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Create an app with Javascript

App Lab is a programming environment where you can make simple apps right in the browser. Design an app, code in JavaScript with either blocks or text, then share your app in seconds.

App Lab at a glance

Level: Beginner

What you can make: Simple Javascript apps

Devices: Laptop, Chromebook, Tablet

Browsers: All modern browsers

Languages supported: English

Accessibility: Text-to-speech, Closed captioning, Immersive reader

Extensive documentation detailing specific functionality and use is available for App Lab.

See what you can make in App Lab!

Explore some project guides for App Lab to get started with building apps using Javascript!

Slider Sketch

Use the sliders to draw cool patterns and designs. Challenge: Add another slider to change the thickness of the line.

Landmark Flashcards

Use this app to create flashcards to learn a new subject or practice for a test. Challenge: add more cards to the deck or create a whole new deck.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose carefully as you go through this short adventure. Challenge: continue the story by adding in more choices. Or create a different story!

Poke the Pig

How many times you can poke the pig before time runs out? Add a button and event to be able to play again and again, so you can improve your score.

Vote for your favorite pet in this fun app. Challenge: Add more animals so you can vote for more favorites.

Pensive Painter

Take a deep breath, relax, and paint whatever you desire. Challenge: Add a click event to clear the screen so you can start painting a new masterpiece.

Build your own app in App Lab

Create your first project from scratch in App Lab.

App Lab in our curriculum

Looking for a step by step introduction to making apps? Our curriculum will help you learn everything you need to get started with App Lab.

Intro to App Lab

Create your own app in JavaScript using block based programming. Or take your skills to the next level with text-based programming. (English Only)

Grades 6-10

Computer Science Discoveries

Our most flexible course, this curriculum introduces students to building their own websites, apps, animations, games, and physical computing systems.

Computer Science Principles

Introduces students to the foundational concepts of computer science and challenge them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world.

Grades 9-12

Self-Paced Introduction to Turtle Programming in App Lab

Unlock the ability to make rich, interactive apps with JavaScript in the App Lab!

Event-Driven Programming in App Lab

Go at your own pace with this introduction to the App Lab programming environment, in which students use JavaScript to create interactive apps.

Videos to help you get started with App Lab

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• Try it out »

How to Build a Mobile App – The Step-by-Step Guide

Are you wondering how to create an app? Then you’re in the right place. This article will go through the entire mobile development process, from planning to publishing and everything in between.

We’ve defined eight steps in total. You can see each one below. Skip to relevant sections if there’s something you want to know.

Table of Contents

• 1 How to Build a Mobile App: 8 Key Steps
• 2.1 What If You Don’t Have an App Idea?
• 2.2 What Problem Will Your App Solve?
• 2.3 What Features Will Your App Offer?
• 2.4 Who Will Use Your App?
• 3.1 A Note on Competition
• 3.2 List What Makes Your Competitors Good
• 3.3 Define Your Competitive Market Edge
• 3.4 Talk to Your Audience
• 4.1 The Main Methods of App Monetization:
• 5.1 Testing your Wireframes
• 5.2 Build Your Design Elements
• 6.1 Mobile App Development from Scratch
• 6.2 Learning to Make an App
• 6.3 Front-end and Back-end Development
• 6.4 Front-end: UI
• 6.5 Mobile App Development with an App Builder
• 6.6 Test the App
• 6.7 Testing on Android
• 6.8 Testing on iOS
• 7.1 Create Your App Store Listing Pages
• 8.1 Promote to Your Existing Audience
• 8.2 Paid Ads
• 8.3 Other Options
• 9 The Time to Start Is Now

How to Build a Mobile App: 8 Key Steps

Plan your app.

Before you get started with the app development process, you need to plan it. The more thorough you are at this stage, the easier the rest of the mobile app development process will become.

Since you are reading this article, you probably have a good idea about the type of mobile app you want to create. This is great news because it means you can start thinking about the app in more detail.

What If You Don’t Have an App Idea?

If you don’t have an existing app idea, think about problems you or people you know struggle with and how you could solve this with a mobile app.

Write down various issues and solutions. Once you have a list, choose some of the best ideas for further research.

If you want some inspiration, head to Google Trends . You can use the search tool to find trending topics in various categories. Maybe one of them will provide a good app idea.

Another good source of inspiration is the Trending SubReddits community . Every day it posts about what people are talking about on the app.

Below are the trending Subreddits from March 1, 2021. Maybe an app to simplify meal prep would be a good app idea.

Once you have some ideas, you need to choose the best one. Below are some questions you can answer to help you settle on an idea for the app development process.

What Problem Will Your App Solve?

All the most successful apps solve a particular consumer challenge. To be successful, make sure your app does the same.

Think about why someone would want to use your mobile app. If you can think of a good answer to this question, you may be on to something.

Here are some examples:

• Domino’s App: Makes it easy for people to order pizza from their phones.
• Instagram:  Allows app users to share photos with their friends.
• PodBean: Makes it easy for people to organize and listen to podcasts.

Be aware that the problem doesn’t have to be completely new.

Your app could offer a twist on an existing solution. For example, Zoom didn’t invent video calls, but it did make it easier for a particular group of people to make them. Or it could solve a problem for a specific audience.

Think about a radio station that wants to build a mobile app so its listeners have easy access to the station’s feed.

The station doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. The best version of this app will be similar to all the radio station apps out there. The main difference is the content and the target audience rather than the app idea.

What Features Will You r App Offer?

Next, consider the exact features your app will offer. Remember that app development becomes more complex as you add functionality. The cost to build your app may also increase if you hire a development team to make your app.

A good idea is to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is a version of your mobile app with only the essential features.

You can build in additional functionality with updates if you decide that people need it. Consider the popular social media app, Instagram.

It has plenty of core features, such as the ability to share images, follow friends, add stories, contact other app users via instant message, add comments, and search through a detailed discovery feed.

However, when the app was first released it was much simpler. It only allowed app users to share photos with their friends. This was the company’s MVP.

Going back to the radio station mobile app idea, the most basic version of the product will be a page with the station’s feed and maybe a schedule.

Once the station has made a great version of this app, it can consider adding extra features like commenting or downloadable content.

Who Will Use Your App?

Your app should have a particular target audience in mind. Consider the people who struggle with the problem you want to solve, as this is most likely to be your target audience.

It’s important to define your target audience before starting the mobile app development process. Many of your biggest decisions—everything from core features to app design to marketing—will come down to what your audience wants.

Research Your Competitors and Audience

Next, you should perform market research. This will help your app development process in several ways.

• Gain a better understanding of the app store market.
• Discover the types of mobile apps that are successful.
• See how apps are solving problems similar to the ones you want to solve.
• Discover inspiration for app design and features.

You can perform market research manually by looking at the most downloaded apps in the main marketplaces such as the iOS and Android app stores.

Narrow the search down by category to see what others are doing in your area of interest. Download some of the best ones to try them out.

If you have the budget available, you could use analytics software like AppFigures to get more information about competitors.

A Note on Competition

It’s tempting to become downhearted if you find an existing app that does what you want to do.

But you shouldn’t be. The App Store first opened way back in 2008, meaning people have been building apps for over a decade. This means the chance of competition in your niche is nearly 100%.

Finding an app idea similar to yours during market research isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it shows there is a demand for your product.

You should be more worried if there is nothing out there at all, as this might suggest that people don’t want what you offer. Similar apps mean your idea has an existing user base.

There are several reasons why existing competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to the app development process:

• People may be interested in trying alternatives . Think of dating apps; each fulfills the same fundamental role whilst taking subtly different angles that give people the option to diversify their choice. Also, people don’t necessarily settle on one mobile app; they enjoy switching between multiple similar apps, either routinely or at random.
• Existing apps don’t necessarily capture the entire potential market. Just because an app already exists in your niche doesn’t mean it’s captured or claimed its entire potential user base. Think about all the different food delivery apps that are available.
• You can research existing competitors and apps . Existing apps in your area give you a point of reference and research. You can look up vital statistics about their performance and see the best features.
• The customers for your niche are already out there. Convincing people to use a better version of something that already exists is easier than convincing people to use something they’ve never used or thought of before.

List What Makes Your Competitors Good

While you are researching other mobile apps, make notes of what you like and dislike about each one.

Make sure to consider:

• The features that are available.
• The app design elements.
• How you move from one screen to another.
• Whether you have to log in or create an account.

Once you’ve done this, it’s time to move onto the next step of the mobile app development process.

Define Your Competitive Market Edge

Your mobile app can’t simply be a copy of something that exists already. Each and every app—just like other commercial products—needs a USP.

Your USP will not only become your headline feature, but it’ll also become a major component of your sales and marketing strategy. It needs to be something that is catchy, memorable, and useful.

Whether you’ve discovered similar mobile apps in your niche or not, you’ll need to draft the angles you’ll use to compete with others and convince people to use your app over theirs. These angles will be advantageous when you come to release and market your product on the app stores.

Your edge is also about your competitor’s weakness. Read your competitors’ reviews and identify common themes, and look them up on forums like Reddit, Quora, Yahoo Answers, etc.

Here are some examples of the competitive edge of popular mobile apps. Note that many of the mobile apps aren’t drastically different from the ones that came before.

• Zoom to Skype: Ability for anyone to join a call whether or not they have an account.
• Telegram to WhatsApp: Open the same account on multiple devices. Plus potentially better privacy.
• Disney Plus to Netflix: Access to Disney content.
• Canva to Photoshop: Easier for beginners to create professional designs.

It’s important to note that the USPs don’t necessarily make the former apps better than the latter apps. Many people would rather buy Netflix than Disney Plus, for example. And most professionals still use Photoshop.

The point is that the competitive edge makes the apps stand out and appeals greatly to the target audience.

Talk to Your Audience

Once you’ve looked at what your competitors are offering, you should speak to your potential app users. Doing so early in the app development process ensures you build an app that contains the features that they want.

Imagine you want to build an app for your restaurant . Once you’ve analyzed your competitors, you should have a good idea of the types of features users enjoy. But it’s only by talking to people that you will find out if this is actually the case.

You could create a survey asking about various features you are thinking about including. Once you’ve generated some responses, you should have a better idea about what app users want.

Decide How You Will Monetize Your Mobile App

If you want to make money from your app, you have to consider how you will do so. Apps have a high development cost, and effective monetization will help you get this investment back.

You have several options for monetization. The right one will depend on the type of mobile app you plan to release.

It’s important to think about monetization before you start designing your app so that your chosen method is fully integrated into your product.

The Main Methods of App Monetization:

Advertising

This is probably the most common form of app monetization. You’ll likely see it in many of the apps you use.

One of the reasons ads are so popular is because it’s easy to add them to a mobile app. You don’t have to think about building complex paid features into your app development process.

Ads also make it possible for you to make money despite your app being free. This means more people are likely to download it from app stores. Ads come in many forms. Some are disruptive to the user experience, while others are more subtle.

If you want to use ads to monetize your app, you have plenty of options. Consider platforms like:

• Google AdMob

These are great for beginners as you just have to add the code to your app. The platforms will deal with connecting you to ad buyers.

Generate Business

Many people make an app to increase the revenue potential of their business. The app doesn’t generate money. It just gives people another way to buy your product.

Think about ecommerce stores that build an app version of their online landing page or hair salons that use an app to process bookings. The mobile app contributes to the business’s bottom line, but it isn’t the product.

Asking people to pay for your app is an easy way to monetize it. But it can be a challenge to convince people to do so.

To get around this, many apps offer users something for free. This could be a free trial or extra features people pay to unlock. It then encourages users to sign up for the paid version.

Both Google and the Apple App Store make it easy for the development team to charge for the app. But they also take a significant cut of your income.

Subscription

Similar to the above, you could offer a free trial period that automatically changes into a paid subscription after a set period. Or you could offer a subscription version of the free app that enables access to a whole host of ‘pro’ features.

Think of video editing software that lets you use the app for free, but makes you buy a subscription to export your clips. Subscriptions can be very profitable as they generate repeat revenue rather than a one-time payment.

In-app Purchases

This is a form of monetization that is especially common in gaming. You monetize via in-app purchases that unlock extra features, in-game currency, or other content.

The idea is that while many customers use the game for free, those who pay for it more than make up for the lack of earnings from free users. If people like your game and play it consistently over time, your earning opportunities are almost limitless.

Pokemon Go is an excellent example of this. Estimates suggest it has made over $4 billion , despite it being completely free to use.

Build an App Wireframe

At this point in your mobile app development, you should be building a picture of what your app will look like.

You’ll know:

• The features you want to include.
• What competing mobile apps offer.
• How you will monetize your app.

The next stage is to plan how this will all fit together in your mobile app. You do this by creating a wireframe.

Wireframes are digital sketches of apps or websites/pages. Wireframes provide a series of outlines of buttons, pages, functions and other design elements that can help you get a sense of how elements of your app will fit together and affect user experience. They can be exported into other design tools to help designers create UIs and skins.

Remember that the more features you plan to offer, the more difficult this stage of mobile app development will be.

There is a debate about whether you should design your app’s skins, logos, and branding before or after wireframing. After all, how can you create a sketch of your app without knowing what images will fill in the gaps?

We’ve included app design in the next section, but you can do it before or during the wireframing process if you prefer.

Wireframes have a practical purpose ; they allow you to get a sense of how users will navigate your app and how it will function from a mechanical point of view.

They outline exactly what will happen when users press a button in your app.

It’s essential that you organize this before you start developing your app. It’s much cheaper to fix an issue at this stage than it is once you’ve started the mobile app development process. This can have a big impact on the development cost of your app.

A wireframe doesn’t have to look exactly like your finished app will look, at least in the early stages. Start by building a basic sketch that shows the key elements and how the navigation will work.

If you pack your wireframe with graphics and logos you’ll get bogged down in tweaking visuals when you should be focusing on user journey and flow. You can add more detail when you are confident about the basic flow.

It’s good practice to make it as easy as possible for people to use the main features of your app, so this should be the focus. Check out the example home screens in the image below. Each one makes it super easy for the user to access the main feature.

Going from left to right, this is:

• Guitar Tuner: Tune a guitar.
• Coinbase: Add funds to buy cryptocurrency.
• Canva: Create a design for popular social media sites.

You can hide secondary features or pages within drop-down menus.

There are tons of wireframing applications online, such as those from Axure , MockPlus , and Adobe . They are all great for app development, although they can also be used to wireframe other types of programs.

Many of them are designed for users with no experience, with templates and drag-and-drop services to simplify the process. Or you can even use pen and paper to create your wireframe. Just go with whatever’s easiest for you.

Image: Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash

Testing your Wireframes

Once you’ve tinkered with your wireframes, it’s best to test them extensively.

Don’t just do this yourself; recruit family, friends, and coworkers to go through your wireframes on different devices. The more people that test your wireframe, the more likely it is that you’ll discover flaws.

The aim at this stage of the app development process is to make sure the app’s user experience is as simple as possible. Provide people with different tasks to do on your app and see if they are able to complete them.

Look for places where the navigation is more complicated than it should be or where instructions aren’t clear. Prototypr has a good guide to wireframe testing that you can check out here .

Build Your Design Elements

During wireframing, you should start planning the visual elements of your app.

This includes things like:

• Images and media.
• The design of buttons and screens.
• Color scheme.
• Animations.

Image: Harpal Singh/Unsplash

Assuming you’ve done a thorough job of wireframing, you should have a good idea about exactly what you need to build your app to maximise user experience.

If you are building an app for an existing business, this section will be easy. You can use your existing material and make it suitable for your app.

This will ensure consistent branding across all your promotional materials.

A restaurant can use the same logo and menu images, for example. If you don’t have existing material, you’ll have more work to do.

Consider hiring a designer to create some of these elements if you aren’t comfortable doing so yourself. There are plenty of useful tools available to help with app design.

• Logo generators from Shopify and FreeLogoDesign . Both these services provide high-quality templated logo designs.
• Color palette generators from Coolers or Canva . These provide you with color palettes that make sure your app’s branding is consistent.

Now you’re starting to get a good idea of what your app will look like, it’s time to move on to the next stage of app development.

Choose Your App Development Strategy

When it comes to building a mobile app, you can take one of two approaches: developing it from scratch or using an app maker. Here is a look at each of these processes in more detail.

Mobile App Development from Scratch

If you choose to make your app from scratch, you’ll have to create the entire product yourself. You’ll either need to learn a programming language, leverage developer productivity tools or hire an app maker to help you with building the app.

A development team will work with you to:

• Create various wireframe prototypes.
• Draft your back-end.
• Create user/graphical interfaces.
• Finalize your front- and back-end.

This is ideal for those who want to work with developers and designers on longer-term projects.

It’s also often essential if you want to create a commercial app with completely new features.

Finding freelance developers is relatively easy.

Post an advert on a freelance marketplace like Upwork to have professionals contact you with proposals detailing how much it will cost to build the app and how long it will take.

Check out reviews and past products to make sure you get a qualified candidate. Ideally, you’ll find someone who has experience building apps like the one you want to create.

How Much Does It Cost?

Paying someone to create an app is expensive. Clutch discovered that the median development cost to create an app is $171,450, and costs ranged from $30,000 to over $700,000.

And the development cost doesn’t necessarily end once the app is built.

After you release it to the App Store and Google Play you may discover bugs or want to add updates. If this is the case you’ll have to pay for the app developer to action these changes.

Learning to Make an App

Learning mobile app development is time-consuming. But there are plenty of courses and platforms out there that make it possible to do so if you are committed.

For example:

• Treehouse’s Beginning Android track teaches you the basics of Java—the programming language required to build Android apps—and then moves into basic Android app development. The Java and Android courses take 21 hours to complete in total and you’ll end the course by creating a simple weather app.
• The Coursera Android App Development Specialization takes around six months of consistent work. It can be taken by those with no previous knowledge of how to make an app.

Both of the above platforms also have options available for learning how to make an app for the iPhone. Unfortunately, creating mobile apps for Google Play and the App Store requires different app development skill sets.

The great thing about learning how to create an app yourself is that the development cost can be nothing more than the price of the courses you take to learn how to do so.

You can start building basic apps in just a few weeks. Getting to the standard required to build complex apps will take much longer.

Check out this article for more information about what it takes to learn how to build an Android App.

Now it’s time to dive further into successful app development.

Image: Jexo/Unsplash

Front-end and Back-end Development

Once you’ve prototyped your idea with wireframe mockups, it’s time to think about building your app for real.

This is where most DIY app builders get bogged down in details and jargon that they don’t understand.

Firstly, let’s just summarise the difference between the front-end and back-end:

Front-end: The front-end is what you see as a user or customer. It comprises the interface and components which you can interact with.

Back-end: The back-end is the core/brains behind the front-end and deals with app functionality, requests from the front-end and data.

If you build your back-end first, which is generally the more time-consuming of the two, then you may find that your UI is limited to what you’ve built into your back-end.

However, if you design your front-end first, you might be penalized when adding extra functionality in the back-end.

Overall, it is generally considered most logical to build your back-end first. The back-end drives the front-end and without its core fundamental elements, it’s difficult to envisage how your UI will come together. Also, if you’ve wireframed then you’ll have an idea of UX and flow already, better enabling you to design your core back-end and choose what services you need to get your app running.

Starting with your best wireframes, work out and jot down what APIs you’ll need and whether you’ll need custom APIs and data diagrams, and then delineate your servers. For example, if you want to enhance the chat experience with API, you have to first make sure your backend is capable of handling this new feature. Then, you can go to sendbird.com to find a live communication experience that works best for your app. Start with the backend, then move to the API.

There are a number of back-end solutions that allow for the creation of back-end services without the need to code. These include Parse and Kinvey .

Front-end: UI

The user interface (UI) design is often considered the ‘fun bit.’ You’ve slogged at your app databases, servers, and APIs but now it’s time to get creative once more.

App UI design now revolves around what are called WYSIWYG editors. This simply stands for What You See Is What You Get.

They allow for the design of user interfaces that look identical on your screen to how they’d look in real life. You can easily insert visual elements, create icons, menus, and screens and generally design the look of your app with pre-made visual elements.

Often, you can import your wireframe into a WYSIWYG editor, allowing you to quickly drop visual elements into your wireframes. This enables you to easily test the app for user experience and compare your prototypes.

Visually designing your mobile application is absolutely pivotal to everything from marketing to sales. It concerns how your app will be visually advertised and the aesthetic attraction it will have to your users. Everywhere your app goes, its visual design will follow in the form of screenshots and logos.

Mobile App Development with an App Builder

App builders are the app version of web builders like Wix or Squarespace.They make it easy for companies to create apps without writing a single line of code. You just choose a template and then add the features your app needs.

You can see the AppInstitute tool in the image below.

You can customize the design of your app with text, images, color schemes, and logos. In the end, you get a fully personalized app for your brand or business.

There are several big benefits to using an app builder.

These include:

• They’re fast. You start with a premade template and then add additional features from a library. If you already have app content available—like text and images—you can have your app ready in just days or even hours.
• They’re proven to work: The apps and features provided by app builders are proven to work. You can create an app without coding or knowledge about beta testing because this has already been sorted. If any issues do occur, the team behind the app builder will fix them.
• The app design is optimized for different uses: App building platforms know what different types of users need from an app. By providing you with templates, you don’t have to spend as much time planning or researching.
• You can use the app on both iOS and Android: The app maker will create both iOS and Android versions of your product for the respective app stores. This is essential to ensure the widest possible reach.
• They help with the extras: App building platforms will typically help with all the extras that come with building an app. For example, publishing the app to the App Store and marketing your mobile app.
• The downside to using one of these tools is that you are restricted to the features already on offer.

They’re great if you want to build an app for your business using a proven feature set. For example, building a coffee shop or a restaurant app.

But if you have your eyes on creating a brand new idea, like the next Facebook or Uber, you’ll have to develop your app from scratch.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an App like This?

Using a builder for app development is cost-effective as the cost is lower than building an app from scratch. The app templates you use to create an app have already been developed and you essentially just pay a fee to use them.

Test the App

During app development, you (or your developer) should be routinely testing your app.

The purpose of testing is to identify major issues, crashes, dead ends, dead links and error messages to make sure that your app works well.

At this stage, you can test your app virtually using smartphone simulators. You can test individual features as you build them out.

Once you are reaching the end of the app development process, it’s important to test the software on your phone. This will show you whether or not everything works together smoothly and where you can improve your app.

Start by testing out the app yourself. Run through the main ways you envisage people using your app to check the process is smooth.

Then you can ask a small number of people you know to test your app. The idea at this stage is to check your app works on a wide variety of devices. If any bugs or issues occur, fix them before releasing your app to the public.

If you want to do further testing, you can hire the services of a company like Testlio or Xbosoft .

Testing on Android

The easiest way to test on Android is to publish your app on the Google Play Store but only make it available to certain users. You can then send a link to users who will be able to download your app and try it out.

If you want to do this, you’ll first need to create a developer’s account.

There are three types of tests you can run:

• An internal test makes your app available for up to 100 users.
• A closed test that lets you share the app with a wider set of targeted testers.
• Open testing that lets anyone download your app and submit private feedback.

You typically want to go through each of these testing methods in order, gradually increasing your audience size.

Google has an excellent guide you can use to help you during the testing process. Check it out here.

Testing on iOS

TestFlight makes it easy for iPhone app developers to set up tests of their products.

Just create an Apple app developer account and then upload the version of the app you want to test to App Store Connect.

You can then share a link to the iOS app asking people to download TestFlight and then try out your app.

Like on the Google Play Store, you can test internally with up to 100 app users or externally with up to 10,000 users.

Apple recommends making the type of feedback you want clear to users when sending out invites. TestFlight software makes it super easy for people to provide feedback directly by taking a screenshot while using the app.

You can then view this feedback within App Store Connect.

Find out more about testing on iOS devices at this link .

Release Your App 

Now you’ve built and tested your app, it should be ready to go. It’s time to release your app on the Apple App Store and Google Play!

Here are the most important stages of your app launch:

Create Your App Store Listing Pages

The first step is to create listing pages on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. This will make it easy for both Android and iOS app users to download your app.

Assuming you tested your app on both these platforms, you already have your app developer accounts set up. It’s then just a case of optimizing your pages.

Your listing page consists of several main elements:

This is self-explanatory: it’s the title of your app. But you can optimize your title by adding descriptive keywords to help you stand out when people search for your app.

For example, look at how DoorDash has added “Food Delivery” to its title. It makes it obvious what the app is for.

Your app icon is important as it’s what stands out when people search on the App Store. Try to make one that is instantly recognizable to your users by using the same color palette and design features as your app and other branding elements.

Screenshots/Images

The screenshots and images section is the first thing potential users see on your listing. Use this section to highlight some of your app’s most important features and benefits.

You can also add a video to this section that shows your product in action. You can see that’s what Noteshelf did in the image below.

App Description

In this section, you need to write more about the features of your mobile app and why people should use it.

Start off with the most important point, as this is what users will see when they visit your page. You can then go into further detail in the “read more” section.

See how Unicorn Ad Blocker starts off by highlighting that it is currently running a 50% off discount, before explaining the money-saving benefits of an ad blocker.

In the “read more” section, the company then provides more detail about the product. This includes information about its specific features.

Include user feedback 

It’s also a good idea to include any user feedback you get on the app stores. This is as simple as adding user reviews to your app’s listing.

Users trust reviews because it gives them an idea of what to expect from your app and how other users have experienced it.

Apps with great reviews also tend to get more downloads because people want to download a product that they know will work well.

Promote the App

Now onto the final stage of app development: getting people to use it.

The great thing about publishing your app on the app store or Google Play is that these platforms will promote your app for you. When users search for terms related to your app, yours will show up.

The problem is that these listings are competitive. This means it can be difficult to actually show up. You’ll need to use other app promotion strategies to be seen.

Luckily, there are plenty of options available. Here are some of them:

Promote to Your Existing Audience

For many app developers, promoting the mobile app to your existing customers will be enough to generate downloads.

There are many ways you can do this.

Promoting your app on social media sites like Instagram or Facebook is one. Just create posts telling your followers about your app and include a link to your download page.

Starbucks regularly promotes its app on its Instagram profile.

If your app is for a physical business like a restaurant or a shop, promote the mobile app in your premises.

Or if it’s for a media channel like a radio station or a blog, advertise your app on these channels.

The key is to make use of the promotional spaces you have on hand. Your email list is another good option.

When promoting your mobile app, clearly show users what the benefit of downloading it is.

• Restaurants could highlight promotions and coupons that people can only access from within the app.
• Coffee shops, bars, hotels, or salons could focus on stamp-based loyalty schemes that people need to download the app to use.

You can even add a specific benefit for users who download the app and use it for the first time.

Image: Jud Mackrill/Unsplash

Paid ads are the easiest way to get your app to show up when users need it. Use Google Ads or Apple Search Ads to get your mobile app to show up in the marketplace when people search for relevant terms.

These ads are super effective because at first glance they appear to be regular results. They also appear above all other listings. Check out the ad for VivaVideo below which shows its ad on the search term “Video Editor App.”

To create an effective campaign you need to build an attractive ad and choose the most relevant keywords.

You should also spend some time optimizing your app listing for conversion. If you don’t, users will be less likely to download your mobile app.

The issue with search ads is that they cost money to run. If you have a good method of monetization you’ll be able to generate a profit. If not, you may lose money.

Other Options

We’ve focused on the above two options as they provide the biggest bang for your buck without needing too much investment in time or money. But there are plenty of other ways you can promote your product without needing the app stores.

These are good options if you have the time to invest in them or existing experience in these areas.

• A good PR strategy will get you app coverage in the press. This will get the word out to a large audience, which can result in more downloads.
• Creating a website and implementing a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy will bring people to your site when they search for relevant terms on Google. SEO can take a while to pay off, but when it does you’ll get a steady stream of relevant traffic.
• Ads in traditional media formats such as TV, radio, and billboards can be expensive, but if you have the budget you can get your app in front of huge audiences.

If you want to learn more about any of these strategies, we have an in-depth guide to mobile app marketing that you can check out here .

The guide discusses everything you need to do from pre- to post-launch.

The Time to Start Is Now

That’s the end of our article on app development. We’ve covered everything you need to create an app, from thinking of an app idea to launching it.

The planning, brainstorming, ideation, and drafting stage of making an app is always the same. Take time to plan your approach throughout the entire process: it’ll save you time, money, and effort.

After that, you’ll have to either build your mobile app in the custom way by working through its various elements or use an app creator . The main differences between these options are the development cost, the time it takes to get set up, and the features you’ll have available.

Whichever course you choose to take, always reflect on where you are and how far you’ve come.

The app development road may be long and winding, but you’re sure to learn a thing or two and many hugely successful app owners once shared your intrepid position!

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Design Your Own App! (App Design Project-Based Learning)

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Students get to design their own app with this project-based learning assignment and presentation! This project walks them through: identifying a need, brainstorming solutions, creating an app proposal, writing a business plan, and then creating a presentation to help pitch their app!

Included in This File:

• What is an Inquiry Based Project?
• Lesson plans
• Rubric (Can customize in Google Slides file)
• Bulletin board display (Giant iPhone display for students to post on your door or bulletin board with printing instructions included. Students design their app logo and stick it onto the giant iPhone, so you can see all the apps designed in your classroom! Also includes two sizes of bulletin letters.)
• Let's Brainstorm! (circle map brainstorm sheet)
• Let's Plan! (proposal page to get approved/denied)
• Business Plan template
• US Patent Application template
• All of the above in Spanish
• Social media post template
• Star rating
• Preview photos
• Description page
• Why you need this app
• Information table
• Target audience
• All of the above on Google Slides (linked in PDF)

What formats does this come in?

• Interactive Google Slides. If you are a Microsoft Teams user, simply covert the file to a PowerPoint and it will be ready to use! Open the Google Slides, click File > Download as > PowerPoint and you're all set!

Do you need this resource for more than one teacher or classroom?

Sharing and collaborating makes teaching so much easier! In order to make this easy and legal for you to share with your team, you may buy additional licenses at a discount. How? Go to your My Purchases page on TpT and find the resource. Then, click Buy Additional Licenses. This is the best way to buy for your team or grade level without violating copyright. Thank you for respecting my work!

Interested in purchasing for a whole district? I accept PO’s! Email me at [email protected].

How can I earn credits to apply towards future purchases?

Go to your My Purchases page on TpT and find your purchased resources. You’ll see a Provide Feedback button next to each product. Click on it and you’ll be taken to a page where you can give a rating and comment. Doing so will give you TpT credits that you can use towards the cost of your future purchases.

How can I hear about new resources and sales?

• Click here to follow my TpT store
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© Markers and Minions. This product is my intellectual property. I own the resource, while you are purchasing a license to use it in your classroom with your students only. It may not be posted on a public website or shared Drive where others can download it. You may reference the resource with credit and a link given. You may not translate or resell this resource.

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How to Create an App: A Step-by-Step Guide

Make an app in six easy steps: From initial concept to market success, a comprehensive guide for aspiring developers.

According to Statista, there were 255 billion mobile app downloads in 2022 , up 25 billion from 2020. With the popularity of mobile apps on the rise, people everywhere are rushing to learn how to create an app. It may seem like an uphill task to make an app, but whether you develop an app yourself or build an app with external help, it is a fairly simple process. 

Find your bootcamp match

Creating an app is a great way to prove your coding skills to tech employers or discover a talent for entrepreneurship. Either way, to successfully make an app is to make a practical real-world impact on actual users. Whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or programmer, you can use this article as a guide on how to create an app and reach the online market.

Key Takeaways

• To create an app, you can choose between no-code solutions and coding your app from scratch. Hiring skilled coders and using app-building platforms are viable options for beginners.
• The software required to create an app on your own includes an integrated development environment (IDEs) with a code editor, debugging tools, and test automation tools. 
• The benefits of creating an app from scratch are that it enables customization, gives you full ownership over your intellectual property, saves money, and helps you sharpen your coding skills. 
• A step-by-step approach to making an app involves identifying a need, designing features, researching competitors, choosing a development path, creating the app, and monetizing it. 
• An accelerated route to learn essential skills for app development is a coding bootcamp, which builds hands-on app creation projects into the curriculum. 

I Want to Create an App. Where Do I Start?

To create an app, you should start by deciding whether to build it from scratch or take a no-code shortcut. You don’t actually need coding skills to make an app, and there is a wide range of tools available to help you. But there are also significant advantages to learning to code at an app development bootcamp and creating an app from scratch. Let’s look at both approaches. 

How to Create an App Without Coding

You do not need coding experience to create an app. If you’re passionate about your idea and don’t have time to learn to code , the two main ways to get your app to market sooner are to hire someone else to do it for you or to use a no-code development platform.

• Hire someone. It’s fairly easy these days to find expert coders on freelancer platforms like Upwork and Toptal. If you’d rather hire a firm, there are agencies that can assign an app developer to your project. As long as your vision is clear, you should have no trouble making an app with collaborative assistance from someone else’s coding skills. 
• Use an app builder. App building platforms such as Xcode for iOS and Appy Pie’s App Maker can help you bring your ideas to life through the use of templates and content management systems. These templates allow both novice and experienced developers to customize their apps as they see fit, speeding up the process. 

How Can I Create My Own App?

If you don’t want your idea to be hemmed in by external constraints, you can create your own app with a few basic tools. Before you can think about attractive design schemes or which amazing features will attract customers’ attention, you’ll need the right building blocks. Below are some of the things you’ll need to make an app that will work on any mobile device.

• Integrated Development Environment (IDE). An integrated development environment is an all-in-one software application that helps programmers develop apps fast. The essential features of an IDE are code editors, compilers, debuggers, interpreters, and automation tools. Some IDEs are built for mobile, such as Android Studio for Android.
• Code editor. An IDE’s code editor is used to write and edit the source code. They are beneficial to programmers since they ease the entire process of writing and editing code. If you don’t have access to an IDE, you can use a standalone code editor, such as Notepad++, Vim, or Sublime Text. 
• Debugging tools. There are plenty of common mistakes that are made throughout the development process. For this reason, you will need a debugging tool to pinpoint code errors and fix them. Some popular debugging tools include ESLint, JS Bin, Webpack, and Chrome Devtools. 
• Test automation tool. You will need a test automation tool if you wish to conduct software testing without human input. It helps to increase the speed, efficiency, and reliability of mobile app development. In the long haul of creating an app, this app development tool will help save you precious time and stress. 

Why You Should Build an App From Scratch

Building an app from scratch is ultimately the best way to capitalize on your idea because you’re the only one who knows your vision. It is much easier for you to make an app that meets all of your preferences because it’s your idea. By taking ownership of all the mobile development process yourself, you can ensure it ends up being exactly what you want. 

In addition, building your own application will help you save on costs. If you are a business owner looking to increase your brand awareness, building your own application is a great way to do so without having to spend money on an app developer and project manager. And in the long run, you will have valuable coding skills that you can put towards future business projects.

How to Create an App in 6 Easy Steps

• Identify a Need
• Lay Out the Features
• Conduct Research
• Choose a Development Path
• Create Your App
• Monetize Your App 

If you are a complete beginner in the field, it can be rather daunting to know where to start when creating an app. But take a deep breath, because if you follow accurate directions, the process is very manageable. Below is a step-by-step guide that can walk you through the process. 

Step 1: Identify A Need

The first step to developing an app is identifying a need. This will help you determine the type of app you want to build. A good app should address an existing problem and offer a solution. You can research which problems affect a large number of people before embarking on your journey to create an app that has a robust natural market. 

Step 2: Lay Out the Features 

It’s important to take note of the features you want your app to have. One aspect of the app development process you should pay close attention to is the user experience. How users interact with your application will determine its success. When making an app’s user interface, consider things like background color, font style, graphic design, and screen sizes.

Step 3: Conduct Research 

You should research what competitors are doing. This will help to ensure you will create an app that isn’t already being offered by someone else. This will also allow you to get inspiration from other apps, as well as inform you of any changes you should make before submitting your app to app stores. 

Step 4: Choose a Development Path

You can choose native app development or cross-platform app development, depending on the actual device you want your app to work on. Native development refers to making an app for a specific operating system. 

Cross-platform development, on the other hand, allows you to create an app for multiple systems. For example, you could make an app for both iOS and Android devices that would be offered in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. 

Step 5: Create Your App

Once you have thoroughly planned all aspects of your prospective app, you can proceed to the development process. You should gather all the necessary tools and technologies before you begin to make your app. Most app development tools come with a design customization section that allows developers to customize the graphic design. 

Before the submission process, ensure you publish an accessibility statement. It will disclose that you developed the app for all non-technical users, regardless of their abilities. You should also consider asking users for feedback once you upload your app to the app stores. Their feedback will help you improve the aesthetics of the app and remove any bugs you missed.

Step 6: Monetize Your App

Finally, you can monetize your app by offering free and paid versions on app stores. For instance, you can upload it on the Google Play store or on Apple’s App Store and allow actual users to interact with the free version. Once active users have enjoyed the limited features on the free version, they’ll be more likely to upgrade to a paid version to access advanced features. 

Another way you can monetize your app is by making it accessible for a specific duration. Most apps tend to offer free access for a month, which gives app users time to review it and give feedback. If your app is good, existing users will pay for a subscription and new users will be able to find your app thanks to the existing users’ feedback. 

Step 0: Learn App Development at a Bootcamp

Even if you have all the tools and follow the procedure outlined above, you won’t get anywhere creating an app from scratch unless you also know how to code. Time is of the essence when it comes to getting your app into the hands of actual users, which is why you should consider a coding bootcamp to acquire all the skills you need in a short timeframe. 

Coding bootcamps provide short immersive programs to help students master topics related to coding. Bootcamps that offer courses in app development, such as Nucamp and The Tech Academy , teach HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other web development fundamentals alongside the principles of iOS or Android development. 

The hands-on projects you build in a coding bootcamp will put you well on your way to making an app of your own. By using this fast-paced educational model, you can create the app of your dreams without having to rely on an app builder or a freelancer. At the end of the day, app development bootcamps are the most efficient way to learn how to create an app from scratch.

Creating an App FAQ

According to Goodfirms, it costs $24,830 to $59,150 to create an app. A more complex app will cost between $36,107 to $85,150. The more features you build into your app, the more expensive it will be. It is much cheaper to build your own app, which will save you thousands of dollars on app design, backend development, testing, maintenance, and deployment. 

According to Statista, the most successful iPhone apps bring in over $100 million in annual revenue, and even a moderately successful one can earn upwards of $10,000 per day. Overall, acquiring coding skills can be a lucrative career move. According to ZipRecruiter, the average app developer earns $52 per hour, which works out to over $100,000 per year.

It is not that hard to make an app. If you have basic coding experience, you can easily rely on an app builder to develop your app. Complete beginners should consider coding bootcamps, which will teach you all the programming languages and development tools you need to create an app from scratch.

An average developer takes four to six months to finish building an app. The duration depends on the developer’s skills, experience, and knowledge, as well as on the complexity of the project. If you are building a simple app, it might take a few weeks to complete it. If you are building a complex app, the more involved user interface, market research, and beta testing will stretch the time to completion from weeks to months. 

About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication .

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Mobile App Design Process – The Ultimate Guide

For some, the thought of creating a mobile app  from scratch sounds like an uphill task full of corny, complex coding activities.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! Before developing a new mobile app , you need to design it first. It’s critical to plan every step, and at some point, you might want to retreat and examine what you’re building.

If you’re in a customer-first business  (every business is), then you need a mobile app . It’s no longer an option, but a necessity.

Global app downloads surpassed 218 billion last year. Businesses that made the mistake of not creating a mobile app will continue to suffer in the coming years too.

Having a mobile strategy is essential, because this research shows  that users spend 90% of their time in apps as compared to surfing the internet.

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It’s great to have a mobile responsive website backed by a solid mobile marketing strategy  with major resources being allocated to cross-device reach. In today’s competitive era, not having a mobile app has severe implications.

A mobile app helps businesses  reach more customers, improve marketing strategies, provide value to the customers, increase brand awareness, increase customer engagement and loyalty, and create one or more competitive advantage(s). Plus, mobile apps can improve your bottom line .

When average user spends more time looking at a mobile phone  than watching television, or using desktop or laptop , what excuse does your business have for not having a mobile app?

The question remains, where and how to start?

There are two phases of any mobile app design.

• Mobile app design strategy
• App design process

The following guide will cover both phases in detail with additional resources, mobile trends, and tips.

Mobile App Design Strategy

It starts with a strategy . It defines the future and the path to reach your destination.

The issue, however, is with creating a mobile app design strategy. You simply can’t create an app just because your competitor has one. Your competitor might have a different business objective and mobile strategy which are quite different from yours.

Developing a mobile strategy links back to the company strategy and has four stages :

i).   Understand the business strategy

ii).  Business mobile app strategy

iii). App strategy

iv). Product management strategy

Let’s explain each stage in detail:

1. Understand Your Business Strategy

Understanding the overall business strategy should form the basis of your mobile app design. Misalignment  between company strategy and the mobile strategy might be suicidal.

Recent statistics from the Harvard Business Review  shows that 70% of employees don’t have enough information about their company’s strategy or their perception of strategy is much different than the actual strategy.

There are several benefits  of creating and executing a mobile strategy that’s derived from (and supports) the overall company strategy.

• It maximizes ROI as much as 74%.
• Reduces training needs.
• It leads to customer satisfaction.
• Decreases integration requirement and bugs.
• Improvement in quality, value, productivity, employee efficiency, and customer engagement.

In its simplest form, a successful mobile strategy  is the meeting point of business goals, mobile opportunities, and user needs.

How Do You Define A Mobile Strategy For Your Business?

It should, technically and logically, start from the understanding of the company’s strategy , market conditions, competitors, customer journey, threats and weaknesses, and where stakeholders want to see the company in the future.

Starting at the highest level will make things easy and well integrated.

To get started here is a short checklist  that will help you understand the business strategy. This checklist will show you the current standing of your company in terms of its strategy, and where it wants to be in next five years.

Follow these steps to fully understand your company’s objectives, current standing, competitors, and why and how mobile strategy will fit in.

• Your business’s mission statement, its competitive advantages, objectives, and where you want to see it in next 5 – 10 years.
• Define customer journey on the mobile. What the app will do? Will customers be allowed to buy from the app directly? Will they be able to check the status of their order?
• Create competitor profiles. Who are your competitors? What do they do. What are their strengths and weaknesses in terms of mobile strategy and app? Identify what they do differently, and what they offer on mobile.
• Define the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities ( SWOT ) of your business. It will show all the areas of success and opportunities. It takes time but it’s worth it.

Livebackup.com , a company that offers solution on how to backup iPhone data to Computer , uses a mobile app strategy to trounce its competition.

In the same vein, Asda successfully launched  a mobile app with a powerful mobile app strategy which aligned with the company’s long-term objective of having stores without walls .

The successful mobile app strategy showed results beyond expectation.

• More than two million app downloads.
• More than 90% of the mobile sales are attributed to the mobile app.
• The app users are two times more likely to become repeat customers.
• The buying frequency for mobile is 1.8 times higher than desktop and laptop.

It’s made possible because it started from the highest level – the overall business strategy.

2. Business Mobile App Strategy

Your mobile app strategy is your surefire path to achieving success with your mobile app design and marketing in general.

Yes the success or failure of the app depends on the strategy, since everything will be linked to the strategy. It will be easy to create if you have answers to these two questions:

• What is the purpose of the app?
• What is the benefit that the end-user will drive from using the app?

The simplest way  to chart your app strategy is none other than:

“We will build this so that our customers can do that.”

The strategy  has to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Anything that’s too vague or looks seemingly unachievable, strike it out. For example, having more downloads than WhatsApp isn’t a practically achievable goal.

Create A Roadmap

Breaking the entire app idea into distinct components that will be executed in different time slabs is a step towards building a solid mobile strategy. It is known as a roadmap. Helpful tools like this will make your life much easier.

The entire app strategy will be distributed into small tasks that are represented visually. Who will complete the task, how much time it will need, and how these tasks interlink are all stated in a roadmap .

A roadmap will keep your team on track, and it will help stakeholders keep a track of the app strategy.

Budget Allocation

How much your business is willing to spend on the app will determine how quickly it can be designed and launched. The budget allocation includes capital, operating cost, human resources, and allocation of other resources.

This is how a budget plan  looks like.

Allocating resources to the app and creating a budget plan is linked to your company’s budget and current standing. The budget, in return, is linked to the roadmap.

So if you intend to complete the app quickly, increase the app’s budget and fuel it with more resources, which can only be done if your business has enough available resources and budget.

You see, your mobile app strategy cannot exist in isolation.

Other Requirements

If you think a functional app idea, a roadmap, and the budget allocation are all what you need for the strategy, think again.

There are several other non-functional requirements  that will be needed. They include:

• Access points
• Network availability
• Maintenance costs
• Architectural support
• Payment processing
• Security solutions
• Access to tools

These requirements are mostly useful for the IT team. Your IT team will share these requirements with you in the form of a visual layout  also known as technology stack .

The basic idea is to document everything and make sure that the app performs as smoothly at the backend as it does on the frontend. A clear and concise technology stack is what you need.

Parse  wanted to improve the speed and scalability of high-throughput and MogoDB clusters. They used Amazon Web Services (AWS) since it’s the only cloud service that handles their requirements. Parse used the following architecture on AWS.

This resulted in reducing the end-to-end latency from 400 milliseconds to 100 milliseconds.

3. Defining The App Strategy

Now is the time to define clear use cases  on the basis of the customer journey. This calls for a clear definition of the single app strategy.

A use case  is at the center of defining app strategy. It’s defined as the list of actions that define the interaction between a role and the system. The image below  represents a simple use case that defines the actions of the buyer and the seller – the roles.

Ashish Toshniwal , YMedia Lab CEO, says:

“The number one secret is to focus on one or two main use cases. Let’s not overwhelm the user, but really focus on one or two use cases and do them really, really well.”

The best app strategy is one that uses not more than two use cases. Think of Instagram, people use it when they have to share a photo. This is a perfect example  of a single use case.

A use case includes  quite a few things such as the happy path, the intent of the use case, alternate action paths, and testable actions.

Defining use case is just the first phase of defining the app strategy.

Target Audience

Who will use your app?

I know, you may say your customers. Okay, but which type of customers in particular. What are their needs, gender, age, demographics, etc.

The fact is, you can’t create an app for your entire customer base. The simple rule of thumb is to design app for 80% of users .

The best approach to defining the target audience is to use personas. Buyer personas  help you understand your target audience better. It helps in categorizing and grouping them.

List down all the following information  about each type of your potential user.

Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

What value the app delivers to the business is the question that stakeholders ask a lot.

Defining KPIs for the app will help monitor the performance and at the same time, it will help set realistic goals for the app to achieve year after year.

Setting KPIs for app is not enough. Linking and aligning the app performance metrics with the business’s KPIs is a must.

If the metrics for your business are revenue, cost reduction, and market share, then the KPIs for the app must lead to one of the business’s KPIs, else the app will not add any significant value.

If the app fails to perform , the business will suffer and if it performs, business will grow.

The most crucial app performance metric is the number of new users . Other metrics are app rating, an increase in usage and sessions, customer retention, repeat customers, session length, customer lifetime value, active users, and downloads.

Some other important questions to be answered during this phase include:

• Type of app required. Do you need a hybrid app or a native app?
• Should your business build app in-house or should it be outsourced?
• Which platform to target first – android or iOS?

Finally, start promoting your new app  at this stage because you now know what it is, who is it for, and what it will do. This is the right time to create early buzz and engagement.

4. Define Your Product Management Implementation Strategy

Once the mobile app strategy is defined and documented, it’s time to implement it .

Understand The Minimum Viable Product!

Implementation strategy begins with defining the minimum viable product. MVP is defined  as the product with the minimum features for validating and learning purposes.

Instead of throwing all the features right at once, you should prioritize the features and start from the minimum acceptable features. All the best apps and products go through this phase.

Do you think Twitter offers the same features from day one? The first Twitter homepage  was totally different from what you see today. It look like this:

Same is the case with Facebook .

Define minimum viable product  by listing all the possible features for your app, prioritize those features, sort them on the basis of priorities, and add the top few must-have features in the first version. The remaining features should be added over the course of a few years.

Develop A Testing Strategy

Yes you need to test your app. Because every app has bugs – yours will have too.

You may not get rid of the bugs completely, but you can minimize these issues by creating a workable testing strategy. It’s an outline  that clearly states the testing approach.

The test strategy should be defined before the coders get to work. Here’s what to include in the test strategy:

• What is the scope of the app?
• What is not in the scope?
• The features
• Individual cases
• App versions and integration

Know The Required Tools

What tools do you need for development, testing, and for maintenance? Though, it mostly depends on the budget allocation.

List all the tools required at every stage of the development and post-development.

Some of the tools that you may need include:

• JIRA  or TicketNow  for documenting and tracking time.
• Google Analytics , Site Catalyst  or Omniture  for analytics and performance.
• Splunk , FogLight  or AppDynamics  for app performance.
• PractiTest , Test Collab , TestRail  or qTest  for QA testing.

By the end of the mobile app design strategy, the strategy document with all the mandatory details will be ready.

Basic App Design Process

Benji Hyam , the co-founder of Social Proof Interactive, stated that before you approach an app designer, you must have the following things ready:

• Understanding of your target market and the end-user
• List of things that a user might want to accomplish with the app
• Initial wireframes

This is, more or less, what we have covered in the previous section. Having a mobile app strategy will make app designing super easy.

Mobile app design strategy is an in-house process while app design process can be outsourced or done in-house.

The basic app design process consists of following steps:

• Setting the scope
• User/market research
• UX wireframe
• Software architecture
• iOS development

Let’s roll.

1. Setting The Scope

The scope refers to what needs to be done, what you want to achieve from the app, and how large/small it has to be. The scope may include all of the following:

• The nature of the app
• Target audience
• Most crucial functions and features of the app
• App’s visual design features
• Potential technologies to be used
• Consistency with the business strategy
• Specific preferences

Did you notice that consistency with the business strategy is just one part of this process?

In order to document the scope of the app, it’s crucial to identify  all of the following:

• Objectives and goals of the app
• Phases and subphases
• Tasks and resources

Based on the scope, the design and flow of the app will be prepared.

2. User & Market Research

This is the phase where the UX and UI designers will get to work based on the scope of the app and on the app strategy. It involves  market research and user research.

The job of the designers  is to come up with the best UX design that will help your app stand out from the crowd.

How is it Done?

Start by conducting an in-depth market research and analyze the existing apps in your industry. If you’re going to create an image sharing app, you’ll have to look at the existing image sharing apps, their color schemes, patterns, flow, etc.

The user research will reveal colors and themes that will help you develop an emotional connection with the target audience.

What type of colors and styles will the end-users prefer? You can use different methods  to collect data from the potential users such as surveys, focus groups, design workshops, etc.

Here is a tip – don’t let users make all the decisions. If you do, you will end up designing an elephant like this …

3. UX Wireframe

The visual representation of the user interface is known as UX wireframe . You have to create a structure of the user interface, transitions, and interactions. It must be based on market research, user research, competition, and strategy.

You can use wireframing software or you can create a simple outline on a paper . Lay down the user flow as you want it to appear on the actual app.

Sure it’s enough to wireframe the user interface on paper . No need to do extra work. The simpler it appears, the better it will be.

The purpose of UX wireframing is to define the flow of the app such as the number of windows, buttons, where each button leads the user, the registration process, the login screen, and everything related to the front-end of your app.

4. Create A Prototype

Prototype lets you see and feel the app . It must be created as early as possible. Once you have the UX wireframe, creating a low-fidelity prototype  is easy.

The low-fidelity prototype is the sketchy prototype that can be created right away as the wireframe is ready. There is no need to waste money on expensive prototypes .

Not only does a high-fidelity prototype consume resources but it takes time.

A simple physical prototype  will show you how the app looks. The purpose of a prototype, by any means, is not to test or improve the functionality.

A lot of experts  recommend using low-fidelity prototypes to save cost and time. Instead of wasting money creating expensive prototypes , spend money on app functions, features, and on coding.

Mozilla used low-fidelity prototypes  to tweak its support website. They used multiple prototypes and all of them were created on paper. They quickly selected the best user-interface elements that worked for the users.

5. UI Design

Do not confuse  UX wireframe and prototyping with the user interface (UI) design.

The UX research, wireframing, and prototyping are about how the app works  while the UI design is about how the app looks .

Once the UX has been tested, tweaked, and several prototypes have been tested and finalized, you have to move to the UI designing phase.

At this stage , you have to deal with the visual representation of the concepts, color schemes, fonts, shapes, buttons, font size, images, forms, illustrations, animation, etc.

You have to test multiple designs to see what works best for your users. The color schemes, skins, themes, and all the visual elements have to be tweaked several times to find what works.

It’s somewhat similar to A/B testing  with difference being that in case of UI design, you have to make the judgments yourself. You cannot bring customers on board at this stage.

Just like prototyping, the UI designs can be sketched on paper .

Or, you can use a simple app for it known as Paper App . You can sketch different versions of your app and see which looks better.

Or, you can use a UI solution .

6. Interface Animation

Animation should be applied and tested with the UI design phase, so as to test different styles of animation in real-time.

Animation refers to the user interface animation such as how new screen will pop out and how gestures are defined, and so on.

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Interface animation has the power of grabbing user attention, as pointed in Google’s material design principles :

“Motion design can effectively guide the user’s attention in ways that both inform and delight. Use motion to smoothly transport users between navigational contexts, explain changes in the arrangement of elements on a screen, and reinforce element hierarchy.”

Animation should be functional instead of a simple design element.

Anatoly Nesterov  has shared seven types of animations for mobile apps. You can choose from the following list.

• Visual feedback
• Function change
• Element hierarchy
• Orientation in space
• Condition of the system
• Visual prompt
• Fun animations

7. Software Architecture Planning

This is perhaps the most crucial part of the entire design process. The core purpose of software architecture planning is to scale the app, make it better in terms of functionality and design.

It takes place as a parallel stage of designing .

It involves the entire team including the designers, programmers, and managers. The idea is to improve the frontend and the backend processes by constructively tweaking the software architecture.

It calls for regular constructive discussion  on platforms, frameworks, abstract layers, design platforms, technology, components, etc.

The purpose of architecture planning  is to define a structured solution that meets all the technical, operational, business, user, and system requirements.

Some of the best practices  include:

• Build to change.
• Understand the end user needs before designing and redesigning.
• Do not hesitate to invest in architecture.
• Identify key interfaces, layers, and subsystems.
• Use an iterative approach to designing.

Peter Eeles  has explained the software architecture process and method in simple form, where phases are divided into iterations which are then broken down into activities which are further divided into tasks.

8. App Development

This is the phase where coding begins and the developers start creating the app.

This is something that developers have to do, so make sure you deal with the best coders. The app can be developed for android or iOS depending on your choice.

Instead of creating the app for multiple platforms simultaneously, the better approach is to create the app for one platform first.

Because developing an app for a single platform from an expert will cost you tens of thousands of dollars . If it turns out to be a poorly coded app, you will find yourself in the middle of nowhere.

Better yet, choose android app development first, since it’s cost-effective  as compared to iOS.

By the end of this phase, your mobile app will be ready (i.e., scalable, aligns to the strategy, has all the perks, is well-designed, and works smoothly).

When the average failure rate  for app testing for android is 16.4%, you can’t afford to launch your newly created app without testing.

The purpose of testing the app is to ensure there aren’t any bugs and the app works as expected.

There are several stages in an app testing process . This type of rigorous testing process will ensure that your app works smoothly.

There are different types of testing  and a decent approach is to test for all the types.

• Functional testing
• Memory testing
• Performance test
• Security test
• Interruption test
• Usability test

The app can be tested in-house, outsourced , or the developers can do the preliminary testing. The app testers should not be your developers or partners of the developers.

10. Release

Finally, it’s time to release your app once it has passed the tests.

The app must be submitted to the appropriate app store. It will take time since most of the apps are reviewed before they are published. It can take up to a week  for the app to get approval so plan your release accordingly.

Most of the developers  believe that a proper release strategy should be used for app launches.

Partnering with the right business is the best approach that worked exceptionally well for David and Goliath . They partnered with the David Eckstein for the launch of their app which turned out to be a huge success.

This is one approach.

There are more on the list .

M obile Design Trends

A report revealed  that the number of mobile phone users in 2018 is  5.135  billion , up 4 percent year-on-year

In another study , half of the mobile phone users will switch to smartphones by 2017.

With this exponential increase in smartphones and the internet users all over the world, the following mobile design trends are expected to catch on:

1. Creative Gestures

According to Google , the gesture is a touch mechanic where each gesture is used to accomplish something such as opening the messages, sending an email, etc.

Some of the common gestures  include tap, double touch, pinch open, drag, and two-finger touch.

As the number of mobile phones and the mobile phone users keep increasing, the app designers have to use more intuitive gestures to make user design better. Expect a lot of creative gestures to be introduced in the coming years.

2. Native Apps vs. Mobile Internet

Luke Wroblewski  conducted a research that shows native app users spend 18x more time than mobile internet users.

On the other hand, the mobile web audience is much bigger than the native app audience. Mobile web receives 8.9 million unique visitors a month while native apps receive 3.3 million unique visitors a month.

Native apps and mobile internet will grow in the future.

Native apps will grow at an exceptional rate and the designers will work on creating apps with better UX and UI to increase the average time per user.

3. Failure Mapping

According to UX Magazine , the journey maps and the user flows are the most important aspects of UX design. These flows and journeys are designed to cater for an ideal user but misses the non-ideal users.

A failure mapping is used to anticipate, understand, and then map the non-ideal users of the app. The failure mapping is considered to be one of the leading mobile design trends of 2017.

4. Micro-Mini Interactions Will Grow Significantly

A micro-interaction refers to a single task that has a single interaction with the app, product, or the website such as commenting on a blog.

Recently, there are a few apps that have transformed these micro-interactions into smaller single time interactions, Chase Buckley  calls them micro-mini interactions. Yo  and Knock Knock  are good examples of apps that use these granular micro-mini interactions.

Chase Buckley believes that these micro-mini interactions will storm the internet in 2017.

5. Animation

According to Web Designer Depot ,

“Animation is no longer a novelty for web designers…it’s becoming the basis of effective interaction design.”

Designers know that movement gets noticed, it keeps the users hooked, it is helpful in telling a story, and above all, it helps with app UX.

Bugaboo  uses moving animation to let its customers view the strollers from all the angles. The moving animation works on both mobile and computer version of the store.

Animations will be used in apps extensively in years to come.

When creating an app for your business, keep these trends in mind and share them with your team.

Mobile Design Tips

The following mobile design tips will help you in achieving your set goals:

1. Iterate user interface designs:   This tip comes from the Amanda Cline , who is a developer with intensive experience under her belt.

“It is an excellent idea to iterate the interface design options so as to achieve apps that are fully engaging and retain the attention of targeted users.”

Every single iteration will help you learn a valuable lesson that might not be useful for this project, but it can help you in another project.

2. Understand your users: There is only one rule to designing better apps – understand your users. The best mobile app developers collect user feedback and apply it to the design. This is a crucial part of the mobile application design process. 

There are three ways to understand your users .

• Create personas – characters developed to represent your target audience.
• Experience maps – help you explore all the possibilities for a single interaction.
• User scenarios – how a persona acts based on different UI designs.

3. Design for future: Yes you should look beyond today and design for the future.

Jeff Haden  says:

“When I decided to put speed radar on a mobile device, the capability really wasn’t there, but I knew it would be.”

While designing an app, keep the future in mind. Never design for today because by the time you will finish designing the app, the hardware will have upgraded and when you launch the app, you will always be behind.

Resources For Mobile Design

Here are a few of the best resources to jumpstart your mobile design project:

Pttrns : A library of more than 3K iPad and iPhone UI patterns.

UX design for mobile developers : Learn techniques and best practices for creating awesome user experiences for your apps.

Hack design : Learn all about mobile designing.

Mobile patterns : It has a collection of screenshots of android and iOS apps.

Sketch : A designing tool for app designers.

Tethr : iOS design kit for designers that features a lot of elements ranging from media to social to PSD and more.

Pixel love : Free icons for both iOS and android designers.

Pop : iOS animation library.

BuildFire : Create and manage android and iOS apps.

Blog post : A beginner’s guide to designing interface animation.

PDF : Software architecture process guide.

Blog post : Seven ways to test a mobile app.

Blog post : More than 200 mobile design resources.

Understand the Mobile App Design Phase

Generally speaking, app development can be segmented into several different stages. The number of steps in the app development process will vary, depending on who you ask and how you group various tasks.

With that said, every “mobile app development stages” list you find will have a design phase.

Your app’s design will play a crucial role in its success, which is why it’s so important to allocate enough time, resources, and effort to designing your app. If you rush through the design phase, the final product will undoubtedly suffer.

It recently dawned on me that most people interested in developing an app don’t really understand how the design phase works, which is what inspired me to write this guide.

As you continue below, you’ll learn more about what the design phase entails and why it’s so crucial to your development project. We’ll also dive into design guidelines solutions that you can leverage as a bundled service, along with other aspects of development. Let’s get started!

Pre Design Stages

Before we jump into the app design phase itself, it’s important for you to understand some of the other key steps in the app development lifecycle. There are three stages that I’ll quickly cover in greater detail below—competitive analysis, system architecture, and wireframing.

Each of these elements will ultimately be linked to the design (even though they technically aren’t included in the design stage).

To have a stunning and functional app design, you need to get these right first.

Competitive Analysis

Like any business venture, the first thing you need to do is identify your top competitors. By analyzing the big players in this space, it makes it much easier for you to know what makes an app successful in your industry.

Follow the apps that have paved the way by mirroring proven practices. You can also find vulnerabilities from your competition and use this information to improve in areas where they lack.

For example, let’s say you wanted to make a fitness app—specifically designed for wearables. Running a quick market share analysis in this industry would be the first step.

Rather than blindly designing an app from scratch, you can take some of the top elements of existing apps and incorporate them into your design. Your app will still be unique, but it’s definitely smart to use existing apps from industry leaders as inspiration for the design of your own app.

Look at the home screen of each one. Analyze the UI design and UX design.

Ultimately, you can use bits and pieces of each one to create a design that blows all of them out of the water.

Where do you find any friction or pain points within your competitors’ apps? Make sure to avoid those mistakes and improve in these areas when designing your own.

System Architecture

This stage is often overlooked in the app development process. But taking the time to understand your system ensures that you can grow your business without outgrowing your app.

The best apps are scalable, reliable, and secure—but also achieve your goals.

Without a system architecture analysis, something will eventually get lost in the shuffle. So make sure you understand the various entities of your system. Figure out the different data flows between each entity as well.

What workflows will be required for each process? Do you need third-party integrations? What are the technical requirements on the backend?

Create a functional spec sheet that details all of the data flows and flow charts. This information can ultimately be handed off to your design team. A designer will need to understand your system architecture to create a design that makes sense for your specific app and its goals.

Your wireframe will be another crucial tool for your app’s design. Anyone can create a wireframe—you don’t need to be a designer to accomplish this.

Think of your wireframe as a rough sketch of your app’s usability. These can be super informal. I’ve even seen some wireframes sketched on napkins or pieces of paper, although most people today will create a digital version.

A wireframe is a vision of your app from screen to screen. What will the user journey look like as they go from the homepage to an interior page of your app?

Let’s continue with the example of a fitness app. Here’s what a section of your wireframe could look like:

From the “My Workouts” page, users can navigate to a “Chest & Back” page. Within the “Chest & Back Page,” there will be a link to specific workouts such as “Bench Press” that would open in a new page altogether.

Again, you’re not actually writing these workouts or composing the page elements. The idea here is to just focus on the user journey.

It’s much easier to figure out the wireframe ahead of time. These blueprints can easily be modified before the design and development stages officially begin.

Wireframes can eventually be used to perform a click-through analysis. This step ensures that your users can navigate throughout your app with the least amount of friction, ultimately boosting the UX.

Design Phase For Mobile App Development

All of the steps we covered above are critical for the design of your app. Once those stages have been completed, you can use that information for the design phase.

Here’s a brief overview of what should be accomplished during the design stage of your app:

Mood Boards

You should always start your design phase with a mood board. These design tools are the best way to evoke particular styles or concepts of your app. Mood boards are commonly used in various fields, including fashion, interior design, web design, material design, and graphic design.

A mood board can establish a strong foundation or starting point for your design. It will ultimately get you and your designer on the same page.

Mood boards will also clarify the vision for your app’s design and make it easy for multiple people and stakeholders to work collaboratively.

Let’s say you are planning to launch an app with a partner. How can you and this partner convey your ideas for something intangible (like a design)? Mood boards ease the design process.

Check out these snippets of different app styles:

It’s clear that all three of these are unique.

One is light and airy. Another is dark and modern. Conveying these styles to a designer verbally would be challenging. But showing a mood board with different theme elements to a designer has a more impactful effect.

It also reduces the chances that you’ll have to go back and forth with the designer multiple times for design changes. This is inefficient, extends your app development timeline , and ultimately adds to the cost of your app.

Color Palettes

While the two go hand-in-hand, color palettes and mood boards are not the same things. Your mood board will be used to convey the look and feel of your app’s design, but the color palette is necessary to ensure consistent and coherent branding throughout your app.

The color palette should include your brand colors, primary color, a secondary color, warning color, success color, text color, icon color, and more.

Here’s an example showcasing color palettes for different brands:

Make sure the colors you choose aren’t too contrasting. They should complement each other well and look visually appealing on the screen together.

For example, yellow text on an orange icon would not be a good color palette choice. While orange and yellow are two colors that would typically fall within the same palette, combining them like this would be a nightmare for users. It would be a strain on their eyes to try and read yellow text on an orange background. So make sure you keep this in mind as you’re choosing the color scheme for your app.

Mobile Devices

The design of your app will vary from device to device. You need to understand how different screen sizes and device types impact the way your app looks on the screen.

What will the design look like on an Apple iPhone 6 Plus (iOS) compared to a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (Android)? How will the design change from an Android tablet to an iPad mini?

Android apps will have different designs than iOS apps available on the Apple App Store. But you need to also think beyond iOS vs. Android or mobile phone vs. mobile web. There will even be design differences for devices using the same OS.

The colors, mood, and on-screen elements will essentially remain the same from device to device. There will just be subtle variations in the design depending on the screen size, OS, and device manufacturer.

Strategic Consulting

It’s worth noting that strategic consulting isn’t something that comes standard with most app designers. You’ll need to find a design team with a vested interest in your success to get this benefit.

For example, let’s say you try to hire a designer on a platform like Upwork or Fiverr. Those UX designers get paid to do a job, then move on to the next project. They won’t really have too much thought or input in the project beyond what you tell them to do.

But a strategic partner challenges your ideas and offers alternative solutions, resources, and design tools. They’ll help identify any vulnerabilities in your idea and design as well, including UI/UX.

Strategic consultancy services help separate average and ordinary apps from highly successful apps.

High Fidelity Mockups and Prototyping

Before you develop the final version of your app, you need to create high fidelity mockups and prototypes. Live prototypes will provide you with an accurate representation of how your app will perform once it’s completely built.

You’ll have a deeper understanding of the app’s design, functionality, and usability during this stage of the development and design process.

Mockups and prototypes essentially combine your wireframes with the design phase.

Click here to check out an example of live app prototyping .

The prototype will be the first step towards creating an MVP (minimum viable product) . You’ll be able to click through different screens and components of your app from a web-based interface while seeing the design first-hand. This is crucial for UI/UX abd interaction design as well.

BuildFire App Launch Kit (Getting the Design Right)

As you can see, there’s a LOT that goes into designing an app. This process can be extremely overwhelming, especially if you’ve never done this before.

Rather than trying to tackle something so daunting on your own, you can partner with an expert design and development team to assist you. Here’s an overview of what you can expect when you use BuildFire’s white-glove services and app launch kit.

This package allows you to manifest your ideas so you can better share them with key customers, partners, and even investors. Your app will be designed with world-class standards, to not only meet your expectations but exceed them.

We’ll pair you up with a team of highly skilled individuals comprised of a project manager, designer, lead engineer, quality assurance manager, and software developer.

The project manager (based in San Diego, CA) will be your point of contact to ensure you have full visibility into the process and progress of the architecture and design of your app. The designer will bring your ideas to life through a beautiful user interface and a seamless user experience.

A senior software engineer will handle all aspects of the application that require security, scalability, and reliability. They’ll even handle potential compliance with federal and local laws.

Once you’ve been paired with the perfect team, we’ll go through a system analysis to dissect the process, procedures, and workflows of your application. This gives us a full understanding of the ideas you’re trying to implement. Our strategic consultants will challenge your ideas to make sure your app is robust and resilient to any future market challenges.

Next, we’ll go through a competitive analysis. We take the system that we now understand and look at the market landscape.

This allows us to be inspired by proven practices and raise the bar so that you can be a leader in your industry.

Once we fully understand the functional requirements of your app and understand the competitive landscape that we’re up against, it’s up to our designers to come up with a beautiful user interface and seamless UX through clickable prototypes and user journeys.

After a world-class experience has been established for the app users, we then set our eyes toward the backend control panel. Our team works diligently to provide you with the tools required to manage your mobile application. We also provide you with the resources needed to understand your user behavior and app insights.

All of this will be built on top of BuildFire’s cutting edge infrastructure.

This allows you to take advantage of our authentication services, databases, analytics servers, push notifications, and so much more—so you won’t have to incur any additional costs.

Once we meet and beat your expectations, we’ll deliver all of the documentation that we’ve compiled, alongside a clickable prototype for you to share with partners and investors.

As a final step, we break down your project into phases and milestones that provide you with a go-to-market strategy focusing on performance and agility.

Mobile app design can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.

To nail the design of your app, make sure you follow the design guidelines explained in this article. Rather than trying to tackle this on your own, contact our team here at BuildFire. We can handle all of the design elements, and more, while providing consultancy services for your app as well.

Our mobile app designers and app developers will double as strategic partners for your app development project. It’s time to take your design to the next level. Let’s build something great together!

More from the blog

33 creative ways to promote your app for free (app marketing strategy), the 5 ways to build a mobile app, what to expect from a mobile app development platform, 8 steps you must take before starting mobile app development, how much does mobile app development really cost, 5 hidden costs of software you need to anticipate after you launch, the definitive guide to mobile app design, mobile app download and usage statistics (2021).

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Select Create >   New   Assignment .

At a minimum, you must give the assignment a title. This is required. You can optionally add a tag, which will make this assignment easier to search for in the future. 

Assignments only supports the following image file types: .png, .jpeg, and .gif. 

On mobile, Images will resize to the screen. 

On desktop, you can use sizing handles on images to resize them.  

You can also attach existing files, links, or assignment integrations and create and name a new file right from here for students to turn in.

Note:  You can add up to five files for students to edit. The total number of resources you can add to an assignment is 10, whether editable or non-editable. Read-only reference files can be up to 500 MB in size. Files for students to edit can be up to 50 MB in size.

Select Attach  to attach resources to the assignment. Choose a file from your OneDrive, upload a file from your device, or choose one of the other options set by your admin, such as MakeCode.

Note:  If you're assigning a Class Notebook page, check what version of OneNote your students are using to ensure that their assignment pages will lock after the assignment due date passes.

Select +New  to create a blank Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), PowerPoint (.pptx), or Whiteboard document, or a new video recording to hand out to your students.

Select  Apps  to attach content from an app to the assignment. Admins can  manage Teams apps in the Microsoft Teams admin center .

Select Learning Accelerators  to add Reading Progress , Search Progress and other Learning Accelerators to the Assignment.

By default, Students can't edit  attached documents, meaning the document is read-only. This is a great option for reference materials.

Note:  If you have older documents with the file extension .doc, .xls, or .ppt, students won't be able to edit them. You can either attach them as read-only reference material or create a new file in Teams, copy in the old content, and save it. All new files you create in Teams or other Microsoft 365 apps will have the correct extension.

The Assign to field is where you choose the class for this assignment. By default, the class team you are in will be selected. 

Multiclass Publish

Multiclass publish allows educators to create an assignment for multiple classes with the same due date. 

Do this by navigating to the Assign to field and check the boxes for classes the assignment will be published to. 

Points and rubrics

You can select which grading scheme,  grading categories , and points the assignment is worth. 

If you have configured the class to use Grading Categories, you need to select a Grading Category for assignment with points.

Select the amount of points this assignment is worth, if any. You can use points on any number-based scale including whole numbers of 100 and set your own denominator. Examples:  88/100 or decimals 3.7/4.0.

Select  Add rubric  to  create a rubric .

Select  Manage grading categories  to create or edit the grading categories for the class.

Setting up Grading Schemes

Letter grading and grading categories must be set as a Grading Scheme in the Grade settings section to display these options.

2. Navigate down to Grade settings .

3. Choose Add Schemes or  Manage schemes .

Note:  If no other grading schemes other than "Points" have been set, this link will read  Add Schemes . Once you have gone through the steps to add a new scheme, the link will change to  Manage schemes. 

5. Set the grading levels. Letter grades will be the normal A, B, C, D, F, scheme. Ensure that there are enough levels to cover the entire 0-100 percent range.

6. Select the Save button when complete. 

Finish by choosing the  Done  button. 

Choose multiple classes, individual students, or groups of students  in one class to assign to.

By default, only students who are in your class now will receive this assignment. Change this by selecting an option from the dropdown menu.

Note:  If you choose a close date, any student who joins will receive this assignment until the close date.

Select a time and date for the assignment to be due. To schedule an assignment, next to  Assignment will post immediately with late turn-ins allowed  select Edit assignment timeline . Here, you can customize when your assignment will be posted to students and when it will close for turn-ins. By default, no close date will be selected, which allows students to turn in assignments late.

Note: If you choose multiple classes to publish the assignment to, you can select Set due date per class to set individual schedule , due and close date for each class

You can choose whether to add this assignment to your calendar on Outlook, students' calendars, and other educators or staff in your class team. Set this preference for all assignments in Assignments Settings .

Next to Add assignment to calendars , select the dropdown and pick one of the following options:

Students only  adds the assignment to just student calendars.

Students and me adds the assignment to both student calendars and your calendar.

Students and team owners to adds the assignment to both student and other educators or staff in the class team calendars.

Choose the channel where you'd like notifications for this assignment to post. This allows you to keep student work and discussion organized by unit, topic, or subject. By default, assignments will be posted in the General channel or your selection in Assignments Settings.

To choose a channel to post in, next to Post assignment notifications to:  select the down arrow for a list of available channels. 

Pick the channel you’d like this assignment notification to post in, your selection will be applied immediately.

To post assignment notifications to a channel, make sure bot posting is enabled. You can check that here  or ask your IT Admin for help.

Assignments will post to channels that are visible to all students. Private channels will not appear during this step.

If you have selected multiple classes, select Set per Class to set which channel to use or just use the General channel. Assignments to individual students do not post to channels.

When you're ready, you can finish the process of creating your new assignment by assigning it to students.

Note:  If your school uses Turnitin, you can sync assignment turn-ins to Turnitin .

Assign  will immediately publish the assignment and your students will be notified of the new assignment on the day you specified and the notification linking to this assignment will post in the channel you selected. They'll also have an entry on their Teams and Outlooks calendars if you've selected that option.

Save  will save a draft of the assignment. Students will not receive any notification, and nothing will be added to any calendar. 

Discard  will delete the draft of the assignment. Students will not receive any notification, and nothing will be added to any calendar. 

Create a New Module

1. Navigate to the desired Class Team, then select Classwork.

2. Select Add module. 

3. Enter a title for the new module.

4. Optionally, enter a description.

5. Select Save to save the module as a draft.

Note: Draft modules are only visible to Team owners (teachers) until published. All new modules are created in draft states. 

Learn more about managing classwork modules in Microsoft Teams.

Navigate the Grades tab

To open the Grades tab, navigate to your desired class team and select Grades .

You'll see that students appear in a column, with their assignments in a row next to their name. Assignments are listed in order by due date with the nearest date at the beginning. 

Learn more about the Grades tab. 

Create a group assignment

Edit an assignment

Save an assignment as a draft

Grade, return, and reassign assignments

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Build Custom Mobile Apps No Coding Required

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Productivity

How to build your own app—no coding skills required

The truth is, despite my lack of technical skills—and my skepticism—I've built some pretty cool apps , and it only took a matter of weeks to reach a functional result.

But how? No-code tools simplify advanced programming concepts, making them easier to understand and use. Instead of having to write code or manually type in commands, you get to use visual interfaces, drag-and-drop elements, and wizards to configure everything just the way you want it.

In this guide, I'll walk you step-by-step through building a simple app with a no-code tool called Bubble . Once you're done, you'll understand the basics of no-code app building, and you'll be well on your way to building exciting new things without code .

An introduction to my to-do list app

Things To Do is the model app we'll be recreating today. It's a to-do list app where you can:

View the tasks you need to do today

Add and delete new tasks from the list

Mark tasks as done

View a list of completed tasks

Here's an example design:

You can explore the functionality by visiting the app's site . Log in with the test credentials provided on the page, and give it a try. Beware, though—other people may be testing it at the same time, so you might see a lot of tasks going back and forth.

Following this guide to the end will take around two hours.

Before we begin

Before we begin building our own version of Things To Do, you'll need to create a free account in Bubble .

If you'd like, you can also take the crash course—a set of 10 lessons explaining core concepts in a series of step-by-step instructions. But you can skip that part for now since I'll be explaining what we're doing as we go.

Once you create an account, click the New app button, fill in the information in the dialog box, and choose Start with a blank page .

Part 1: Setting up the database

Most modern apps rely on a database to work. A database allows you to store, maintain, and access data, while making it possible to create relationships between different data elements.

Let's access the part of Bubble that deals with data. Click the Data tab on the left-hand navigation bar on your screen.

When we're creating an app, we'll be storing data from our users in our database. Depending on what we need to power the app's features, you'll need different data types.

Right now, there's only the User data type. It's set up by default, and it keeps track of the app's users, their email addresses, passwords, the date it was created or modified, who created the user, and the slug.

Since we're building a to-do list, we'll need a way to store the tasks that each user will create to fill their list. On the New type input field, type in "Task" and click Create .

Now that we have a data type for tasks, we need to store some more information about each task. We need to have a task description, so users can record that they need to walk the dog or make their bed; we also need a way to store the status of the task, whether it still needs to be done or is already complete.

Let's create these fields now. Click Create a new field .

In the Field name dialog box that appears, type "description." Data fields also need a type. Click the Field type dropdown, and choose text . Once you're done, click Create .

Let's repeat the process for the task's status. Click Create a new field , type "status" for Field name , and set the Field type to number .

Why the number type? We'll use a numeric system to keep track of the status of our task. Tasks that have the number 0 will be treated as not done, and tasks with the number 5 will be considered complete. The reason we chose 0 and 5 (and not 0 and 1, for instance), is to allow some breathing room to create additional task statuses in the future. After all, from the backlog to the completed list, we could also add a "scheduled" or "in progress" status.

Now we have the basic information we need for the Tasks data type to be useful. There's just a slight problem: when we get our first 10 users on the app, and all these users start creating their tasks, we'll have a hard time assigning each task to its rightful owner. This could make things hectic in the long run, so we'll add an additional data field to register who owns each task.

Click Create a new field . In the dialog box, set the Field name as owner . For Field type , open the dropdown, and choose User at the bottom. Finally, click Create .

The data fields for the Task data type are all set. Your screen should look like this:

When building the app later on, it'll be useful to pin every task to each user on the database as well. Let's set that up now. Click the User data type.

Click Create a new field . Name it "tasks," set the Field type to Task , and, before clicking Create , remember to tick This field is a list (multiple entries) . This ensures that each user can add as many tasks as needed in this field.

Now we're ready to move forward. (Note: if you want to add more features to your app, you'll have to revisit the data tab in the future.)

Let's say you'd like to add a way for each user to track projects. That'd mean you'd have to create a Projects data type and provide all the relevant fields to identify the project owner, participants, and tasks. The same would apply if you wanted to let the users form teams.

Just remember that any time you need to hold more types of data inside your app, you'll have to expand your database. For now, let's move on to creating the user interface.

Part 2: Creating the user interface

The user interface (UI) is what your users interact with to write and retrieve information from the database as well as performing the logic operations that make your app useful—in this case, the to-do list app.

First, we need to add a new page. An app page functions much like a website page: you can use it to separate different activities or dashboards. Click the dropdown displaying the current page on the top-left edge of your screen.

Click Add a new page .

Set the Page name to list and leave the dropdown blank. Click Create .

It's time to start designing. Notice the UI builder on the left part of the screen:

The Elements tree will display a list of all the elements you added to the page so far. Everything below this section are the elements you can add to the page, which are divided into categories.

Let's add a group that'll hold our to-do list. Under the Containers section, click Group .

Now, draw a wide rectangle on the canvas.

Once you're finished, the edit dialog box will appear. This kind of dialog will let you edit the details of each element you add to the page. Let's start by changing the name of the element to keep things organized. Click the header of this dialog and rename it "Group Lists."

Let's give it a border. Click Remove style to unlock individual style editing for this group.

Now, set the Border style - all borders to Solid , Roundness to 10 , and Width to 2 .

Let's adjust the size and position of this group to make sure it can hold everything we need. Click the Layout tab within the edit window.

Fill in the width (W), height (H), X position (X), and Y position (Y) with the following values:

This group will serve just as a visual element, so we won't tinker with it anymore. 

It's time to add a repeating group to show the list of tasks to do. A repeating group is a special kind of group that displays data in a series of rows and columns, allowing you to visualize lots of data in a simple way.

On the left UI Builder menu, under Containers , click Repeating Group .

Draw the repeating group inside the Group Lists we just configured. Make sure it covers most of its inner area.

When the repeating group's edit dialog box appears, you'll notice we're on the Layout tab. Enter the following width, height, X, and Y values:

Let's keep things organized. Rename this repeating group to "RepeatingGroup To Do List" by clicking on the header of the edit dialog.

Let's edit the appearance of this group a little more. Click the Appearance tab.

Set the number of rows to 6.

Let's also get rid of the line separator. Click Remove style like before to edit this element's style independently. On the new settings that appear, click the dropdown in front of Separator and set it to None .

Time to set up some functionality. We need to let Bubble know that this repeating group will be showing our to-do tasks. Click the Type of content dropdown and choose Task .

But this isn't enough to display the tasks—we also need to say where to get the tasks we want to display. On the Data source input, you'll notice a small rectangle inviting you to "Click." Click there to trigger a dropdown.

On the dropdown, choose Do a search for .

In the new dialog box on the left, under the Type dropdown, click Task .

But we don't want to display all the tasks, right? We just want to display the tasks that are still incomplete, and the tasks that belong to the current user. Click Add a new constraint.

Click the small rectangle inside the input field that appears.

On the dropdown, click status .

Click again, and choose = .

Finally, click again, type 0 (zero) and press enter. This constraint will filter the results, only bringing up the tasks with a status of 0 (not complete).

Click below to add another constraint. Then:

click the input field

choose owner

click again to select =

and click one last time to choose Current user

This expression ensures that the results will only contain tasks the current user created, not tasks that belong to other users in the app. The end result should look like this:

Our RepeatingGroup To Do List is pulling information correctly from the database, but there's no way our users can see it. You can close the edit dialog by pressing the X icon on the top right.

Now, we need to add text elements inside the repeating group and then set them up to show the right data.

Before we begin, remember how the repeating group has multiple rows? A great thing about this element is that, when you configure the first row, all the other rows will have the same design and functionality. This allows you to create features like a social media feed, a list of products in an online store or—you guessed it—tasks on a to-do list.

From the UI Builder menu on the left, drag a Text element from the Visual elements , and drop it inside the first row of the repeating group. If you see a red line appearing under your cursor, you're doing it right.

See how it's replicating to the other rows? This is a preview of how it's going to look in the end. Right-click the text element and click Edit .

In the top input field, erase "…edit me…" and click the blue button Insert dynamic data .

From the dropdown menu, select Current cell's Task's description .

Each of these text elements will pull the corresponding cell's task and show its description. We could repeat the process for other data fields—for example, to show the task's status or the date created—but it won't be necessary for now.

A to-do list also needs a method to mark tasks as done. Drag an Icon element from the Visual elements menu, and drop it inside the first row of the repeating group on the right side.

The default icon is a flag. Choose an icon that's appropriate for the action we want to illustrate. We also need to make it smaller. Drag the icon's limit handles to resize it, or click the Layout tab and enter the following values:

Let's continue to keep things organized. Change the name of the icon to "Icon Mark Done."

If the users make a mistake in adding tasks, it'd be helpful to have a button to delete the task. Repeat the process to add an icon to delete a task. Use the same method to resize the icon, and don't forget to name it "Icon Delete Task."

It's time to add a button to add tasks to our list. We'll also use an icon to that effect. Place it on the top right of the to-do list, and name it "Icon New Task."

To add new tasks, we'll bring up a pop-up with an input field and a button. In the UI Builder menu on the left, under Containers , click Popup , and then click in the middle of the canvas to place it.

Rename the pop-up in the edit window to "Popup New Task." Next, add a text element to the pop-up, and write "Create new task" in it.

Let's change the style of this text to something more impactful. Click the Style dropdown, and choose H2 Heading - Dark .

Use the element's handles to resize and position it on the pop-up. To center, right-click it and hit Center horizontally . You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the element around.

Add an input field under the text element (you'll find it in the UI Builder menu, under the Input forms section). Edit the placeholder value to be "enter a description here…"

Lastly, add a button (you'll find it under Visual elements on the left menu) underneath both these elements, and label it "create task."

The pop-up is obstructing the rest of our app. Click outside it to hide it. If you want to see it again later, you can toggle its visibility on the left menu, under Elements tree . Look for the pop-up there, and click the little eye icon to show or hide it.

Our app's interface is almost complete. Let's add a list to let our users see completed tasks. We'll use another repeating group that'll filter tasks based on status and owner, very much like the first one we created.

Right-click the RepeatingGroup To Do List and click Edit .

Click the Layout tab.

Untick This element is visible on page load . We'll use this property to create a menu later that'll either display the tasks to do or the completed tasks.

Note the width (W), height (H), X position (X), and Y position (Y) of this element. In this case, it's W 675, H 347, X 22, Y 19.

Now, close the dialog box. Right-click the RepeatingGroup To Do List and click Copy .

Right-click inside the top-left region of the Group Lists and select Paste .

A copy of the repeating group was pasted slightly off the original one. You'll also notice that a new element appeared inside the Element tree on the menu on the left. Click the little eye to hide the RepeatingGroup To Do List.

Now, click the RepeatingGroup To Do List copy to open the edit dialog.

To keep everything organized, change the name of this group to RepeatingGroup Done List (to do this, click the name on the header of the edit dialog).

Click the Layout tab, and enter the W, H, X, Y values you copied earlier (W 675, H 347, X 22, Y 19). This will ensure that both lists will have the same dimensions and position on the page.

It's time to change the type of tasks we'll show on this list. Click the Appearance tab.

On the Data source field, click the expression Search for Tasks . A new dialog will appear. On the status constraint, change the "0" to a "5" (it's the number that we decided would mark a task as done). Leave all other fields as they are.

We won't need a delete icon for completed tasks inside the "done" list. You can right-click and delete it.

The icon to display that the task is complete should be different from the one we have to mark the task as done. Choose a more appropriate icon. Once you find the right one:

Change its color to green (right-click the icon, click Edit ; under Style click Remove style , and you'll see a color picker above).

Change its name to "Icon Done."

Now we have two repeating groups—one is showing the tasks to do and the other is a list of completed tasks. We need a way to toggle between them. Let's add a simple menu on top of the list to do just that.

Add an icon suggesting the functionality of the menu on the top left. Name it "Icon Lists."

Add a button labeled "to do," followed by another labeled "done."

We'll use something called "custom element states" to toggle the visibility of each list. Custom element states are an agile way to control many aspects of the user interface in Bubble.

Right-click the Icon Lists we placed, and click Edit .

Click the small i button on the edit dialog's header (Element inspector).

Under Custom states , click Add a new custom state .

Set the State name to "active-list" and the State type to "number." Finish by clicking Create .

We'll use this state in the following way: whenever the state is set to 1, the RepeatingGroup To Do List is visible; when the state is set to 2, the RepeatingGroup Done List is visible. Since we want our users to see the to-do list every time they open the page for the first time, we can set the default value to 1.

Now that we have this custom state, we'll need to let our repeating groups know when they should appear and disappear. On the Elements tree , click the RepeatingGroup To Do list.

On the editing dialog that appears, click the Conditional tab.

This tab lets you change the characteristics of this element when certain conditions are true. Let's add a new condition. Click Define another condition .

Click the input field in front of When . On the dropdown that appears:

Scroll down to find the Icon Lists , and click it.

Continue the expression by selecting ' s active-list .

Then, select is .

Type in the number 1, and press enter on your keyboard

The result should look like this:

Click the dropdown labeled Select a property to change when true .

Select This element is visible .

Don't forget to tick the box.

Here's what's happening: whenever the Icon list's custom state is 1, this repeating group will show. Let's repeat a similar process to display the done list. On the left menu, inside the Elements tree , click the RepeatingGroup done list.

The edit dialog should already be on the Conditionals tab. Click to set the expression as before:

Choose Icon lists > 's active-list > is .

This time, type the number 2, and press enter.

Click the dropdown Select a property to change when true , pick This element is visible , and tick the box.

Now, whenever the Icon list's custom state is set to 2, this repeating group will show. We'll configure the means to change these states (and change the visibility of these elements) in the following section.

The user interface is ready to go. We have all the elements pulling information from the database and displaying information the way we want them to, and we also have all the buttons and states we need for the functionality. It's time to tie everything together with workflows.

Part 3: Logic and workflows

Now comes the exciting part. This is when the app will actually do what we want it to do. Now, we'll be configuring all the buttons and icons to carry out the right actions.

Right-click the icon to add a new task, and click Start/Edit workflow .

We'll be using this button to display a pop-up. Click Click here to add a new action…

Hover over Element Actions and click Show .

A new dialog appears. Click the Element dropdown, and select Popup New Task .

Now, whenever the user clicks that button, it'll show the Popup New Task. Let's go back to the Design tab to find the next element we'll configure.

Let's set up the button to create tasks we put inside the pop-up. Make the pop-up visible by clicking the little eye icon in the Elements tree menu on the left side of your screen.

Right-click the button labeled create task , and click Start/Edit workflow .

This workflow will be longer. Click to add a new action. Hover over Data (Things) and click Create a new thing .

The type of thing we want to create is Task . Select it from the dropdown menu.

We want to fill some of the task's data fields. Click Set another field .

Click the input field, and select description from the dropdown menu.

Click the area in front of the = sign. In the dropdown menu that appears, click Input enter a description .

This will let Bubble know that it should fill the "description" data field with whatever is inside the input field we placed inside the pop-up element earlier. Finish the expression by selecting 's value .

When a task is created, it's likely it's not complete. Click to set another field. Choose status from the dropdown menu.

Click the area in front of the = sign. We won't be choosing anything from the dropdown menu. Simply type the number "0" and press enter on your keyboard.

Finally, we need to set an owner for this task. Repeat the process to set another field and choose owner as the field to set. Click the area in front of the = sign. Choose Current User from the dropdown menu.

Step 1 is complete. Now, we'll associate this task with the current user's account. Click to add a new action.

Under Account , click Make changes to current user .

Click Change another field .

Click the input field, and choose tasks from the dropdown menu.

Click again, and select add .

Click again, and select Result of step 1 (Create a New Task…) .

Step 2 is complete. It'll associate each task the user creates with their own account. This will save time and resources when the app looks through the database to show all the tasks from a specific user—which is why it's crucial we complete this step.

Step 3 will reset the input field, clearing the description box. If the action is not already suggested by Bubble, click to add a new action, hover over Element Actions , and click Reset Inputs .

Finally, let's hide the pop-up after the task is added. Click to add a new action, hover over Element Actions , and click Hide .

Click the element dropdown and choose the Popup New Task .

This workflow is complete. We're going to configure our menu with custom element states. Click the Design tab to see our app's interface again.

Right-click the button labeled to do , and click Start/Edit workflow .

Click to add a new action. Hover over Element Actions and click Set state .

On the Element , find the icon named Icon Lists , and click it.

Click the Custom state dropdown, and choose active-list .

Click the Value input, type 1, and press enter.

Here's what we've done here: whenever the user clicks the "to do" button, the custom state stored inside the Icon Lists will turn to 1, displaying the RepeatingGroup To Do List and hiding the RepeatingGroup Done List.

Go back to the Design tab. Right-click the button labeled done , and click Start/Edit workflow .

Click to add a new action. Under Element Actions , click Set state .

We'll repeat the same process as before. Pick Icon Lists as the element and active-list as the custom state, but this time, set the value to 2, and press enter.

When the user clicks this button, the state stored inside the Icon Lists element will turn to 2, hiding the RepeatingGroup To Do List and showing the RepeatingGroup Done List.

Let's go back to the Design tab. We'll take care of the workflows of the icons inside the RepeatingGroup To Do List using a slightly different approach. On the Elements tree menu on the left, click the + icon to expand the contents of the RepeatingGroup To Do List.

Click the Icon Delete Tas k. This will bring up the edit dialog box. Click the Appearance tab if it's not already showing, and then click the Start/Edit workflow button (it's another way to go to the workflow page).

Click to add a new action. Under Data (Things) , click Delete thing .

In the To delete input field, choose Current cell's Task .

Remember how we associated each task with its owner? We need to remove this task from the owner's account as well. Click to add a new action. Hover over Account , and click Make changes to the current user .

Click Change another field . Then:

Click the input field and choose tasks .

Click again and choose remove .

Click a third time and choose Current cell's task .

Now, users can delete tasks. Let's go back to the Design tab. On the Elements tree , click the Icon Mark Done to open the edit window. Click Start/Edit workflow .

When the users click this icon, it means the task will go from incomplete to complete. We decided that incomplete is represented by 0 and complete is 5. Click to add a new action. Under Data (Things) , click Make changes to a thing .

On the Thing to change , click Current cell's Task .

Click Change another field. Click the input field to pick status , and type the number 5.

When a user clicks this icon, the task's status data field changes from 0 to 5, going from incomplete to complete.

Part 4: Testing

It's time to test and see if everything is working well. Click the Preview button on the top right of the screen.

A new tab on your browser will open, showing you a preview of the final app. Use this preview window to test your app. Is the menu working well? Can you add, delete, and mark tasks as done? If so, you've completed all the steps successfully. Congratulations!

(Look for the debugger at the bottom part of the screen. You can use it to troubleshoot any problems within your app.)

This is just the base for a small productivity app. From here, you can add as many new features as you want, while customizing the look and feel as you go.

Whether you're building something for yourself, something for your business, or an entirely new product or service, Bubble and other no-code app builders on the market give you tools you need to build a powerful and polished web app without a single line of code.

Want to know more? Explore Bubble's How to Build series , and practice your app-building skills as you replicate popular apps.

Related reading:

We don't code. But we built our MVP for $100/month.

How I launched an app using no-code tools

Zapier data report: The rise of no-code

How to create a no-code app using popular tools and Zapier

Getting started with no-code: a free course from Makerpad and Zapier

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Miguel Rebelo

Miguel Rebelo is a freelance writer based in London, UK. He loves technology, video games, and huge forests. Track him down at mirebelo.com.

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Free online quiz maker

Make a quiz with different question types to engage students in a classroom, train employees at work, or play trivia with friends.

Used by 50 million+ people around the world

Make your own quiz with our online quiz maker

Quickly and easily create interactive online quizzes for free! With Quizizz, you can create a quiz that boosts engagement and participation with just a few clicks. Whether you’re looking to create a homework assignment for Math class, or an ice breaker to welcome new faces, there’s something here for everyone.

Quizizz for Schools 

Craft questions that enable students to identify multiple relevant areas, challenging them to think deeply about the image's elements and their relationships.

Quizizz for Work 

Make employee training and education fun with Quizizz for Work. Our online quiz maker enables you to facilitate live engagement through presentations, quizzes, and polls. Use Quizizz at work for employee onboarding, e-learning, community engagement, and more!

Create immersive quizzes complete with images, gifs, audio clips, videos, graphs, illustrations, and so much more! Tap into 12+ question types including Multiple Choice , Drag and Drop, Fill in the Blanks , and Hotspot. With Quizizz, you can also double the fun with power-ups, music, themes, and memes. 

So Many Question Types to Choose From

In this classic activity, learners can complete sentences by filling in the blanks with the right answers.

Ask your students to reorder a set of jumbled options in ascending, descending, or chronological order.

Present learners with the opportunity to select one or more correct answers from a list of options.

Gamify your assessment with shuffled text and images that your students can pair together.

Choose between a plain background or an image and watch as students give shape to their thoughts with colors, highlighters, and more.

Motivate learners to think critically by dragging and dropping the right options to complete a sentence.

Let students take center stage with video responses so you can assess their presentation skills.

Check the pulse of your classroom with a fun poll or vote.

Use Lessons to create an instructor-led experience where slides and multimedia are combined with quiz and poll questions.

Engage your students’ higher order thinking skills and encourage them to dig deep with open-ended questions.

Analyze speaking skills by allowing students to voice their answers using the audio response feature.

Prompt your students to choose between a set of drop-down options to fill out the blanks in a piece of text.

How to Make a Quiz

Launch: Visit Quizizz , click on ‘Create’, and select the ‘Quiz’ option

Create: Mix and match 15 different question types including Multiple Choice, Reorder, Graphing, and Fill in the Blanks to make your own quiz, or

Search: Import existing questions from over 30M quizzes and lessons created by the Quizizz community, or

Import: Bring in quizzes from your spreadsheets or Google Forms, so you never have to start from scratch

Customize: Add images, videos, gifs, audio clips, equations, and more to your questions and answer options

Host: Choose between multiple game modes including Live, Homework, Team, Test, and Paper Mode to host your quiz and get instant results

Quickly find or create a quiz from the library

Prepare high-quality, interactive quizzes in as little as two minutes.

Browse through 30M+ activities spanning all topics and subjects

Build from scratch, copy entire activities, or make your own quiz by combining content that best meets your students’ needs.

Get detailed results at your fingertips

Our online quiz maker provides the exact insights you need to make data-driven instruction a reality.

Identify and immediately adapt to your participants’ needs

See overall performance, the toughest question or topic, and individual progress

Quizizz easily integrates with your existing tools

Seamlessly integrate our online quiz maker with tools like Google Classroom, Schoology, and Canvas.

Directly share quiz links with the participants in your classroom with just a single click

Update grades and reports in the blink of an eye by syncing Quizizz with your preferred LMS

You might also be interested in  

The best way to ask questions, explore ideas, and let participants show what they know.

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Create a Mobile App

No code app builder.

The most powerful app builder! Drag elements, customize and publish.

Choose a template

We have many options, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.

Drag and drop

Intuitive Platform, to develop your App without the need to write code.

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You can publish your application in the Play Store and App Store.

App Maker No code

Apphive is an advanced app builder that allows to make dynamic mobile applications without the need to write a single line of code. You just drag and drop elements, edit and you will have a mobile application in minutes.

Native App Builder

Thanks to our smart manager and our simple tools you can make an incredible App: from renting your home as a hotel to converting your car into a taxi. With Apphive you have what you need to achieve it, you can build an app with incredible features: GPS, maps, notifications or store.

Apps with powerful features

We have all the features you need to make your Mobile application a reality! Everything your project needs: GPS, Calendars, Notifications, Payments and much more.

Any project is possible

Academic Apps

Develop an app to make a record of the academic progress of each student: grades, prizes, updates, etc.

Your clients can see the menu, add to the chart, and pay from your app. It also offers your users a home-delivery service.

Driver Apps

You can have your taxi service app, without intermediaries, and with all the functions you need, such as GPS, maps, geolocation, and payments with credit and debit cards.

Apps for events

With this app, the attendees of your event will be able to register, buy tickets, view the schedule, etc.

Real Estate Apps

With this app, you can offer your properties for rent or sell. Your users also can book appointments to see the property.

Health apps

With this app, you can carry the clinical monitoring of your patients, from their progress to their prescriptions and appointments for future consultations.

Apps for Android and IOS

With just one click you can publish your application in Google Play and App Store. Distribute your app with thousands of customers.

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• Organize and communicate with your class
• Create assignments

Create an assignment

This article is for teachers.

When you create an assignment, you can post it immediately, save a draft, or schedule it to post at a later date. After students complete and turn in their work, you can grade and return it to the students.

Open all | Close all

Create & post assignments

When you create an assignment, you can:

• Select one or more classes

Select individual students

Add a grade category, add a grading period, change the point value, add a due date or time, add a topic, add attachments, add a rubric.

• Turn on originality reports

Go to classroom.google.com  and click Sign In.

Sign in with your Google Account. For example,  [email protected] or [email protected] .  Learn more .

• Enter the title and any instructions.

You can continue to edit and customize your assignment. Otherwise, if you’re ready, see below to post, schedule, or save your assignment .

Select additional classes

Assignments to multiple classes go to all students in those classes.

• Create an assignment (details above).

Unless you’re selecting multiple classes, you can select individual students. You can’t select more than 100 students at a time.

• Click a student's name to select them.

Use grade categories to organize assignments. With grade categories, you and your students can see the category an assignment belongs to, such as Homework or Essays . Teachers also see the categories on the Grades page.

For more information on grade categories, go to Add a grade category to posts or Set up grading .

To organize assignments and grades into your school or district’s grading structure, create grading periods, such as quarters or semesters.

• From the menu, select a grading period.

Tip: Before adding a grading period to an assignment, create a grading period for the class first. Learn how to create or edit grading periods .

You can change the point value of an assignment or make the assignment ungraded. By default, assignments are set at 100 points.

• Under Points , click the value.
• Enter a new point value or select Ungraded .

By default, an assignment has no due date. To set a due date:

• Click a date on the calendar.
• To create a topic, click Create topic and enter a topic name.
• Click a topic in the list to select it.

Note : You can only add one topic to an assignment.

Learn more about how to add topics to the Classwork page .

• Create an assignment.

• Important: Google Drive files can be edited by co-teachers and are view-only to students. To change these share options, you can stop, limit, or change sharing .

• To add YouTube videos, an admin must turn on this option. Learn about access settings for your Google Workspace for Education account .
• You can add interactive questions to YouTube video attachments. Learn how to add interactive questions to YouTube video attachments .

• Tip: When you attach a practice set to an assignment, you can't edit it.

• If you see a message that you don’t have permission to attach a file, click Copy . Classroom makes a copy of the file to attach to the assignment and saves it to the class Drive folder.
• Students can view file —All students can read the file, but not edit it.
• Students can edit file —All students share the same file and can make changes to it.

Note : This option is only available before you post an assignment.

Use an add-on

For instructions, go to Use add-ons in Classroom

For instructions, go to Create or reuse a rubric for an assignment .

For instructions, go to Turn on originality reports .

You can post an assignment immediately, or schedule it to post later. If you don’t want to post it yet, you can save it as a draft. To see scheduled and drafted assignments, click Classwork .

Post an assignment

• Follow the steps above to create an assignment.
• Click Assign to immediately post the assignment.

Schedule the assignment to post later

Scheduled assignments might be delayed up to 5 minutes after the post time.

• To schedule the same assignment across multiple classes, make sure to select all classes you want to include.
• When you enter a time, Classroom defaults to PM unless you specify AM.
• (Optional) Select a due date and topic for each class.
• (Optional) To replicate your selected time and date for the first class into all subsequent classes, click Copy settings to all .
• Click Schedule . The assignment will automatically post at the scheduled date and time.

After scheduling multiple assignments at once, you can still edit assignments later by clicking into each class and changing them individually.

Save an assignment as a draft

• Follow the steps above to create an assignment

You can open and edit draft assignments on the Classwork page.

Manage assignments

Edits affect individual classes. For multi-class assignments, make edits in each class.

Note : If you change an assignment's name, the assignment's Drive folder name isn't updated. Go to Drive and rename the folder.

Edit a posted assignment

• Enter your changes and click Save .

Edit a scheduled assignment

• Enter your changes and click Schedule .

Edit a draft assignment

Changes are automatically saved.

• Assign it immediately (details above).
• Schedule it to post at a specific date and time (details above).
• Click a class.

You can only delete an assignment on the Classwork page.

If you delete an assignment, all grades and comments related to the assignment are deleted. However, any attachments or files created by you or the students are still available in Drive.

Related articles

• Create or reuse a rubric for an assignment
• Create a quiz assignment
• Create a question
• Use add-ons in Classroom
• Create, edit, delete, or share a practice set
• Learn about interactive questions for YouTube videos in Google Classroom

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Free Online Test Maker

Scrambling to create a test? You’re in luck because with Jotform’s test maker for teachers, it will only take you a few minutes to create online tests for your class! No matter what subject you teach, you can build a test that perfectly suits your needs . Add conditional logic, customize form fields, and even grade answers automatically — all without any coding.

Free Online Test Templates

Don’t want to build a test from scratch? Choose one of our ready-made test templates and customize it to match your needs. Go old school with classic form templates or make quizzes more fun with easy-to-use card forms that show one question at a time. No matter what subject you teach, build your perfect online test or quiz with Jotform.

Multiple Choice Test

Vocabulary Quiz

Instantly create online tests

Seamlessly create engaging tests.

Build online tests for your in-person or digital classroom with our free online exam maker — no coding required. Simply drag and drop to add test instructions, add or remove questions, include a file upload field, upload images to questions, and change fonts and colors. You can also choose from an array of question types — multiple-choice, short answer, true/false, rating scale, and more.

Add Helpful Automation Tools

Build tests and quizzes that are just as smart as your students. Set up conditional logic to hide or reveal questions according to your students’ answers. You can also add other advanced widgets to your form like an orderable list, image picker, and multiple selection to take your test to the next level — all without any coding knowledge required.

Generate Beautiful Test Reports

Analyze your test results with our powerful Report Builder feature to understand where your students are succeeding and where they could use more instruction. After you’ve collected test submissions, you can view the results in Jotform and tailor your lesson plans directly to their needs. You can even generate reports with Jotform Report Builder for parent-teacher conferences or school board presentations.

Create Your Own Test App

Bundle all of your online tests together in a single, shareable, downloadable app using Jotform’s Quiz App Maker . Customize the design of your app in minutes, and add links to tutoring request forms, past lectures, study guides, and more.

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Sonya Atkinson , Flint Hill School , Learning Specialist and Academic Coach

Learn More About Test Maker

All your questions about Jotform — answered. Check out our FAQs for answers to common questions, or contact our support team for further information.

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What is an online test maker?

An online test maker is an online tool or software that companies or individuals use to build and customize tests or quizzes for students, staff training programs, and other general assessments. Not only do online test makers allow people to build meaningful exams and quizzes, but most online test makers also let their creators track scores and give grades through the same tool.

What is a test maker used for?

In general, an online test maker is used to create custom, interactive tests or quizzes. A test maker can be used for various types of quizzes and tests, in various industries — it just depends on the user’s needs and requirements.

Who can use a test maker?

Teachers and professors can use them to build tests, students can use them to study for exams, HR professionals can use them for employee training, and so on. If you need to create a test or quiz for any reason, you can use an online test maker.

What are the benefits of using an online test maker?

There are many benefits to using an online test maker, especially in today’s digital landscape. With other aspects of education happening online — like class registration, textbook shopping, and tuition payments — it makes sense that tests and quizzes are done online as well.

Some key benefits include:

• Eliminating the costs of printing paper tests
• Recording and organizing test scores for easy access
• Automated test grading to save you time

How do you create tests with a test maker?

With Jotform, it’s super easy and fun to build a test. You can either create one from scratch or start with one of our many quiz templates to get your creativity flowing. After you’ve selected a template that you like, simply add your test questions in whichever format you’d like — multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and more. Then customize your quiz to match your vision by changing fonts and colors, uploading images, adding widgets and integrations, and more.

Can I set time limits for test completion?

Yes, you can set time limits for your online tests with Jotform by using the Countdown widget. The timer will start when test takers open your quiz or test. This feature is great for take-home tests and online homework assignments.

Can I randomize the order of questions on the test?

Yes, with Jotform you can randomize the order of your questions for your online tests by using our handy Shuffle widget. Just add this widget to your test or quiz and select your shuffling preferences in the settings.

Can I create multiple choice, true/false, or short answer questions?

Yes, you can create multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions, among other question types. Simply open the Form Builder and navigate to the quiz that you’d like to edit. From the Form Elements menu on the left, drag and drop the types of questions you’d like to add to your test.

Can I add images or videos to my test questions?

Yes, you can add images and videos to your test questions. Simply open the test you’d like to edit in the Jotform Form Builder and navigate to the Form Elements section in the sidebar. Drag and drop the Image element where you’d like it to appear in your quiz.

Can I set up the test to allow students to save and resume their progress at a later time?

Yes, you can set up your test or quiz to allow your students to save and continue at a later time. To enable this feature, simply open up the test and navigate to Settings in the middle of the top bar of the Form Builder. Then click Form Settings on the left sidebar and then click Show More Options. Scroll down to Continue Forms Later and then switch the selection to Enabled. Now your students will be able to save their progress and revisit the test at a later date.

Can I see a preview of my test before publishing it?

Yes, you can preview your test or quiz before you publish it. Just open up the Form Builder, make your edits, and then toggle the Preview Form button in the upper right of the screen to see a preview of your test.

What are the other terms for a test maker?

Test makers are referred to by other names, but they generally perform the same functions. Some other popular terms for test makers are:

• Test builder
• Test creator
• Test generator

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9 Writing Apps For Your College Assignments

When you are in college, writing can seem like a huge job. How can someone successfully manage and organize their thoughts when they have a lot of work to do? Do not be afraid! Lots of writing apps are out there that can help you write better and faster by working like your digital helper. Are you ready to start? Let’s look into these useful tools together.

Why You Need Writing Apps

Benefits of writing apps.

You might be wondering why all the fuss is about writing apps. Many people use writing apps instead of paper, but these apps are like superheroes in the world of writing. They come to your aid and help you fix your spelling, put your ideas in order, and even remember your homework.

The Modern Writing Toolkit

Imagine having a magic set of tools that changes based on what you need to write. In fact, these writing apps do just that. With features like real-time collaboration, grammar checking, and project management, they change and adapt to make sure you have everything you need to face your assignments head-on.

1. AssignmentBro

AssignmentBro is the first tool that stands out that you might want to use for your college assignments. This is a specialized do my assignment online service that helps college students handle and do well on their tasks. AssignmentBro stands out because it focuses on giving you help that is tailored to your needs.

2. Google Docs

Real-time collaboration.

When you want to work together, Google Docs is great. It’s easy to share your work and get comments in real time. Doesn’t that sound perfect for group projects?

Access Anywhere

Because Google Docs is in the cloud, you can view your work from anywhere at any time. No more forgetting to do homework at home!

3. Grammarly

Grammar and spelling checks.

In a way, Grammarly is like a kind but thorough English teacher. It helps you improve your work by finding and fixing mistakes that are simple to miss.

Enhancing Writing Style

Grammarly doesn’t just fix mistakes; it also offers ways to improve your style, which makes your writing clear and crisp. It’s like having a writing expert help you get better.

4. Evernote

Organizing your thoughts.

As you write, Evernote keeps your thoughts and notes in order, like a personal writing assistant. It’s like having a digital notebook that is well-organized and easy to carry around with you.

Ease of Access

You can easily get to your notes and thoughts from any device. Doesn’t it make the process of writing easier and more open?

5. Scrivener

For long assignments.

Scrivener is like the planner of writing apps; it helps you organize long, complicated tasks. It’s very helpful for working on theses and papers.

Powerful Writing Tools

Scrivener makes writing more organized and less stressful by giving you a lot of strong tools. You’ll feel like you have a writing warrior by your side, ready to fight the chaos of big tasks.

6. Hemingway App

Making your writing easy.

The Hemingway App is the best app for writing that is clear and to the point. You can think of it as a personal editor that cuts out words and sentences that aren’t needed, leaving your work clear and to the point.

Improvements to Readability

The app makes sure that your writing is clear and easy to understand, so your points and ideas stand out.

Workspace with Everything You Need

Notion is like a Swiss Army Knife; it gives you many ways to handle your writing jobs. It brings together different parts of your project, making sure that everything fits together and is well-organized.

Making Changes

With Notion, you can make your workspace fit your style and tastes by customizing it. It’s like having your own personal study space.

Managing a Project

Trello is the project manager you’ve always wanted. Making a plan and organizing your tasks will help you meet your due dates without any problems.

Writing with Others

Are you working on a group project? Trello makes working together easy and efficient, which encourages teamwork and unity.

9. FocusWriter

Writing without being distracted.

FocusWriter is a safe place for writers to work without being interrupted, which helps them concentrate and stay on task. It’s like going into a quiet room where you can be creative without any interruptions.

Customizable Backgrounds

Change the background and themes to fit your mood and tastes. This will make writing more comfortable and unique for you.

There are a lot of different writing apps out there, and each one is like a magic wand for writers. They help you plan, manage, and improve your writing, so you can turn in great assignments. So, are you ready to change the way you write?

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Create an app widget with Glance

The following sections describe how to create a simple app widget with Glance.

Declare the AppWidget in the Manifest

After completing the setup steps , declare the AppWidget and its metadata in your app.

• Register the provider of the app widget in your AndroidManifest.xml file and the associated metadata file:
• Extend the AppWidget receiver from GlanceAppWidgetReceiver :

class MyAppWidgetReceiver : GlanceAppWidgetReceiver() { override val glanceAppWidget: GlanceAppWidget = TODO("Create GlanceAppWidget") } GlanceSnippets.kt

Add the AppWidgetProviderInfo metadata

Next, follow this step to add the AppWidgetProviderInfo metadata:

Follow the Create a simple widget guide to create and define the app widget info in the @xml/my_app_widget_info file.

The only difference for Glance is that there is no initialLayout XML, but you must define one. You can use the predefined loading layout provided in the library:

Define GlanceAppWidget

Create a new class that extends from GlanceAppWidget and overrides the provideGlance method. This is the method where you can load data that is needed to render your widget:

class MyAppWidget : GlanceAppWidget() { override suspend fun provideGlance(context: Context, id: GlanceId) { // In this method, load data needed to render the AppWidget. // Use `withContext` to switch to another thread for long running // operations. provideContent { // create your AppWidget here Text("Hello World") } } } GlanceSnippets.kt

• Instantiate it in the glanceAppWidget on your GlanceAppWidgetReceiver :

class MyAppWidgetReceiver : GlanceAppWidgetReceiver() { // Let MyAppWidgetReceiver know which GlanceAppWidget to use override val glanceAppWidget: GlanceAppWidget = MyAppWidget() } GlanceSnippets.kt

You've now configured an AppWidget using Glance.

The following snippet demonstrates how to create the UI:

/* Import Glance Composables In the event there is a name clash with the Compose classes of the same name, you may rename the imports per https://kotlinlang.org/docs/packages.html#imports using the `as` keyword. import androidx.glance.Button import androidx.glance.layout.Column import androidx.glance.layout.Row import androidx.glance.text.Text */ class MyAppWidget : GlanceAppWidget() { override suspend fun provideGlance(context: Context, id: GlanceId) { // Load data needed to render the AppWidget. // Use `withContext` to switch to another thread for long running // operations. provideContent { // create your AppWidget here MyContent() } } @Composable private fun MyContent() { Column( modifier = GlanceModifier.fillMaxSize(), verticalAlignment = Alignment.Top, horizontalAlignment = Alignment.CenterHorizontally ) { Text(text = "Where to?", modifier = GlanceModifier.padding(12.dp)) Row(horizontalAlignment = Alignment.CenterHorizontally) { Button( text = "Home", onClick = actionStartActivity<MainActivity>() ) Button( text = "Work", onClick = actionStartActivity<MainActivity>() ) } } } } GlanceSnippets.kt

The preceding code sample does the following:

• In the top level Column , items are placed vertically one after each other.
• The Column expands its size to match the available space (via the GlanceModifier and aligns its content to the top ( verticalAlignment ) and centers it horizontally ( horizontalAlignment ).
• The first item in the Column is a Text component with 12.dp of padding.
• The second item is a Row , where items are placed horizontally one after each other, with two Buttons centered horizontally ( horizontalAlignment ). The final display depends on the available space. The following image is an example of what it may look like:

You can change the alignment values or apply different modifier values (such as padding) to change the placement and size of the components. See the reference documentation for a full list of components, parameters, and available modifiers for each class.

Content and code samples on this page are subject to the licenses described in the Content License . Java and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2024-03-25 UTC.

Download iTunes for Windows

In Windows 10 and later, you can access your music, video content, and Apple devices in their own dedicated apps: Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app. If your PC doesn’t support these apps, you can continue to use iTunes for Windows.

Use the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app for Windows

Instead of iTunes, you can use three dedicated apps designed specifically for listening to music, watching content, and managing your Apple devices.

Apple Music app

Listen to and manage music from your iTunes library, including your iTunes Store purchases.

Learn more about the Apple Music app for Windows

Apple TV app

Watch and manage movies and TV shows from your iTunes library, including your iTunes Store purchases.

Learn more about the Apple TV app for Windows

Apple Devices app

Manually update, back up, restore, and manage your iPhone or iPad. And manually sync content from your PC.

Learn more about the Apple Devices app for Windows

Important things to know about the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app

You need Windows 10 or later.

You need to download all three apps: Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app. If you download only one of these apps, iTunes will prompt you to download the other two apps to access your music and video content from your iTunes library.

After you download these apps, you can use iTunes to access only your podcasts and audiobooks.

The Apple Music app and Apple TV app read the contents of your iTunes library — so don't delete your iTunes library.

To access your iTunes Store purchases in the Apple Music app and Apple TV app, you need to authorize your computer with your Apple ID .

What happens to iTunes after you download the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app

After you download the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app, you won't see any of your music or video content in iTunes. And you can't use iTunes to manually sync and manage your iPhone or iPad. You can use iTunes to access only your podcasts and audiobooks.

To access your music and video content from your iTunes library, use the Apple Music app and Apple TV app. To manage your iPhone or iPad, use the Apple Devices app.

Download and update the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app

Download the Apple Music app for Windows from the Microsoft Store

Download the Apple TV app for Windows from the Microsoft Store

Download the Apple Devices app for Windows from the Microsoft Store

After you download the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app, you can check for updates in the Microsoft Store.

If your PC doesn't support the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app

If your PC doesn't meet the system requirements for the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, and Apple Devices app, you can continue to use iTunes for Windows.

How to get iTunes for Windows

Download iTunes for Windows from the Microsoft Store

If you need help downloading iTunes from the Microsoft Store or managing iTunes for Windows, contact Microsoft .

After you download iTunes for Windows, you can check for updates in the Microsoft Store.

Learn more about iTunes for Windows

Learn how to use iTunes for Windows in the User Guide

Store availability and features might vary by country or region. See what you can buy in your country or region .

Apple Music availability might vary by country or region. The Apple TV app and features of the Apple TV app aren't available in all countries and regions. Learn what's available in your country or region .

Explore Apple Support Community

Find what’s been asked and answered by Apple customers.

Contact Apple Support

Need more help? Save time by starting your support request online and we'll connect you to an expert.

IFGS 2024 4+

Innovate finance limited, designed for iphone, iphone screenshots, description.

The official app for the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS)! Download now to enhance your conference experience. Elevate your networking game and connect with fellow delegates, schedule meetings. Create your own personalised schedule and effortlessly browse and save sessions throughout the two-day event. Don't miss out on this opportunity to maximise your IFGS – download the app today!

Version 10.19.1

Bug fixes and performance improvement.

App Privacy

The developer, Innovate Finance Limited , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Diagnostics

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

• Contact Info
• User Content
• Search History
• Identifiers

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

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