Kidpix!! – Story behind the app invention- part II
Our story of this amazing app invention continues.
Destiny decided something better than what I had planned. Once I returned home from the hospital, I took two months to finish my course and to fully recover. The philosophy behind being a successful app maker is to take a proven successful app and to improve upon it. If you do that enough times you’ll make enough money to work part-time and live abundantly. It worked for many successful app designers.
For the next few weeks I studied the app store and searched for a great app that I could emulate. I searched and searched and just couldn’t find an app that I believed I could improve. I knew I had to make something fun that was centered on my interests and to keep looking.
My first idea was to create an automatic text responder. After talking to a few programmers, I quickly learned that it just wasn’t feasible without banks of servers and a huge budget and iOS did not allow it anyway. This is when I got in touch with Samar, things did not move further as I just trashed the idea.
One night about a month later, I was reading my parents magazine. In the back there was an ad for an app that allowed you to save your kid’s artwork for .99. I had stacks of artwork on my desk, in my filing cabinet and on the walls. With two kids making art around the clock, I had accumulated a lot of artwork. Each scribble they made on napkins and scrap paper I thought was a masterpiece and couldn’t throw away. The thought of storing the artwork digitally would solve a huge problem. I could purge the clutter without guilt and keep a history of their artistic development.
When I opened up the app I was very disappointed. It wasn’t very attractive or intuitive and lacked some key social sharing functions I thought the app should include. Eureka! Here it was- an app I could improve and the idea for Kidpix was born.
I found another app that stored kid’s artwork that ranked in the top 100 for grossing apps in the productivity category. This one was even more complicated than the first. The concept was great but the design was ugly and confusing. It too lacked key social sharing features. I knew parents needed to make the process of saving artwork easy and fun. Their lives are busy and demanding. To win their attention and repeat use, the design had to be straightforward, simple and fun to use. If parents were buying these other apps then they’d absolutely buy mine.
I reached out to several development agencies in the US to talk over my idea and get an estimate for how much it would cost to make Kidpix. They liked my idea but told me clearly that it was impossible to form an app in my budget. I was severely disappointed and frustrated. It had taken me so long to come up with a good idea. Now that I had one I was ready to start immediately. But there was no sign that offered me implementing my idea and I was screwed. I was totally convinced that raising funds to that level was the only option left, which was impossible for me.
Out of the blue Samar Singla sent me an email following-up from my first job posting on oDesk. He was checking in to see how I was and if I was ready to begin a new project. Within a few hours he had an estimate for me and listened to my ideas with excitement. He thought it was a great idea with a lot of potential. I could tell that he was genuinely enthusiastic about my idea and eager to get to work.
Over the next few months I worked with Click-Labs to develop a great design with all the features I envisioned parents would love. Kidpix was easy to use and had a fun and engaging design. Not only could you snap a picture of your kid’s artwork to save and store, you could also surround it with a beautiful gallery quality frame showcasing the masterpiece of your young artist. Parents post pictures of their kids on their blogs and facebook constantly. I wanted them to share the same pride with their Kidpix creations. I also wanted them to be able to make a postcard keepsake of their kid’s artwork to send to grandparents, aunts and uncles or whomever else was involved in their kid’s lives. Kid’s art tells a story. It’s a story meant to share.
When I started to beta test Kidpix it was thrilling. My idea was coming together. After all the tweaks and modifications were made, Kidpix was complete. The team worked really hard to get it done and worked with Apple to have it released before Christmas.
Believe me success of Kidpix was impossible without the swaying efforts of Click Labs team. My first update is under review with Apple. Kidpix just keeps getting better and better. I am so glad that Samar took the time in September to reach out and follow-up. I couldn’t have asked for a better team of professionals to guide me through the development of my first app.
Check it out here.
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