App design 101

'Where am I ever going to find the time to create my app??'....is a question I never thought I'd ask myself. To say that the last three weeks have been busy is an understatement. What with work and assignments and then life on top of that it's been an overwhelming few weeks. Finally, with one group project completed and another two to get through I've a bit of space to start thinking about app creation.

I've been quite excited about this project as I like the creative aspect of it although the technological side of it has me somewhat daunted. It almost feels like two immense independent tasks. Create and design an app and then go about applying the tools we have been learning to market it effectively. The time you could spend on the first aspect alone is almost infinite. How long is a piece of string?

I suppose that's been one of the major challenges of these group projects for me is the time management and the management of expectations. There is only so much that a group of people, who in reality spend very little time in the same room, can achieve. So the challenge here is getting thoughts down on paper and transforming those thoughts into something cohesive in as time efficient and painless a manner as possible.

With that in mind the first task is to set out the design and functionality of the app. Discussion over the last couple of weeks has led us to adopt a locations based app as our project material. The app will be map based and have a number of features ranging from social to safety. There are a range of location based apps out there but few combine the features of location sharing, safety alerts and messaging, so there would appear to be a gap in the market for a one stop 'here I am, come join me or come help me' type of app. There are a range of features that we would like to include, and I can already feel stumbling blocks arising. Surely the more complicated the app is the harder it will be to visualise and understand. Also, the question of technology rears it's ugly head. As I mentioned I'm no coder and I have limited knowledge as to what smart phones are even capable of these days. Maybe an attitude of 'think big' is required and it can always be reigned in from there.

So there are thoughts there. The task at hand is to organise and refine those thoughts. Ideally we would have our app designed by early next week and then we have just over a week to write the marketing proposal and come up with our powerpoint. Hopefully a lot of material required for our marketing plan will become apparent during the design of the app and the first task will inform the second. We should have a good grasp of the product, who we're intending to be our target market, where they're most likely to gain access to the app and how much if anything they are likely to pay for it.

On reflection maybe it's not two mammoth tasks after all. Here's hoping.

I'M HERE!!!!!!!