My ideas for the mobile app I'm making

Agent67

Agent67

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Hey guys, I'm planning to make a mobile app that will act as a reference and learning tool regarding Delphi, mainly targeted at Gr 10 -12 IT learners and people who want to learn the language. I have some ideas I want to get in the air and get some feedback about.

The logo:

1612166040908.png

Is it good enough to use for a mobile app? Or should I change it?

Depend on donations, insert ads or both? (planning to make the app free to download)

Should I add both a donation option (to my PayPal) and put in ads? Or should I do one or the other?

How can I add coding exercises?

I've seen in other apps like Grasshopper, Udemy, etc that they include coding exercises. How can I add these type of exercises into my app? Does it need a specific tool or..?

Should I maybe make the app open-source?

Would it be a good idea to make it open-source?


That's all I have for now

Thanks in advance for the advice and help!

Kind Regards
PrimeSteak
 
Are you authoring the content on your own? Mammoth job for very little return... but depends on your motivation for doing it
 
Spacerat said:
Are you authoring the content on your own? Mammoth job for very little return... but depends on your motivation for doing it
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm going to do it myself. My motivation is to create a resource that will help the IT learners and newcomers to Delphi to master the language and so that they don't have to scour the edges of the internet for info on Delphi. Not every IT learner has a good teacher that can explain the practical stuff to them, so I want to give these learners something to fall back and rely on to help them succeed.
 
Nitpicking now but...the spacing on those </> symbols is a touch clunky. In yours the < touches the /, the > doesn't. Even out the spacing maybe...

ak.png
 
The logo looks good. Is it going to be available on Android & IOS? Focus on your content first and make sure it is solving the learners current problems. Once it gains traction then you can focus on generating income from it. You need to iterate until you find what works.
 
Empower ICT said:
The logo looks good. Is it going to be available on Android & IOS? Focus on your content first and make sure it is solving the learners current problems. Once it gains traction then you can focus on generating income from it. You need to iterate until you find what works.
Click to expand...
It will only be on Android for now, cause you need an actual iPhone to test your app on iOS with Delphi (if I read the docs correctly) and I don't have an iPhone.
 
PrimeSteak said:
It will only be on Android for now, cause you need an actual iPhone to test your app on iOS with Delphi (if I read the docs correctly) and I don't have an iPhone.
Click to expand...
That's fine, What is the plan to rollout the app?
 
Sounds great, i suggest you put a marketing plan together to get the app to the correct market to test your MVP.
 
Spacerat said:
Instead of native App why not mobile first website?
Click to expand...
In any other country, (bar a few african ones) I would agree, but having experience in working at an online education platform, a learning website is dead on arrival if it's not zero rated.

The demand for free, specifically when something looks like work is overwhelming.

He will also have to consider his maximum userbase, those students that opt to take "comp sci" or what ever it's called these days.

www.southafricanmi.com

Education Statistics

A look at South Africa's education statistics on interactive charts and graphics
www.southafricanmi.com

@PrimeSteak, the only way you're going to keep this app / site going, is with funding. A subscription model is not going to work if you go at it alone.

Sorry to break it to you, but teachers want tech to do their job for them, and learners would rather scroll insta than learn something.

We ran a few tests back in 2017, gave each student at a specific highschool (+/- 2400 learners) 250mb of data each (in partnership with mtn / Vodacon / Cell C)

It went about as well as you would expect... On average each learner logged into our platform twice.
(Once to get their voucher number, and once in response to an sms when their data ran out)

And the breakdowns we got from the providers was erm, disappointing. By that I mean, they where browsing everything except educational sites of any sort, and Wikipedia was only browsed for easy copy and paste answers. Not to mention most of them chewed through that data in less than 6 hours.

Now, you might say, but I've spoken to 20 people who think this is a fantastic idea, and would love to use it. Yeah, your sample size is a tad small.

We did outreach to hundreds of schools with 180,000 plus learners in total, and maybe 600 of those kept at it, for more than a month.

In closing, you are doing this as a passion project, it will not make you money, it will cost you money, your recurring user base is going to be miniscule, and anyone that would have backed you, is looking for massive numbers. Like 250k plus before they will sit down for coffee.
 
Last edited:
John_Phoenix said:
In any other country, (bar a few african ones) I would agree, but having experience in working at an online education platform, a learning website is dead on arrival if it's not zero rated.

The demand for free, specifically when something looks like work is overwhelming.

He will also have to consider his maximum userbase, those students that opt to take "comp sci" or what ever it's called these days.

www.southafricanmi.com

Education Statistics

A look at South Africa's education statistics on interactive charts and graphics
www.southafricanmi.com

@PrimeSteak, the only way you're going to keep this app / site going, is with funding. A subscription model is not going to work if you go at it alone.

Sorry to break it to you, but teachers want tech to do their job for them, and learners would rather scroll insta than learn something.

We ran a few tests back in 2017, gave each student at a specific highschool (+/- 2400 learners) 250mb of data each (in partnership with mtn / Vodacon / Cell C)

It went about as well as you would expect... On average each learner logged into our platform twice.
(Once to get their voucher number, and once in response to an sms when their data ran out)

And the breakdowns we got from the providers was erm, disappointing. By that I mean, they where browsing everything except educational sites of any sort, and Wikipedia was only browsed for easy copy and paste answers. Not to mention most of them chewed through that data in less than 6 hours.

Now, you might say, but I've spoken to 20 people who think this is a fantastic idea, and would love to use it. Yeah, your sample size is a tad small.

We did outreach to hundreds of schools with 180,000 plus learners in total, and maybe 600 of those kept at it, for more than a month.

In closing, you are doing this as a passion project, it will not make you money, it will cost you money, your recurring user base is going to be miniscule, and anyone that would have backed you, is looking for massive numbers. Like 250k plus before they will sit down for coffee.
Click to expand...
Well, on the funding topic, I could maybe try Patreon or Kickstarter? The app won't really use data unless you go to an external site from within the app.

I get what you're saying about kids and data but this app's main audience is those kids who genuinely love to program and don't mind working hard, who don't exactly have good IT teachers, who won't piss away their data(I have first-hand experience, nothing personal but my former IT teacher is not good at teaching IT) and other international newcomers to the language.

My opinion is that if you can't work hard and you don't have a genuine interest in programming you shouldn't take the subject anyway, but the main consensus nowadays is that IT is just "advanced CAT" (CAT being where you learn Office and HTML basically). So thanks to that a lot of lazy ass kids take the subject....

But anyway, let me stop my ranting and thank you for the insight (P.S the public school system is shite).
 
PrimeSteak said:
Well, on the funding topic, I could maybe try Patreon or Kickstarter?
Click to expand...
Patreon, and livestream the dev process on yt / twitch, build some hype. Kickstarter, don't bank on it...

Livestream so that you're not only telling them about dev, you're showing them the day to day.

Plus, it's like a live portfolio...

PrimeSteak said:
main audience is those kids who genuinely love to program and don't mind working hard, who don't exactly have good IT teachers
Click to expand...
I wish that was more than 5000, in the country. You identify as such a person, I get that, and I can see you want to be the change you seek in the world, just know that you are not going to make money from this app, and if you want to donate your time, and knowledge to those kids, then go for it.


PrimeSteak said:
My opinion is that if you can't work hard and you don't have a genuine interest in programming you shouldn't take the subject anyway
Click to expand...
It's like that for most things in life... People are happy being carted from point A to point B in their lives, and then wonder how they ended up somewhere unfavourable.

PrimeSteak said:
But anyway, let me stop my ranting and thank you for the insight (P.S the public school system is shite).
Click to expand...

No problemo, see this as self improvement, set your expectations low (of the people, not the app), and be pleasantly surprised.

And yes, the public schooling system is just north of actually lobotomizing your kid. And that's why I left the sector, you cant teach donkeys and race horses how to run, and expect the same result.
 
John_Phoenix said:
Patreon, and livestream the dev process on yt / twitch, build some hype. Kickstarter, don't bank on it...

Livestream so that you're not only telling them about dev, you're showing them the day to day.

Plus, it's like a live portfolio...


I wish that was more than 5000, in the country. You identify as such a person, I get that, and I can see you want to be the change you seek in the world, just know that you are not going to make money from this app, and if you want to donate your time, and knowledge to those kids, then go for it.



It's like that for most things in life... People are happy being carted from point A to point B in their lives, and then wonder how they ended up somewhere unfavourable.



No problemo, see this as self improvement, set your expectations low (of the people, not the app), and be pleasantly surprised.

And yes, the public schooling system is just north of actually lobotomizing your kid. And that's why I left the sector, you cant teach donkeys and race horses how to run, and expect the same result.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I just got out of that system (I'm waiting for my results, being a Matric in 2020 was horse shite), but I'm happy that I'm finally done with that.

John_Phoenix said:
And yes, the public schooling system is just north of actually lobotomizing your kid. And that's why I left the sector, you cant teach donkeys and race horses how to run, and expect the same result.
Click to expand...

I wholeheartedly agree I think if the system would focus more on literacy and basic math skills, along with financial skills, our country would improve. Instead of those tho, we get gems like Life Orientation. And the gov wants to introduce coding and robotics to Gr 9 and lower, but how the **** is that going to work if most 4th graders in this country can't even read or write?
 
Btw guys, what are the most common options in settings of an app? So far I've opted to put in light/dark mode and language select, but I'm not sure what else to add or if I should even add more?
 
Spacerat said:
Instead of native App why not mobile first website?
Click to expand...

Yeah I'd do this. If a person is working on desktop to run their dev environment, then they can't really easily copy code/tuts etc from the mobile app.
 
PrimeSteak said:
Btw guys, what are the most common options in settings of an app? So far I've opted to put in light/dark mode and language select, but I'm not sure what else to add or if I should even add more?
Click to expand...

Set up a profile view with your now and future settings, auto / light / dark depending on time of day.

Forget about languages on the frontend for now, roll with English, BUT build it like you would a multilang site (db structure, lookups etc)

If anything, people expect the app to work like other apps. So do some research.

Settings will become apparent.

Don't pick the apps / sites you like, pick the ones that have the most traffic, downloads etc.

Rather launch barebones, and iterate than make it feature complete and never launch.

And for the love of god, build it whitelabel. It will save you endless crap in the future.
 
App vs Site, site wins hands down for many reasons, but beware, you're building something that has to work across devices and form factors. That ain't trivial.

Also, performance is going to be a major factor for you AFTER launch. Don't even try and optimise it until you have everything ticking like a clock.
 
PrimeSteak said:
Hey guys, I'm planning to make a mobile app that will act as a reference and learning tool regarding Delphi, mainly targeted at Gr 10 -12 IT learners and people who want to learn the language. I have some ideas I want to get in the air and get some feedback about.

The logo:

View attachment 1004212

Is it good enough to use for a mobile app? Or should I change it?

Depend on donations, insert ads or both? (planning to make the app free to download)

Should I add both a donation option (to my PayPal) and put in ads? Or should I do one or the other?

How can I add coding exercises?

I've seen in other apps like Grasshopper, Udemy, etc that they include coding exercises. How can I add these type of exercises into my app? Does it need a specific tool or..?

Should I maybe make the app open-source?

Would it be a good idea to make it open-source?


That's all I have for now

Thanks in advance for the advice and help!

Kind Regards
PrimeSteak
Click to expand...

Damn they still teach kids Delphi in school:unsure:
 
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