From App Idea to App Store. Trina Gregory University of Southern California

Transcription

1 From App Idea to App Store Trina Gregory University of Southern California

2 Software engineer since 1993 Teaching ios programming since 2009 Developed the curriculum and teach classes for the Mobile App Development minor Encourage you to develop mobile apps!

3 Lots of success stories Draw Something Instagram Start- ups DancePad Embark Jobs, jobs, jobs!

4 Focus on devices and their capabilities

5 Focus on devices and their capabilities Não! Fundamentally, mobile refers to the user, and not the device or the application. Designing the Mobile User Experience by Barbara Ballard, Wiley People use mobile apps when they are mobile Anywhere and everywhere

6 Design Develop User Profile App Defini,on Statement App Idea

7 Think big! "Find a need and fill it" Brainstorm Individually, ask your family & friends Work in a small group 3 5 people Hot areas Wearables

8

9 This is our target audience Users are the most important consideration Ask many questions Who are they and what do they want? What is their age range? Where and when would they be using the app? Look at any competitors What do users want that they aren t getting? What makes ours better? What's our "secret sauce"?

10 Mission statement of our app Concrete declaration of an app s main purpose and its intended audience Pare down our feature set to the most essential elements Core feature set Filter the feature list through the user profile Minimum viable product Write out your app definition statement Refer to this during the design and development cycles

11 Very important 50% Mobile users are picky and impatient Avoid increasing the user s cognitive burden Don't Make Me Think Revisited by Steve Krug Be internally consistent Be sure to thoroughly user- test custom UI elements Design for touch 44 x 44 pixels If not your strength, hire someone!

12 Wireframing Low- fidelity visual representation of the layout of our application Basic screen layout and navigational model Flow of the user interface Use paper, whiteboards, or tools Templates available

13

14

15 Wireframe / Mockup Tools free education account

16 Interactive Prototypes High- fidelity Full color, graphics, etc. Looks closer to finished product Create hot- spots to mimic interactive touches Testing our interface ideas Opportunity to reject ideas Prototyping Tools Images à hotspot tool Full prototyping tool

17 Create images Templates available Image Tools Photoshop Create stylized bitmap (JPG/PNG) mockups Illustrator Create vector- based, scalable screens Pencil Available for ALL platforms Free!

18 Create interactive prototype Make hotspots on images Link images Hotspot Tool education account

19 Interactive Prototype Demo to your friends, client, usability testing Put on a mobile device Prototyping Tools FluidUI Browser- based tool Educational discount Axure Interactive HTML website wireframe or UI mockup without coding Educational access AppSketcher Indigo Studio Proto.io

20 App Icon No inner transparency

21 Create your own look Font Character Style Color Palette

22 The world is flat Previous ios versions gave importance to visual skeuomorphism The emphasis for ios 7 is placed on physical skeuomorphism for animations

23 One type of device (such as iphone or one specific Android device) Cost: $500 - $10,000 Add another similar device Cost: add 25% to above cost Add a different kind of device like a tablet (ipad) Cost: add 50% to above cost

24 Types of Apps Technology perspective Web Cross- Compiled Native

25 Accessed on the Web via the device s browser Great for marketing Use HTML 5, CSS 3, & JavaScript Pros Do not need to use an app store Quick delivery and updates Put on a web server & everyone can access Cons Performance Have to have an Internet connection Cannot integrate with App Store billing

26 Responsive Web Design Uses "media queries" to figure out what resolution of device it's being served on Flexible images and fluid grids that size correctly to fit the screen

27 Built specifically for a given platform Based on mobile operating system Available via a platform- specific app marketplace Apple s App Store Blackberry World Google Play Windows Store

28 Pros Better performance Access to all device features, immediately Great if charging for your app Cons Rewrite client for every platform, costly Have to deal with operating system/platform fragmentation on your own

29 OS Android Blackberry Programming Language Java with Android SDK Java with RIM API IDE Eclipse BlackBerry JDE ios Objective- C Xcode Windows C++, C# Microsoft Visual Studio OS = Operating System IDE = Integrated Development Environment

30 Android Blackberry ios Is IST part of the University Program? Windows

31 Back- end as a service Database, login info, data for each user Back- end Tools Firebase Parse StackMob Kinvey

32 3 rd party Resources AFNetworking (for making network requests asynchronously) Cocoa Controls Progress HUD (Easy to use progress indicator) Swipe Table View Cell (Mailbox-esque swipe table view cell) Side Drawer Container Paging Tutorial Coachmarks

33 Great ios / Objective- C Blogs:

34 Use a tool to create a native app or a web app Pros Cross platform Tools Cons Additional cost of integrating 3 rd party SDKs Larger download size Performance

35

36 Two app developers walk into a bar. It sounds like the start of a really bad joke, but hear me out. One has a free app, and the other charges $4.99 just to download it. Which one makes more money?

37 Two app developers walk into a bar. It sounds like the start of a really bad joke, but hear me out. One has a free app, and the other charges $4.99 just to download it. Which one makes more money? Consider this: While there are plenty of successful paid apps out there, free apps make much more than paid apps do any day of the week.

38 Users pay to buy the app Advertisers pay Users pay within the app Companies pay (buy- out) Don't just use one strategy!

39 The easiest and most straight- forward way to monetize apps is to charge for it Good you will begin seeing your earnings as soon as people download your app Bad you ll have to work harder to market it Most users expect basic apps to only cost 99 cents, so you ll need tens of thousands of downloads before you actually begin to see a return For utility apps and more complex gaming apps, expect to charge between $2.99- $4.99

40 Reality nobody likes to pay for apps Free apps rule app stores because it s a win- win situation Users don t have to pay anything up front, while developers get the exposure they need 2 main ways: Advertisers pay Users pay

41 According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, advertisers spent $1.6 billion on mobile ads in 2011, up 149% from $641 million in 2010 Display ads range from banner ads placed on top or bottom of the screen to full screen ads while the app is launching or in between use (e.g., game levels) 3 different mobile ad models Cost- per- click (CPC) Cost- per- mille (CPM) Cost- per- action (CPA)

42 AKA pay- per- click You (the app developer) get paid by the advertiser when the ad is clicked Problem It s too easy to inadvertently click on an ad Google s Larry Page is hopeful that mobile CPCs will rise cpcs- q4-2012/

43 AKA cost- per- thousand CPM charges advertisers per 1,000 impressions ecpm = effective cost per mille Problem An impression does not always mean the user sees the ad User can scroll by or switch views

44 You get paid when the user performs an action Examples: completing a form, installing a different app, making a purchase Problem Takes users away from the app Takes too many steps Chances of conversion (and thus getting paid) is fairly slim

45 An innovative way to integrate display ads is by partnering with in- app advertisers Example: Waze, a social GPS app, works with retailers and merchants by allowing them to list their businesses and special offers to nearby consumers using the app Advertisers pay you: $2 CPC; $10 CPM; $20 CPA

46 Companies: AdMob: InMobi: Millennial Media: StartApp: Tapjoy:

47 Freemium is a business model that allows a consumer to receive basic services for free, but requires them to pay for any service deemed to be premium People are more willing to play for an app once they ve tried it themselves People always spend more on upgrading freemium apps than on apps they can t download for free How it works User downloads free app à User like app à User pays for more features

48 Lite versions LIVESTRONG s Calorie Tracker Lite is a free, ad- supported app. Buy the paid version and the ads go away. Users also get the extra perk of being able to sync their info with their web- based account. Subscription update Remember the Milk is free with limited functionalities. Upgrade for $25/year and get exclusive features like unlimited auto- syncing on multiple devices, push notifications and more. Evernote Premium gives users higher capacity, offline notebooks, larger files and more for $5/month or a discounted $45/year.

49 In- app purchases Definition: Purchases made from within a mobile application Access special content or features in an app such as power- ups, restricted levels, virtual money, special characters, boosts, etc Examples: In Zynga gaming apps users can buy tokens and other virtual currencies and goods to progress in the game, score more points, or outdo their friends In DragonVale, the top in- app purchases are: Pile of Gems $1.99; Sack of Gems $4.99; Bag of Gems $9.99; Pile of Food $0.99; Pile of Cash $0.99

50 According to statistics from Juniper Research, revenue from in- app purchases will reach $4.8 billion in 2016 More than twice the figure of $2.1 billion in 2011 In 2010, only 8% of the top- grossing games used in- app purchases; in 2011, it rose to 52% increasing total revenue by nearly 80%

51 Freemium apps get the best of both worlds: The same potential downloads as free apps, while being able to combine multiple monetization strategies You can even add on various upgrades and functionalities as users grow Give users freedom from hard sells and allowing them to wait until they are ready to buy The top 5 grossing apps are all free apps Get money through In- App Purchases

52 As a general working figure, we can say it costs at least $30,000 to design, implement and deploy a brand- quality native app Mobile web design and development is usually less than the cost of a mobile native app

53

54 Forrester estimated in 2012 that the average amount spent on a typical customer mobile app ($50,000 to $150,000) turns out to be just 35% of the true two- year cost. According to the AnyPresence survey, over 80% reported updating their apps at least twice a year and nearly a third were updating at least once a month. An app developed today will need to be updated in the future for changing business processes and for operating system updates. It will need to be ported to any new platforms you want to support.

55

56

57 Three simple inbound marketing strategies 1. Be social 2. Tell your own story 3. Court your audience of fans from day one

58 Facebook Connecting with Facebook drives a massive increase in revenue and engagement from users

59 Getting discovered by a large audience of interested customers can be as simple as: Selecting the right name Investing in a compelling and memorable icon Experimenting with categories and keywords, and Testing and optimizing your app s description (social proof in the description itself works wonders

60

61 Tell the truth about what your app can do Once you start distributing your app, you become an advertiser Look at your product and your advertising from the perspective of average users, not just software engineers or app experts Disclose key information clearly and conspicuously

62 If you have a website, have a clear call- to- action to download the app Use your existing assets like your Twitter account, list, or Facebook page App stores are the primary method of app discovery Have a great app title, use appropriate keywords and descriptions, and have screenshots Tools for improving your App Store Optimization (ASO) MobileDevHQ SearchMan Appnique Encourage happy customers to leave reviews

63

64 Reach The number of users who try our apps Retention The number of users who repeatedly use our apps Revenue Make money!

65 Definition The science of analysis The process of obtaining an optimal or realistic decision based on existing data Software libraries/services to collect data about my application Track events defined by the app author Report some events automatically Service (usually web- based) to present the analytics data

66 Acquisition and user metrics Examples: downloads and new users Engagement metrics Examples: retention, crashes, and conversion Outcome metrics Examples: app sales and in- app purchases

67 DAU daily active users MAU monthly active users DAU/MAU ratio of daily active users to monthly active users 20% is great! ARPU average revenue per user ARPPU average revenue per paying user

68 Flurry Google Analytics Grab Analytics Localytics Medialets

69 Design is important! Hire a graphic artist Design for touch Monetize Don't forget about tablets Fastest growing device segment Soft launch first Usually Android Internationalization and localization

70 Internationalization is the process of designing and building an application to facilitate localization. Localization, in turn, is the cultural and linguistic adaptation of an internationalized application to two or more culturally- distinct markets. When users launch a well- localized application, they should feel fully at home with it and not feel like it originated from some other country.

71 LinkedIn: Trina Gregory trina- gregory/28/655/398 Resources: