Interview with Pencl Notes App Developer: A Fellow Student!

What do you do when you don’t like the note taking apps out there? You make your own! 

In my first ever interview-style blog post, we’ll talk to Miguel, a student who was feeling frustrated with all the note-taking apps out there and decided to develop his own. 

Read on to learn about Miguel, how Pencl Notes came to be, and importantly, how he juggles school and app-development. He’ll also give us a sneak peek at some of the ideas he has for future updates, and explains some of the difficulties of app development under Apple. 

At the end of the blog post, Miguel gives us insight into the inner workings of app development and gives insider tips on how to get started. Honestly, I’ve always toyed with the idea of developing my own app(s), so I’m fascinated by the process and I’ve learned so much.

Check out Pencl Notes on the App Store by following this link.

Also, you can follow Miguel at @penclnotes on Instagram for updates on the app and exciting behind-the-scenes insight.

Interview with a Student App Developer

Hi Miguel, can you tell us about yourself and what you’re studying? 

Hi Alexa, thanks for having me here, I’m very excited! I’m a 20 year old student from Germany and I study Medical Engineering. Apart from learning and working on the app, I love going to the gym at least 5 times a week. 

Why did you decide to make your own note-taking app? Was there a specific triggering event, or was it a lot of things that added up?

I have been using an iPad for studying for over a year now and worked with many different note-taking apps. Since I have always been a student who doesn’t create some of these very fancy and beautiful notes like you do, I never noticed how many features these apps were actually lacking. 

One day, I had this idea to write an Ebook about digital note-taking and was about to create some example documents to include in the book, when I noticed how complicated it is to really draw in these apps; it just isn’t intuitive at all and looks kinda strange. That’s when I had the idea to make my own app instead of writing the Ebook. Since I had a lot of freetime back then and because of Apple releasing iOS 13, an update that includes an API called “PencilKit”, I decided to start immediately. The API has been available a few months prior to the release of iOS 13, around June 2019, so developers could finish their updates / apps before the official release. I couldn’t finish the app on time though, so I released Pencl Notes by the end of November.

Have you developed any other apps? 

There was an app a few years ago, back in 2016. Everyone was playing Pokémon Go at that time, including me, and I found it really annoying that you have to randomly search for Pokémon. So I developed an app that scans your surroundings and shows where a Pokémon is located so you can just walk there. Of course, this was not allowed since it involved faking the location of the phone, so it never got accepted to the App Store. But people still liked it and I was interviewed on TV and on our local radio station.

What are some of the challenges of developing an app while studying in college? How do you juggle the two?

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to juggle the two at all! I started to develop the app between two semesters and planned to finish it in only a few weeks. 

At first, I didn’t plan to start my own company with it, it was supposed to be a small hobby project. But after working on it for a while, I noticed that it has the potential for something bigger. The last four months have been the most stressful time of my life. Some days, I worked for 12 hours straight, slept a few hours and went to college the next day just for my good conscience because I didn’t pay attention there and kept working on the app instead. I was about to give up so many times, but I just wanted to prove to myself that I can finish this project and release Pencl Notes to the App Store. 

For the last three weeks, I tried to catch up on all the stuff I missed during this time, since I haven’t spent a single minute learning the whole semester. And today, I finally had my last exam and it went well! So four months, many sleepless nights and liters of coffee later, I can finally say: It was incredibly hard, but definitely worth it! From now on, I don’t have to work under time pressure and dedicate time to both: Studying and working on the app.

Glad you finished all your exams on time! Tell us a bit about your vision for Pencl Notes going forward. 

Pencl Notes focus is and always will be to provide the best writing experience possible. I think that you shouldn’t have to compromise on how your pencil feels just because you decide to leave physical paper behind. Since Pencl Notes is the first, functional app on the App Store that uses the precise and carefully designed PencilKit by Apple, it will always adapt to everything Apple decides to release in the future.

At the moment, the app has the most important features of other note-taking apps, like PDF support, a file system, gestures, iCloud synchronization, a splitscreen mode and much more. In the future, I will continue to add every feature that is technically possible, like voice recording, more shapes etc. It is extremely important to me to stay in close contact with the users and make sure their voices are heard. You can follow me on Instagram, where I’ll share frequent updates and ask for feedback.

A new update is released every 3-4 weeks, bringing new features and improving the existing ones. My vision is that Pencil Notes will become the obvious first choice when it comes to note-taking apps on iOS.

What are the challenges/difficulties you’ve encountered with the process?

Most difficult for me are the restrictions that Apple has for their developers. Using their PencilKit has a lot of advantages over other apps that provide their own tools, like a much shorter input latency and a digital ruler. 

However, we all know Apple and their limitations, and it’s no different for developers. At the moment, the strokes users make are “opaque data objects”. The developer can see them, but not modify them in any way. This means: I can’t draw lines via code, I can’t change the size or color of strokes and I can’t make the drawn lines straight. I really hope that Apple changes all of this by updating the PencilKit with iOS 14, but until then, I can only provide workarounds to replace the missing features, like making my own shapes that users can add to their document. New iOS versions usually get announced in June or July and released in September, together with the new generation of iPhones.

Where do you think people should start if they want to learn how do develop apps?

Developing iOS apps is both a blessing and a curse. The language that you use is called Swift and is developed by Apple. It has many useful features that make coding much easier than in traditional languages, however, you can’t find nearly as many resources about it; for example, many resources talk only about Objective-C, the language that was used before Apple released Swift, so you basically need to understand both. It is also very buggy sometimes, which is especially frustrating for new users because they can never be sure if it is their mistake or just a bug.

That’s why I recommend to get started with a more beginner-friendly language, like Java. There are tons of resources available online and even special IDEs (Integrated Development Environment, the software you use to code new software) that are dedicated to make learning object-oriented programming easier. For beginners, BlueJ is a great software. You can always view the classes to create in a simple diagram to understand relationships and you can monitor the status of variables to see how they change during the runtime. If you’re great at Java and understand the basic concept, getting started with iOS development will be a breath compared to diving straight into it.

INSIGHT INTO THE APP DEVELOPMENT PROCESS:

How can you go about developing your app? What kind of experience/skills do you need? Read on for tips from a pro!

1. The first thing you need to have is an idea. Most people think that this is the hardest and most complex step and a great idea equals a great success. The truth is: The idea makes up 1% of what you need to succeed. It’s the execution that matters and makes up 99% of what you need. Tons of people had the idea of a simple messenger app back in the day, but today, all of us are using WhatsApp because Jan Koum not only had the idea, he executed it.
2. Having an idea is not a process you can work on. As you see from my story, ideas don’t come when you sit down and try to think of something for hours, ideas just happen. Napoleon Hill has a great lesson about creativity and subconsciousness in his book “Think and Grow Rich” that I recommend to everybody. Briefly summarized: You need to train your mind and walk through life with open eyes and an open mind to have the ideas come to you.
3. When you find something you want to make into an app, there are tons of books and guides on how to structure and plan everything you do. I’m not a big fan of complicated methods and structures since they only take your time away, the most precious resource you have. The method I use to plan software projects is called “SCRUM”. It focuses on getting things done and neglects useless documentation that you will never read again. It is version-based and your monthly goal is to provide a new, fully functional version of the software that is better (has more features / less bugs / runs more efficiently etc.) than the prior version. You can find everything about it on the internet or in books.
4. If you just start to code, developing an iOS app might not be the best thing to start with. I started programming when I was thirteen and basically followed a “learning by doing” approach and I can’t recommend this enough. No course, no book and no lecture can give you the experience you need to solve problems that you definitely will face. Once you get a general understanding of object-oriented programming, the language in which you write becomes less and less important since it is only the syntax that is changing. That’s the point where you can start to learn coding in Swift by using free online resources.
5. If you have an UI/UX designer for your app, he will provide you with design mockups that you can just recreate in code. But if you don’t have one and want to design the app on your own: Don’t spend your time creating mockups in applications like Adobe XD. Otherwise, you will have to do the same work in XCode again, so just do it with XCode from the beginning
6. Don’t neglect beta-testing! Your code might work on your device, but does it work on every other? How does it look on smaller/bigger/older iPhones? What if a user has a slow internet connection? What if he is trying to import a document with 300 pages? You need to have every possibility in mind and test all of them! Of course, there will be cases you can’t think of, but try to test anything you can imagine. Think about DAU: the dumbest assumable user 
7. Marketing is important! I made the big mistake to focus on marketing way too late and that’s not a mistake you wanna make. Ideally, you want to have thousands of people patiently waiting for your announced release date. Working with other Instagram users who have a big following is my favorite method since you can reach people with interests that exactly match your target audience.
8. Most importantly: DON’T GIVE UP. There have been so many times where I just wanted to throw my MacBook at the wall and never think about this app again and trust me, that’s normal. This is where winners are made. This is the difference between success and failure. Just continue to work and have trust that you will overcome whatever obstacle you’re facing. If you do not believe in yourself, who is gonna do it for you? There will be a day when you look back at this very moment and you will be proud and happy that you didn’t give up. Eliminate your plan B, C, D etc.: Plan A is your only option!

Thank you so much to Miguel for taking time out of his insanely busy uni/app developing schedule to come talk to us about what it’s like to develop an iPad app.

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Take your note-taking to a new level with Pencl Notes, a digital notebook for iOS • The most precise and native writing experience✒️✏️ • Annotate PDFs📝 • Innovative shape detection📐📏 • iCloud synchronization🔄 • Gestures to speed up your workflow👇🏾🤚🏻 Download now on the App Store! #apple #ios #pencil #applepencil #app #study #university #notes #notetaking #goodnotes #notability #shapes

A post shared by Pencl Notes (@penclnotes) on Nov 26, 2019 at 2:00am PST

// Massive thank you to Miguel for providing the photos and video you see in the blog post; all rights go to him //

GIVEAWAY ALERT: Win a FREE copy of PenclNotes

Head on over to @penclnotes on Instagram to enter the giveaway! I’ve attached the rules below, but keep in mind that you have to pop over to IG and follow/like his account in order to be eligible to enter.

I’m very excited to be a part of @a.medstudents.journey‘s new blog post! You can find the link in my bio, make sure to check it out😊 We had an interview about the development of Pencl Notes and its future💻

Together, we’re going to giveaway 5 copies of Pencl Notes! To participate:

– Follow @penclnotes on Instagram
– Like and tag a friend who could also use a copy of Pencl Notes
– For an extra entry: Leave a comment on @a.medstudents.journey’s blog post (don’t forget to mention your Instagram username!)

The giveaway ends on Saturday at 6pm GMT. I will contact the winners via DM afterwards. Good luck!🍀