The tech world is rapidly expanding with mobile app developers competing to deliver the next craze on the app market, or at least technology that helps a group of people somehow. App development usually begins with an idea that stems from a desire to improve upon existing apps or to introduce a new solution to a common problem. One of the early considerations needs to be whether or not the app will be for profit or not. If you are trying to sell an app in the App Store then the concept will likely be shaped by market demand. Here are some ways to develop an app concept.

1. Do Online Research

App developers who are trying to sell apps actively study various charts that reflect download popularity, whether the apps are free or with pricing. Apple’s App Store and Google Play offer charts that indicate the most popular downloads. These charts will help you understand market demand, which can change from week to week.

While you do not want to copy anyone else’s idea, it’s perfectly accepted in the tech community for app developers to improve upon existing apps, which helps raise industry standards. You can get an idea what the public thinks and wants from reading online reviews of apps. These reviews will help you think about fixing bugs or adding features that don’t exist yet.

2. Create a List of Resources

There are plenty of websites and blogs that offer ideas for app development. Make a list of your favorites and use them as think tank resources. Here are some examples:

• The Internet Wish List
• Cool Materials
• PreApps

In addition to sites that specialize in app ideas, it’s a good idea to develop a list of developer resources that you can turn to for inspiration as well as education. One way to keep up to date with app development trends is to search “new apps” in Google News. This approach will help you find articles with valuable insights that you might not otherwise find, such as the Tabtale story. Tabtale is a company that started out trying to sell books online but was unsuccessful. Then after the app maker switched focus to freemium children’s gaming apps, it sold over 300 million downloads and became a multi-million dollar business.

3. Find the Right Tools

Some of the most popular apps are extensions for Facebook, iOS, Android and other platforms that offer a software development kit (SDK). The kits usually provide debugging tools and other helpful utilities, but are typically incompatible with free open source development platforms. Having access to open source API libraries is helpful, as encouraged by Box Developer.

4. Join App Developer Communities

The more resources you use, the better your apps will be. Online communities are among the most valuable resources you can turn to when it comes to app development. It can involve social networks, forums and other multi-user applications. Connecting with more experienced developers will help answer your questions quickly and accelerate your projects. Sites such as Appsamuck and Github allow you to experiment with existing code, which can help broaden your developer skills. Not only do these sites let you download Objective-C projects, code can be used for building templates for your apps.

5. Draw Your Plan

One of the best ways to visualize how your app develops is to draw a series of pictures that look like empty smartphone screens. Similar to how a Hollywood film producer uses a storyboard to map out scenes in a movie, app developers can illustrate functions and navigation of an app through pictures with descriptions.