App Assets Checklist

Many of our customers are frustrated by the delay in releasing their completed apps in the Apple Appstore. We have created this checklist to minimize the time we need to get an app approved by Apple.

AppStore Submission Checklist

Appstore Submission Checklist

• Name of the App

• Bundle ID — do you want to release the name in your
  company’s name or our name? There is no cost to release it in our name,
  there are costs (and legal implications) to release in your name, please
  call us and we will assist you with pricing, taxes, VAT, intellectual
  property issues.

• App Icon

• Screenshots

• App Categories

• Pricing

• Copyright Page

• Customer Support Page

• Privacy and Data Collection Policy or Page

Screenshots

For the screenshots, iPhone and iPad apps usually display pages from the
magazine in the app’s user interface, sometimes with annotations overlaid (as
we’ve done for the app shown above). You can simply specify which pages from
which issues of the magazine you’d like us to use and we can produce the actual
screenshots. Note that you can specify up to 5 screenshots for the app.

Suggestions: If there are particularly popular sections of the magazine, it’s
good to feature those. An interesting cover image from an issue is always a good
choice (for example, we chose a cover featuring Tiger Woods for GGP, as he is a
huge draw). Also, if you’d like to annotate your screenshots (as in the GGP ones
above), please specify the annotations for each one.

Description

This is plain text that describes the app. You want it to be concise (as most
users won’t read much of it) but complete enough to sell the magazine.

Suggestions: Use the GGP text above as an example. Note how it describes the
magazine’s focus, frequency, and user experience in just the first two
sentences, then goes on to a more in-depth description.

App Icon

The icon really requires a graphic designer, as you’ll need to choose a graphic
for your icon that represents the magazine in a very small, square space. Note
that the app icon will only appear when viewing a list of apps in the user’s
iTunes Library and when searching for the app in Spotlight Search on the iPad.
On the iPad itself, the app will appear in Newsstand and the icon will be the
cover image from the latest issue. So, unlike regular apps, you don’t have to
worry too much about the app icon’s design, as the user just won’t see it very
often. We have to provide the icon in the following pixel sizes: 50×50, 72×72,
100×100, 144×144, 512×512, and 1024×1024. Guidelines for designing app icons can
be found here:

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/IconsImages/IconsImages.html

Suggestions: Choose an easily recognizable graphic that represents the content
of the magazine. You can use the logotype of the magazine but it’s difficult to
make it look good at the small sizes at which the icon will be displayed. Don’t
use a photographic image.

Splash Page

You can do just about anything here. Because the splash page only appears for a
second or two when the app launches, you don’t have to spend a lot of time
sweating its design.

Suggestions: Use a simple graphic that promotes the brand but isn’t too
detailed, as the user will only have a second or two to get an impression of it.
This might be a good spot for using a large version of the magazine’s logotype.
I recommend providing a single, square image file that is 2048×2048 pixels,
designed so that the main image asset is fully visible in the center of the
image, such that clipping the top and bottom (in landscape mode) and clipping
the left and right sides (in portrait mode) won’t hide anything important. We’ll
do the work of clipping it to create the specific sizes needed for landscape and
portrait modes.

See Also:

• Appstore Submission

• Checklist from iPhone Development 101