created in everybody that they could no longer flap their little
180

181
00:14:38,950 --> 00:14:39,990
chubby bird.
181

182
00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:52,810
So, by now you might recognize that this has opened up a market vacuum literally overnight. And the developers
182

183
00:14:52,810 --> 00:15:00,060
who saw it as that, the first ones who try to fill that vacuum stood to gain the most.
183

184
00:15:00,340 --> 00:15:06,190
And today you could literally flap any thing you want.
184

185
00:15:06,190 --> 00:15:11,380
You can flap a troll, you could flap a chicken,
185

186
00:15:11,630 --> 00:15:16,960
you could even flap a turd if you so wished.
186

187
00:15:17,420 --> 00:15:23,510
And the developers who were the first to recognize this market vacuum stood to gain the most.
187

188
00:15:23,510 --> 00:15:32,660
So look around you for market vacuums are opening up every day and see how you can target them and close
188

189
00:15:32,660 --> 00:15:33,890
off that vacuum
189

190
00:15:33,890 --> 00:15:35,650
using your app.
190

191
00:15:35,750 --> 00:15:41,720
So now that you're certain that you've got a good app idea something that's going to be a real big hit.
191

192
00:15:41,740 --> 00:15:48,830
It closes off a market vacuum or it scratches you own ich, whatever it may be. The next step you need to
192

193
00:15:48,830 --> 00:15:52,930
take with that idea is to design it.
193

194
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:58,630
And very often you hear people ask, "Well why do I care about design?
194

195
00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:06,230
Isn't it enough that it's a really good idea or that I coded up really well?" Think about this.
195

196
00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:14,870
Currently there's around 2 million apps on the iOS App Store and about 2.5 million on the Android app
196

197
00:16:14,870 --> 00:16:15,490
store.
197

198
00:16:15,770 --> 00:16:18,550
That is a lot of apps.
198

199
00:16:18,710 --> 00:16:25,420
And when you release your app to those app stores, it's literally like a drop in the ocean.
199

200
00:16:25,700 --> 00:16:34,610
So in order to differentiate yourself you have to be able to appeal to people's emotions as well as
200

201
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:36,120
their logic.
201

202
00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:43,310
You have to make people love your app and we know that loving an app doesn't come from how well it works
202

203
00:16:43,310 --> 00:16:49,820
or how it doesn't crash or how you know it saves all your data every single time. But it comes from the
203

204
00:16:49,820 --> 00:16:50,960
design.
204

205
00:16:51,080 --> 00:17:01,520
Plus if you think about it, it only takes three taps for all of your blood, sweat and tears to be completely
205

206
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:03,810
wiped off their phone.
206

207
00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:05,500
That's all it takes.
207

208
00:17:05,750 --> 00:17:12,530
And the scary statistics are that apparently out of a hundred apps that get downloaded off the App Store
208

209
00:17:12,940 --> 00:17:17,780
50 of them get deleted after the first time they're opened.
209

210
00:17:17,780 --> 00:17:20,960
So you don't want that to happen to your baby
210

211
00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:21,640
right?
211

212
00:17:21,650 --> 00:17:27,290
So that's why we have to think about design. Now that's a good question.
212

213
00:17:27,290 --> 00:17:29,200
What exactly is good design?
213

214
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:32,080
So it's a little bit like a mythical beast
214

215
00:17:32,090 --> 00:17:32,510
right?
215

216
00:17:32,540 --> 00:17:33,590
Like a unicorn.
216

217
00:17:33,710 --> 00:17:35,680
You'll probably know it when you see it.
217

218
00:17:35,780 --> 00:17:40,410
But actually, both Apple and Google provide guidance on this.
218

219
00:17:40,430 --> 00:17:44,830
So Apple produces a delightful piece of bedtime reading.
219

220
00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:46,910
It's a little bit thicker than what you're used to.
220

221
00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:56,210
And it's got a fantastic title called iOS human interface guidelines. If any book ever flew off the shelves
221

222
00:17:56,360 --> 00:18:05,150
it's not this one. But it does describe how you should lay out your app, how you should design the animations
222

223
00:18:05,150 --> 00:18:11,710
or the interactions in order for it to feel like it fits in with the iOS environment.
223

224
00:18:11,990 --> 00:18:18,230
And Google has something similar called the Material design principles that shows you how to make the
224

225
00:18:18,230 --> 00:18:22,870
best androidy looking and feeling apps out there.
225

226
00:18:23,630 --> 00:18:26,710
So these are great things to take a look at.
226

227
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:32,390
And if you have a look in the description box below I've got a whole bunch of links for you that's linked
227

228
00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:36,180
toward all of these resources that I mentioned during this talk.
228

229
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:42,200
Now once you've got a good grounding of what Apple and Google think is good design, the next thing to
229

230
00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:47,170
do is take a look at some of these mobile pattern websites.
230

231
00:18:47,180 --> 00:18:53,370
So one is "Pttrns" without the vowels, obviously because startups don't have vowels.
231

232
00:18:53,450 --> 00:19:02,090
And another one is mobile-patterns and what they do is they collect and categorize screenshots from
232

233
00:19:02,090 --> 00:19:04,900
some of the best designed apps out there.
233

234
00:19:05,980 --> 00:19:12,010
So that means when you're designing a particular part of your interface, for example you're looking to
234

235
00:19:12,010 --> 00:19:14,460
create a news feed for your app,
235

236
00:19:14,590 --> 00:19:19,660
then why not take a look at how Twitter does it, how Facebook does it.
236

237
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:26,860
And I'm not saying you know steal these ideas from these incredibly well-paid designers, but I'm seeing
237

238
00:19:26,860 --> 00:19:30,760
more like be inspired by their designs.
238

239
00:19:31,750 --> 00:19:38,200
So, once you know roughly what your designs are going to look like the next step is to choose a color
239

240
00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:38,840
palette.
240

241
00:19:39,190 --> 00:19:43,950
And one of my favorite tools is something called colorhunt.io.
241

242
00:19:44,230 --> 00:19:50,530
And here you have a bunch of professional designers who have curated and collected some of their favorite
242

243
00:19:50,530 --> 00:19:57,130
palettes. So you can search by hot or popular and you can copy down the hex code of some beautiful
243

244
00:19:57,130 --> 00:20:00,070
palettes for your project as well.
244

245
00:20:00,070 --> 00:20:07,570
Now if you're even lazier than that, then there's a website called Flat UI colors which is a 15 color
245

246
00:20:07,570 --> 00:20:13,300
color palette that was specially formulated for the iOS environment.
246

247
00:20:13,300 --> 00:20:22,210
So for example, you might notice that this shade of wisteria is the exact shade of purple that the Yo
247

248
00:20:22,210 --> 00:20:29,530
app uses for their app icon. Or if you've ever used any of the seven minute workout apps you'll notice
248

249
00:20:29,530 --> 00:20:34,260
that they've basically just taken all of these colors and used it to color their app.
249

250
00:20:34,390 --> 00:20:40,210
Now if you're an Android developer then there's a Web site called www.materialpalette.com.
250

251
00:20:40,210 --> 00:20:48,190
And here you can select two colors that you like and it will automatically generate an 8-color color
251

252
00:20:48,190 --> 00:20:50,970
palette complete with an accent tone.
252

253
00:20:51,130 --> 00:20:57,310
So once you've seen some mobile patterns and you've got your color palette, the next step is to create
253

254
00:20:57,340 --> 00:21:06,010
what's called a user flow diagram. And user flow diagram maps out the journey that a user might take
254

255
00:21:06,460 --> 00:21:09,660
through your app for a specific task.
255

256
00:21:09,670 --> 00:21:16,690
So how would they go about checking out an item or how might they create a recipe in your app.
256

257
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:21,220
And the beauty of this is that it's drawn pencil on paper,
257

258
00:21:21,220 --> 00:21:30,250
it takes maybe a few seconds to change and rubout and modify until you're happy with the flow.
258

259
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:35,250
And once you are, then the next step is to create what's called a wireframe.
259

260
00:21:35,590 --> 00:21:41,650
So wireframes are low fidelity representations of your app's design.
260

261
00:21:41,950 --> 00:21:44,730
So they're usually drawn pencil on paper
261

262
00:21:45,070 --> 00:21:51,780
and it shouldn't take you more than half an hour to do a quick wireframe for an idea that you have.
262

263
00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:59,830
And once you've created your wireframes you can even link them together using something called POP.
263

264
00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:07,240
Now POP allows you to take pictures of your wireframes, link them together through interaction buttons
264

265
00:22:07,750 --> 00:22:13,520
and then you end up with a working app that you've just drawn up 15 minutes ago.
265

266
00:22:13,700 --> 00:22:18,780
So it was a really really cool tool and we'll teach you how to use that within the Course as well.
266

267
00:22:19,030 --> 00:22:26,800
Now the next step up from why airframes are what designers call mockups. So mockups unlike wireframes
267

268
00:22:26,950 --> 00:22:31,200
are high fidelity representations of your design.
268

269
00:22:31,270 --> 00:22:37,510
So it's almost like you've gone into the future and you've taken a screenshot of this app that doesn't
269

270
00:22:37,510 --> 00:22:45,220
yet exist and you've captured it to show venture capitalists or your developer team in order to get
270

271
00:22:45,220 --> 00:22:51,210
the end product, the app that you create, looking exactly the way that you want it to.
271

272
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:57,400
And this is really the beauty of mockups. If you tell a developer you know "I want a news feed".
272

273
00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,100
Then you might not get the nicest news feed.
273

274
00:23:00,190 --> 00:23:08,250
But if you were to create a mockup then they would try to keep to the design that you've made. Now mockups
274

275
00:23:08,260 --> 00:23:11,270
can be made in lots of different design software.
275

276
00:23:11,350 --> 00:23:17,830
Anywhere from Photoshop with Illustrator or Sketch or Marvel, there's a whole bunch of tools out there
276

277
00:23:17,830 --> 00:23:18,920
that you can use.
277

278
00:23:19,300 --> 00:23:26,800
But, if you are the design developer, if you're going to code up the app and build it yourself you don't
278

279
00:23:26,890 --> 00:23:34,390
always need to create mockups because when you're creating your app in Xcode you have the opportunity
279

280
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,990
of creating the designs within the software itself.
280

281
00:23:38,170 --> 00:23:44,530
So you wouldn't have to duplicate your work inside a design software as well as inside your programming
281

282
00:23:44,530 --> 00:23:45,560
software.
282

283
00:23:45,580 --> 00:23:48,060
So that's what I tend to do
283

284
00:23:48,250 --> 00:23:50,820
if I'm building an app just for myself.
284

285
00:23:51,010 --> 00:23:56,650
Now if you want to design a mockup without having to learn how to use Photoshop or Sketch you can actually
285

286
00:23:56,650 --> 00:24:02,730
use a website called UX PIN to simply drag and drop different elements onto your iPhone screen.
286

287
00:24:02,740 --> 00:24:08,020
So for example you can drag on a calendar or you can drag on buttons to make it look the way that you
287

288
00:24:08,020 --> 00:24:08,850
want it to.
288

289
00:24:08,980 --> 00:24:15,370
Now while you're creating your designs, if you are the designer then you might need some other assets
289

290
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:16,240
as well.
290

291
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:18,030
And it's really important that
291

292
00:24:18,070 --> 00:24:24,670
you can't just take images of Google search because some images are copyrighted. So you could potentially
292

293
00:24:24,670 --> 00:24:29,830
be getting a letter from their lawyer sometime down the line and it would be terrible if you have this
293

294
00:24:29,830 --> 00:24:34,380
huge hit of an app only to have to pay compensation to somebody.
294

295
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:39,430
So be really careful when you find designs that you want to put into your app.
295

296
00:24:39,540 --> 00:24:45,720
Now a safer bet is to look for design assets that are creative commons or websites that allow you to
296

297
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,280
use their icons for free.
297

298
00:24:48,420 --> 00:24:52,260
And the key phrase here is free for commercial use.
298

299
00:24:52,260 --> 00:24:54,350
Now here are some of my favorite resources.
299

300
00:24:54,510 --> 00:25:00,990
One is a website called Icon Store where professional designers have designed the beautiful packages
300

301
00:25:01,020 --> 00:25:01,980
of icons.
301

302
00:25:02,250 --> 00:25:05,100
So they have the same look and feel of each other.
302

303
00:25:05,250 --> 00:25:08,400
And the best part is that they're free for commercial use.
303

304
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:15,330
Now if you needed HD images to use as the background of your apps then you can find huge collections
304

305
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:22,460
of beautiful hipstery HD images from Re: flashed and Unsplashed.
305

306
00:25:22,620 --> 00:25:27,380
And remember that if you want to look at any of the resources just head into the description box and
306

307
00:25:27,390 --> 00:25:33,990
I've included all of the links there for you. Now I can't stress enough how important it is to design
307

308
00:25:33,990 --> 00:25:35,310
your app.
308

309
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:42,330
A lot of people make the mistake of jumping headfirst into programming it only to realize a month down
309

310
00:25:42,330 --> 00:25:43,440
the line that "Uh
310

311
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:49,410
I should really change, you know, screen 2 should become screen 3 or this button should go to that screen
311

312
00:25:49,410 --> 00:25:50,300
instead.
312

313
00:25:50,550 --> 00:25:56,100
And the problem is that when you want to make those kind of changes and you've really got the code written
313

314
00:25:56,100 --> 00:26:03,900
down then ripping bits of code out or trying to implement different functionality can be extremely time
314

315
00:26:03,900 --> 00:26:06,030
consuming and difficult.
315

316
00:26:06,030 --> 00:26:11,250
And that's why the process that I'm describing to you and the one that I'll teach you inside the course
316

317
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:19,860
is all about taking it step by step going from user flow diagram to wireframe to maybe mockup and
317

318
00:26:19,860 --> 00:26:27,810
then prototyping and only then do you go into Xcode or Android studio to build your apps because something
318

319
00:26:27,810 --> 00:26:34,050
that might take you a few seconds to rub out on your user flow diagram will end up taking you a month
319

320
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,990
of development time when you need to change it inside Xcode.
320

321
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:43,740
But what do you do after you've designed your app? So you know your app idea is a great one,
321

322
00:26:43,740 --> 00:26:49,610
you've designed it to look and feel and behave exactly the way you want it to.
322

323
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:51,020
What's the next step?
323

324
00:26:51,210 --> 00:26:57,300
Well, you might think it's getting into the programming and developing it but it's actually thinking
324

325
00:26:57,300 --> 00:26:59,940
about the monetization strategy.
325

326
00:26:59,940 --> 00:27:06,090
And this is something that you should bear in mind before you start developing your app and not as an
326

327
00:27:06,090 --> 00:27:06,980
afterthought.
327

328
00:27:07,770 --> 00:27:14,970
So I'm going to talk through some of the most common monetization strategies for apps and the cases
328

329
00:27:15,030 --> 00:27:17,640
in which you might use each one.
329

330
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:22,950
So the first one that a lot of people would have heard of because this term is brandished about a lot
330

331
00:27:23,310 --> 00:27:25,440
is the freemium model.
331

332
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:31,830
So this is where you download the app for free and you get around maybe 60 to 80 percent of all the
332

333
00:27:31,830 --> 00:27:33,210
features of the app.
333

334
00:27:33,300 --> 00:27:40,470
But then in order to get the premium features you would have to pay in order to unlock the paywall.
334

335
00:27:40,500 --> 00:27:42,540
And this can be a one time payment
335

336
00:27:42,540 --> 00:27:47,150
for example removing ads, or it could be a recurring payment.
336

337
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,390
Now this type of model works really well
337

338
00:27:50,490 --> 00:27:59,480
if you have an app that has frequent daily usage and it has a high perceived value to the user.
338

339
00:27:59,700 --> 00:28:05,740
So these are services almost like for example your Dropbox or your Spotify.
339

340
00:28:05,970 --> 00:28:12,670
And the reason is because only if the user has integrated it into their workflow or into their daily life
340

341
00:28:12,780 --> 00:28:19,490
does this model start making more money rather than if it wasn't outright paid for app.
341

342
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,720
So think about what type of app that you have or you're building
342

343
00:28:23,790 --> 00:28:30,800
then try to fit the monetization model to it. The next model I want to talk about are in-app purchases.
343

344
00:28:30,930 --> 00:28:37,980
So this can be real, say if you're selling T-shirts or if you're taking people around in UBER cars but
344

345
00:28:37,980 --> 00:28:39,560
it can also be virtual.
345

346
00:28:39,570 --> 00:28:46,020
So things like gems or energy or time or lightning bolt whatever it may be.
346

347
00:28:46,020 --> 00:28:54,060
Now the important distinction is that if your in-app purchases are virtual then they need to go through
347

348
00:28:54,060 --> 00:28:55,930
the Apple payment gateway.
348

349
00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:03,690
And during that process both Apple and Google will take off 30 percent of whatever it is that the in-app
349

350
00:29:03,690 --> 00:29:04,930
purchase cost.
350

351
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:09,500
So of course, that kind of margin is not sustainable if you're selling T-shirts right?
351

352
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,040
So that's why they allow you to use alternative payment gateways
352

353
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:19,740
if you are indeed providing the user with real life goods. And that is something you should think about
353

354
00:29:19,740 --> 00:29:24,410
ahead of time. Now a few more types of monetization models that I want to run through him.
354

355
00:29:24,510 --> 00:29:26,630
One is white labeling.
355

356
00:29:26,700 --> 00:29:33,480
So for example if you were a gym and you wanted an app built and the features that you might want include
356

357
00:29:33,810 --> 00:29:42,360
maybe allowing users to book the classes, maybe the user should be able to update their membership details
357

358
00:29:42,420 --> 00:29:44,680
or update their payment methods.
358

359
00:29:44,770 --> 00:29:50,960
And-- but the thing is these features aren't unique to your gym. Every gym
359

360
00:29:51,030 --> 00:29:54,290
if they wanted an app would need these sort of features.
360

361
00:29:54,420 --> 00:30:01,770
So you find one gym that wants to have this app and then you reskin the app in order to have their
361

362
00:30:01,770 --> 00:30:07,620
custom branding and color palette and then you sell it to another gym and another gym and another gym
362

363
00:30:07,710 --> 00:30:08,780
and so on.
363

364
00:30:08,790 --> 00:30:13,700
So that means that you develop once and you sell many many times.
364

365
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:20,160
Now that works well if you have contacts or domain knowledge in a particular niche and you want to build
365

366
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,860
apps almost as templates that you can resell again and again.
366

367
00:30:25,350 --> 00:30:31,440
Now the next monetisation strategy want talk about that's becoming increasingly more and more important
367

368
00:30:31,770 --> 00:30:37,080
is ads. Now perhaps more on the Android system than the iOS system
368

369
00:30:37,110 --> 00:30:43,980
people are becoming more and more reluctant to pay for apps. Instead they're willing to suffer through
369

370
00:30:44,070 --> 00:30:51,740
interstitial ads and banner ads and having the screen taken up by a lot of advertising.
370

371
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:56,510
But this is the truth and we as app developers have to deal with it somehow.
371

372
00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:03,600
Now personally I'm not a huge fan of ads because as we spoke about before, you know, I spent weeks even
372

373
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:11,030
months just tweaking the designs, redesigning, making new prototypes, sketching it out again, just to get
373

374
00:31:11,030 --> 00:31:16,290
it pixel perfect and make it look beautiful.
374

375
00:31:16,290 --> 00:31:24,810
And then a fifth of the app screen is taken up by Clash of Clans and that somehow just really hurts
375

376
00:31:24,810 --> 00:31:30,410
me inside. And having the iOS ecosystem being my predominant market
376

377
00:31:30,420 --> 00:31:36,360
you can almost get away without having to use ads as long as you can create good enough apps. But for
377

378
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:42,360
clients or for Android then this is a really important monetization strategy that you need to get to
378

379
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:43,060
grips with.
379

380
00:31:44,830 --> 00:31:52,480
Now another monetization strategy that's relatively new is the partnership model and this is usually
380

381
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:58,250
when you involve one large advertiser and incorporate them into your app.
381

382
00:31:58,300 --> 00:32:05,800
So as an example one, of the first apps that implement this we would Runkeeper where if you ran a challenge
382

383
00:32:05,860 --> 00:32:15,760
say 5000 meters like say a 5K or a 10k run then you would be rewarded with things that had real life
383

384
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:16,440
value.
384

385
00:32:16,450 --> 00:32:23,710
For example 10 percent of Nike shoes or 20 percent of added Adidas shorts, whatever it may be.
385

386
00:32:23,740 --> 00:32:29,260
But it would reward your behavior in the app with real goodskids.
386

387
00:32:29,380 --> 00:32:30,900
Now if you think about it
387

388
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:37,110
all three parties who are involved in this process, they all benefit.
388

389
00:32:37,390 --> 00:32:41,910
So your developer benefits because they get paid by the advertiser,
389

390
00:32:42,190 --> 00:32:47,560
the advertiser benefits because they get to show their products and they get to be in front of their
390

391
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:54,670
target audience and your users benefit too because not only is encouraging them to run, it also giving
391

392
00:32:54,670 --> 00:32:56,530
them some real life benefits.
392

393
00:32:56,590 --> 00:33:03,550
So if there is any way that you have links with maybe retail or real life companies that you can get
393

394
00:33:03,550 --> 00:33:11,950
to sponsor your app and you in turn advertise them to their target audience, then this tends to work
394

395
00:33:12,070 --> 00:33:13,570
really really well.
395

396
00:33:13,570 --> 00:33:19,970
Now the last monetization strategy that I'm going to talk about that nobody likes talking about because
396

397
00:33:19,990 --> 00:33:24,190
it's a bit of a problem child in the world of app monetization.
397

398
00:33:24,610 --> 00:33:29,700
And this is selling your users data for money.
398

399
00:33:29,950 --> 00:33:36,400
Now you might not believe this but if you look inside your health and fitness apps especially inside
399

400
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:44,770
the privacy policy, hidden beneath layers and layers of legal jargon is the right to sell your in-app data
400

401
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,530
associated with your account.
401

402
00:33:47,980 --> 00:33:54,040
Be it your name or date of birth whatever it may be. And you can see that ethically it has some issues
402

403
00:33:54,070 --> 00:34:00,640
because you probably don't want this data getting into the hands of health insurance companies or life
403

404
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:04,690
insurance companies without your explicit agreement.
404

405
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:08,920
So this is not a strategy that I encourage.
405

406
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:16,090
Not only because its kind of unethical but also because the Big Apple stores Apple and Google are cracking
406

407
00:34:16,090 --> 00:34:17,020
down on this.
407

408
00:34:17,170 --> 00:34:22,930
And if you do end up getting banned by Apple or Google then they remove all of your apps from the App
408

409
00:34:22,930 --> 00:34:27,410
Store and prevent you from uploading any more to these markets.
409

410
00:34:27,430 --> 00:34:35,080
So its something that is good to be aware of as an app user yourself, but it's something that I don't
410

411
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:38,530
encourage using as a monetization strategy.
411

412
00:34:38,890 --> 00:34:44,300
As an aside, if you are really keen and you didn't mind giving your data away,
412

413
00:34:44,410 --> 00:34:48,090
well there's actually that be a way where you can sell your own data:
413

414
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:56,710
so your browsing history or your app usage data or your health and fitness data for something like £40
414

415
00:34:56,710 --> 00:35:02,140
a year, so something like maybe $60 a year. If you're interested
415

416
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:04,320
there are these opportunities out there.
416

417
00:35:04,540 --> 00:35:10,050
Now finally we've assured ourselves that we have a great app idea,
417

418
00:35:10,180 --> 00:35:14,620
we've designed our up to look and feel beautiful,
418

419
00:35:14,650 --> 00:35:19,860
we know exactly how we're going to make money from our app once is on the App Store
419

420
00:35:20,140 --> 00:35:22,120
and now it comes to the main event.
420

421
00:35:22,270 --> 00:35:24,380
How do you develop your app?
421

422
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:31,990
How do you turn it from these ideas and designs on paper into something that you can hold and use in
422

423
00:35:31,990 --> 00:35:32,970
your own hands?
423

424
00:35:33,190 --> 00:35:38,060
Well that is where the programming part and the app development part comes in.
424

425
00:35:39,350 --> 00:35:41,790
Now there's many ways of developing an app
425

426
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:48,230
and I'm going to go from most expensive way to least expensive way of doing this.
426

427
00:35:48,470 --> 00:35:52,520
So the most expensive way is going to a physical shop.
427

428
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:58,070
So I live in London, there's a lot of great app development boutiques and you get to sit down with a
428

429
00:35:58,070 --> 00:36:04,190
designer, a developer, the people who'll be working on your project, you get to talk to them about your
429

430
00:36:04,190 --> 00:36:11,570
ideas and you know flesh out what it is that you want made. And you can be close to the development process
430

431
00:36:11,570 --> 00:36:14,130
of your app every step of the way.
431

432
00:36:14,150 --> 00:36:20,850
Now the reason why most people can't afford to do this is because you're going to need a budget
432

433
00:36:20,870 --> 00:36:25,370
anywhere between 80,000 and 150,000 per app
433

434
00:36:25,370 --> 00:36:31,430
so Android or iOS, in order to get this kind of service. Now part of that is because you're paying for
434

435
00:36:31,430 --> 00:36:36,620
the expertise and advice and guidance of designers developers.
435

436
00:36:36,620 --> 00:36:41,000
But another part of that is that rent in London is extremely expensive.
436

437
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:42,240
I would know.
437

438
00:36:42,470 --> 00:36:49,640
So instead of paying somebody based in the UK, you can also find a freelancer who's based
438

439
00:36:49,700 --> 00:36:55,790
elsewhere maybe somewhere where it's cheaper to rent an office mostly in eastern Europe or parts of
439

440
00:36:55,790 --> 00:36:56,530
Asia.
440

441
00:36:56,930 --> 00:37:04,760
And the really important thing here is to make sure that you select your freelance developer or development
441

442
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:09,390
team really carefully and make sure that you vet them properly.
442

443
00:37:09,590 --> 00:37:15,750
Now here's a bit of a horror story from one of our students on one of our App Brewery programming bootcamps.
443

444
00:37:15,950 --> 00:37:18,930
So she had this idea to develop an app
444

445
00:37:19,250 --> 00:37:27,170
and she approached a team that were based in China over one of these online Web sites like Elance oDesk
445

446
00:37:27,500 --> 00:37:33,560
where you can find freelance development teams. And you may or may not know but there's two ways of paying
446

447
00:37:34,010 --> 00:37:35,120
freelance developers.
447

448
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:40,320
You can either pay per hour of work they do or you can pay per milestone,
448

449
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:46,220
so you pay them a set amount once they reached 20 percent completion 40 percent completion 60 percent
449

450
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:47,290
etc.
450

451
00:37:47,420 --> 00:37:50,630
Now she was at 80 percent completion,
451

452
00:37:50,620 --> 00:37:53,410
the app was so close to being done
452

453
00:37:53,540 --> 00:37:58,550
and they'd shown her the intermediate apps and she'd been testing them on her own phone
453

454
00:37:58,670 --> 00:38:00,760
and it was all going so well.
454

455
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:07,760
But then when it did reach 80 percent she got a call from them over Skype. And they said to her that
455

456
00:38:08,390 --> 00:38:15,840
something terrible has happened. Their company had been raided by the police in China.
456

457
00:38:16,100 --> 00:38:23,180
They had all of their computers taken along with all of the work that included her app. And they said
457

458
00:38:23,180 --> 00:38:33,200
that one solution might be that if she was willing to pay an extra £10,000 then they could bribe the
458

459
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:37,070
Chinese police and try to get their stuff back.
459

460
00:38:37,070 --> 00:38:45,320
Now at this point, she rightly started getting very suspicious of this team and actually ended up walking
460

461
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:50,990
away without having her app completed because she was scared that she couldn't trust this team.
461

462
00:38:50,990 --> 00:38:56,870
So what if they put down some code that would end up stealing her customer's credit card details or
462

463
00:38:56,870 --> 00:38:58,700
something dodgy like that.
463

464
00:38:58,700 --> 00:39:05,630
And this is one of the reasons why when you work with a freelance development team abroad where you
464

465
00:39:05,630 --> 00:39:11,390
can't meet up with them regularly, you have to make sure that you interview them more than once:
465

466
00:39:11,540 --> 00:39:18,410
so face to face or over Skype. And you also have to make sure that you speak to some of their past clients
466

467
00:39:18,500 --> 00:39:24,170
and see some of their past projects that they built. This way you can try and figure out what the working
467

468
00:39:24,290 --> 00:39:26,940
what the experience is like working with them.
468

469
00:39:27,020 --> 00:39:31,620
And most of these teams if they are legitimate should be able to give you a contact of somebody who
469

470
00:39:31,620 --> 00:39:36,380
is based in the same country as you are who have worked with them before and you can talk to them about
470

471
00:39:36,590 --> 00:39:38,600
what it was like working with that team.
471

472
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:41,310
Now this still carries a pretty high price tag.
472

473
00:39:41,450 --> 00:39:48,640
You're looking at anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000 to develop an app through a freelance team.
473

474
00:39:48,650 --> 00:39:58,520
So now we've come to the cheapest solution and the most customizable and that is building the app yourself.
474

475
00:39:58,700 --> 00:40:05,780
Now the App Brewery we've run in-person programming bootcamps for over three years and we've seen hundreds
475

476
00:40:05,780 --> 00:40:11,920
of students come through who have been able to build their own apps and become app entrepreneurs.
476

477
00:40:11,940 --> 00:40:18,050
Now even if you don't want to be a developer yourself, it would still be a huge benefit to be able to
477

478
00:40:18,050 --> 00:40:24,800
look at code and understand what's roughly going on. And also to be up to estimate how long would it
478

479
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:29,300
take to build a particular feature or how much it should cost to build it.
479

480
00:40:29,300 --> 00:40:35,000
And these are all valuable skills that will stay with you and that benefit will appreciate over time
480

481
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:35,980
as well.
481

482
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,080
And it's a lot easier
482

483
00:40:38,190 --> 00:40:46,770
than you think it is. At the App Brewery we've taught over a thousand students in person and over 50,000 students
483

484
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:53,940
online. And we know that a lot of people have come from different backgrounds with no programming knowledge
484

485
00:40:54,030 --> 00:40:58,160
at all and they've been able to build crazy wonderful apps
485

486
00:40:58,410 --> 00:41:05,530
after completing the course going on to develop a company or continuing to work as a developer.
486

487
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,630
So it's very much within your capabilities.
487

488
00:41:08,910 --> 00:41:12,410
But once you've developed the app, what is the next step?
488

489
00:41:12,450 --> 00:41:14,480
Well you need to get downloads right?
489

490
00:41:14,490 --> 00:41:19,830
You need to be able to market your app so that people will hear about it and will be able to download
490

491
00:41:19,830 --> 00:41:20,560
it.
491

492
00:41:20,820 --> 00:41:23,020
And there's some skills involved in that.
492

493
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:29,700
Now back in the days when the App Store first came about it was really the golden era because you can
493

494
00:41:29,700 --> 00:41:34,590
make any old app and somebody would download it because there wasn't much choice.
494

495
00:41:34,890 --> 00:41:42,060
And I'm convinced that if I time traveled back and I took a picture of my own face and made it an app
495

496
00:41:42,090 --> 00:41:49,130
that it called "Take a look at Angela's face" app and it did nothing other than to display a selfie of me,
496

497
00:41:49,260 --> 00:41:53,040
then people would still download it and probably even buy it.
497

498
00:41:53,130 --> 00:41:55,610
That was just the world back then.
498

499
00:41:55,830 --> 00:41:58,840
But today it's a very different place.
499

500
00:41:58,860 --> 00:42:02,000
There's a lot of other apps that you have to compete with.
500

501
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:08,220
So when you search for something like Ninja games on the App Store there are hundreds if not thousands
501

502
00:42:08,220 --> 00:42:10,470
of apps are targeting that keyword.
502

503
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:18,390
So you need to learn various skills and tricks in order to be able to rank highly and also to get people
503

504
00:42:18,390 --> 00:42:22,200
to know about your app and get downloads for your app.
504

505
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:26,500
But before you do any marketing you don't want to market a bad app.
505

506
00:42:27,030 --> 00:42:29,570
And by bad I mean a buggy app,
506

507
00:42:29,580 --> 00:42:31,880
so if something wasn't working.
507

508
00:42:32,070 --> 00:42:38,220
So you have to make sure that you test your app extensively before you put it onto the app store and
508

509
00:42:38,220 --> 00:42:43,860
put a lot of effort into marketing it because if you market a really buggy app you're just going to end
509

510
00:42:43,860 --> 00:42:47,730
up with lots and lots of bad reviews which is not what you want.
510

511
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:54,820
Now here's a trick that I like to do for some types for certain types of app launches. Say that my target
511

512
00:42:54,820 --> 00:42:57,760
market is the US and the UK
512

513
00:42:58,240 --> 00:43:05,830
what I can do is I can release the app to smaller countries that match the demographics of my target
513

514
00:43:05,890 --> 00:43:06,670
audience.
514

515
00:43:06,850 --> 00:43:12,900
So for the US and UK the smaller mirroring demographic tends to be Canada or New Zealand for me.
515

516
00:43:13,180 --> 00:43:19,750
And what you do is that's three months ahead of the main release, you release your app only to Canada
516

517
00:43:19,780 --> 00:43:26,110
and New Zealand and then you watch the reviews and the feedback that you're getting from these real
517

518
00:43:26,110 --> 00:43:29,860
users because some of them will have feature requests,
518

519
00:43:29,950 --> 00:43:35,620
some of them will discover bugs and they'll give you a lot of really useful feedback which you can act
519

520
00:43:35,620 --> 00:43:37,540
on to improve your app.
520

521
00:43:37,660 --> 00:43:45,490
And once these users are loving your app then you can be pretty sure that your main markets will love
521

522
00:43:45,490 --> 00:43:47,020
it as well.
522

523
00:43:47,020 --> 00:43:50,480
So that's just a quick tip for beta testing for free
523

524
00:43:50,500 --> 00:43:55,080
essentially. Now what happens on launch day?
524

525
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,880
Now it's really important to think about your launch day.
525

526
00:43:58,890 --> 00:44:02,720
So that's the day when your app goes live on the App Store.
526

527
00:44:02,910 --> 00:44:09,640
Ideally, what you want is to have a large list of people ideally their emails.
527

528
00:44:09,780 --> 00:44:17,190
People who have signed up before saying that they want to download your app once it's available. And
528

529
00:44:17,190 --> 00:44:21,330
you can achieve this by building a landing page for your app.
529

530
00:44:21,330 --> 00:44:26,970
So what we tend to say is that before you design your app before you develop your app before you lay
530

531
00:44:26,970 --> 00:44:33,610
down a single line of code, the first thing you need to do is to create a landing page for your app.
531

532
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:39,800
It doesn't have to be very it doesn't have to be fancy it can just be a one pager that briefly describes
532

533
00:44:39,810 --> 00:44:41,050
what your app is about.
533

534
00:44:41,430 --> 00:44:48,390
But most importantly, it has an email collection box. And this will allow the people who are interested
534

535
00:44:48,390 --> 00:44:51,470
in downloading app to put their email down.
535

536
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:59,610
And that means that on launch day you'll be up to hit up 10,000 or 20,000 of these potential users who
536

537
00:44:59,610 --> 00:45:03,220
will download your app on your launch day.
537

538
00:45:03,330 --> 00:45:10,680
And both the app stores Apple and Google look at your metrics over the first 24 hours, 7 days and
538

539
00:45:10,710 --> 00:45:17,550
30 days to see how you perform on a range of things like how many app downloads, how many times you app
539

540
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:24,340
was opened, how many people left a review, how good the reviews were etc.
540

541
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:30,900
And that first 24 hours is really really important to get your app noticed and possibly start ranking
541

542
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:32,080
on the app stores.
542

543
00:45:33,110 --> 00:45:37,930
Now if you're a web developer then you'll know how easy it would be to create this landing page.
543

544
00:45:38,150 --> 00:45:43,880
But if you're not a web developer then there's a whole bunch of tools such as Wordpress or Squarespace
544

545
00:45:44,210 --> 00:45:50,390
and even something called AppStop which allows you to put in the your cell of your app on iTunes and
545

546
00:45:50,390 --> 00:45:54,660
it will automatically generate a landing page for you
546

547
00:45:54,830 --> 00:45:57,470
grabbing the data from your iTunes listing.
547

548
00:45:57,470 --> 00:46:00,300
So it's another resource that's worth looking at.
548

549
00:46:00,430 --> 00:46:05,580
Now app marketing is not just about bringing in new users or your existing user base
549

550
00:46:05,590 --> 00:46:06,730
download your app.
550

551
00:46:06,830 --> 00:46:12,770
It's also trying to target people who are already searching on the App Store for something that they're
551

552
00:46:12,770 --> 00:46:13,780
looking for.
552

553
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:20,620
And the scary statistic is that the top 5 apps for a particular search term.
553

554
00:46:20,630 --> 00:46:27,440
So for example if I searched for Ninja games on the App Store and the top five apps that show up account
554

555
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:31,560
for 72 percent of all the downloads.
555

556
00:46:31,730 --> 00:46:33,400
And that's pretty scary.
556

557
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:37,330
And the top app alone takes 35 percent.
557

558
00:46:37,700 --> 00:46:42,770
So that's why you also need to learn about App Store Optimization.
558

559
00:46:42,770 --> 00:46:48,440
Now some of you might have heard of Search Engine Optimization or SEO and that's when you try to get
559

560
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:55,710
your website to rank highly on Google because we all know that nobody looks at page 3 or page 4 of Google
560

561
00:46:55,730 --> 00:46:56,390
right?
561

562
00:46:56,720 --> 00:47:03,860
So App Store optimization is about how do you get your app as close to the top of the search screen
562

563
00:47:03,950 --> 00:47:05,720
as possible.
563

564
00:47:05,720 --> 00:47:11,140
And the real secret to this is knowing which keywords to target.
564

565
00:47:11,300 --> 00:47:12,420
What are the words,
565

566
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:15,560
what are the things that a lot of people are searching for
566

567
00:47:15,710 --> 00:47:26,000
but not many apps are targeting. And a process that you can follow to do this is by using a reverse dictionary.
567

568
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:32,260
Now reverse dictionaries is not a thesaurus because thesaurus gives you synonyms.
568

569
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:36,180
So if I search for happy I might get the word joy.
569

570
00:47:36,500 --> 00:47:46,350
But reverse dictionaries give you all the words that are used in the same context or in conjunction
570

571
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:48,220
with the word that you're searching for.
571

572
00:47:48,420 --> 00:47:55,930
So for example, if you search for coffee you might get Java you might get beans you might get espresso.
572

573
00:47:56,220 --> 00:48:04,050
And what you realize is that a reverse dictionary gives you a whole bunch of words that make really
573

574
00:48:04,050 --> 00:48:05,480
good keywords.
574

575
00:48:06,950 --> 00:48:13,040
And then you stick all of these keywords through a service like Sensor Tower or App Annie which can give
575

576
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:21,050
you some analytics and insight into each of these words. And you look at how much traffic each of these
576

577
00:48:21,050 --> 00:48:21,870
words get.
577

578
00:48:21,980 --> 00:48:23,970
so the high the traffic the better.
578

579
00:48:24,230 --> 00:48:28,090
And you also look at how much competition each of these words have
579

580
00:48:28,190 --> 00:48:30,360
and the lower the competition the better.
580

581
00:48:30,410 --> 00:48:34,060
That means there's less apps that are trying to target those words.
581

582
00:48:34,370 --> 00:48:40,870
And for Sensor Tower at least the sweet spot is when the traffic index is above 3
582

583
00:48:41,240 --> 00:48:44,700
and the difficulty index is below 3.
583

584
00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:49,370
Those tend to be good keywords to target.
584

585
00:48:49,430 --> 00:48:54,920
Now when you upload your app to the App Store on the iOS App Store you actually get a box where you
585

586
00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:57,310
get to put in the keywords you want to target.
586

587
00:48:57,620 --> 00:48:59,200
But with the Android app store
587

588
00:48:59,210 --> 00:49:04,640
so the Google play store, you actually have to sprinkle your keywords inside your
588

589
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:10,210
description and inside your title much like SEO in websites.
589

590
00:49:10,230 --> 00:49:13,520
Now there's only so much that I can cover in an hour.
590

591
00:49:13,590 --> 00:49:17,550
I could probably talk about all of these topics for days and days on end.
591

592
00:49:17,610 --> 00:49:23,520
So if you're interested in learning more then be sure to take a look at the link below where for a limited
592

593
00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:31,290
time you'll be able to get 95 percent off of my gigantic 43 hour course which is normally priced at
593

594
00:49:31,290 --> 00:49:36,040
£200 but you'll be to get it today at $15.
594

595
00:49:36,060 --> 00:49:40,690
Now before I leave you there's just three final tips I want to give you
595

596
00:49:40,890 --> 00:49:45,020
if you're going to start the journey of creating your very own.
596

597
00:49:45,270 --> 00:49:50,780
The first thing is keep your app simple as simple as you can manage.
597

598
00:49:50,790 --> 00:49:56,730
Don't try and build every single feature that you could possibly want into your app in the first instance.
598

599
00:49:57,120 --> 00:50:02,280
Just as if you were learning mechanics, you wouldn't first start by building a car because you might
599

600
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:02,980
get stuck.
600

601
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:08,510
You might end up with just one wheel. So you would start by making maybe a skateboard right?
601

602
00:50:09,380 --> 00:50:17,250
Keep your app simple. Make it a minimum viable product with only the core feature that you want to have.
602

603
00:50:17,870 --> 00:50:23,350
And then once you've got that and once you've uploaded to the App Store you can listen to user feedback.
603

604
00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:29,090
You can see what other features are people willing to pay for and from there then build your product
604

605
00:50:29,150 --> 00:50:35,310
up, give it more features and flesh it out more and make it more capable.
605

606
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:43,820
The next tip is if you do any marketing at all you're already above 95 percent of all the independent
606

607
00:50:43,820 --> 00:50:47,970
developers and it gives you a real leg up in the app stores.
607

608
00:50:48,110 --> 00:50:53,680
So it's well worth doing. And finally, just do it.
608

609
00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:57,140
It's a lot easier than you imagine it to be right now.
609

610
00:50:57,370 --> 00:51:00,710
And I will be there teaching you every step of the way.