• Finally created a Twitter account for Grades: @gradesapp. This is for people who are interested in Grades and not necessarily interested in all the stuff I post with my @jerols account. I will be sending all @gradesapp followers a DM at launch, so it functions like a mailing list too.
• Created a Twitter list of bloggers that have a history of covering iPhone apps. I check this list multiple times a day to see if there are opportunities for me to genuinely engage with these folks (without spamming them).
• Created a Twitter list of Apple employees. The people who vote on what goes on “staff picks” and other featured sections in the app store are *gasp* real people. If you can get them excited about your app, chances are buzz will build inside Apple and your app may just get the vote. Don’t spam them—I haven’t mentioned Grades to any of them. Its all about genuine interactions. Eventually they’ll figure out that I’m working on a cool app called Grades. Another way to target Apple employees is by running targeted ads on Facebook.
• Right now I have been using my primary Twitter account to follow the people I want to engage with (not the @gradesapp account). I think the spam light goes off for influential people when they see something-app is following them. The people you care about will only follow you back if your tweets genuinely interest them, and updates on a single iPhone app usually won’t cut it. Get into their mind and look at your profile. What are your latest tweets about? Who are you talking to? If they see you engaging with somebody they respect, they are more likely to follow. Don’t get overly introspective but it helps to think consider these things a little bit when you’re about to engage someone on Twitter.

And this is just the beginning. Today I had lunch with the CLT Blog guys—The Carolina social media kings—and realized I am just beginning to touch the potential of social media. More on that later.

Yesterday was awesome. Last night MacStories, no small Apple blog, ran a glowing preview of Grades, “a must have application for students.”

There’s a story behind that.

The story

About a week ago, when I posted my marketing plan, I started engaging some of the larger sites that cover iPhone apps. At this stage, “engage” equals follow on Twitter. I was planning to start reaching out to some of these influential writers, retweeting them, replying to them, etc. but before I could get started they started reaching out to me saying stuff like “hey, keep me posted about that Grades app, looks great.” Wow, that was unexpected. I bet a lot of it has to do with the easy-to-grasp idea behind Grades coupled with its visual appeal.

Back to the story. Viticci of MacStories gets me in touch with one of their main contributors, Cody Fink, who happens to be a college student living in my neck of the woods! Great. So we did lunch yesterday and we talked about all kinds of stuff—really had a blast. And yes, I gave him a preview of Grades. Its much easier to market something that actually is remarkable, worth talking about. I don’t want to sound presumptuous but I have been taking the time (a full year) to go the extra mile on this one, and at least Cody liked it. I’ll leave it at that—the market will ultimately determine if it really is remarkable.

So MacStories was obviously going to review the app, and I was going to provide a pre-release copy so that the review could coincide with the launch, but I think pre-launch buzz is also really important and this was an opportunity to build buzz with a wider audience. I talked to Cody about doing a preview. I was a bit cautious since I noticed that MacStories didn’t have too many iPhone app previews. His response surprised me. If the app is good, they love doing previews! The reason they don’t have too many is that developers rarely offer them. Shame on us. MacStories has a huge audience and we aren’t taking advantage of it to build that all-important buzz on launch day. These people want to help us! And we complain about not having enough money for marketing. Hogwash.

Anyhow, the post went up last night and the response has been great so far. Based on my suggestion, they’re trying something I haven’t seen before: a pre-release giveaway. It actually makes a lot of sense. Giveaways have the benefit of building buzz but post-launch giveaways also have a downside: people entering your giveaway are less likely to go out and buy the app. Pre-launch giveaways don’t have that problem. Just pure buzz.

So far so good. Your thoughts, feelings, and advice are all welcome. I’ll keep you posted the best I can.

Update: for those who missed it, I also recently put out a video sneak peek of the Grades opening screen (when you open the app for the first time). It gives you a good peek at the kind of details I’ve been obsessing over for the past year (embedded below):

For the sake of mutual learning, I’ll be very transparent about my launch plan. Here goes:

Background

This is important. Taking the steps that follow would not be nearly as profitable were it not for my previous marketing activity, here’s a summary:

• Set up Tapity.com with a custom template and began posting observations and insights regarding iPhone development, design, and marketing.
• Built my Twitter brand by posting quality links and thoughts relating to iPhone apps.
• Used Twitter and Tapity.com to connect with thought leaders in the community.

I did other stuff too, like maintaining a Facebook page, designing a nice promo website with a mailing list, making a video for the App Star awards, gained a nice community of beta testers etc. etc. but I think the value of those efforts pale in comparison to the value I have gained from my social media efforts. Its not mainly the number of people who follow me or subscribe to my blog but the quality of people I’ve been able to talk to and connect with—people who I’ve always admired and who are influencers in the community. I feel gaining respect in the community may turn out to be the most profitable “marketing” I will ever do. Its hard, but I think its worth it.

So from there, lets take a look at my plan for the next few weeks:

1. Finish the previewable version

I’ve prioritized my development tasks so that I finish design/polish tasks first and the other less obvious tasks later (i.e. localization, obscure bug fixes, and feature requests that don’t have a huge impact on the bottom line). This will allow me to have a very polished pre-release copy to show influential friends, press, and review websites.

2. Blogging and guest blogging

With a full school/work schedule I haven’t had much time to blog recently. I do have some really interesting posts in the pipeline, some of which may garner some extra interest. For example, one of my upcoming posts contains some great insights from some correspondence I had with a developer you have probably heard of.

I have also been invited to guest blog for a website where my writing would be featured alongside articles by some of my favorite and most respected thinkers. If the first article goes over well it could really help build my personal brand, which always helps in getting press coverage and making connections. I also think I’ll learn a lot from the experience.

3. Press previews

Once the “preview-able” version is ready, I’ll connect with some of the fine folks who run prominent blogs and app review sites and invite them to take my app for a spin with the hope that they would either preview the app to generate pre-launch buzz or post a review of the app the day it launches (giving them at least a week to write the review before launching so that all the reviews can come out at once). I’ll prepare for this by coming up with a great video, description, and press package. I’ll also try to engage these individuals on Twitter as much as possible before sending them an email. Cold calling can be fruitful but warm doors are much better.

It is crucial, especially for the big sites, to find out the individuals who would be most likely to find your app interesting and pitch them specifically (hint: it probably won’t be the top dog). I’ll also offer some of the bigger blogs some promo codes in case they would like to hold contests.

List of sites I plan to pitch to (please, let me know if I’m missing any crucial ones):

• 148Apps
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog
• The Apple Blog
• Macworld
• iPhone Atlas
• AppVee
• Apptism
• Ars Technica
• Just Another iPhone Blog
• The Daily App Show
• App.itize.us
• Touch My Apps
• Gizmodo
• ReadWriteWeb
• TechCrunch (hey, one can dream can’t he?)

Update: some more (thanks Chris, Marco, and Fares!)

• MacStories
• Smoking Apples
• App Advice
• Mashable
• Appolicious
• AppBoy
• AppStorm
• SlapApp
• What’s on iPhone

4. Local blitz

I’ve got some great connections with local press, which I hope to take full advantage of come launch time. I also plan to get buzz going at my campus. I started a few weeks ago with an email to all students in the Computer Science and SIS departments announcing the Grades beta (which was quite fruitful). I’m going to see if I can get another email out to the broader student population and I’m also going to post posters all over campus come launch day.

5. Launch

When the app gets approved, I’ll send an email to all the people who have written reviews letting them know its publish time. I’ll also push the news to Tapity.com, Twitter, and the mailing list (right now 65 people have asked to be notified but I hope to grow that significantly before launch). The key is to get as much buzz as possible in a 1-4 day window—enough buzz to put you on the charts or get noticed by Apple, starting the snowball effect.

And thats it. I had planned to do a extravagant contest/Facebook deal but I no longer have the time to follow up on that; gotta know my limits. I’ll be sure to post progress reports as I go—would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Go ahead and watch the short video above.

I’ve chosen a “drawer” metaphor, so when the app opens, the drawer opens up with some audio feedback. When the user scrolls, the wood background also scrolls (rather than just the paper on top, as most apps do). This gives the illusion that you are moving the actual drawer up and down. Finally, if you scroll too far down, you expose the drawer knob and the floor underneath it, just as you would expect.

Let me know what you think.

Update: the video is set to public now (used to be private, sorry!)

I am uber-pleased to present to you an interview with Michael and Willi, the guys behind Robocat and the craftsmen of the very popular app, Outside (app store link). I’m very honored that Michael and Willi took the time to provide me their insights on their success, their answers are worth every app developer’s attention.

Tapity: Congratulations on a successful launch and a great product. Like the Tapmates, who I interviewed last, you are a team composed on a designer + a developer. Again and again I’ve seen this kind of team push out great apps (i.e. Tapmates and Tapbots) and often succeed financially. Tell us a little about yourselves. Also, what do you think are the benefits and detriments of working as a team and do you have any tips for those of us considering this kind of partnership?

Michael: I’m a 25 year-young designer and University Masters Reject. I’ve been freelancing internationally as an iconist and interface designer for 3 years now. I maintain pixelresort.com where I give out free icons and the occasional article. I also have a handful of other web startups and generally just enjoy the freedom and caffeine intake a young independent designer is supposed to. I think the benefits of working as a designer/developer duo is an increase in performance in almost every aspect of planning, developing and launching a polished product. It’s all about complimenting each other’s skills. Designing and developing apps requires very different mindsets, which means that in almost every situation of development people engaging in these two activities will have some valuable insight that will help create a better product.

Willi: I’m the developer of the team. My background is in theoretical Computer Science at Copenhagen University. As a computer scientist I’m actually quite interested in the area of HCI. I have done some work in information visualization and usability testing. I’ve always been interested in icon and graphics design. When I stumbled upon Michael’s artworks, I simply fell in love with his style and attention to detail.

It’s definitely a benefit working as team in contrast to outsourcing the design part. We kept pushing each other to improve the quality of the app. There are several times where Michael and I had to redo a lot of work to improve the overall direction. This would have been costly had we outsourced any part of the development. This was our first collaboration, so we used this project as a steppingstone on how we best should work together in future projects.

Tapity: Outside has sometimes been criticized for lacking a lot of the features the other top weather apps have (like weather radars). I realize, however, that it is easy to add features while it is hard to axe them. What was the design process of Outside and how did you determine and stick to the scope?

Michael: From the get-go we wanted to create something that wasn’t already on the shelves. We wanted to make the whole business of weather forecasting more fun and accessible. This meant that instead of looking through tables of weather data or advanced satellite images we wanted people to feel a sense of ‘exploring’ the weather. This entry point of simplicity stuck with the app all through development. In the end it also came down to what weather sources we could combine to get global accurate weather data. Many features like radar images simply weren’t available globally for free. We thought it was important to have a single app that would have the same feature set worldwide, instead of having say, US specific features. So the process of ‘feature elimination’ was also helped by what data was available.

Willi: The design process was pretty straightforward. We wanted the app to be ridiculously simple to use. We had the opportunity to start with a blank slate for a weather app. Instead of trying to fit as much weather information as possible on a tiny screen, we started with the bare minimum of features and then applied the 80-20 rule. We brainstormed what kind of features made sense for us as average knowledgeable users. We had to tighten the scope and we didn’t feel like making an app for amateur meteorologists. We ended up with a much better product because of it.

Tapity: In almost every kind of coverage I’ve seen of Outside, there is one common denominator: people say it is fun. This is a subject that I have been delving into recently because I think it is important, especially in iPhone apps. While not every iPhone app needs to be fun, the “fun-factor” is certainly a way to differentiate your app from the crowd. I also believe that people tend to share experiences that turn mundane activities into fun ones. What were the costs and benefits of going beyond usable and what are some of the factors that can make an iPhone application delightful to use?

Michael: The hedonic qualities of interface design are something I spend a lot of time researching getting my university degree in pixel pushing. There really is no hard rules that define what fun is and how to inject it into your projects, which makes the whole thing wonderfully intangible. There are however, some guidelines that will help you gain a level of delight. They all have to do with the polish and interactivity of your app. Smooth animations, sound and whimsical analogies can help turn mundane tasks into stuff that feels fun. There’s a high level of obsessing over pixel perfect details and timing of animations going on to create something that people find enjoyable to use – I guess the cost of this is prolonged development times and sleeping disorders where the benefits are clearly a more enjoyable (and perhaps marketable) product.

Willi: We wanted to turn something as boring as checking the weather forecast into something fun and enjoyable. Regular people don’t really care that much about checking weather, they just want to know if they need an umbrella or can wear a t-shirt for the day. The “fun-factor” is definitely important for people to take notice of your app. We took a lot of time to polish the user experience, eg. I had to switch from a working animation system in Core Animation to OpenGL ES in mid-development, because the performance for the animations weren’t up to our standards. It was definitely worth it at the end though.

Tapity: Outside has been featured by a number of prominent blogs. What coverage do you feel helped the most and what was your role in getting that kind of coverage?

Michael: Actually I think our coverage has been our greatest triumph. We haven’t spend a single dime on marketing. A lot of labour has gone into making it easy and accessible to talk about Outside. We’ve got a press package for download over at outsideapp.com and I cooked up a nice video teaser in After Effects but generally we’ve employed an ideology of “if it’s a good and interesting product, people will talk about it”. This strategy has proven to work. This is really satisfying because it basically means that if you create a well thought out and polished product, that’s nicely presented, people will applaud it and spread it naturally. There’s something wonderfully honest and democratic about that.

Willi: I believe that our unique approach have helped a lot, in terms of getting coverage on many different blogs. The timing of the launch also helped, as people are generally more interested in the weather when it’s bad.

Tapity: You launched the app at $3 and it has been doing very well. The additional subscription model has been a bit controversial (I think to the shame of humanity in general because I think it is perfectly fair). What are your thoughts on pricing and what have been the costs and benefits of going with a subscription model for push notifications?

Michael: There has certainly been a lot of banter and youthful misguided anger at our pricing model and specifically our subscription model. Apparently there’s a very noisy segment that will have you think that you are the son of satan if you release an app that costs more than $0.99. Inherently I think the app store economy is a tough place for a polished app. It’s simply hard to compete with all the bollocks that’s been created by opportunists and if you want to price your 6-months-in-the-making app at $2.99 you’ve got some nerve. As for our subscription model, it’s really quite simple – we wanted to create this awesome notification engine with a server monitoring your custom notifications. We don’t own weather data ourselves and we don’t have our own server, let’s face it – we’re just two guys trying to start a company from a small apartment.

Looking into the future, it became obvious that as our user base grew the server costs would go up. Something would need to cover the cost years into the future – the initial app sales wouldn’t be able to cover it, as logic would dictate it would eventually be very unprofitable. So the subscription model was really our only option if we wanted to pioneer something like this in a weather app. We’ve made sure that the notifications part is completely optional, so that you can always use the rest of the app if you choose not to subscribe.

Willi: As we are only a small team and funded the development ourselves, we have to price Outside according to how much effort and time we put into developing and maintaining the app. We definitely got many people talking about our subscription model. With this model we’re giving the user the freedom to choose whether they want this kind of service or not. This also means that the user can choose to use the service selectively, for example only in the winter quarter. Some people have expressed that they wanted a higher initial price and have notification included in price, but I think that would probably scare more users away. At the current rate of new apps appearing in the App Store, many users just buy apps out of curiosity. The subscription model is also a good way to keep the users using your app, and let those loyal users support your development efforts. Also, Outside 1.0.1 just got approved and here we’ve included a 300 day subscription option for the low price of $1.99 – hopefully a lot of people will find that a compelling option.

Tapity: Any other lessons learned from the launch, especially related to marketing?

Michael: I can’t stress how important it is to just have a great product. It will go a long way in marketing itself by word of mouth (which basically means twitter these days). We learned that having a functional and appealing website, even before the app launches, is an attraction in itself. Also give people the material they need to write about your app, supply them with a press package or a nice video demonstration. The internet is a really chatty place, and if people like what they see- they’ll tell their mates.

Willi: I think the three most important things are: a great product, a great website and an easy way for people to start talking about it (twitter, mailing list with exclusive stuff). Instead of waiting until the app arrives in the App Store, start promoting it a few weeks before, to build up that initial interest.

Tapity: Is there anything else you would like to share regarding your experience designing, building, or marketing Outside?

Michael: It’s been a tremendous experience so far, but Outside is really only in its infancy. We have an exciting Roadmap ahead of us. Also as a company, Robocat just crawled out of the cradle and pawed its first cat tree. We are determined to make this our livelihood and we hope a lot of people will follow and support us as we work our way to becoming a successful development company.

Thanks guys for the great insights, be sure to follow them on Twitter at @flarup and @williwu. These guys are worth watching. As an example, they recently released a neat video documenting the Outside pre-launch excitement. Cool stuff.

Now, the beef

Education. It’s the primary reason this blog has been so quiet lately. It also may be a good reason to start talking again.

Head over to TUAW and read their recent piece on the tablet and education. Its intriguing. Why would Jobs consider the tablet his most important thing he has ever done. Why would the tablet be more important than the Mac, the iPod, or the iPhone—devices that transformed industries? Is it because the tablet will converge all of these into one all-encompassing device? I doubt it. Is it because the tablet will make billions of dollars for apple? Not likely. Perhaps it is because it will transform yet another industry—the print industry—but Steve has transformed industries before—why would this one be more important than the others?

What about the Tablet excites Steve so much? The answer, as TUAW suggests, very well may be education. TUAW pulls out some great quotes, strongly suggesting that education is very close to Steve’s heart and that he really wants to do something about it.

This is exciting. I’ve always been interested in ways technology can facilitate education and feel that the power of technology and the internet is largely untapped and, at least, not efficiently harnessed to produce a remarkable education experience. If Jobs is taking this on… wow, it could be really big.

I, for one, have a feeling my next application is going to be all about education and, yeah, its gonna run on the tablet.

Its all about exploration

One thing we are pretty sure about is that the tablet will have a decent-sized multi-touch screen. This is crazy-awesome just in itself. Why? Educational exploration. Just think of the engaging interfaces we will be able to build for learning and exploring information. I’m just envisioning this delightful UI for zooming through information, getting instant definitions and related info and media and easily storing and retrieving bits and pieces of relevant information (with automatic source referencing). Maybe you don’t see it but as a college student I can just imagine lounging on the couch with this thing, exploring topics for class and having a lot of fun while I’m at it. If Apple can make information exploration and learning genuinely fun, I can see why Steve would be so excited about their “new creation.” Two. More. Days.

As an iPhone developer I have found great inspiration in Mark and Paul’s approach, especially the attention they pay to the “fun factor.” Their interfaces are often not as intuitive as their competitors but this is by design—part of the fun is playing with the apps to see how they work.

I myself would like to learn from them to take the time to design interfaces with personality and subtle and delightful details at every corner, marks of uncompromising quality. Though this kind of quality certainly doesn’t guarantee success on the app store, hooked with a useful app idea with wide appeal and some decent marketing, your looking pretty good.

That combination is pretty rare, though. I think one of the reasons is that developers are too cheap to hire or partner with a great designer (like Mark), something I would highly recommend if your not a designer yourself.

Sneak peak of one of the interactions I am designing

This is what I am focusing on now and I’m really happy with the progress. I am asking myself the question, how can I make interacting with the app fun? How can I give the app a personality of its own? Think Tapbots and TapTapTap’s apps. They go beyond the usable and into the realm of fun. These are the kind of apps people show their friends.

I am not saying that all apps need to be fun. Sometimes usable is good enough (i.e. serious apps like Documents to Go). But, if you can make a mundane task—calculating the grade you need on your next test—fun, that is remarkable. Its something to talk about, something to share.