[General Topics] Petedev:
Due to receiving some questions after making this post, I've decided to do a write up on building an Android app from scratch, starting with no knowledge of computer programming or Android. Hopefully this will answer some questions for those interested in doing the same. Before I start, some background.

I'm a design engineer working for a major aerospace company in France, and 7 months ago, after quitting EVE for good (about 10th time I’ve said that), I decided to start a new project in my spare time to occupy myself and to keep EVE at bay. Since mobile apps are taking over the world, I thought it could be interesting to build one, from scratch even though I don’t have a programming background. So, after doing some research, my quest began. I generally spent a few hours per week doing the courses, and towards the end, I spend 10+ hours per week to finish the app. At all times it was done in my spare time and not at work.

Introduction to computer science and Java

To start with, I took a computer science course online for free. I did the CS50 course from Harvard and it really helped me gain some knowledge of computer science and programming in general. Along the way I learnt some C, and the basics on how computers work. The course is really well made and it guides you nicely at each step. You can do it at your own pace and best of all, it’s free.

Secondly I took another online course, this time on Java. Java is the language Android uses for apps, so I enrolled on Introduction to Programming with Java - Part 1 and Part 2. This helped understand the concepts of programming using an Object Orientated language and how to build a basic program in Java. Again, it’s a free course.

Finally, to finish off, I took a course on programming for android, specifically, Introduction to Mobile Application Development using Android. This explains the concepts in Android such as app life-cycles and so on. Again, it was free.

Starting the app

The tools I used to build the app were Android Studio, Stack overflow for general knowledge, Android Developer for API info, Photoshop for the graphics, and the most valuable tool of all, Google search.

Something I wish I had done before starting the app is to plan everything in advance. When doing design work it’s always better to plan everything in advance such as how many screens you will have, what will be on each screen, what will each button do, what links to what, and so on and so forth. I didn’t really have a good idea of what I wanted to do, so while originally I just wanted to make a very simple app with 1 screen, it ended up as having 3 separate screens, each as a separate fragment and a drawer and IAP and… basically it grew and grew until I had to redo things over and over. The more you can decide before you start the app the better, make sketches on Photoshop or a similar program, decide on the app diagram and flow, and what it will look like, before you jump into Android Studio.

Once you get used to Android studio things are really straight forward and easy to do. The layouts are the easiest part, whereas I found the Java programming pretty difficult, and I did have to change one or two things because I didn't know how to do them programmatically. Lastly, for major things that I wanted to keep but just didn’t know how, my fiancée helped me out a bit. If you are really stuck, then getting a friend to give you some advice is useful. Lovester was born.

I translated the app into French and Portuguese, since I speak both, and since Spanish and Italian are quite similar to Portuguese, I translated the app into Spanish with the help of Google translate for some of the unusual words. I haven’t finished doing the Italian translation yet. I also got a friend to do the German translation, but again, he hasn’t finished it yet. Using the knowledge of people you know is often a useful tool to have.

Android Developer

To list your app on the Play store and become a Google Android developer costs €25. You get access to the developer console and all the tools that come with it. It took a bit of time to iron out the bugs and I had 4 separate android devices at home which really helped with sorting out layouts for different screen sizes and so on. I finally published the app 2 weeks ago, Lovester.

Job half done

One of the things I hadn't anticipated or planned for is just how hard it is to get visibility on the Play Store. Making an app is only half the job, advertising, and getting better visibility for the app is the other half. It’s seriously difficult for small apps to get anywhere near the top of search results, even if you include many keywords and do Play Store Visibility Optimisation. It turns out that 80% of app downloads come from search, so it’s critical to get it right when describing your app on the play store, and get people to review the app. I made accounts on all the major social networks and joined groups to try get some visibility, but it’s an area I don’t really know (I don’t even have a personal Facebook account) so I'm reading up a bit on how to improve search visibility for the app and building links. I advertised a little using Google Adwords , using a free €75 from Google if you spend €25, but I wouldn't say that’s the best way to get new downloads. In two weeks the app is at nearly at 500 installs and I've made over €10 .

Overall verdict

Overall I'm really happy with the way things have gone. It was really satisfying to start on a completely new field and actually build something that people can use and (hopefully) enjoy. I didn't do it to make money, just to gain knowledge so I think I achieved my goal. It costed me €50 in total, €25 for developer fee, €25 for advertising. In the next 2 months or so, when I have a bit of extra time, I'm going to update the app with some new features and see where it goes from here. Also, I haven’t logged in EVE for 7 months.

Video made using PowerDirector (18+):

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