app development tools for dissertation project

curiousb

I am designing and developing an app for a college dissertation project and am looking for some advice please.

My research phase is ongoing at the moment, so I am gathering good data from potential users.

Next I will be wire framing a mockup.

Next, I will probably use invisionapp.com to create a working prototype.

And the final stage is where I need to create a working live version of the app. It doesn't need to be functioning 100%, so I can simulate some of the more complicated functionality.

My question is if I am developing for iOS ,and it looks like the majority of the potential users are on this platform, what is the best development tool to use?

I am familiar with HTML/CSS and I can code a little. I have downloaded xCode and am playing around with that a little but it might not be the best choice?

Anyone give me ideas for other tools? The less coding I have to do the better as it will suck up a huge amount of time, and this is just one aspect of the dissertation.

Thanks for any pointers.

Atomic Pineapple

If you're developing a native iOS application you must use xCode and develop in Swift or Objective c.

If you have experience in HTML/CSS and JavaScript you could potentially use Cordova to create a web based application that gets wrapped in the iOS webview and "simulates" a native application.

From your post it sounds like the course and your experience may be skewed towards design rather than actual development would that be a correct assumption?

curiousb

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

If you're developing a native iOS application you must use xCode and develop in Swift or Objective c.

If you have experience in HTML/CSS and JavaScript you could potentially use Cordova to create a web based application that gets wrapped in the iOS webview and "simulates" a native application.

From your post it sounds like the course and your experience may be skewed towards design rather than actual development would that be a correct assumption?

Yes, that's correct. It's a Masters in Digital Media so is quite broad.

i like the idea of Cordova, I'll check that out this week. Thanks.

Atomic Pineapple

If you don't have to showcase any actual coding skills then you might be able to fully simulate the experience using something like Pixate - http://www.pixate.com/

curiousb

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

If you don't have to showcase any actual coding skills then you might be able to fully simulate the experience using something like Pixate - http://www.pixate.com/

That looks good, and I might use it for the prototype, but I do need to have a real working live example unfortunately!

Graham

If your app is fairly straightforward take a look at http://pencilcase.io

I should point, at the moment it looks useless for anything that needs offline storage.

curiousb

Graham wrote: »

If your app is fairly straightforward take a look at http://pencilcase.io

I should point, at the moment it looks useless for anything that needs offline storage.

It is straightforward as I don't have to make all the functionality work, so I have no need for offline storage. This looks very interesting, as I can still export to xCode if I needed to, but hopefully could get away with not having to.

Thanks!

UPDATE: This looks really good. I have gone through the tutorials and it seems to meet my needs. Minimal coding, but the ability to get stuck in if you need to, and the ability to export to xCode in the end for further coding or just publishing to the App Store.

Thanks again!