Create your own mobile app
yapp.us
yapp.us
1) Cool, a mobile app creator. Let's take a look and see what this one has to offer.
2) Interesting, let's look at the tour. Oh, it's Vimeo. Crap, the video won't load. Any other way to see? Nope, guess not. Oh well, lets refresh a few times. Nope, still can't load. Silly Vimeo. Oh well, I'll ctrl+click and load it in another tab while I click around.
3) Get started. Hrmm, these themes seem to all be pretty similar. Oh well, let's see. Wait, what? Oh, I can just add invitations and event information? Wait, I thought this was a mobile app creator? Let's go back to the homepage and see what I missed. Oh wait: there is no link back to the homepage from the creator. Not a single one. Help? Nope, goes to Zendesk. About? Nope, goes to blog. How about the top left? That always goes to the home page, right? Nope.
4) Guess I'll see if the video will load. Oh, the video finally decided to start. OHHHH, it's made for events. "Introducing Yapp Events" and it's completely clear from the video that it's totally about events. Surely the homepage said this and I just missed it? Nope, the word "event" appears in a not so legible image (not actual text) along with "And many other events, gatherings, and groups..."
So, allow me to comment on my problems.
1) This creates event apps for mobile devices. It is a far cry from a generalized "mobile app creator." In my opinion, "Mobile App Creator for Events" is not only more accurate but more interesting as it's solving a particular problem and not just claiming to be another "app creator."
2) Provide some kind of tour that isn't video, please. I want to be able to go through a tour without having to rely on Vimeo (which works sometimes, but often doesn't). Can't I just read through a simple set of images and instructions to browse how this thing works?
3) Providing a dead end for me to be able to get back to the homepage is pretty bad. I got into it and because it wasn't clear this wasn't an event app creator, I got lost and couldn't find my way back home.
4) Why does your introduction video so clearly say that this is to help make apps for events but your homepage appears to advertise it as a generalized app creation tool? If you are relying on the gist or the important part of your application to be described in a video that may or may not be loaded, then you're not conveying your intentions clearly enough.
I hope I didn't come across as too negative. I like the idea and the service, but just wanted to share what I went through in case others may have gotten lost along the way as well.
Thought some might be interested in the tech stack:
The Editor and Dashboard are built with Ember.js, which we love.
Rails on the backend, with Postgres and Redis.
We get a little help from Pusher, Transloadit and URL2PNG. The Android and iOS apps are PhoneGap with an Ember app inside.
Feel free to ask questions about our experience with any of the above.
Happy to share.
If you're building an app maker and not just an event app creator, I might assume you're shipping JS code and storing in the db or something along those lines. My question is, how much of your code is bundled with the app in the store and how much of it is fetched and eval'd at install/run time?