Practical guide to web/mobile development.

[alexkuzmov]

Hey forum, I need some feedback.
I think I`ve spotted a niche in which I can provide alot of value so I would like to hear your thoughts.

I stumbled on this awesome video

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pThnRneDjw

The guy really knows his stuff, he`s not biased and the information he gives is pretty accurate when it comes to development tools popularity and usability.

But is this really a 'practical' guide?
It seems to me that ALOT of people are making tutorials, courses, online bootcamps and what have you.
It all revolves around learning languages, frameworks, tools, servers and so on(I`ve seen seen some people refer to this as shovel selling).
Also alot of people get stuck in tutorial hell where they dont know if they are ready to start building their project or not. Apply to jobs or not.
I saw this in the fastalane forum, I also see it in other forums and FB groups I frequent.
People are learning the skills but have little to no idea how to apply them, they cant seem to figure out how to put them together after the tutorial/course is done.

A true practical guide is the niche that I`m seeing.
A series of articles breaking down the web/mobile development process.
How to start. Planning the app. Isolating your MVP features.
A separate article breaking down each popular feature found in modern apps, 2-factor auth, upload and image storage on CDN, multi language support, multi currency support, server side data proccessing, social share features and much much more.
How to properly structure a relational databse based on the feature you want to code, no more discovering hot water.
How to setup your environment. Why you should work locally until you have something to put up on a server.
How to get a good deal on hosting. The reason why you need hosting in the first place.
How to choose a domain. Where to buy a domain from.
SEO basics, command all meta tags and explanation what each of them are for.
How to publish your app on the iOS/Adroid stores.
Demystifying SSL Certificates, why you need them.
How to create a cross platform API which can service mobile, web and desktop apps.

These are just from the top of my head.
The endgame I`m envisiong now is to have a way for people to choose app features and get a list of articles to read in sequence so they can get a true step by step practical guide on building their project.

What say the forum?

 

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[Val Okafor]

Hey forum, I need some feedback.
I think I`ve spotted a niche in which I can provide alot of value so I would like to hear your thoughts.

I stumbled on this awesome video

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pThnRneDjw

The guy really knows his stuff, he`s not biased and the information he gives is pretty accurate when it comes to development tools popularity and usability.

But is this really a 'practical' guide?
It seems to me that ALOT of people are making tutorials, courses, online bootcamps and what have you.
It all revolves around learning languages, frameworks, tools, servers and so on(I`ve seen seen some people refer to this as shovel selling).
Also alot of people get stuck in tutorial hell where they dont know if they are ready to start building their project or not. Apply to jobs or not.
I saw this in the fastalane forum, I also see it in other forums and FB groups I frequent.
People are learning the skills but have little to no idea how to apply them, they cant seem to figure out how to put them together after the tutorial/course is done.

A true practical guide is the niche that I`m seeing.
A series of articles breaking down the web/mobile development process.
How to start. Planning the app. Isolating your MVP features.
A separate article breaking down each popular feature found in modern apps, 2-factor auth, upload and image storage on CDN, multi language support, multi currency support, server side data proccessing, social share features and much much more.
How to properly structure a relational databse based on the feature you want to code, no more discovering hot water.
How to setup your environment. Why you should work locally until you have something to put up on a server.
How to get a good deal on hosting. The reason why you need hosting in the first place.
How to choose a domain. Where to buy a domain from.
SEO basics, command all meta tags and explanation what each of them are for.
How to publish your app on the iOS/Adroid stores.
Demystifying SSL Certificates, why you need them.
How to create a cross platform API which can service mobile, web and desktop apps.

These are just from the top of my head.
The endgame I`m envisiong now is to have a way for people to choose app features and get a list of articles to read in sequence so they can get a true step by step practical guide on building their project.

What say the forum?

You have done the right thing to do after you get an idea - put it down on paper. The next step is to step back from this idea, process it and either come back to it or move away from it. I have a strong suspicion that after you think this idea through, you will move away from it, for the following reason.

• The need you are articulating is too broad - Web/Mobile development encompasses about half of the technology paths, and it is hard to be great while spreading too thin. Are you trying to build the best platform for learning Android development, or iOS Development, or React, or Flutter, or ASP.Net Web API, etc? The list is exhaustive and can hardly be cracked by a single entity.
• You need a Partner - Since this is a broad field, you need partners, who have mastery in these fields. The challenge is that those partners are gainfully employed with an army of recruiters trying to recruit them for an unending list of new positions.
• Platform owners are vested - Each technology platform owner is making investments for the success of their platform by creating extensive tutorials, code samples, and resources to help new and seasoned developers to succeed on their platform. Google creates extensive tutorials for Android, I suspect Apple and Microsoft do the same for iOS and .Net respectively.
• Loss of Control - this endeavour violates the commandment of control. You will be at the mercy of Platform owners, who release updates, new versions and depreciate features as they see fit.
• Learning to code is hard - no platform or service will shortcut it, this craft is hard to master and like all difficult skills it takes time, learning and practice to master.
• Developers are cheap - Its a paradox, people expect to watch $10 Udemy course to learn skills that will help them get a $100K a year engineering position. The ubiquity of open source software has diluted the average developer's appetite to pay for digital products and tools.

Having said that, I am not advocating that you abandon your ideas right away, I am pointing out some of the harsh realities that you are up against. If I were you, and I chose to proceed, here are the steps that I will follow ( I have actually done those but decided to create a digital product instead, versus teaching people how to create a digital product)

• Start with a blog. The more specific the better
• Publish consistent content on a chosen tech track
• Hire/solicit other developers to contribute to your blog, you will need to edit the submissions to make sure it matches this new "proprietary" teaching format that you are conceiving.
• Publish mini eBooks ( its easier to update eBooks than videos as technologies changes)
• Start a newsletter
• Create Udemy/YouTube videos
• Guage tractions and then decide if and how to proceed.

I hope that you are a developer with extensive experience in either web or mobile development. As a fellow developer, I can only wish you Goodluck!

 

[alexkuzmov]

You have done the right thing to do after you get an idea - put it down on paper. The next step is to step back from this idea, process it and either come back to it or move away from it. I have a strong suspicion that after you think this idea through, you will move away from it, for the following reason.

• The need you are articulating is too broad - Web/Mobile development encompasses about half of the technology paths, and it is hard to be great while spreading too thin. Are you trying to build the best platform for learning Android development, or iOS Development, or React, or Flutter, or ASP.Net Web API, etc? The list is exhaustive and can hardly be cracked by a single entity.
• You need a Partner - Since this is a broad field, you need partners, who have mastery in these fields. The challenge is that those partners are gainfully employed with an army of recruiters trying to recruit them for an unending list of new positions.
• Platform owners are vested - Each technology platform owner is making investments for the success of their platform by creating extensive tutorials, code samples, and resources to help new and seasoned developers to succeed on their platform. Google creates extensive tutorials for Android, I suspect Apple and Microsoft do the same for iOS and .Net respectively.
• Loss of Control - this endeavour violates the commandment of control. You will be at the mercy of Platform owners, who release updates, new versions and depreciate features as they see fit.
• Learning to code is hard - no platform or service will shortcut it, this craft is hard to master and like all difficult skills it takes time, learning and practice to master.
• Developers are cheap - Its a paradox, people expect to watch $10 Udemy course to learn skills that will help them get a $100K a year engineering position. The ubiquity of open source software has diluted the average developer's appetite to pay for digital products and tools.

Having said that, I am not advocating that you abandon your ideas right away, I am pointing out some of the harsh realities that you are up against. If I were you, and I chose to proceed, here are the steps that I will follow ( I have actually done those but decided to create a digital product instead, versus teaching people how to create a digital product)

• Start with a blog. The more specific the better
• Publish consistent content on a chosen tech track
• Hire/solicit other developers to contribute to your blog, you will need to edit the submissions to make sure it matches this new "proprietary" teaching format that you are conceiving.
• Publish mini eBooks ( its easier to update eBooks than videos as technologies changes)
• Start a newsletter
• Create Udemy/YouTube videos
• Guage tractions and then decide if and how to proceed.

I hope that you are a developer with extensive experience in either web or mobile development. As a fellow developer, I can only wish you Goodluck!

@Val Okafor Thank you for the insight.

The need you are articulating is too broad
I`m aiming for broad. The idea is to provide explanations about repeating and reuseable development practices, not language specific development guides.
Example: How to add or implement instant messaging for your app.
Where I`ll go into details about free and paid options, explanations about web sockets, what kind of DB structure can provide you with max flexibility if you decide to implement it etc.
Do you think I should narrow it down?

You need a Partner
I`ll definitely look into this.

Platform owners are vested
Navigating the platform provided resources can be very difficult at times.
Having some sort of pointer to what you need can save you time.
Example: Get your mobile app approved fast.
Where I can provide explanation about common pitfalls, the approval proccess, what are the minimum actions you need to take in order for you to get on google play for example.
Just look at this mess: Google Play | Android Developers
I hate it each time I see it.

Loss of Control
I am worried about this, its the main reason why I want to keep things more broad, and not too specific. Imagine it more like concept explanations + pseudo code here and there.

Learning to code is hard
I dont think I`ll be able to make coding any less hard.
The goal is to save you time which otherwise will be wasted in research and figuring out which action comes after which in the development cycle.

Developers are cheap
Yes we are
I havent mentioned this in the thread but I`ll probobly write the article/guides for free, Unscripted opened my eyes about being valuable to others.
Trying to work on my selfishness.
Maybe in the future if people find the info provided useful, I`ll add some paid product or service which related to the idea in someway, not sure.

 

[DaRK9]

What you are talking about is years of experience and several job titles rolled into one.

It's possible but it's going to take a massive amount of time, and most likely 1-1 sessions.

 

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[tylerwilkinson]

Developers are cheap - Its a paradox, people expect to watch $10 Udemy course to learn skills that will help them get a $100K a year engineering position. The ubiquity of open source software has diluted the average developer's appetite to pay for digital products and tools.

Holy crap is this true. I googled “buy license” or something to pay for a text editor I like. You can use it free and they just bug you with a “this is unregistered” message. So many results about how to bypass paying for a product people claim to love.
And it costs $30.
On the flip side, $40k/year mechanics happily fork over thousands (often tens of thousands) for the tools of their trade.