Do you remember what was your first app ever?

Mine was 14 years ago, and I was 14 years old, it was 2008 when I wrote my first desktop application in VisualBasic.

It was then that I discovered this superpower ... **CODING**.
 
So I began to harness this power to solve my everyday problems.

For example, back then I and my brother shared a PC, so imagine 14 years old and 11 years old sharing one PC to play games on! we needed to divide the time to play on the PC fairly, and here comes **Timer**, this is what I called my first app, a program where you can choose the session duration from 15 minutes to 1 hour, and when it ends, it will be opened on the top of any other opened window _-Typically a game-_ with the message _**"Get up Mostafa!"**_

Later on, we discovered that our parents may ask us to do something during a running session, so we needed to pause the session, and that's how the pause button was added.

Along the way, I made other quality of life improvements, like hiding the app from the taskbar when minimized, and only showing a system tray icon.

Following this pattern, I programmed 30+ apps in the span of 3 years.

And this is what sparked my passion for Software Development, which led to working with clients from the USA, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, and impacting people's lives on every continent, not just me and my brother.

What about you? What was your initial spark?

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Bonus:
[Timer on GitHub](https://github.com/MostafaNafie/Timer)

Coding is a super power

Your First App Ever

Engineers are enablers, they have the knowledge and tools to turn ideas into reality.

> “Engineers are the hidden enablers of everything that we take for granted in modern life. From turning on the tap, to the smartphones that we check the moment we’ve woken up, to clean energy, to access to medicine, engineers literally design and deliver the physical and digital infrastructure, the services that we rely on every day—even if we are totally oblivious to it.”

> -Hayaatun Sillem, CEO of the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering

Awesome right?!

But as a Software Engineer, how could you build such services?
 
Specifically in the app development field whether it's web or mobile app development.

_How to build a high-quality app? What makes a high-quality app in the first place? And high-quality for whom exactly?_
 
These are the questions that I will try to answer here.

I think answering these questions will help you to understand more deeply the impact of the features that you implement in your day-to-day tasks, moreover, it can help you to decide what you need to learn next if you want to maximize your impact.

So here's how I see it, for each app you work on there're three stakeholders:

- Users
- Business
- Developers

Let's try to think what each one would want in a **High-Quality** app while mapping this to a technical requirement in the app.

Let's start with the **users** of course, as their needs should be the true north of anything that you do.
Here's generally what users care about:

- UI/UX
- Performance:
 - App launch time
 - Responsiveness → _**Cache**_
- Stability (No crashes) → _**Software Testing, Debugging**_
- Reliability (No bugs) → _**Software Testing, Crash and Error Monitoring**_
- _(Optional)_ Convenience Features:
 - Offline first experience (Offline Mode) → _**Data Persistence, Cache and State Management**_
 - Online Payments

Now it's **the business** turn, which is typically represented by the Project Manager or Product Owner:

- Get feedback fast → _**CI/CD Pipeline**_
- Boost users' conversion and retention rates:
 - By being informed about the users' actions → _**Analytics**_
 - Marketing campaigns → _**Push Notifications, Deep Linking**_
 - Conduct experiments → _**A/B Testing**_
- Scalable:
 - Adding more features fast and secure (without breaking old features)
 - Fast: Allow parallel work → _**Modularization**_
 - Secure/Stable (No crashes) → _**Software Testing, Crash and Error Monitoring**_
 - Adding more markets (different languages and configurations)
 - Adding Languages → _**Localization**_
 - Toggling features for different markets → _**Feature Toggles (Feature Flags)**_
 - Different App Identities or Different Clients → _**White-Labeling**_

Finally, we get to the **developers**:

- Easy onboarding → _**Setting up the development environment on a new machine, Fewer third-party dependencies**_
- Readable and understandable code → _**Clean Code, Static Code Analyzers (Linters and Formatters)**_
- Fast Build times → _**Modularization**_

I hope now you have a better overview of most of the requirements of a high-quality app, and their impact on **the users, business, and developers**.

 

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- References:
 - [Mobile App Quality: An Essential Guide](https://blog.instabug.com/mobile-app-quality-an-essential-guide/)
 - [Save your next app from rebuilding from scratch](https://nalexn.github.io/save-your-next-app/)
 - [Martin Fowler: Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?](https://martinfowler.com/articles/is-quality-worth-cost.html)

Ever wondered what are the software development skills you need to maximize your impact? and how these skills are related to your company's business goals?

What Makes a High Quality App?

After entertaining the idea for quite sometime now, these are the reasons that motivated me to finally start my own personal website.

- **Influence and add value** to people by sharing your knowledge.
- **Exposure**; as your personal website can be that one place that anyone can go to learn everything about you, as it helps you to build your personal brand. Also having your personal domain name helps you make a good impression.
- **Land a job**; recruiters can find you much more easily.
- **Broaden my technical perspective**; as a Software Engineer it gives me the opportunity to tinker around with different technologies that I am not familiar with an iOS Developer.

✉️ Feel free to reach out to me on [**LinkedIn**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mostafanafie/).

 

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- References:
 - Articles:
 - [Why You Should Create a Personal Website ASAP](https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/why-you-need-a-personal-website-asap)
 - Videos:
 - [How To Create a Personal Website on Notion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u45QMEn1o4)

Reasons to start a personal website or a blog

Why Start A Personal Website?


```swift
func test() {
  print("Hello")
}
```


Hi there 👋🏻

My Blog Posts 👇🏻

Your First App Ever

What Makes a High Quality App?

Why Start A Personal Website?