The infographic sampled above this sentence (and copied below) is terrible. Anyone with any knowledge of app development will find countless things wrong with it. Let me educate you.

The infographic in question is right above this sentence. You can look at a larger version here. 

The most significant flaw with this infographic is that it omits the single most important stage of app development, which is quality assurance. There is not a single point on here that mentions QA. There’s nothing here that talks about the process of bug fixing and bug fixing is attrition. It’s impossible to predict how many bugs there are going to be and it is impossible to estimate how long it will take to fix them. QA takes as long as it takes, which is the bane of management across the industry. You inevitably end up with the painful choice of deciding how many bugs you can live with in the finished product because it’s never financially realistic to release a perfect piece of software. To ignore that flexible phase (which is arguably the single most important part of app development) is negligent to the point of stupidity.

The other other thing that drives me nuts about this infographic is the comparison to building a Boeing 747. Yeah, it takes 18 weeks to build one of them on an assembly line. It took years to build the first one. It took years and hundreds of millions of dollars to build the first one. It’s a stupid comparison — virtually every app has to be built from the ground up. There are certain things you can always re-use, but most clients will always want to own all of their code when the app is finished. That legally prohibits us from reusing code or seeking out third party solutions. Even basic things like social media integration has to be newly designed on every mobile app. We have to write new code to comply with our contracts.

A more accurate comparison between designing apps and airplane construction would be to compare it to how long it took to design and build the first plane of a certain type. I guarantee that that timeframe would be longer than any app development!

As for the rest of the comparisons the chart makes…drilling oil wells? People say you’re not supposed to compare apples to oranges, but that’s like comparing apples to microchips. They’re on completely different planets! They’re in completely different solar systems! They don’t belong on the same infographic. The same applies to the Pyramid of Giza comparison. And how do they know how long it took? Last time I checked, historians had no idea exactly how long it took build the pyramids. Where do these numbers come from?! Did they just make that up? And why compare it to how long it would take to go the moon and back? It just doesn’t make any sense. What are they trying to accomplish with that comparison? It’s like they’re pulling things out of thin air. They just picked it because it would look cool on the infographic, not because it would be useful information.

There are all kinds of viable things they could’ve compared app development to, but this isn’t it. Why not compare the length of app development to how long it took Apple to design their operating system? You know, something that actually makes sense! That would be a comparison that would actually shine a light on the efficiency of app development. This infographic seems to state that it’s absurd that it takes so long to make an app, but if you know the challenges involved and know that technology is changing all the time, you know that’s a stupid statement. Every time an operating system updates, we need to re-learn how to do our jobs! No other industries have that problem and it’s not something you can easily capture in an infographic. There’s no time to be complacent. You constantly have to adapt and change. Our goal is to make good products and quality takes as long as it takes. Comparing the job of an app developer to oil drilling and ignoring our daily difficulties doesn’t only make for a bad infographic, it’s insulting.

(Do you have a great app idea? Rocksauce Studios wants to hear from you!)

The post When Infographics Go Wrong (Or How This Chart on App Development is Hugely Misleading) appeared first on Tapsauce.

I’ve had the iPhone 5 for a week now.

I skipped the 4S because I did not think it was giving me enough to justify the upgrade and decided to wait until the 5. After all, I assumed that the next numbered upgrade would surely have more bells and whistles and I was right. Since I waited, I think the upgrade was far more impressive to me than it would have been to someone upgrading from the 4S.

The Look

Aesthetically, I was sold on the phone from the start. Apple’s industrial design is unparalleled. Even people who aren’t in the bank with Apple can appreciate the quality of their designs. The phone itself is beautiful: you look at it and can’t help but be amazed by the precision of its engineering. The longer screen feels more comfortable in my hand. It feels natural. On my previous phone, I was constantly fighting with my icons (I’m OCD when it comes to the order of my apps!) and I never felt like I had the space to divide them up the way I wanted to. The iPhone 5′s extra row of icons is something that I’ve been wishing for in the back of my mind for some time now.

The Screen

As a pixel snob and a videophile, having a screen that’s in proper 16:9 aspect ratio is a big deal. I use my phone to watch a lot of videos and spot check my own video content and on my previous phone, it was always annoying to see movies not filling up the screen properly. I paid for all of these pixels and I want to see every one of them used!

The Weight

There’s no doubt that when you first pick up the iPhone 5 it feels a little light and fragile, especially compared to the 4, which was a hefty device. However, I’m pretty religious about keeping my phone in a case and Otter Box is my case of choice. It covers and protects the screen without disrupting any of the touch gestures. The Otter Box is solid, so once I put my phone in the case, it took it back up to the comfortable weight of the 4. So I managed to sidestep that issue altogether, but truthfully: picking it up for the first time was a bit disconcerting.

Siri

I’ve been blown away by Siri. Since I never had the 4S, this was my first date with her, so to speak. Before I booted up the phone, I was questioning whether or not I’d find her useful, but now I find myself amazed by how often I ask for help! For example, in order to use your timer before Siri, you’d have to unlock your phone, scroll to the clock app, open it, scroll to the time section, set the time and press go. That’s a long process! Now all I have to do is press the home button and ask Siri to set the timer for eight minutes. Finding the closest gas stations, dictating texts while I drive, asking to play a specific song…Siri’s been hugely helpful with that kind of shortcutting.

Apple Maps

I think it was a fundamental mistake for Apple to remove Google Maps for their own maps app. Google has spent so much time, energy, money and effort into building this amazing system that it seems silly for Apple to decide to go through the entire process themselves. From a pure service-to-the-people standpoint, I think Apple Maps is a failure. It’s corporate bickering at its most unproductive (and to be fair, the iOS version of Google Maps didn’t have all of the features of the Android version, which led to the break-up in the first place). However, simply in terms of performance, Apple Maps is superior. It loads faster. It scrolls faster. The interface is smoother and more friendly. Since I only use it for local travel, all of my directions have been completely accurate. If I lived overseas or in a rural area, I may be more annoyed with it. My one major issue has been with searching for specific businesses. A Google search is still more useful for finding the nearest Radio Shack than Apple Maps.

And the Rest…

I realize this is more of an iOS 6 thing than an iPhone 5 thing, but being able to directly add photos and videos to an email is huge for me. As someone who does a lot of QA testing, I often have to take a dozen different screenshots of an app to send out. Before, I would have to send a dozen emails to myself, each with a different image. Now, I can open one email and insert every photo and send it off straight from my phone. Now that I have it, it feels criminal that it was never included in previous versions!

Add the deeper Facebook integration and the Do Not Disturb feature (vital for a movie buff like me) and you have everything I want in a smartphone. Apple may have been a little late to the party with some of these features, but I’m excited that they showed up at all!

The post A Better-Late-Than Never Review of the iPhone 5 appeared first on Tapsauce.

Sometimes, a client will come to Rocksauce Studios with a great app idea that’s just too big to work. Everyone tends to let their imagination run away with them a bit. When you have an idea, it’s very easy to let that idea grow. When that idea simply lives in your head without any real world constraints, budget or time frame attached to it, it’s easy to let it spiral out of control.

While plenty of people come to us with the seed of an idea that we help cultivate and transform, others come to us with a fully formed idea. For those who come to us with a seed, we can put up some gates and carefully guide them to success. As for the second group…well, I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve said: “That feature is cool, but it’s not the best idea for right now.” When it comes to apps, simpler is always better. At least at the start.

One of the best weapons I have is pointing out real world examples. Angry Birds is something we always come back to. The very first edition of Angry Birds was about 15 levels with only a few birds and only a handful of structures. It was a very simple and straightforward concept. If Angry Birds had tried to come out first in its current state (A dozen birds! Hundreds of levels!), it would have been overwhelming to new users. It would have been too much. There would be a risk of people looking at it and deciding that they’re unwilling to commit to such a huge experience. But since that first version was so simple and elegant, it managed to capture the imagination of the audience. The users demanded more. By only sticking their toe out, Rovio made a much bigger splash than they would’ve if they’d decided to go all-in from the beginning.

This goes beyond games. One of our key design principles for apps is “do one thing and do it well.”

The way users interact with apps is very different than how they interact with other software. In the past, software was an investment. You’d spend time seeking it out and it would cost a lot of money and you’d spend a lot of time installing it. Since you were going through this process, you were more inclined to dig in and explore every feature. If it wasn’t packed to the brim with features, you’d feel like you didn’t get your money’s worth! But the paradigm has completely shifted with apps. Now, users flip through the app store seeking instant gratification. They want something that they can play with for five minutes, figure out how to use, get satisfaction and move on. An app needs to provide that instant experience.

Some apps are designed to tackle specific problems or niches, so they have a little more leeway as their audience will spend a little more time with them. However, the majority of apps really have to go fishing for users. Some people tend to think “Oh, if we cram in everything, we’ll appeal to a much wider audience!” but that’s a fallacy. It just makes it harder for your audience to understand what you’re offering them. If you clutter it up with features, every individual element might be good, but you lose the simple core idea. The more features you have, the harder it is to distill it into something useful!

However, people are excited by their ideas and it’s often my job to help them rein in their imagination (at least for the first version of the app) Our clients always want to believe that their ideas are excellent and I always sympathize: I always think my ideas are excellent! But I can’t indulge in all of my ideas and Rocksauce Studios, in good conscience, can’t let our clients indulge in all of theirs. The worst case scenario is us building a large, ungainly app that will never find an audience.

An app is always evolving. Isolate your app to one great idea and put it out there. Make sure people like it. Then start with the updates. All of your great ideas will fit in the app, but add them one at a time. Reward your users with a deeper experience and let your feedback shape your vision into something truly special.

The post A Great App is a Simple App appeared first on Tapsauce.

I am always amazed at how many people want to create a piece of software with absolutely no clue how software development works. Luckily, there are great people out there who can educate them along the way. We call it “software” for a reason. Software is intangible, unknowable, and incredibly subjective…something some people perpetually fail to understand. Software is art. You must approach software development as if you are commissioning a work of art.

The best developer I know used to be a pianist. I asked him how difficult it was to make the transition between playing the piano and writing code. His response was, “There was no transition. It’s exactly the same thing.” Let that statement enlighten you.

During our sales process, we ask our potential clients to provide a Features List in the form of bullet points. Our Design team will use this Features List to estimate how many weeks we will need to produce the full Bleuprint. Our sales team then provides the client with the cost of our Bleuprint. At that point, potential clients typically ask the same two-part question:”How much will development cost and how long will it take?”

To which I can only respond: “We can give you a good estimate on cost and time, but we can’t know the final numbers or exactly how long it will take to develop before we we create the Bleuprint.  The purpose of creating the Bleuprint is so we can determine how much it will cost and how long it will take.”

If you went to a contractor and said, “I want a house with four rooms. How much will it cost and how long will it take?” The contractor may laugh at you because that description is a bit inadequate.  A four room house could be made from cardboard or from marble.  It could be built on level ground in the sun or on a mountain side in the snow.  There are a thousand details about this four room house that would have to be established before the contractor could give you a price. Apps are no different.  If anything, apps are far more complicated because they deal with abstract technologies that are constantly changing.  New hardware and new software updates come out weekly and the sheer number of different coding languages that are interacting in any given app is staggering.

The expertise, skilled labor and artistry that goes into a quality app is massive.  And much like a work of art, the definition of “Complete” is highly subjective.  A developer can believe they have completed a feature, only to find out that they misunderstood  how the social networking integration was exactly supposed to work, they did not implement the artwork correctly or the client decided a feature was no longer needed.

The development process is like attrition. The Bleuprint provides the overarching vision, but the reality of bringing it to life is fraught with roadblocks, pot-holes, confusion and experimentation to make an immaculate final product. All of us would love the process to be more defined and predictable than it can possibly be, and this creates a challenge when it comes to managing expectations.

I think people who don’t understand software sometimes equate the process with traditional manufacturing.  If you want to build a chair, it is fairly straight forward to predict the time/cost of that because humans have 10,000+ years of experience at building chairs. It’s way more of a science than an art.

Apps as we know them have only existed since 2008. That’s only 4 years. Given the immense complexity of this work, 4 years is pure infancy. There is no such thing as an “expert,” no matter what some people may proclaim (Unless you work at Rocksauce Studios! -Ed.). This is a brand new industry that changes on a dime every few months and half of our job is just keeping up with it all.

The end result of all of this is that development cannot be precisely predicted, because things can change. You can set a deadline, but since there is no single, guaranteed pathway to completion, that deadline simply must be flexible if the quality of the app is to be preserved. It is the quality if the app which matters once the product is on the store.

I’ve had many encounters with potential clients who fixate on a deadline. On very rare occasions, a deadline is a real and immutable thing, i.e. our physical product will be on store shelves by this date and the app must be done by then. However, the vast majority of deadlines are arbitrary or simply hopeful. Yes, it would be nice to get the product out in time for the school year. Yes, it would be lovely to have a Christmas release. However, your app is not about when you launch it. Your app is about the experience it creates. No one will remember when it launched even a few months into its release.

Your app is not about your deadline. Your app is about the people who will be using it, and what they care about is a quality experience.  Sometimes quality takes as long as it takes. But quality is a sure-thing you can bet on.

The post Your App Is Not About Your Deadline! appeared first on Tapsauce.