How do you come up with a great idea for a mobile app?

Stuck for an idea on how to create a mobile app? Our very own Alex Ball gives some creative tips to get you started.

“I am on my quest to develop the money spinning, job quitting, notoriety delivering app idea, and with WP7 released last week it gave me the push I needed to go and get cracking. To give myself a head start I flicked through Mobile Mania by Young & Rubicam.

Here’s some of their pointers, take a read and let the ideas come forth:

1. Make stuff easier – we are inherently lazy. We’ve all typed in the domain name into the search box, so you don’t have to write www. Or .com.

2. Think simple – the users of the app is not going to be like the users of the desktop (well maybe) but they could be drunk, sleepy, distracted and of all ages.

3. Cut out steps – i.e. Amazon one step purchase.

4. Don’t let ‘mobile’ confuse you – people use their mobiles at home, while watching TV (if my boyfriend is anything to go by).

5. Don’t worry about gravitas – you’re not creating Sims for the mobile, you’re only getting £1.

6. Flirting – language evolved so cavemen could mate. As computing moves to the mainstream its prime use is flirting.

7. Focus on the human condition – most people don’t know what they want. As Henry Ford said, ‘If I asked them what they wanted they would have asked for a faster horse’.

8. Don’t worry about downturns – economic times give good ideas a clear path.

9. Look for weaknesses – we no longer print out photos to share, we upload.

10. Look for problems – postal services on strike meant people moved to fax. Spot the problem and fix it.

11. Feel the power – you too can create a traffic jam caused by lorries going down narrow lanes because their Sat Nav told them to.

12. Don’t overburden your user – introduce complexity slowly.

13. Solve big problems – solutions with scale make you impossible to copy.

14. Think retro – i.e. downloadable knitting patterns. What’s on the up? Provide an easy way to tap into it.

15. Recognise the new state of news -  there is news and then there is entertainment.

16. Remember marketing –  there is plenty of shelf space, it’s about getting noticed on that shelf.

See you on the cover of Entrepreneur in a year’s time.”

Download the Windows Phone 7 developer tools here.