How you can create a new mobile app with less than $500 without knowing any design or programming

Are you like me, that you have dozens of ideas that you want to execute but without the skill to do so? If your answer is yes and you’ve been thinking about an idea for a mobile app that you want to create, this is the place for you.

1,5 years ago, a friend of mine approached me with an idea for an app. He had made a to-do list for himself for the summer. He wanted to spend more time with friends, learn new skills, get more chores done, and experience new things. He was struggling for motivation to do it.

So, what he did was make himself a spreadsheet where he kept track of all the things he wanted to do. As a motivator for all this, he was allowed to reward himself with chips and a dip whenever he had done 10 tasks from the list.

He started thinking that this could be a useful idea to give to others but make it more accessible.

Enter, me. My background is in software development, not as a programmer, but as an entrepreneur, managing the people who do the coding and designing. I have extensive experience leading projects and products from idea to launch and beyond.

So, together we started thinking about how this idea of his could be made into an app.

In this guide, I’m going to explain how we did it step-by-step. From creating the first sketches on paper, and then sending them off to a designer to get designs, which were sent to a programmer, who made the app itself.

1. From your head, onto a paper

There’s a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. There is truth to this. Ideas are much simpler to understand when they are presented in a clear and understandable way. It’s much easier to comprehend something when it’s visual instead of something obscure that is in your mind.

Pen & paper

A great way to get your idea out there is to find a pen and some paper. Just start drawing things. As I had a pretty clear idea already which sort of screens our app needed to have, I just outright drew them all.

You can use another app as an example. There are some universal things that are in most apps like the registration and login screens. There is probably some sort of home screen that displays the most crucial information. Browse some other apps and stop to think about what different screens or pages they have.

In our case, I ended up with 9 drawings that display the functionalities of the app in order.

2. From paper to digital

As we were working remotely, it was easier to transfer the sketches into a digital form. Now, don’t get frightened by this if you don’t know how to use Photoshop or similar tools. If you can draw squares and create text in paint, you’re good to go.

In our case, I used a collaboration tool called Miro, which just made sense at the time because we had other stuff there too. But you can use things like Paint, Canva, or Photoshop. Whichever floats your boat. Or you can skip this phase altogether if you don’t feel like you need it.

Here are screenshots of the pictures I created with Miro with ready-made assets that are part of the software:

3. Let’s find a real professional

For our app to have a coherent look, we need some graphical assets and a proper layout made by a designer.

I tend to gravitate towards Fiverr whenever I need something done by a freelancer.

There are 2 ways you can find a freelancer on Fiverr.

Either you make an open posting where they can send you quotes based on your needs, or you can approach someone directly, sending them a message with your specs and asking for a price for the project.

I went to Fiverr and started searching for freelancers with “mobile app design”. I found a few and sent them the following message:

“Hey!

I’m looking for a designer to make a mobile app design for me.

The app is a bucket list app where users can create tasks or choose from the tasks that we or our partners have put into the app ourselves.

The user will create a profile where all their memories and experiences are stored off the tasks they’ve completed.

They can add new tasks themselves or select from the ones we’ve created. All of the tasks they choose for themselves will go into their own profile where they can complete them.

I need a quote for what it would cost me to have these designs made into something that we can show to our partners and programmers.

Please let me know if you need any additional information.”

Don’t forget to add your own sketches as attachments!

Things to look out for

1. Find people with lots of positive reviews. 2. The pricing is a Wild West, so be mindful of your own budget 3. Be as clear and precise as possible. Use pictures. 4. Don’t be afraid to demand what you paid for.

As mentioned, the pricing on places like Fiverr can differ a lot. While someone asks for 100, another person is willing to do the same for 15. There are people from all over the world, and the salary expectations are very different from one place to another.

Think about what it is you want to achieve. If you need pictures to visualize your idea, you can probably get by with a tiny amount of money. But if you’re looking for someone to create something that will end up in your marketing material later down the line, it might be worth it to invest a bit more.

Make sure the source file is included in the price and you will get it.

I paid roughly 100€ ($105) for my designs.

4. From my sketchy sketches to fully-fledged visual design

Here’s what I got for my money:

Note that the design is not only the images themselves but also the actual source file that the programmer can later use to export the graphical assets into the app itself.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me clarify, otherwise, you can skip ahead.

Whenever the designer makes a new design for an app or other software, they make a bunch of assets like buttons. Let’s say that the designer makes a specific-looking red button for your app that you really like. If you don’t have the actual source file which the programmer then later on can use, they need to generate the same button themselves out of nothing.

It’s like looking looking at a drawing someone else made and trying to copy it by drawing it yourself, instead of just making a copy out of it.

They also use specific colors. Let’s say the designer uses a specific shade of blue, let’s use a shade called “Cobalt blue” in this example. The color code of cobalt blue is #0047AB. If the programmer has access to this information, they can easily make all the colors the same instead of just trying to eyeball it.

5. User story

We now have a good idea of what the app would look like visually, but what about the functionalities? Which screen is supposed to do what and how do they interact with each other? What does this button do vs that button?

It might be clear to you, but for someone taking a first look at your drawings, it’s very difficult to piece it into a concise and understandable concept that they can start working on.

So here’s where the user story comes in handy.

The goal of the user story is to “mimic” the experience of the user. It’s meant to give the programmer an idea of what the app and each smaller component inside of it are trying to achieve.

Here’s what I wrote for our app:

“Page 1

User will enter their name

Page 2

User is displayed a welcome screen

Page 3

User is greeted and they are prompted to enter a reward they want for themselves. There’s a small “information” icon next to the reward, so the users can get a bit more information about how the app works.

Users are also asked to set number of tasks they need to finish before they can reward themselves. There’s a slider at the bottom that sets the amount of rewards the user can set for themselves.

Page 4

This is the home screen. User keeps track of their progress of how many tasks they have completed and how many they have left. User can also change their reward from the top-left corner. This opens up a new window where they can modify the reward and number of tasks required.

In the middle is a button where users can tap to open up a menu that displays a list of different tasks for them to pick. This will open another page.

At the bottom is an element where the user keeps track of their current tasks they’ve chosen to be completed. Users can tap tasks completed or remove them. Next to it is a button that allows user to add their own tasks. This will open another window for the user.

Page 5

Collection of the pre-made tasks (see the spreadsheet). This is where the user can browse and select which tasks they want to pick. They will see an image, title, and a short description of each task.

At the top of the page, there is a search bar and a button for filters. The users can tap on or off the filters, which will only show the tasks that are related to the filter.

Page 6

Once the user has opened the tasks, they are given this view. It has more detailed description of the said task with more images and full description. It also displays the tags that are related to the task.

Below the user can see photos they’ve added to the said task.

Page 7

Users can add their own photos to each task they’ve done. It also displays the log of their activity, so they can track when the task was done and when the photos were added.

Page 8

Gallery. This is where the user can browse the tasks they’ve completed. Users will see their own photo as the header for a task they’ve completed.

Page 9

Whenever the user taps open a task from the previous page, they get to this page. This is a more detailed view of a specific task they’ve completed with their images and comments added.”

6. Finding a developer

This is probably the most challenging part of making an outsourced app. There are so many different developers with varying skill levels and pricing. There are language barriers and technical jargon they use that you might not understand.

It’s also the most critical part. It’s important to know what you’re getting and that it functions as you expect it to.

Here, I would ditch the idea of an open offer altogether and go straight to the source. You can find plenty of different developers on Fiverr with great examples of projects they’ve made.

They also usually have some ready-made pricing models.

Don’t be afraid to ask — if it doesn’t feel right, there are plenty more fish in the sea.

Ask about their price range, and schedule, and check their reviews.

If it’s a good developer, they will ask you plenty of questions for what they need

Browse, browse, browse

There are tons and tons of developers on Fiverr. Find the right one for you, feel free to send them messages and ask for things. You’re the buyer, they are working on your terms, not the other way around.

Once you’ve found someone you are comfortable proceeding with, send them all the graphical assets you got from the designer and the user story. Just send as much as possible their way so they have all the info they need.

It doesn’t hurt to give them a quick explanation of what you’re trying to achieve with the app when you approach them.

Here’s an example of a message I sent to multiple developers when trying to find the right one:

“Hey! I’m looking for a developer to create a new app for me.

The goal of the app is to encourage people to be more active and try out new things. It’s an app where the users will create a profile, then they will set themselves a reward that they can access whenever they’ve completed X amount of tasks (this is also defined by the user whenever they’re setting themselves the reward).

See the attachments.

(Insert attachments of the images created and user story)”

After a few dead ends, I ended up with a developer from Pakistan, who had a nearly 5-star rating with over 200 projects done. He asked a lot of questions and seemed to understand what I was going for.

He then sent me a quote for 300€ ($315) after we had specified some things and stripped a couple of features that we wanted but didn’t consider crucial at the time, so we could fit it all into our budget. His estimation for the project time-wise was a month.

I paid what he asked for and he started working on it. 1,5 months later he sent me the first version of the app. The project went a bit over time, but it was no biggie. We made a couple of slight tweaks and spelling corrections. And after 2 months, we had a working app in our hands.

Here’s a quick video of the end result:

If you followed the steps in this guide, you should now have a working mobile app in your hands. Whether it becomes a success story is now in your hands.

Remember, there are thousands of new apps made daily, and standing out from the crowd is a big challenge in itself.

Good luck in your endeavors!