I recently launched my app called WeJourn on both Android and iPhone marketplaces and wanted to share with my fellow Bubble users. Please check it out and let me know if you have any questions how I implemented different features … and of course your feedback is welcome.
What is it?
WeJourn provides a platform for users to choose, track, share and succeed in a variety of personal journeys such as improving Daily Satisfaction, Lowering Stress and Feeling Healthier. The app provides users with insights and recommendations based on their data from connected devices, daily pulse surveys, and crowd-based insights.
Just downloaded your app from the play store. Very cool!
I have a few questions for you (and for all developers).
As I know you dig metadata (related to your app!), I think you and all developers here should support each other by way of sharing a bit more about their stories. I invite you (and others) to share about their development journey.
How long did this project take you from concept to launch?
Did you have coding experience before this project?
The project took about 5 months from concept to launch with efforts starting in January of this year. It was by no means a straight-line to the apps, as I originally built for webapp only, but realized that web-only would not meet my user’s needs. As for the ideation phase (prior to January), I had been kicking this idea around for a while, but it was the Bubble platform that unlocked the ability to create the app. That was because …
I don’t have coding experience. I would bucket my abilities into a technical category, but compare my skill level to that of a relatively expert Excel user with the ability to beg, borrow and edit pre-made code when the need arises. Most important in creating my project, which has ~300 workflows at this point, was not coding, but the ability to think like a coder in terms of structuring data, searches and workflow logic.
As to porting to apps, there are a few tips I would say would provide the smoothest path to launch. First off, check out @natedogg’s series on building mobile apps, it’s a great course for starting out and I’ve leveraged the single-page, hide/show techniques he walks you through. After that, you should grab an iPhone and Android right away and test how your site renders on both (Safari is tricky at times)! This will further reinforce the show-first/hide later techniques you’ll find on the topic. Once that was squared away, I went with a GoNative wrapper, which was very easy to test and deploy, so highly recommend going that route. Lastly, make sure you comply with the various app store rules, no need to play around with getting rejected without a privacy policy or contact link on your home page.
That about covers the high points, but happy to answer questions on specifics where someone is interested
