Tips for creating your first Power App
Tags: msignite, powerapps, student, nocode
Published: 2020-09-22 11:48:09

Power Apps helps you turn ideas into solutions by enabling you to build custom apps that solve a particular challenge. Whether you are a business user, a career changer or a student, anyone  can quickly and easily get started with Microsoft Power Apps. Here are a couple of tips to get started building your first app.

**1. Know your tools**
If you are familiar with tools such as PowerPoint, Excel or maybe even SharePoint, you will find working with Power Apps similar. The user interface will be familiar some functionality such as  drag and drop makes it very user friendly.

**2. Start Small**
Think of a really well-defined task for your app to perform and get clear on what your outcomes are or what success looks like. Thinking about creating a solution is a lot easier when you know what the problem is. This lets you dive right in to playing around, but helps you stay focused.

**3. Know your audience**
Knowing who is going to use your app and how is going to help your app be successful. If you are familiar with the end user, it’s usually pretty easy to work out the type of device they are likely to access the app through such as a phone, tablet or browser.  If you aren’t familiar with the end user, then you may need to do a bit of research – what devices do they use, how much time and effort will they want to invest or what value will they get from this app? You may need to put yourself in the shoes of a user to really make your app successful.

**4. Find your Tribe: AKA Community**
You don’t need to go it alone. There is a really active community of users and experts who are eager to help. This could be through Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors if you are currently part of that program, through community experts like Microsoft MVPs, local meetup or user groups or there are  plenty of online forums and community boards you can check out.

**5. Keep on learning!**
There are heaps of formal and informal learning resources available through Microsoft Learn, where you can pick some specific modules like getting started with canvas apps or go for a longer Learning Path such as Power Platform Fundamentals. You may even want to go all out and check out certification. If there is a specific feature you want to learn more about, Microsoft Docs has a huge amount of documentation to walk you through step by step.  There is always local or international events through video platforms that you can attend virtually or watch later on demand.  Whatever your learning style, there are endless ways that you can learn more.

Here are also links to some other resources to get you going:

[Get started with Power apps](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/powerapps-overview)
[Power apps Blog](https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/)
[Power Apps Online Community]( https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Community/ct-p/PowerApps1)
[Find a local User Group / MeetUp:](https://www.powerappsug.com/home)
Join the conversation on Twitter:  #PowerAddicts
[MS Learn Path](https://aka.ms/learnpowerapps)
[Videos and Tutorial](https://aka.ms/powerappsgallery)
[Details on Licensing](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/signup-for-powerapps#:~:text=Regardless%20of%20whether%20you%20have%20a%20license%20for,and%20then%20select%20Submit.%20...%20More%20items...%20)

Note: This post is a summary of a talk which I delivered at Microsoft Ignite 2020. The session will be available on demand in late September, so link will be updated when available.