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Sep
26

Initial Questions for a New Mobile App Project

  • Posted By : LunarLincoln/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under : App Advice, Business

It can be daunting to know the first place to start after you know you want to build a mobile app. We are here to help. We can help you focus in your project goals on what makes sense.

Ultimately only you will be able to provide the core vision for what you need. As you ask the questions below, think through the lens of what needs to be in front of users first.

Let’s Build a Minimum Viable Product

Minimum Viable Product

Source: Kunal Naik

Since building technology costs money, having priorities will save you money. So what are the priorities? As we explore this question, keep in mind that it’s always smart to build a minimum viable product (MVP) first. Rather than having a little of everything that works ok, focus on building one aspect of your vision well so that it’s a great foundation. That may mean focusing on one platform before doing both iOS and Android. It may mean we should focus on core functionality before adding extra features.

Have an idea of what’s a must-have versus things that aren’t crucial. This will help you know what you should invest in first. It’s always better to get a smaller, great product in front of users, rather than an app that has more, but doesn’t work great. Having an MVP also helps you get to market faster, which has huge advantages. If you keep launching major updates to your app every 6 months, you’ll be learning what works and what doesn’t. This saves you money since you know which ways you need to pivot your thinking. It often doesn’t make sense to work on a large app for years, without getting feedback from users along the way.

That’s the critical piece of advice I’d give any of my friends who are involved in getting an app built. Keep in mind you’re building a MVP, and not the kitchen sink when considering the questions below. Here are some common questions we get when people reach out for a quote. This should help prepare you for a conversation with us.

Let’s Play Common Questions Bingo

If we wanted to build a Bingo board with the common questions that come up during a conversation about building an app, we’d be winning lots of Bingo. If you don’t know how to answer the questions below, spend some time thinking it over and reach out if you’re stuck. We can point you in the right direction.

You want to know: “How much will it cost?”

We need to know the answer to some of the questions below before we’re able to answer this one for you. In general apps are expensive to build, and zeros are involved. Thankfully a round number can get more focused as we learn more.

So what will we ask to get to the answer for that question?

What’s the big idea?

What makes this app unique and different? What will compel people to use it? What is that one thing that absolutely needs to come across when someone uses this thing?

What kind of features are you envisioning?

What are the core thing someone can do with your app? It can be helpful to see if you can distill your app in 2-3 user stories. A user story is a high-level description of one of the things a user can do with your app. Here are few examples:

  • As a car driver I can swipe my app while paying for gas to earn rewards.
  • At the gas station, I can show my app to redeem rewards at the counter and get a free Coke.
  • As a beer enthusiast I can scan a beer’s barcode to see details about a beer.
  • As a movie buff, I can search for a movie and mark it as watched.

Does this need to be an app?

Hang with me. Sometimes people will have an app idea that may not lend itself to the app format. If you want to build an app for writers that helps them build up their typing speed, it may work better as a website or desktop app, where people are more likely to have a keyboard when using it. What’s the advantage to people having this product on the go?

Who is this app for?

What’s your target demographic? Who will be using this app? This can help decide how the user interface works.

How do you plan to make money with this app?

This may sound a big harsh, but what’s the business plan? If you haven’t considered the longterm plan for how the app makes you money or meets your goal, you may be missing a core feature that needs to be in the app.

What’s the play? Should users be able to subscribe monthly to the app? Are there in-app purchases? Are there ads or messages from you or partners? How does a user give you valuable information such as their email address so you can reach out and tell them about your next rally for saving the rainforest? Does your app help you reach your goals?

Do you have a specific timeline in mind?

Do you have time pressures tied to your app? For instance, are you building an app that helps you create custom emojis that you’d like to release on the same week that the next Emoji Movie releases? Or do you have investors or stakeholders with expectations on when the app will be rolled out?

Based on the timeline, we may recommend what would be doable within your desired time window.

What other apps are your competition?

This question helps in a couple ways. Are you building an app that already exists? If so, what is your competitive advantage? If you’re building something different or better than someone else, how will that inform the features you’re wanting?

If you do have competition, what do they do that you also want to do? One advantage to not being the first on the scene, is that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. You can likely glean from others what is already working in your space.

How fleshed out is the design?

Do you need a designer? Or is everything already mocked up? If you need some help with the ideation phase, we can help figure out a plan. Knowing how far along you are in this step will inform how long the process may take.

What devices will be able to run your app?

On what devices will your app be able to run? Can it only run on iPhones? Or just on Android phones? Both? What about tablets? Should the app look different for users using larger screen sizes? The answers to these questions greatly impact what needs to be built.

What other technology will accompany the app?

  • Do you also need a website?
  • Does an API need be built so that the app can access the data it needs?
  • Do you need an interface that allows you to edit or see user details?
  • Do you need analytics about the app so you can see reports of how people are using it?

Bingo!

If you have the answer to 5 of these you’re off to a great start. Keep going. If you don’t have all the answers, that’s totally fine. We can help you think through all of the questions above. These are just some introductory questions we often cover so we can start to figure out the size of your project.

Reach out when you’re ready to figure out your app’s next steps!


Sep
02

Gif TV: A LunarLincoln Product

  • Posted By : LunarLincoln/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under : App Advice, Business, Coding

Gif TV: A LunarLincoln Product

If you’ve ever perused our blog or Twitter you might have noticed that we like GIFs. We think they’re a great medium for injecting humor or emotion into what could otherwise be a dry industry-specific topic. If you’ve ever been in our company Slack or on a text thread – you’ll notice we sling just as many GIFs there too. We just can’t get enough of those little moving-nuggets of fun.


What feels like 1 million years ago but was actually 2014, I found an article on Lifehacker (remember Lifehacker?) about building a little screen that showed GIFs. I was fascinated, immediately ordered the parts and put one together (although not without copious cursing due to the inaccurate instructions). This lil’GIF machine resided on the wall in our office for a few years but was more frequently out of commission than active. It was the definition of a buggy hack.

I loved it. I loved the serendipity of a random GIF being served up as well as the mindless entertainment of seeing what comes next. If you’re a fan of the TikTok For You page, you know exactly what I mean.

So, when we first started clearing time in our schedule to work on passion-projects at LunarLincoln, we each made lists of potential ideas we’d like to work on. Wiley made a huge list of tools that could help him at work/life (to do apps, API validators, proximity photo services). Me? I made a huge list of fun, useless things (80s photo filters, mean mail and….the Gif TV).

I wanted to see our office Gif TV as a real product, for real (non-technical) people. It could show your favorite GIFs, GIFs from friends, GIFs for topics, reaction GIFs, etc. Whatever hit of 5 second dopamine-laced entertainment you needed.

Wiley begrudgingly agreed (since I promised to do most of the work). And so we dug into building Gif TV.

Below is a very quick summary of the journey but we’ll be breaking these into longer posts in the coming days. Keep checking back for more product and GIF content!


Initial Plans & the Reboot

Initially our plan was to package up the original raspberry pi/screen concept with a companion app to select and serve the GIFs since the initial version you had to upload GIF files by hand to a random database. But, as I started to source components, and look at 3-D printing cases, and see how long it took to assemble them by hand – it was seeming a more and more complicated (and not profitable) venture. Hardware is hard y’all.

But what if the app WAS the tv?

This would be a simple solution. We build apps. Why muddy it up with hardware?

BUT, I did still want some sort of physical component for two reasons.

  1. People are so fickle about paying for apps – a physical product still holds more “value” for consumers. We could recoup costs better upfront than trying to build out all the infrastructure for some sort of subscription service.
  2. I wanted a physical engagement with the gifs. We already have a million ways of digitally access gifs, but what about a “present” version. I pictured the app languishing with the 1200 other random things you downloaded into your phone. That physical stand will be sitting there, asking – don’t you want to stream some gifs today?

So the GIF TV was reborn – an App + a Stand.

Coming soon – Learn more about the app planning process and the stand production process.


Gif TV as a way to learn new tools/technologies

The Gif TV project wasn’t just a way to share our office Gif TV with friends though. We wanted some low-risk projects to test new tools on.

Personally, I wanted to take Figma for a test run without using a client as a guinea pig (and on something more complex than twiddling with the pre-built templates).

Wiley had wanted to check out Flutter. After years of nay-saying cross platform solutions, a few close friends had managed to convince him that Flutter was worth a gander. Cross-platform still is only best used for content-driven apps versus sensor driven apps and Gif TV fit this niche perfectly.

Gif TV seemed like the great solution for both goals. Fun product + acquiring new skills. Double win.

Coming soon – Learn more about why we’re fully on the Figma train now and about Flutter and when it’s best to use.


Gif TV as a foray into new activities (crowdfunding, marketing, startup sites)

We weren’t just learning new skills for our careers though, we did a little stretching into adjacent areas too.

I learned more than I ever wanted to know about laser cutting and CNC machines. I built stand prototypes with my Cricut, had early versions cut with Ponoko, and now I have a cardboard box with more random Gif TV stand pieces than you’d even need.

We tried out new kind of promotional websites – falling in love with Carrd for it’s simplicity and inexpensive entry point for landing pages and Big Cartel for our shop.

We stretched our marketing skills again for the first time since CaseCollage. We gained a newfound respect for how lucky we’d been with that first launch and just how many new things there were to learn in this go-round. Product Hunt, social campaigns, cold emails – they were all areas where we felt we were just dipping out toes and learning there was a lot more to learn.

Coming soon – Learn more about our experience with Product Marketing.


Gif TV as an enjoyable product for friends

At the end of the day, we haven’t seen as much traction as we’d hope for our little Gif TV. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still happen or that I’m not still enjoying my personal Gif TV streaming on my desk right now. We’ve learned a ton about Figma, Flutter, Kickstarter, Product Hunt, lasercutting, ecommerce and social media. I think we’re better positioned for future product launches and we have a great little product here as a case study.

We’ll likely push Gif TV some more during the holiday season and I’ll work on some alternative marketing for it in the meantime.


Want to check out Gif TV for yourself?

Visit the site where you can download the apps, purchase a stand, or learn more about all the ways you can enjoy your own Gif TV.


Recent Posts
  • Copious Communication
  • Initial Questions for a New Mobile App Project
  • Gif TV: A LunarLincoln Product
  • Onboarding other peoples code
  • What’s in a name?
  • Don’t build it all. Picking a Platform.
  • Talk to your Users
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