June 29, 2015

The Drexel App Lab is known for its learning to code workshops, consulting hours, and mobile application development projects. But the reality of releasing a mobile app is that not everyone involved in the creation of an app is a programmer. It takes a diversity of skills (often involving team collaboration), designers, project managers, testers, marketers, and many other individuals to create a successful app. And while plenty of people, spanning a range of backgrounds and expertise, have ideas for apps, it can be difficult to get a handle on what the app development process really entails. The Drexel App Lab emphasizes a highly multidisciplinary approach, enabling more useful and impactful applications, and broadening participation in app development.

On June 29th, 2015, the Drexel App Lab held an Idea to App Store Workshop, a collaborative program in which attendees had the chance to learn about the overall process of taking an app idea from concept to deployment. Unlike typical programming workshops, computers were not required, but discussion and creativity were! App Lab students led others through an exploration of the vital steps of app development, including ideation, infrastructure design, user privacy, software development, testing, deployment, and revenue generation.

The workshop also provided participants with the opportunity to discuss, design, and develop their own app ideas with others spanning a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Attendees worked in ad hoc groups, with backgrounds spanning business, medicine, media arts and design, engineering, finance, and biology. Teams refined their own app ideas as they practiced storyboarding, defined software requirements, and consulted other teams for ideas and solutions.

"Unlike any other workshop, this workshop provided understandable and concise information that will surely help to bring my app idea to the App Store,” said one student participant. “Not just that, I also had a chance to discuss my app idea to different people with different backgrounds and perspectives."

At Drexel, aspects of application development are taught through a variety of classes and departments, but the App Lab offers an extracurricular resource for students from all programs. Workshops like these help to solidfy the pathways to app development for all members of the Drexel community, enabling better mobile applications through highly multidisciplinary collaboration.

For the latest, please follow us on Twitter @drexelapplab. You can find our open hours, online tutorials, and more at the App Lab website: http://drexel.edu/excite/initiatives/applab/. For other inquiries, you can contact us at applab@drexel.edu.

We hope to see you at our next workshop!