I'm designing a mobile and web app that will be a study tool for college students. I am designing it for the iPhone and iPod to start out on, however I don't have any programming experience.


The first iteration of the app will be fairly basic. The application is built on slides, like you would have in Power Point, but the slides can have an unlimited number of sides to them. In effect creating two axis' of movement for slides instead of one like in Power Point or key note. So for instance a flash card would be a slide with two sides. Slides are then contained within 'Sets', or a deck of slides. These sets are then organized by folders.


Now for the development of the application, I have posted the job on ELance and have received several proposals with most in the range of $2-4k, which is fairly close to the budget I anticipated for launching it. The problem I am concerned with however is what direction should I take after it is launched to continue development? The first version is going to be a free application but the cost will add up quickly when it comes time to develop the other features and services that will bring in the money.


Any thoughts, criticism or advice?

Here's a sample from one of the mock ups i created: