My app idea The app idea is an app for the council that will allow visitors to gain information about the town, specifically where to shop and the key places to visit. This links to the brief because it will be presented on an interactive multi media product, such as a mobile phone device but could also be adapted to an information kiosk but why go to a kiosk when you could use your mobile phone .
This means it will suggest ideas for things and activities they could do depending on what sort of night out they are looking for and what experience of the town they would like . The main function of the app would be to provide information on different eating, drinking and entertainment establishments in Cambridge and allow the user to create a personalised experience especially if they are not familiar with the town.
There will also be a quiz that allows you to test your knowledge of the places you have yet to or have visited.
Moodboard for my app content and idea:
Purpose The purpose of my app is to help people plan their general visit and help with their nights out in Cambridge. For example, if people are new to Cambridge and don't know what they can do in the evenings for fun they can go on the app and be given suggestions for the kind of night out they are looking for. In addition it could especially help new students to the town as well as tourists in general because it will introduce various places of interest and help tourists and new students to explore the community in a recreational way and helps them locate things to do and places to meet people and have fun. This app will also be free of charge to download to help raise the profile of Cambridge itself. It will also flag up upcoming events and allow users to go straight through to the booking website of that event holder - this is in direct response to the brief set by the client.
Client needs My client is the county council. The council want to utilise advancements in modern technology and want to use these to advertise Cambridge and inform people of what is available to do and places to go in Cambridge . The council have asked for a new interactive multimedia product to be developed that can be viewed on a number of devices. I have chosen to create an app that targets people , especially tourists and as a bonus new university students, ether visiting or moving to Cambridge and it is going to inform them of the way of life in Cambridge .
The client has specifically stated that the app must :
Raise the profile of Cambridge on the internet
Be a source of information for locals about what events are happening.
To ensure that my app does this I will make sure that my app is available to Apple devices (and as time goes on it will be made available to other device types) and can raise the profile of Cambridge by being available on different platforms online and offline. Also the app will provide hyperlinks to different establishments in Cambridge and it will raise the individual profiles of different places and businesses in Cambridge.
It will be up to date with information about different places in Cambridge from at least the last 6 months and give you information such as location, opening and closing times and what kind of entertainment the place provides and then on top of this it will provide a hyperlink to website of the place the user is looking at, this means that the user will be able to access even more updated information directly from the establishments website. The app could later be adapted to suit a generic information kiosk as it will be touch screen responsive.
Target audience (e.g. age, gender, interest group, general public, income)
My target audience is people, both male and female, aged between 18-30 . The app is in particular targeting university students and tourists from outside of Cambridge as it helps them plan out their night out. Interests of the target audience may include: study, education, music, spending time with friends, making friends, drama, movies, going out, drinking.
Imaginary entity Name: Anna Age:20 Occupation: Student, studying film and photography University: Anglia Ruskin University Hobbies: Seeing friends, Going to concerts, photography, going out and partying.
Moodboard for target audience:
Target audience needs: The target audience requires an app that is both simple to use and understand. This is because a lot of my target audience may have come from other countries to visit/study in Cambridge, so English may not be their first language, so the app needs to be quite simple in terms of layout and content to be easily accessible to all. Also, as the app is designed to help you not only find places to go but to also organise your stay it may at some point be being used by someone, depending on the day/night they have planned, be intoxicated and the app would need to quite simple so that they could easily access features such as the tab that tells you about taxi services they can access. This would be an additional page. The app also needs to provide a wide variety of options/choices for things to do on a visit as not everyone is looking to do the same thing in their free time. For example, providing options such as discos and clubs for those who want to dance and cinemas or theatres or shops for those who just want be entertained and relax and unwind.
Content ideas The content of my app will have several interactive features as well as providing a database for information on places to go and see. There will be a quiz that is fun but is Cambridge specific. Possible optional tab where you can set up a number of alarms and reminders that you can label, so that you can remind yourself when you need to go to a different place or go home or call a cab. Taxi page with direct links to phone numbers so your app will call them if necessary. Information on shopping experiences available. Advice on shops to visit, perhaps money off vouchers like in tourist leaflets. Events page to include maybe that months events or one single event. Places to visit - this could include an interactive map showing you which place to go. Generic information on the town.
Format The app has to be able to work on iphone however, it would be ideal if the app could also work on a variety of apple products, such as ipad and ipod, as this would broaden the audience reach of my product. The products format would also allow you to adapt the xcode coding for use on an information kiosk. However, information kiosks are not widely used so an app feels more appropriate plus it will allow all the clients to download it and make additions as they see fit without having to travel to a kiosk to test it.
Platform budget (e.g. copyright, royalties, hosting) There are a number of costs involved involved in making and creating an app. For example, copyright could be a cost consideration as if I wish to use other peoples photos and videos in my app it wouldn't be enough just to embed them into the app I would need to credit the source and also perhaps pay the creator for use of the photo either I one big block or pay them a percentage of the money I earn from each sale . Avoiding this cost would be beneficial to creating my app and to do this I will need to either use royalty free images or take my own images.
Example plan below:
P3: Produce a plan for the creation of the interactive media product from the generated ideas
Product Navigation Map Above, this is a rough sketch of how I see the app flowing in terms of its function. The product has developed from the original plan I made above, I've now streamlined it so that it becomes more what the client has asked for and given it a mass audience appeal as opposed to limiting the interactive features outlined above and below. Accessibility- How will users access the app? The users will be able to quite easily access the app through its clear structure of the app, eg different tabs will be labeled to take you to a corresponding page . Also there will be a way to easily navigate back so that it will take you back to the home menu at any given point during the app. The user will access this app by downloading it from the App store for free and there should also be a link from the councils website so that the user can download it easily. The kiosk side of the app will simply be accessed on a computer with touch screen enabled but for now the app should be made for the Apple devices and accessed on them - the Apple approach may even be cheaper if built around say, iPads running the kiosks. But the feeling generally is that it will be launched on an interactive and mobile device. There will be an app icon which launches into a launch screen and then into the home page with several tabbed options.
Interactivity - what are the interactive parts of the App? The users will be able to click different buttons and tabs to take them to different sections of the app and depending on what they click depends on what interactive feature they use. The Quiz The quiz will ask questions based on local knowledge and history to help you better understand Cambridge and enjoy visiting the different places. It will be a simple quiz that you can do at the end of the day when you've finished all that touring around! Events The events page, I'm thinking this should be the "event of the week" idea and actually it should tell you about an on running event in the down (like the Dr Who experience in Cardiff is always there) something which is a not to miss event, there could also be a link to the councils own website that gives you all the latest events in more detail. Maybe it should be called What's on? Map Ok, so this is just a simple map of the town but users must be able to interact with it - so we will allow them to zoom in and out and see their position on the map perhaps, there might be a pin in the map as well that might show where to eat that day? But a map is a must for a tourist. It may also include generic information about the town itself. Night's Out So this is geared for the tourist and new student, it will highlight the best places for a great night out and maybe give you a choice of three top places, you will be able to link through to the places website. Taxi The taxi section will simply be a series of phone numbers and maybe even a link to the Uber App you will be able to click on the numbers and the phone should recognise a number and it should ask you if you want to call the taxi. Shop This should simply show you the best places to shop maybe just point out things like the Grafton Centre and Grand Arcade, maybe give you a suggestion and a voucher of the week?
Commercial considerations In terms of commercial considerations these are quite vast, you could get a company to sponsor the app so that everytime the launch or home screen appears they are present, a company that might stand to benefit from the app might be a taxi cab company or a potential shop brand that's local to Cambridge or even a regular event like the punting companies or a link to Cambridge University might appear. The could pay to have the top spot advertising space on the home page, this presents a huge revenue stream for them especially if you can link through onto their website. Advertising happens within the app but this is subtle, so the shops section could offer a 10% off voucher if you download the app giving the audience some incentive to download the app and visit the shop so there is cross promotion there. The taxi companies also benefit and could pay to be one of the three featured on the site. For the quiz, various organisations could add a quiz of their own to the app so they could be this weeks quiz thus giving them a commercial consideration. Advertising space could be added into the app design or it could be added as a web banner within the app using the Apple Marketing tool, personally I prefer not to load it with adverts that appear as this might serve to annoy the client. Instead companies should pitch to be apart of the app which after all is free to download.
Graphical user interface (GUI) When developing my graphic user interface I need to consider that they need to be understood by a large audience. For example, when developing icons for my app I am aware that they need to have quite simple designs as they will be on a small screen and seen by many people so need to be understood and uncomplicated so that they can look the same across all platforms, so they can easily recognised. I have attached a plan of what the GUI will look like:
Icons to use I've searched the internet and come up with these icons I might like to use, these are copyright free and give an indication of what will run along the bottom of the app.
M2: Explain the Legal and Ethical Issues relating to product ideas
Intellectual property rights, is the blanket term that exists to protect original work. Most of the time a product has to be complete in order to have the complete intellectual property rights. One of the ways in which I can gain the intellectual property right to my app is to gain the copy wright for my app.
Copyright-The current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and it ensures that a creation is copyrighted for 70 years . This Could end up being a problem for me when making my app because if I use images or fonts that are copyrighted then I may face legal charges. To avoid facing copyright charges I am going to either use my own images that I have taken or use royalty free images, videos and fonts. I will also apply for a patent so that I can claim rights on my app so that others can't take things, such as images and text, from my app and claim them as their own.
Cyberstalking is very seroius crime that I don't want assosiated in an y way with my app as it is a crime affiliated with 3 laws the Public Order Act, the Harassment Act and the Malicious Communications Act. To ensure that it wont become an issue within my app I will not collate peoples personal information and you don't have to enter any personal information to use the app, there for cyberstalking isn't easily possible . This however could be could relevant if the app had a sign in section that allowed users to interact with each other and utilised comment section that used the sign up names as someone could look into someone name and stalk them. I am avoiding this by not having a comment or section or sign in feature.
Personal Data protection- The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) is centred around the principles of good information handling. This could potentially become a problem if I have a sign in and comment feature on the app. This could be a problem because one of the principles is Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed. This means I have to be careful and make sure I only collate information about the user that is relevant to my app If i was to chose to have a sign in feature. Also the principle that Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data. which means I would have to take extra care when working out how to process the information and working out how the usernames and profiles would be displayed on the comment section to ensure that no inappropriate/unnecessary information is shared to other users.
Identify theft is covered in the Data Protection Act 1998 , however, it isn't really relevant for my appbecause no information is being added into my app meaning there isn't and way some one could steal the idea or nor the company/brand name. The only way this could happen is if you had to buy something using and identify theft could be a risk but I don't intend to have a place to pay on my app.
The main ethical concern I have is slander (Libel)and misrepresentation. For example, not showing enough content or a picture of a really grey boring bad photo of Cambridge as this will paint a negative picture of Cambridge and I am trying to promote Cambridge and show it off in a positive light. Also, I have to be fair and unbiased in my writing to paint a fair but good version and not make it seem really bad and to do this I also need to stick to decent language , meaning no swearing ect. If I do accidentally include any slander the consequences shall be to remove the content and apologise and if I do not remove the material when I become cautious of the then they can be implicated in the defamation case and have no defence under the Defamation Act 1996
Communications Decency Act of 1996 This is another ethical act I have considered however I do not believe it will have any effect on my app as I don't intend to have any indecent images as it's a "federal statute that regulates pornographic material on the internet" and my app will not contain any indecent or pornographic images .