So many of us just want to jump in and start coding right away. I'm sure this approach works for some, but I believe to build a truly great app, you have to do proper design. This doesn't mean you have to design every single piece up front, but you should layout your basic idea up front, and the iterate through various pieces of detailed design as you move forward. Doing proper research and design up front can save you countless hours later on.
Proper research and design should include checking what new features are in the latest devices or latest IOS version, and seeing how you could take advantage of those to implement your new idea. Successfully integration latest features can help you down the road to potentially even get featured by Apple. Getting featured however should never be your primary goal, but implementing these latest features will also improve your customer experience which should be a primary goal.
When designing, I'm still a big proponent of getting a paper and pencil and drawing it all out. Maybe that makes me old school, but I think it's much easier to visualize and change by following this approach. Also, grab some kind of recording device and talk out loud to explain your thought processes. This can be very important later when you inevitably ask yourself, what was I thinking when I designed it that way. :)
So, in summary:
Design, design, design, and then design some more.
Try to incorporate latest device and IOS features.
Get it all on paper.
Record your thought pattern for later.
