Fake It → Make It
Is it possible to create an interactive demo of your app idea without using a design tool, without knowing how to write code, and without hiring any designers or programmers to help you with it?
Many people spend weeks learning new design tools and programming languages, and thousands of dollars hiring designers and developers, to make an early version of their app that users may not even want.
This book introduces a simple, fast and cheap approach to prototyping web and mobile apps with no design or coding skills required. You will learn a proven process that is being used by more than 50,000 designers, entrepreneurs and product managers worldwide.
What you will learn in this book
– How to come up with good ideas for web/mobile apps
– How to create a user experience blueprint for an app
– How to put together an interactive user interface for your app using Apple Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint
– How to get feedback and refine your app design
– How to outsource and manage app development
Who should read this book
– Designers who want to quickly create design concepts to show to clients or team
– Product managers who want to create product requirements or specifications
– Teachers who wants to show students how to make apps
About the author
My name is Amir Khella. I’m an entrepreneur, product designer, and startup advisor. I previously designed and helped launch 15 products, 4 of which have already been acquired.
Currently, I run several profitable eCommerce and educational platforms for designers, while working on my next product ideas.
I’ve been mentioned on Inc and Entrepreneur magazines, Mixergy, Smashing Mag, Swiss Miss, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), and several entrepreneurship and design publications.
Available now on Amazon Kindle
Links and resources from the book
– FoodFeed: download the sample app prototype created throughout the book
– Design inspiration and pattern sites: Dribbble, PatternTap, Pttrns and Mobile-Patterns
– ESPI at work: the power of Keynote
– HackDesign: the best design tools for rapid prototyping
– Keynotopia prototyping templates for Keynote and PowerPoint
– My original blog post on how to prototype iPad apps with Keynote (2M+ views)
– How I launched Keynotopia in 3 hours with $47.50 budget
– My blog
– My twitter account
– Free video tutorials on prototyping in Keynote
– iStockPhoto: get stock images for your prototype and final design
– [Book] The Laws of Simplicity by Johan Maeda
– Designing motion path animations in PowerPoint at Microsoft.com
– Learning to code: Codecademy, TreeHouse, Lynda and DevBootCamp
– Outsourcing to offshore developers: oDesk and eLance
– Managing the work: Trello, Asana and Basecamp
