Some people can really get their head around technical matters. Others struggle with working out how to operate a cake mixer at home. Do you think that being a technophile or a geek or a nerd is something you’re born with? Or is the learning of technical matters and technical detail something that you can train yourself to do? Once upon a time, if you were labelled a geek it really was a form of insult. These days, if somebody knows you’re a geek, they are more than likely to ask you to help them with a computer problem. When you consider that Bill Gates is the ultimate geek, it’s pretty hard to make that word sound offensive.
While it’s true that new technologies have brought about a change in labour requirements and have undoubtedly caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, it is also true to say that this same technology has created probably more than 10 times the amount of jobs that were lost in areas like manufacturing and hard labour. Computers have gone from a Commodore 64 to iPhones carrying around many of their own mini-computer systems on icons called apps. Basically, a new industry involving ukdevelopers has been born and now provides application development to any person or business that asks for it.
Mobile app development has definitely been a steadily growing industry, and in a report tabled in 2013, it was said to be responsible for the creation of 529,000 new jobs. While this number doesn’t apply only to UK developers, it is certainly a technology niche that has everybody wanting to get into. Even if technology scares you a bit, maybe you think computer language or the inner workings of a unique piece of equipment are too much, you will be surprised to learn that you don’t need to be a technical expert to become involved in the development of your own app.
Terms like ‘user-friendly interface’ and ‘integrated development environments’ may seem like an entirely non-understandable language. But all you really need to know as an ideas person is what you want your app to be able to do. The way apps are being created now is just by everyday people identifying a need in some mundane or repetitive job and they have thought of a better way of doing it. If you thought that games apps were the most popular and a particular game would be voted as the best ever app, you’re wrong! The three best apps in 2015 were all educational apps. They involved the learning of languages in two instances and the knowledge of mathematics which came in second place. The best apps voted for iPad use had to do with learning the anatomy of the human body, and again, a maths app ran second. If you want to be inspired and learn more about apps, the recommended reading we suggest is a website called tabbyawards.
