Category Archives: Mobile App Development

Accountability for not being Accountable

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Well, I guess I’ve failed a bit at updating the progress on my Quirky US Explorer app. I’ve been working on it pretty steadily over the last month or so, but I haven’t been doing my part in letting others know my progress.

Well, as it stands, the app is complete and most of the features that I wanted are included. There will always be something to add, but for now I think it’s a decent place to release it. I am still doing some cleanup work to the various displays in order to keep them consistent with each other and easy for a user to understand.

The hard part is staying focused. It is far more fun to add features than to clean things up. I also struggled with the work of adding new locations to explore. I finally managed to get enough to feel it is useful. There is at least one place to explore in each state. This meant researching locations and then deciding which ones to add. Once that happened, I had to make sure I had all the needed information along with an image for each one. It wasn’t always easy finding all of that, but I think I managed to pull it off.

If everything goes right, by the end of the week I’ll have it available for at least preorder. It took longer than it should have, but things happen. I just need to buckle down and get the last stretch finished before I get busier with other things.

I guess that gives a bit of a rundown for where things stand right now.

For now, here are some images from the app to enjoy while you wait for more!

Quirky US Explorer map view
This is a list of all the states divided by your your
This is the state view that allows you to scratch off the state to reveal its details including sites to visit in that state.

Creating a Travel App Without Subscription Hassles

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I’ve decided on and am getting excited by the idea of writing a travel app. I’m working out the detail of what it should cover, but for now I’m leaning on a US centric focus. That way I can include some fun things such as quirky sites to visit and maybe some facts.

If I manage to get that working then I can always add other countries or areas next. It would even work as a paid feature. You pay for each area and you’d have unlimited use of that area. It’s hard because I know the best way to make money on the app store is through subscriptions, but as a user – I hate them. So I’m going to try to see what I can do to avoid a subscription version, but we will see what happens as I begin to create the app.

But, I held up my goal of starting my app today. While there are many smaller goals that need to happen, I am also focusing on the next goal of releasing the app to the world. My goal at this point is to have it out by the end of the month. I will know a bit more in the next week or so as I start to flesh out what the app should actually do and how it should look. But, at the end of the day I want to make sure the first release happens quickly enough that I don’t tie up months into something that won’t be successful. I’d rather get a working version out into the world and then add features as people begin to use it.

So, that’s where I’m at right now. The app exists only as a bit of research along with some written down notes. But, it is a start and gives me something to begin focusing on.

Planning My Next App: A Week Ahead

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This will be short, but I wanted to share it for accountability.

My last couple of apps were never overly successful. I have plans to help that along a bit, but it is about time to start a new app and go from there. I hope to at least start on one by next Monday. I don’t know what it will be, yet. But I should be able to come up with something over the next few days and start the process.

Part of the process will be coming up with the idea along with seeing if the idea is likely to succeed. Then there will be a bit of research and planning before actually starting the process of writing the code. By Monday I should be at that part. How long it takes to start coding from there is unknown at this point. Ideally it will be somewhat quickly, but it doesn’t make sense to rush it too much. There has to be time taken to give it the best chance for success.

From there, it will be figuring out what features need to happen before it is released and what features can wait for a later release. The goal is to release it relatively quickly in order to get feedback from users and the go from there. You can’t make money on an app until you release it to the public. And right now, getting some money matters in order to keep things afloat.

So, that’s my brief accountability post and plan for the next week or so.