Treeus Success: How we created our application
Team Members: Kianna Taing -Medium ID (@mtkianna), Lauren Buglas (@lauren.buglas), Eryl David (@eryl.david1)
The COVID19 pandemic created the unprecedented rise of remote learning and working for many (Hern, 2020). Such a sudden transition to a different way of working led to the sharp increase in need for task management, communication and project management tools and applications to suit remote workers needs. Our group decided we wanted to make our creation project around solving this emerging issue. We ended up creating Treeus.
Treeus was conceptualized to aid in filling that need, as a technological application tool to help with the transition. It is a fusion of communication and project management tools most useful for those needing a way to keep on track with not just themselves but others for task completion. This blog post details the tools the Treeus team created our application prototype and logo for the brand. If you are a prospective entrepreneur who is also looking to develop a project management and communication tool, check out this blog post for directions on one potential way to do it!
The creation process in developing the Treeus app involved the following free online tools:
In creating our company name, we all individually brainstormed ideas such as Team Tree, Triple C and iConnect but could not however use them as those names were already taken. We confirmed all the brand names by using Namechk.com where we finally came up with Treeus. Our brand name Treeus was formed with our vision of symbolizing a system where the branches of a tree connect us altogether in one tool.
Mobile App Prototype:
For the development of our application, we referenced professor Mohanned Keyhani’s list of entrepreneur tools to choose the best prototype platform. We decided on using the platform called Proto as it offered the best free resources. When compared to other app platforms, we found Proto to have the most realistic iOS graphic features and most intuitive interface. Our team created a free 15-day trial account which gave us access to the necessary tools to create our app. When creating an account, Proto prompted us with the options to choose a project display type. The options included smartphone, tablet, web desktop, or smart watch.
Proto offers excellent UI templates and Icons which have the option to switch between Material Design, Windows 8, WatchOS or Generic to create the most realistic display.
The iPhone X status bar was added to each app screen which displayed the time, Wi-Fi signal and battery life. This replicated the impression of a common user’s phone.
Although Proto provided pre-created templates to follow, we decided to create our own unique canvas to better display our exclusive app design. Our landing page was created to have a clean and crisp view as we opted for a pure white background. We added our company logo to the center and added two buttons at the bottom of the screen to prompt the user to “Sign up” or “log in”.
Keyboard shortcuts such as “CTRL+F” allowed for convenient look up buttons, icons, and templates
Creating animated buttons using “Player Interface” was simple to create. Initially we added a button icon, changed the properties, and then created the animation. By double clicking the button of our app, a transition could be created as an image of a lightning bolt appears. This then would allow us to drag and drop where we wanted the transition to occur.
Adding the additional feature of animation granted users the ability to physically interact with the app and grant a greater realistic impression.
Downloading the Proto Mobile app
The brand Proto created an extension of their service where they created a mobile app to bring proto creations to life. By downloading their mobile on our smartphones, we were able to first hand interact with our prototype. By clicking the share button of the original website on our computer, we then entered out personal phone numbers. Through text message we received a link to our created prototype which then prompted us to open the link on our mobile devices. By downloading Proto’s mobile app, we were able to physically see how our app looked on our smartphones.
Logo Design
We used Hatchful by Shopify to create the Treeus logo. We had decided on a colour scheme of white, black, and greens to give a mature, calm and reliable feeling to users. We also decided on a more natural aesthetic with trees, leafs and nature as pillars to our app’s customizable boards and logo. Hatchful’s process of logo designing was simple, easy to use and effective. We were first given the option of what our logo was for. Hatchful offers choices from social media to business cards. Treeus is a mobile application and that was not an option, therefore we chose ‘other platforms’. Then from there all we had to do was type in our brand name and Hatchful generated logo designs.
We had scrolled through many logos that were generated and finally settled on a leaf themed logo. Though Hatchful was a smooth website that offers free minimalistic logos, it was difficult to find one that actually matched our brand theme. Many of them were unrelated to nature, which was a struggle. We finally found a leaf themed logo that fit all our criteria.
From there all we had to do was pick our desired colours and fonts. After we decided on our logo, we were able to download it for free. Hatchful offers a free logo package with perks such as high resolution, transparent backgrounds, different sizes for different platforms and unlimited revisions. For a startup company Hatchful was the perfect technological tool for any brand wanting to start with a high quality logo.
App Monetization
The tool we decided to use when it comes to app monetization is Google’s AdMod. Google’s AdMod is a tool that allows app developers to connect with app advertisers (AdMod, 2020). It’s an application that allows mobile apps to join a network to fill ad space on any empty advertisement method. For Treeus’s free version we decided on using banners as our method of advertising. Through Google’s AdMod, we would join a network and the banner ad space would be filled up. AdMod is a great tool that brings in more revenue and provides high quality engaging ads that won’t annoy app users (AdMod, 2020). AdMod also is a great tool for Treeus because it gives detailed analytics. Through AdMod we would get detailed statistics based on how users are interacting with ads and our app itself.
App Development
To develop our app a tool we are using is the App Institute. The App Institute was created to help entrepreneurs build apps simply without having to do the coding (App Institute, 2020).Traditional app development on average costs around $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the complexity of the app.However, modern day technological tools like App Institute relieve that stress (Blair, 2019). When developing apps, most startups have to go through high end app developers which can cost thousands of dollars. Compared to the App Institute, it can cost up to $340 dollars a month (App Institute, 2020).
Treeus has decided to go with the $66 dollar a month subscription. The AppBuilder Pro subscription offers customer service, advanced push notifications, app analytics and instant updates. The AppBuilder Pro offers to create versions for both Apple App Store and Google Play App store. Other benefits are geo-location push messaging, audience segmentation, 10,000 downloads per month and 10,000 notifications per month to app users.Through the App institute, we are able to relieve the stress of coding and outsource app development and maintenance to a third party without taking huge financial risks or a loss of decision autonomy. For Startups the App Institute is a great tool that allows people with low budgets to get their minimum viable product off the ground.
Marketing Research
Another application we used was Google Surveys. Through Google Surveys we were able to engage and find out our target demographic. We were also able to build our financial models after the results. Google Surveys is a fantastic tool that allows entrepreneurs to send out questionnaires with instant results (Google Forms, 2020). Google forms format is clean with a simplistic design. The method of sharing the questionnaire is also seamless. With one little link, we were able to send everyone the survey and within the first two hours we had already 10 responses and the analytics that followed.
Advertising
To advertise our Treeus application, we will be using Facebook Ads manager. First, to create our advertisement we need to choose a campaign objective. For advertising, our main objective was application installations, so that is what we selected. We then move on to setting up our ad account. We set the location, currency, Time Zone and account name aspects for our advertisement here. To set up the ad, we created a campaign name and where our app was being promoted. Next, we created the audience profile for who would see our advertisements, by adding location age range, detailed targeting interests and language. We set our location to Canada, for between the ages of 18–25 of any gender, with interests in the mobile app, productivity and student categories and in the English language.
We went with automatic placements for ads to make it easier on us to manage. We then set a daily budget of $5.00 a day, and as an example set the add to run for one month. The final part of ad creation in Facebook Ads Manager involves creation of the visuals of the advertisement. We did not create an actual Facebook page for this example, but keep in mind that to display ads on Facebook you will need a Facebook page to link to. After making an ad name and connecting a Facebook page to the ad, Facebook ads manager prompts the user how they want the ad to look visually. We went with a single image or video format. After that, all that’s left to fill in is the advertisement image, headline, description and call to action button, which we would change to ‘Install Now’ for the purposes of increasing the user base for our app. Once that’s all complete, we have created an ad for our application!
We hope that this brief insight on the online technological tools we used to help create Treeus will be of some use to your future entrepreneur endeavors! Planning, designing, prototyping, marketing, financing and developing a mobile app can take a lot of work. However, with today’s modern tools it just got easier. The modern tools mentioned in this blog post show how technology gave us the chance to create an app without having to understand or do the coding and programming behind it whilst still being affordable.
References:
AdMod (2020).Earn with your apps. Retrieved from https://admob.google.com/home/
Appinstitute (2020). App Builder for busy small business owners. Retrieved April
4, 2020, from https://appinstitute.com
Appinstitute (2020). Flexible plans for our DIY app builder for small businesses. Retrieved April
4, 2020, from https://appinstitute.com/pricing/
Blair, Ian. (2019). App development costs: $1,000 App vs. $10,000 App vs $100,000 app. Retrieved from https://buildfire.com/app-development-costs-difference/
Facebook Ad Manager (2020) Facebook. Retrieved April 6, 2020 from https://www.facebook.com/adsmanager/creation?act=107971315&filter_set
Google Forms (2020). Free online surveys: Create beautiful forms. Retrieved on April 2, 2020, from https://www.google.ca/forms/about/
Hatchful (2020). Your digital logo designer. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from https://hatchful.shopify.com/
Hern, A. (2020, March 13). Covid-19 could cause permanent shifts towards home working. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/13/covid-19-could-cause-permanent-shift-towards-home-working
Prototypes That Feel Real. Proto.io — Prototypes that feel real. Retrieved April 3, 2020 from https://proto.io/.
Username, Domain & Trademark Search. Retrieved April 2,2020 fromhttps://namechk.com/?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ZEEF&utm_source=https://entrepreneur-tools.zeef.com/keyhanimo
