Recap: MLL Session 5 – “What I have learned so far, 100 Apps In”

Stephen Nesbitt | IT Recruiter | Twitter | Linkedin

The Mobile Learning Lab was delighted to have Atley Hunter come out and give a great talk last night about his learnings in developing over 100 mobile apps! Atley is a Microsoft MVP – Windows Phone Development, Nokia Ambassador & Nokia Developer Champion and Telerik MVP & Telerik Insider.

We were fortunate to have him come in and give one of his great presentations. Atley brought up a number of fantastic points to guide new developers and old in their mobile development endeavors but we wanted to summarize the major points of his talk:

Developing Mobile Apps

1. The importance of a Good UI

Although most developers take great pride in the amount of detail and tech specs that go into building any application, the best move to make when developing mobile apps is to keep it simple! You are building an app for the user rather than for yourself! The UI needs to be simple, easy to navigate and in line with the aesthetics of the rest of the platform! You have to think about what the user expects.

Atley mentioned that the best way to know whether your UI is on par is to give the app to someone and just watch. Give no preconceived information to the user and watch how they interact with the application. If they have any questions, you haven’t quite got there yet.

2. Reuse your code!

The secret to Atley’s prolific development for this platform is his reuse of work done for previous apps! Most apps you develop can use 90% of the same code from a previous app. You may need to tweak the UI or reposition a button here or there but overall the code can reused, and your productivity will go through the roof! Do you have a mobile app slot machine? Why not repurpose this code into a word scrambler! It worked for Atley!

With this method Atley has set a record of developing 7 apps in one day!

3. Communication

It is vital to get feedback from the users of your app! Unless you are paying yourself (unlikely) your opinion as the developer is the least important! The users know what they want in an app and will let you know so long as you ask! So always include a “rate this app” feature and pay attention to the valuable feedback!

Remember, mobile app users are extremely fickle in the sense that an app can be deleted or removed as easily as it is downloaded. Communicating with your user base is so important to make sure that people continue to use your app!

My Favorite Takeaway

It’s mandatory to make people smile. This was a resounding point throughout Atley’s talk. You don’t have to have the most complicated, the slickest, or the fastest mobile app to gain traction. One of Atley’s most prolific apps has just 8 lines of code and over 100,000 downloads. The key? It brings a smile to your face.

We’d love to see you at the next Mobile Learning Lab session. Find out more on the Meetup page.