How I single-handedly designed, built and launched an iPhone app

HOW I SINGLE-
HANDEDLY DESIGNED,
BUILT AND LAUNCHED
AN IPHONE APP AND
LIVED TO TELL THE
STORY
Alexander Baxevanis
@futureshape
Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Hello everyone, and thanks for having me here to speak tonight. About a year ago, a few
things were happening at about the same time.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/matthewblack/331090762/

I had a long, boring commute into London

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/secretlondon/4366328006/

London was getting ready to launch a Cycle Hire scheme


I was curious to ﬁnd out if there was going to be a cycle hire station close to where I work, so
I sent a Freedom of Information request to Transport for London.


In a typical public sector manner, they replied with a spreadsheet in PDF, with the coordinates
in “British National Grid System” (not something you can easily plot on a map).

Copyright
Any copyright in the material provided with this response is
owned by TfL or one of its subsidiary companies unless
otherwise stated. The disclosure of information does not give
the person or organisation who receives it an automatic right
to re-use it in a way that would otherwise infringe copyright
(for example, by making copies, publishing it, or issuing
copies to the public). Brief extracts of the material may be
reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 (sections 29 and 30)
for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes,
private study, criticism, review and news reporting. In
respect of use for criticism, review and news reporting, any
reproduction must be accompanied by an acknowledgement that
TfL or one of its subsidiary companies is the copyright
owner.

Re-use
If you would like to re-use the information supplied with
this response please contact TfL using the details provided
in the attached letter. Requests for re-use will be
considered in accordance with the Re-use of Public Sector
Information Regulations 2005.

And a scary copyright notice saying that I wasn’t allowed to use the data they sent me in any
useful way. Which I completely ignored.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/rhodes/3177112624/

Because I thought - “I’ve got some spare time, wouldn’t it be nice to use this information and
build an iPhone app”?

OpenStreetMap


Fortunately, thanks to some great development resources and libraries out there, it wasn’t
very long until I had a ﬁrst working prototype.

LESSON #1
Don’t reinvent the wheel, but pay attention to
the details


Using all these resources out there made it very quick to get something working, but it
wasn’t perfect. Copying or building off an example will get you a long way, but the user
experience comes from the details.

DETAILS OF A MAP
APPLICATION
• Does the map scroll automatically as your location changes?

• How do you ask for directions from A to B?

• What kind of markers should you show on the map?

• ... and many more

• (Exercise: try
to deconstruct the interactions of the standard
Google Maps application on an iPhone)


Some of you are probably already getting suspicious here - I’m talking at a UX event, and I’m
saying that I went straight to writing code?


In fact, I did do a bit of sketching, and it’s proven to be quite useful, but it’s also had its
limitations.


There’s 2 things that I found particularly challenging when sketching for mobile apps:
1) Getting the information density right (i.e. how much you can realistically ﬁt on a screen)
2) Simulating complex interactions (explain popup ...)

LESSON #2
Prototype at the right level
“sketch in code” if necessary


Using all these resources out there made it very quick to get something working, but it
wasn’t perfect. Copying or building off an example will get you a long way, but the user
experience comes from the details.

... Anyway, I had something working quite early, was making progress on these details, and I
was obviously quite excited ...


I made a website to publicise the upcoming app, got a couple of hundred people to sign up to
my mailing list


I got Londonist, a quite popular London blog to write about my app (I really like the headline
they chose)


I even got somebody from the Mayor’s office writing to me - I thought they were going to tell
me off for using their data without permission, but actually they were just excited that
somebody was planning to build an app for them, for free.


They told Transport for London who got even more excited and put out a call for developers
to create more cycle hire apps. Meanwhile, with the scheme launching in less than a month, I
was still in designer’s den, still agonising over a few remaining details, and I had one of the
stupidest ideas in my life ...

“Nobody’s going to need my
app until the Cycle Hire
scheme launches, so I’ve
got plenty of time to get
my app out there”


Here it is, in Comic Sans, for added effect.


Unfortunately, other people weren’t thinking that way. Encouraged by TfL’s press release,
they built their apps and launched them before me. Of course they weren’t as good as mine :)
But people started downloaded them! Which leads to our second lesson...

LESSON #3
“Real Artists Ship”

(quote attributed to Steve Jobs)

If you stay in your cocoon and agonise over the details, you’re missing the chance to get your
work out there, and you’re missing on all the feedback and recognition you’ll get. This
doesn’t mean deliberately launching bad work, it means knowing when your work is good
enough.


So I rushed to go ahead and ship, and one of the last things left to do (probably because my
graphic design skills aren’t that great) was to make an icon for my app. I wanted to make it
familiar and recognisable by Londoners, so I went for an abstract version of cycle hire
docking stations look like. I knew that it was a bit risky to put the TfL logo in there, but other
apps at the time were also doing so, so I decided to take the risk.


Except, it just happened to be that time when TfL decided to crack down on all apps using
their logo without permission, so I got a polite email from Apple asking me to remove the
logo and resubmit my app. And I had just lost more than a week waiting for Apple to approve
the app.

LESSON #4
Pick your battles


If you have to ﬁght over something or take a risk, make sure it’s worthwhile. In my case,
having a nice icon was probably more likely to satisfy my designer ego than to make a
signiﬁcant difference in the experience of my app.

Although I mentioned a couple of things that went wrong, there were also things that went
very well.


One of the things I had in mind from the beginning, given that this was an emerging ﬁeld and
I couldn’t always predict what people would need, was to at least allow users to send me
feedback as easily as possible, from within the app.


This isn’t optional - if you don’t make it easy for people to get in touch, they’ll take their
complaints elsewhere. In my case, they’ll probably go and leave a negative review in the app
store.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your note - I shut down the app and
restarted it and it has added the new docking
stations as you advised, thanks. I added a review on
the App Store with 5* rating - thanks for the app,
it's great stuff!

Regards,

Ian


If you do let people talk to you directly, and reply to them politely (whether they’re right or
wrong), you’ll get feedback like this ...

(after explaining how exactly a feature of
my app works)

Alex,

Many thanks, obviously I've been hit with the stupid
stick lol

Dean


... or sometimes even more funnier things like this.

LESSON #5
Make it easy for people to talk to you


... and listen carefully, and try to reply promptly.


So, what’s happening now? I still get about ~40-50 people downloading the app every week.

Stuff I designed but rarely use Stuff I use

20%

80%


I still use the app myself, although not very frequently as I’m usually on my own bike. And
when I do use it, I probably only use 20% of the features I designed ... which might be proof
that I didn’t fall into the trap of designing just for myself.


There’s still a couple of annoying bugs that cause the app to crash or misbehave in a few
occasions ... but I have to admit I’ve lost a lot of the initial enthusiasm and haven’t been able
to convince myself to sit down and work on a new version.

LESSON #6
You learn a lot when you build
(just don’t expect the enthusiasm to last forever)


So, my last lesson for today ...

Thank you!

Alexander Baxevanis
@futureshape

If you want to
try the app, search for
‘Cycle Hire’
in the App Store

Matt Jones

I’ll leave you with this beautiful poster designed by Matt Jones - as I truly believe in getting
excited and MAKING things - not just designing them. Try and do it yourselves and see what
you learn. If you can’t build something, try to learn how to, or ﬁnd someone who knows. Just
give it a try.

Thanks for listening!

How I single-handedly designed, built and launched an iPhone app

More Related Content

Similar to How I single-handedly designed, built and launched an iPhone app

Recently uploaded

How I single-handedly designed, built and launched an iPhone app