iPhone app development with Clever Twist

We speak to Clever Twist’s Jen Gordon about their very visual approach to iPhone app development and some of the techniques used to actually craft such eye-catching designs.

WD: Firstly, how did you first get into designing iPhone apps?

JG: Designing iPhone apps is something I stumbled upon last fall when my freelance business began feeling the economic squeeze. The slowdown caused me to take a step back and seek out different opportunities for my skills as an art director and designer, and iPhone was an obvious choice. The App Store was and still is full of ugly apps that are difficult to use! Clever Twist rapidly evolved as I discovered designing iPhone apps involves more than just a pretty interface. Each unique application is like starting a small business. It requires expert attention and advice in every aspect of the product development process: research, design, coding, marketing and PR.

WD: What constitutes a great idea for a successful iPhone app and how do you get from novel concept to something that can be developed and sold?

JG: That’s the million dollar question isn’t it? There’s not a secret formula for success in the App Store, but based on our research and experience thus far, it’s good to ask yourself a few questions that are characteristics of successful apps: Does your app solve a unique problem? Does the app serve a specific niche? Does it make people laugh? Are you building a better wheel? Will the app be highly interactive?

WD: What software tools do you use to craft the very distinctive look of your apps and are there any constraints placed on the visuals?

JG: Our primary tools are Photoshop, Illustrator and Wacom tablet. Constraint-wise, the iPhone screen size is 320×480 pixels, so weeding out unnecessary elements in the app is crucial. Only include the bare minimum it takes for the user to accomplish any given task. Think about how you can combine tasks. Another consideration is the size of tapable elements that appear on the screen and the spacing between those tapable elements. If you make buttons too small or place them too close together, users quickly become irritated that they are not able performed the desired actions easily. Two icon sizes are required when submitting an app: 57×57 pixels (72 dpi) and 512×512 pixels (300 dpi). The 57×57 size is used as the icon on the handset, and the larger of the two is used as the App Store icon. Typically we begin icon design in the 57×57 format and size up to 512×512. For this reason, using Illustrator or vector shapes in Photoshop are preferred to ensure crisp images to tweak in the larger format.

WD: How much emphasis do you place on the look of your apps and how they’ll appear and be marketed on the App Store?

JG: Ha! I wish I could say that 100 per cent of the reasoning for our emphasis on design was about sales but honestly we’re design geeks. Design geeks want pretty stuff no matter how well it sells. What we’ve learnt over the past year is how to be profitable artists. Spreading the pretty requires having the means to continue making the pretty! That said, dialling up marketing has been easy from the standpoint of having a lot of great assets to work with. Repurposing graphics from the app to pull together for collateral helps us extend the app ‘brand’ across all advertising media, embedding the product in the minds of consumers. Right now the Clever Twist brand takes a back seat to the product, but over time our plan is for Clever Twist to be known as a publisher of entertaining apps with killer design!

WD: How realistic is the perception that selling iPhone apps can be a lucrative business and how does the payment/commission scheme work?

JG: Former Palm guy Elia Freedman gave a great talk on ‘Building an iPhone Business’ last fall that drove home the idea that building an iPhone app IS a business and quoted some great stats on who is making money in the App Store. Peter Farago, of mobile analytics firm Flurry, also has an interesting article that talks about indie developers as a formidable competitor to established gaming publishers. Succeeding in the App Store seems to be a combination of luck, great product/design, marketing and persistence. I don’t know about ‘lucrative’ but I think it’s fair to say that with the right combination of the aforementioned elements, independent app developers have a chance of making a profit. The App Store takes 30 per cent of revenues and in-app purchases. Because of currency conversions and such we use AppViz to track and visualise graphs of our sales and sales trends. You can reduce Apple’s cut to 25 per cent if you sign up for its affiliate program. Apple offers a five per cent commission on all app sales that are driven by your affiliate link.

WD: Lastly, what words of advice do you have for would-be app designers who are maybe coming from a web design background?

JG: Just because you’re dealing with less screen real estate doesn’t mean there’s less opportunity for creatively executed design. Less is more, as they say, and if you enjoy simple solutions and creative problem solving, designing for mobile devices is a great challenge and a lot of fun!

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