How I made iOS Design Bootcamp
Well, in fact I haven’t yet, but that’s what I’m going to accomplish in the next few months, starting right now. And I will blog all the highs and lows I’ll meet on the way. So let me begin with introducing myself and a story how the idea was born.
It actually began in late 2012, with me standing at the gates of middle-age crisis. While I wasn’t demoralized or depressed, as I had some friends that were nice to me, long-run freelance business permanently full of clients, and a newborn son, I felt strange. Like I’m living yet another groundhog day. As if all my life is set, and sadly — some important params are not under my control.
And I was definitely missing something important — passion.
The Passion
The story started with a small thing — I went on a diet and lost around 20 kilos in a few months. Remarkable health improvement suddenly came paired with some feeling of me being able to do things again. Or — may it sound better — some refreshed, or even restored — dare to dream. Carrying my hundred kilos around for life, or percieving myself as a reference couch potato was sort of my natural traits, like height or temperament — and oops! The whole thing turned out to be failure. Being a perfect continuation of your office chair, having trouble doing even a few push-ups and traveling mostly near comfy flats and hotels — that was me; having this cracked was a real shock.
So a small change caused an abundance of new and uncommon things in my life, to name just a few:
- I did a few treks 35–40 km a day — some in the mountains in summer, some on ice in winter/spring
- I started running
- I became almost a vegetarian and started to run a pretty healthy diet
- I visited Nepal and Tibet with a small group led by my ex-colleague
The Dream
But back to dreams… Well, I’ve got a few-years old dream, that never seemed real — to walk Camino de Santiago, a ±900 km walk from French border to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. So even if it appeared sorta strange (not to say dumb), I swiftly proceeded with buying a one-way ticket, and left myself with no choice.
I won’t go into much detail describing the way itself, as it’s a long story of stocking unsuitable shoes, dealing with one blister per every finger, and losing few nails — well, all the things you get when you do something being totally verdant. So let’s skip right to the conclusion.
All you have to remember is that even the most arduous way is just a set of milestones, and if you’re driven by passion, no matter the hardships, your possibilities of overcoming them are truly endless.
It happened at the lighthouse overlooking the Atlantics in Finisterre. I always thought that such a 35–40 day walks are for the tough ones, who light up their cigarettes with solar rays and speak in a deep voice through their beards. So me being there was a surprise. But even greater surprise was that most people around looked quite like me. Average losers — someone who you’d never call tough. And as I did, they’d just made it. It was a turning point in the perception of my own and other people’s abilities and possibilities. All you have to remember is that even the most arduous way is just a set of milestones, and if you’re driven by passion, no matter the hardships, your possibilities of overcoming them are truly endless.
That was a big discovery — and also a pretty disappointing one when I was back home. On the one hand, I was really revitalised and ready to live my life, while on the other I still didn’t had passion. For years I was running some impassionate, but very steady routine life — which made dreaming a bit obsolete. So it was hard even to remember what my real dreams are. At the same time, running that same old groundhog-day routine also became impossible, so even though I had a lot of work to do, for some time I was pretty absent-minded and incapable. And worst of all — very scared of starting everything from scratch and following the dream.
The Dream, revisited
As for the Camino, once there came The Day. The day when I woke up and understood, that I must remember all my dreams, and must follow them — otherwise… Actually there was no “otherwise”. So I swiftly listed some of my priorities, like:
- Learn new things — as I’m a bit stuck in my current work and way of looking at things.
- Have a possibility to be with my son more (I’m divorced and live alone).
- Learn and perfect English (or, better, 1–2 other languages as well). Even though Russia is getting a bit isolated now, I don’t think about emigration — instead, I want to fight that, starting with myself.
- Do something meaningful not just for me (like work to build a house) but for somebody else too; help and support other people.
After that I remembered some of my dreams and ideas, and the first one that came was to make a useful app. Not just another money maker, but something that I would be passionate about, that will change someone’s life too. That same day I invited my close friend to discuss and brainstorm, and a few days later we got ourselves a perfect and very detailed idea of that app.
Next two months I was sabotaged with my own perfectionism. Every time I worked for some commercial client, I had to be on schedule — and really strived to stick to it. But when I became my own client, things changed for the worse. I wasn’t able to stop perfecting the thing. Even understanding that I was spending my last money didn’t make sense. I found some guys who were ready to invest when the design part will be ready, but I was polishing it for too long, and…
The Dream, uhh… version 1.2
The crisis struck — in November, in just a few weeks, Russian rouble deflated around 50%. The design was ready, but I realized there are no investors anymore. People were in turmoil, and became tense and wary. App investments? Oh man, we’d better cash out in currency. I was again pressured by unnecessity of my work, multiplied by vague overall perspective of my life.
But… the good thing about the Camino is that you can always relive that feeling of endless possibilities in your mind. And so did I, quickly concluding that its a chance, not a fault.
Another problem to deal with was that an app I designed became too complicated even with all the polishing done — may be, even because of it. It truly was a time to change the pivot and give it another go. So the idea was promptly rethought and ready to be redone. The only bad thing was that due to all the emotional shocks and a cold weather, I got sick and spent almost all the January trying to cope with the pulmonary infection. However there was an advantage — while I wasn’t able to work, I had enough time to rethink stuff and come up with some new solutions.
The more dreams, the better
While I was sick, I also remembered a few things:
- What it took to learn all the things I know about design.
- What quantum leaps I had when I watched some tutorials or just spoke with some people that knew something better than me.
- What an endearing and captivating experience was to teach people — I read a few lectures about freelancing and design, supervised a few designers in my early twenties, and even conducted Photoshop courses in my friends’ photo school. And all that was amazing to say the least.
Having it all in mind, I saw that another dream of mine — which also plays well with a desire to help and support other people — is to teach. And there definitely are some things, that I know pretty well and have a lot of experience with, like web and mobile design. So why not to pursue two dreams at once..?
The Idea
And here is the idea — I wanna run an online bootcamp to show how I’m making and remaking my own app, simultaneously helping others to make theirs. And what’s even more significant — it won’t be just about the execution, but also about how to get that perfect idea. Idea of an app, that one can be proud of and passionate about; not just another Tinder clone or stuff like that. Luckily, to the point I’ve got some experience with that too.
That’s what I was missing in all the workshops and educational videos I’ve seen (I bought some books and videos, and watched a lot of free ones, when I was starting with my own learning). Most of them don’t show how you can make something real — but just another imaginary app, like Instagram or Facebook clone. It can surely help to sharpen design skills, but that’s the least important thing in the whole process — as most people usually start with another problem, lack of a great idea (or even a good one). So first — I’ll be showing how I’m making a real app, not an imaginary one.
Another problem is that direct 1-on-1 tuition costs too much for those just starting — and that’s what I’m also going to address. Bootcamp will have a working area, where people will be able to post their progress and receive immediate feedback, to be motivated enough through all the course. So at the end everyone will come up with the final version of their own app. Not only them — me as well.
So that’s the thing I’m starting today.
I’ve already finished the detailed plan of the course, and a text for the pre-launch promo site, which will be ready in a few days. I also thought about releasing some parts of the bootcamp materials for free as blog posts or another, smaller course targeting just one part of the whole process, like ideation or wireframing.
Well, enough talking… let’s pursue our dreams together!
Stay tuned!
Btw, I’ve set up my own blog and a mailing list, that I will use to post updates on the bootcamp and the project itself. In case you’re interested, I welcome you to join me on my journey by subscribing to the news:
You can also find out more about my work as a designer at my personal site (which also has a blog and a signup form too): www.leytman.com
