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Build Apps in Steps. Start with Forms!

 

I was in for a rude awakening when I started to learn how to code. Somehow, I thought that it would be as easy as learning a few terms, plugging them into the right spots and presto, I’d have a working website. My fervor to get started, and be really good at it, ended up being my demise when nothing seemed to work. I was focused on the big picture. I had misconstrued the world of programming to be one of flat-out knowledge rather than wisdom gained trial-and-error.

Where did I go wrong? It wasn’t so much the fault of my mentality as it was the fault of my process. After hours and hours of messing up and going back to fix things, it dawned on me that fulfilling objectives would only give me that “big picture” understanding of things. Rather, learning is about layers. You build a foundation for your knowledge to grow on first, then little by little you add the layers that build your fortress of knowledge.

Building in layers isn’t a new concept. Had I looked at my own work first, I would have seen that our own platform was contingent on the same thing – start small and work your way into something better. The tools that we use to accomplish this can vary, and some tools will undoubtedly be better than others. Snappii, for example, is a tool used to develop mobile apps without the use of any programming or coding. By building upon your app in layers, you can focus on one thing at a time without ever losing sight of the big picture. As your app gets better, your knowledge of the platform will increase. Try out Snappii’s platform today if you want to give yourself a chance to create your own mobile app.

That may sound a bit daunting. The word “creating” and “mobile app” usually don’t go in the same sentence unless there’s a lot of time and money to be invested. Snappii breaks this perception with the use of their rapid mobile app development platform. If you break it down, it takes about 7 steps to create your own mobile app, regardless of the purpose:

  1. Find a form you want to convert
  2. Upload it into form editor by loading or recreating it
  3. Once the form is finished and your back on the platform, explore the app features
  4. Drag and drop the features you would like to see on your mobile app.
  5. Brand the app so that it resembles your business (optional)
    1. Logos
    2. Colors
  6. Test the app and make changes as you see fit
  7. Deploy the app into the market using our built-in app submitter

 

Find it and Make it

The first step is easy. I’m sure you won’t have to look far for a form that you would like to convert into your own mobile app. I’m willing to bet it’s the reason you even stumbled upon this blog in the first place.

So you have your form out in front of you, and you want to recreate, or scan, it onto the computer so that you can keep it on your phone rather than a cabinet. There’s a couple ways to do this with our platform, but only one of them gives you the flexibility to edit the entire form as you see fit.

Form editor express will give you a clean state to start your form.

On the left hand side, you’ll see the available fields for a mobile form. All you have to do is drag-and-drop the fields as they appear on the paper form in front of you. Remember that since this is digital, nothing is set in stone. If you want to try out new ways to complete the same form, go right ahead – Snappii doesn’t charge for changes you make the mobile form. This gives you unlimited opportunities to test things and see what works – like trial and error – without having to incur extra costs like you would with paper. With enough patience and review, you can optimize any process.

The other option, which is popular with people that work solely off PDF’s, is to scan your PDF document right into our form editor. Load PDF can be found at the top of the form editor. This won’t give you as much flexibility as a mobile form, but it may still give you enough of what you need to get the job done. Use whatever works better for you!

Add your features

Once you finish the mobile form, you’re already taken the first big step into creating your mobile app.

The next part is more fun than anything else. Click on the add widget button the bottom. Looks like this:

The screen will populate with a bunch of different options.

 

You can explore thes

e by highlighting them to get a basic idea of what their functions are, and how they may be able to help you with your business. There’s a lot of available features here, so take your time. There’s always that small “Help” flag on the bottom right of your screen in case you have a question about how a particular feature functions.

Once that parts done, your mobile app is almost good-to-go. A lot of our clients like to take a bit of time to brand the app for their business by picking colors that represent their logo. The color picker can be found under settings.

Logo’s probably aren’t going to be plastered everywhere through your mobile app. Instead, check out the features that offer the ability to put a logo. These are usually informational features, like an about tab or the login screen. Having it somewhere will help with brand recognition, so we highly recommend it if the mobile app is going to be seen by the public eye.

Test and Go!

Once that’s all done, it’s time to put your work to the test. On the bottom of the screen, you’ll see this button:

This will save your app to our servers, and allow you access our app using the preview app found in both the Play Store and the iTunes market. We recommend not publishing it first. It’s usually better to see if the app you created is what you wanted. Download the Snappii Preview App and use the same credentials you used to login to our website. Your list of mobile forms and apps will populate the screen, and the one you were just working on will be closest to the top.

Once you’ve adequately tested your creation, you’re free to put it on the app store. Although we provide a means of deploying the app, there’s a few intricacies that you may need to work around, like a developers license before we can get you up and running. For more information about that, click here.

If you’re using your app privately, though, there’s no need for a developers license. In fact, we encourage you to use it privately if it’s an option as making updates to a private app is much easier than re-publishing an app every time you want to change an apostrophe. Either way, the app submitter is a means to both ends, and will prove invaluable as you start to publish more apps through our platform.

 

Things are best learned in bite-size pieces. Building layer upon layer until you end up with the exact product you wanted is a tried and true method to success. You know better than anyone how you want your app to look, so take advantage of it. Try out Snappii’s ultra-fast, intuitive app building platform today with a FREE 14-day trial and surprise yourself, and your boss, tomorrow.

If building an app from scratch isn’t up your alley, we also offer custom app services for way less than you might think. Click here to send your inquiry to our sales guys.

RMAD Tools On the Rise

When mobile apps first starting appearing on our cellphones, there were typically small, fun uses. Changing the ring-tone on your phone or having an arcade game right in your pocket were the quintessential ceiling of mobile app development. In those days, developing and teaching how to use computer software was much easier for companies. With only a small percentage of people having access to phones capable of running mobile apps, most businesses weren’t even thinking about how those applications could be used to improve their workflow. It was more of a novelty than a necessity.

Somewhere around the time the first iPhone came out though, mobile apps were beginning to pick up steam. As phones became smarter, programs for those phones became more intuitive. Bigger companies started to utilize mobile apps for their ease of use and availability – especially to those people in the technology industry that were hasty to purchase the latest and greatest from Apple.

The phrase “Rapid Mobile App Development”, or RMAD, has been getting a lot of traction lately in the tech industry. To put it simple, rapid mobile app development refers to the process used to create a mobile app when using an online platform, like Snappii. Using Snappii’s intuitive editor, for example, you can drag and drop select features found in most mobile apps, and have a fully functional app ready in a fraction of the time it takes to code it from scratch. This gives way to many possibilities, including adapting a mobile app that works specifically to create shortcuts in your workflow. Snappii offers a custom app service, but if you want to try your hand at creating your own mobile app there’s a 14-day-trial available for FREE by clicking here.

 

The RMAD Requirements

RMAD platforms are contingent on two requirements (in my eyes) if they want to be accepted in the technology industry. The first is being able to provide a solution faster than if you were to code it developers.

The average development time for app-makers is around 6 months, and the cost is usually somewhere in the 6-digits. Within those 6 months, there may be challenges and hurdles you’ll have to overcome in order to create the perfect app relevant to your business. While one can oversee the process, there’s no guarantee that the app that developers make will line up with the original desires. Not to mention, in 6 months’ time there’s a good chance that the industry may shift in a new direction, creating even more requirements for the already costly mobile app.

The other requirement is that the RMAD takes you from zero to completed application before leaving the platform. The bulk of RMAD systems will take you all the way to the finished app. For many businesses that are going to use the mobile app internally, this may just be enough. However, if the intention is to make an app for the public sector, then publishing the app on the app stores is also a requirement. Few RMAD platforms do this, and Snappii is one of them.

The beauty of most RMAD solutions is that they’re based largely on existing products. This means if you’ve gone to the app store and have seen features in different apps that you would like to combine, it’s very likely that a RMAD platform has the tools necessary to make that happen. From start to finish, RMAD platforms can take your app from choosing features, to editing the colors to match your business in a matter of minutes, rather than the months it would take to create a similar app from scratch. There’s also a lot less money involved since RMAD tools do not require the help of an actual programmer or technician.

 

Why go RMAD?

With the advent of RMAD tools, building a mobile app has become more of a pleasure than a chore. With Snappii’s platform, it’s now easier than ever to create a mobile app for your business, and add it to the arsenal of technology that will help you get the job done right.

One thing that most RMAD services do not offer are templates. Snappii’s Templates are pre-made mobile apps that contain the key features needed for their respective industries. Templates can be fully modified to fit your business, down to the colors and fonts of the text. They are readily available to be tested in both of the major app stores, but if you want to see a list, click here to check out Snappii’s Templates.

 

For the more ambitious DIY app makers out there who want to try building the mobile app from the ground up, Snappii invites you try their industry-leading app editor absolutely FREE for 14 days. Try it today, and see why Snappii is quickly climbing to the top of the RMAD charts!