AN INDEPENDENT STUDY OF MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
By Richard Drezdon
Graduate Student in Master of Science Computer & Information Systems Degree Program, University of Wisconsin-Parkside at Kenosha, Wisconsin USA (Email: [email protected]; Other Activities)
And by Will Zheng
Associate Professor, College of Business, Economics and Computing, University of Wisconsin-Parkside at Kenosha, Wisconsin USA
(Email: [email protected]; Curriculum Vitae)
Background Info
It’s a great time to do an independent study of mobile application development because there are many high quality tools available online for involvement with developing mobile apps! To take a new polytechnic approach for this independent study, we’ll utilize some application development tools we’ve selected for both hands-on learning and development. We’ll report our experiences here at http://www.iTouchComputing.com; this website will provide online progress reports for this study and will later act as a resource website for newcomers and many others who wish to get involved making mobile apps.
Study Objectives
To complete this independent study of mobile application development, we’ll focus on prototyping and development as follows.
1. Prototyping Mobile Apps
2. Developing Mobile Apps Using MIT App Inventor for Android
3. App-Building Using Codeacademy.com HTML Tools
Codeacademy's stated mission is to teach the world programming. According to Fast Company magazine, even New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg has committed to learning how to code using Codeacademy tools (see http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679107/mike-bloomberg-is-a-smart-businessman-thats-why-hes-learning-to-code). Using Codeacademy, we'll learn about some basic HTML programming skills useful for making mobile apps:
Graduate Student in Master of Science Computer & Information Systems Degree Program, University of Wisconsin-Parkside at Kenosha, Wisconsin USA (Email: [email protected]; Other Activities)
And by Will Zheng
Associate Professor, College of Business, Economics and Computing, University of Wisconsin-Parkside at Kenosha, Wisconsin USA
(Email: [email protected]; Curriculum Vitae)
Background Info
It’s a great time to do an independent study of mobile application development because there are many high quality tools available online for involvement with developing mobile apps! To take a new polytechnic approach for this independent study, we’ll utilize some application development tools we’ve selected for both hands-on learning and development. We’ll report our experiences here at http://www.iTouchComputing.com; this website will provide online progress reports for this study and will later act as a resource website for newcomers and many others who wish to get involved making mobile apps.
Study Objectives
To complete this independent study of mobile application development, we’ll focus on prototyping and development as follows.
1. Prototyping Mobile Apps
- How to define and plan the user experience
- How to integrate wire framing/prototyping into the product lifecycle
- How to decide the level of fidelity and details of prototypes
- How to test with users
- How to iterate user feedback
- How to move from prototyping to production
2. Developing Mobile Apps Using MIT App Inventor for Android
- Setup: Set up the computer. Run the emulator. Set up the mobile device. Build the first app.
- Tutorials: Basics of MIT App Inventor using online tutorials.
- Documentation: How specific components and blocks work. About concepts in MIT App Inventor like displaying lists and accessing images & sounds.
- User FAQ: Common questions and answers on using MIT App Inventor.
- Troubleshooting: Finding solutions for common problems.
3. App-Building Using Codeacademy.com HTML Tools
Codeacademy's stated mission is to teach the world programming. According to Fast Company magazine, even New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg has committed to learning how to code using Codeacademy tools (see http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679107/mike-bloomberg-is-a-smart-businessman-thats-why-hes-learning-to-code). Using Codeacademy, we'll learn about some basic HTML programming skills useful for making mobile apps:
- HTML Basics I: Fundamentals of HTML
- HTML Basics II: How to make a webpage look a little nicer with lists, font changes and other techniques