Lets hear it for the developers! Createanet are King!

Posted on September 21, 2011 Updated on September 21, 2011

Another week in the world of budding App Creator… and it’s all coming together. And as Hannibal in the ‘A Team’ would say ” I Love it when a plan comes together”!

My last blog entry I spoke at length about the need for a good, no great design team! Those damned creatives (of which I’m probably one!) and their design ethos! But what of the nuts and bolts guys, the stokers in the engine room creating all the heat and steam to make the engine run at full throttle under the hand of the captain.

Developers… you definitely can’t do it without them. And in Createanet (www.createanet.co.uk) I’ve got me some really good developers.

Thats not to say that the relationship was all sweetness and light at the start; but for understandable reasons. As an ‘ideas’ guy, a blue-sky thinker if you like, I can see the App, the project in my head. Every button, function, ‘call to action’ is there working just as the thousands of apps we all interact with everyday just work. We never consider the functionality, the flow, the fitness for purpose or the finer aspects of coding. For us, apps just work. The challenge was to marry up my passion with their knowledge and skills.

These guys know the hidden language of coding. Its probably a language that has touched more people than latin, mandarin or english but we just dont know it. Most people probably dont even know it exists. But i-Drills as an App wouldn’t exist without it.

At Createanet, MD Kevin King is the slick operator at the head of the organisation; the company was recommended by Selesti, through a recommendation to them. And it goes to prove the age old adage that the best recommendations are the personal ones. Leave aside the slick advertising campaigns or glossy brochures. Good people rarely have to sell themselves. Kevin made the time and effort to travel to the team hotel in Exeter to have an initial chat about the App idea – The Coaching App as it was referred to in the early days!

On his trusty iPad sat a number of Apps Createanet had, eh, created! Farm and Cottage Holidays had just been released and was downloading for fun; up to 10,000 a day!! Impressive numbers indeed.

Throughout the briefing process and scoping Kevin would be really insightful as to what could and couldn’t be done for the dough; and the added value they have created to date is excellent. I wanted the App out in June – but will have a far more polished product in November! Some of the little touches, the nuances of coding that have been brought to bear, means that time and money spent on the project will hopefully produce a product that we can ll be proud of.

Today I again saw the app in action and it gets slicker every time we see it. You want players – BOOM! Different colours of players – BOOM! Discs – BOOM!, Ladders – BOOM!

My design brief was ‘to be as fast as pen and paper or the coaches wont use it’! You’ll be able to decide for yourself in the next few weeks as to wether that has been achieved.

But I already know the answer!