iOS App Store Journey

Journal
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Hello everyone (or no one?!), my name is Angela and this is the beginning of my capstone project for the ‘Launch Your First App’ program.

I spent about 10 weeks learning python before starting this course (so I have very little experience in coding). This is my second year enrolled here, I started, it got hard, I stopped, and then I came back and started from the start again. I haven’t put off going back and redoing everything again either, it seems to be a good way of reinforcing the learning, and also filling any ‘gaps’ I have in my knowledge of the basics.

Now when I feel like giving up because something feels ‘hard’ I have to remind myself that quite often it’s something small that needs fixing, and to keep trying. I also agree with what Chris said in his into lessons about mental/emotional obstacles being possibly the most damaging of all obstacles to prevent us publishing apps.

My goal for learning iOS development is to be able to make the apps I want to use, and make apps for my daughter’s ipad (subscriptions to kids apps is costing me a fortune lol).

I’m looking forward to both updating this log and reflecting back over the entries.

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Good luck Angela. Remember that there is no such thing as a dumb question here. We all started knowing next to nothing about iOS Development and nothing about how to use Xcode. It’s taken me a very long time to get to the level I am and I still have a long way to go. You never stop learning. I agree with what Chris Ching is saying about the things that block you.

All the best.

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My initial app idea and MVP requirements for my capstone project will focus on self-help, specifically help with cleaning. I have experience working as a crisis counsellor, and as a professional cleaner/organiser in people’s homes and workplaces and I think I want to combine both of these things into an app. Not everyone knows how to clean/organise in such a way that it’s sustainable. People going through crisis, or mental health issues can also find cleaning to be challenging.

I want to design an app that is encouraging, non-judgemental and empowers the user to stop sitting in the mess playing their phone, and instead clean the mess with the help of the app on their phone. I also want to gamify it, and eventually offer different parts - like crisis cleaning (for when it’s really messy and you don’t know where to start), to developing cleaning routines, to decluttering specific areas (like clothing/wardrobes). I could also have challenges - do ‘this activity’ for ‘this reward’ kind of thing, and possibly even have different ‘levels’ based on the completion of tasks.

I’m thinking flexible - can be used by parents to help clean their kids bedrooms, teenagers to clean their rooms, people who were never shown how to clean and may find it difficult, or people who have just fallen behind with it and have trouble knowing what to do next.

I’m probably rambling a bit now, for the MVP I thought I could develop a ten minute random cleaning challenge app - maybe give the user the option of putting in the time they have available, and then a cleaning task that matches that time is randomized, based on an estimatedTime property. I want it to offer different cleaning challenges, and a user taps a button to generate a challenge. Maybe they could add their own challenges? To begin with I think I’d just have a supplied list of generic challenges (eg - do dishes, clear all the horizontal surfaces in your living area, etc). The user can then accept the challenge or not, and if they accept an on screen timer starts. The user taps some ‘done’ upon completion, is rewarded points - points can be exchanged for some kind of ‘in app’ collectible item? Or ability to upgrade / customise the UI.

Eventually I would like this to be a part of an app that also offers cleaning ‘programs’ (introducing small cleaning habits, encouraging ‘streaks’), and decluttering as well as a customisable cleaning planner. But for the MVP, I think the ‘challenge’ part could be fun, for us weird people who like cleaning, or want to like cleaning.

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Aw that’s cute, I love it! I hope your daughter gets to try something you build soon, that’s an awesome goal for learning iOS dev. Welcome to the community and happy coding :slight_smile:

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I’m not sure where I’m supposed to be posting the updates for my capstone project, so I will just continue doing so here I guess unless someone can tell me otherwise.

Today I worked on the wireframe for my app idea using figma. I will add a picture. So far I’m not too worried about any specific part of it. I haven’t made a timer before, so that bit will be challenging.

TheCleaningChallengesApp
TheCleaningChallengesApp1099×1544 186 KB

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I don’t know if I’m meant to ‘respond’ to myself or not when posting updates. Anyway, I thought I’d touch base because it’s been a while. I’m currently waiting for my app to be reviewed after building(?) it to the AppStoreConnect.

Every I think I’ve finished there ends up being ten more things to do. The first half was fun because I seemed to make progress quickly. The second half seemed to be me thinking I’m finished, until the next thing that would reveal itself in need of doing.

I found adding sounds to my app to be challenging, and this seemed to take a few days of trying out different things. The things I thought would take a long time didn’t seem to, and the things I thought would be quick often weren’t.

Joining the Apple developer program took longer than I thought, I assumed it would be just join and you’re in, but after joining it wasn’t until the following day I got the welcome email and was able to log in.

I don’t seem to be able to opt out of my app being available on ipad? I had to go back and make a heap of screenshots for ipad (x2 sizes) as well as the two iphone models, which was really annoying because I thought I was so close to being able to upload my app.

I’m really impressed with the carrd site for the app landing page. There’s also some awesome tutorials to make multi page websites using carrd and #section, which I found helpful for the app privacy policy (and you just add the #sectionName to the end of the url).

In the future, I’d like to learn about firebase and admob to add banner ads and the ability to purchase their removal. I also would like to set up my own API (if that’s how you say it?!), as for the MVP I have hardcoded my data in, and I figure it’s probably best to use an API that way I’m assuming it’s probably easier when I want to add more challenges to my app I can do so via adding them to the API somehow, rather than having to mess around with changing the app and re-uploading.

Well, that’s it for now :wink:

Angela

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Thought I’d touch base to give a final update.

My app is now available on the app store.

I took a few weeks wondering if it was good enough to submit my app, but once I did submit it I then got some questions back about it (mainly how I was going to make money from it), to which I let them know it was more to gauge if there was a market for the app.

I did manage to get google admob banner ads in it. Like most other things I don’t have much of an idea exactly what I’m really doing, but it seems to work. Like sticky taping air together and hoping for the best kind-of-thing.

In Australia, you have to not only have an ABN but you also have to be registered for GST to be paid by Apple. I use an ABN for work and haven’t had to register for GST, so in doing so I’m going to have to start collecting GST from my other work. I wish I’d known about this sooner, but this is something I guess I’ll have to explore further with an accountant, as you are not required to register for GST if you make under $75k, yet Apple require you to be registered for GST to be paid. Just something to be mindful of if you are residing in Australia and planning on getting paid by Apple (users) for your app.

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