As we admitted on several occasions, we started working on the ZenToDone App about a year ago. So one might think that it is very hard to write an App for the iPhone or Android. To be honest, this is not true. In this post, I want to tell you about my personal experience regarding development of the App and also share some lessons learned.

Start where you are

A year ago we started with zero programming knowledge and we didn’t know any people in the scene. We tried hard and learned a lot on our own but progress was slow. The UI concept and design was done long ago, but doing the actual nuts and bolts programming held us back. We changed our underlying framework at least five times with no effect. Frustration started to build up until we finally visited the first MunichJS meetup.

Get involed in the community

The MunichJS usergroup was a blast. I remember the first time we got there and Wolfram Kriesing was holding a talk about the possibilites of HTML5 and JavaScript. He immediately won me over. Over the course of the following meetups we connected with a lot of brilliant people in the community.

Take a shortcut

From meetup to meetup our JavaScript skills improved but still slow. By chance we got on the uxebu mailing list (something I highly recommend) and followed some uxebus on twitter (Note: uxebu is an awesome JavaScript company). Somehow we heard about a workshop that the uxebus were planning. Excitement rose to a new all-time high. As they officially announced their workshop about building apps with HTML5 and JavaScript the price tag was 500€. Now, remember that we are normal students. We don’t have a lot of money. So we had to make a decision.

I think this was a critical point on our way into the App Store. You can always “save” money by doing everything yourself. However, I wouldn’t save on my education. Can you learn all the facts that we learned in the workshop? Yes. Do I remember the facts? No. It is not about facts. It’s about style, ideas and inspiration. It’s about getting over these barriers that hold you back with the help of someone who has done what you want to do. This is exactly what the workshop provided.

This is a principle, not a method. If you want to make a living as a designer, I highly recommend you find someone who has done just that. But what if it costs you a lot of money? Well, either you find a cheaper option or you find a way to afford it. I prefer the later.

Use a proven platform

If you want to create an App with HTML5 I can only recommend using PhoneGap. It has the widest adoption and best support by the community. If you plan something a little bit different than go outside and find people who can tell you what the proven platform in your market is. This choice is important. Spend some time on it.

Underdo the competition

I borrowed this line from REWORK, one of the most helpful books regarding App Deveopment (and it’s not even about that exactly). It is what helped us stay focused and on track: Do the minimum necessary to ship a working product. Throw out as many features as you can for the first prototype. Just produce something that’s real, something that’s working.

Prepare for the App Store horror

If you plan to submit your App to Apple’s App Store, you better be prepared. I can’t go into the details here, but it gets nasty. Google a lot on the topic. That will help avoiding the most mistakes.