This article is about how the impact social media has on political engagement in our country. The large focus of the article was based around the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. The hashtag recently turned five years old and it was one of the first large movements that created political engagement on social media. The hashtag was created in response to the shooting and death of the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. This hashtag created a gateway for social change and has been used over 30 million times. This hashtag created an online conversation about race, violence, law enforcement, discrimination and real-world events. In my opinion this created a large change within the media, social media voice being present and awareness about what is happening in our society.
Reading 2: Global protest, technology and social media: research roundup
This article is about the research findings that have been found that are connected to the concept of how social media can promote lasting political change. I found this very interesting because all of the findings are not cohesive giving a broader perspective overall. For example, in Arab social media helps sustain protests and organize them, it allows for more regular citizens have the opportunity to participate. I thought this was very cool because I was able to see how adaptable the use of social media is and the large influence it can have in other cultures.
Technology Application/Example:
I think both articles connect to twitter and the impact it can have for the technology example this week. I think that twitter is one of the largest opinion-based platforms and information can spread rapidly through the use of retweets. The ability to see a trending hashtag has allowed for viral hashtags such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter to trend in a number of hours. Creating a large awareness of the problems and news that is currently happening. I think this shows how much mobile media has grown and how easily news can spread, trend and be and influence with the usage of social media.
Discussion Questions:
Have you ever used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter?
Have you ever shared your opinion about a current real-world event on social media?
Do you get your news from social media, what platforms if so?
Reading 1: Capturing Police Brutality? There’s an app for that.
This article is about how one citizen witnessed an unjust police encounter and recorded it on his phone and then was wrongfully ambushed to destroy the evidence by the police. This lead to him hiding the memory chip in his mouth to later then sell the video to CNN. The video shows the truth behind how police dislike those with technology because it exploits the abuse behind what actually goes on sometimes. A document was later released by the Arizona Department of Public Safety that had a list of apps that police needed to be aware of to further protect themselves. This encourages officers to look at citizens phones more frequently to further cover their tracks which I found to be wrong and out of place in most scenarios. One app listed on the document is called OpenWatch project, the app regularly posts recordings made with cop recording app and detaches all identifiable information beforehand. The goal isn’t to incriminate police but to guide it to create the right policy.
Reading 2: NJ ACLU App Lets You Tape Police Encounters
This article talks about how the American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey now has released an app called Police Tape that allows the residents of the state to essentially hold the police accountable. The app allows users to discretely record their interactions or encounters with the police. The app can also provide legal information for the users which shows their rights. I found this article but mainly the app to be very interesting. It was something I had not thought of before, but something that I think could be really useful if it was broadened to more states. I think this could be very useful in states where police and authoritative figures are more prejudice towards white people vs. treating those of color equally. I think this could start to create the change in creating equal rights and using technology advances to do so.
Technology Application/Example:
I think this is very prevalent to what we have learned over the course of Mobile Media and how many different applications such as the ones mentioned in the articles can create a large societal change. The example that I think directly relates to this is Facebook. Facebook is the social media platform where I often see the most information and videos when it comes to negative police encounters. I think this is a platform where most of the negative slander videos that favor against certain races and that it gains a lot of traction within social media and the news. If this platform was used to show how apps can help with this such as, showing the rights at the time of the encounter I think it would help create change immensely.
Discussion Questions:
Would you be inclined to use a surveillance app very often?
Do you find the police recording apps to be something beneficial or hurtful to our society?
Do you think that the rise of more societal change apps is going to become more prevalent over the next few years?
This article is about Instagram and the perception that most people make their life out to be on their accounts. This branches from wanting to make life something it’s not which is stemmed by the media. The article also talked about finstas as a portion of Instagram that the younger generations are using to keep the more realistic aspects of their life limited to certain people. Essentially a finsta account is where you post things that aren’t normally socially acceptable on Instagram. The article also touched on another interesting point that sometime Instagram and social media can bring a sense of loneliness. Many young teenagers and those with lots of followers tend to give in to the pressure of giving content that their followers want. Overall, I think this article focus on how we truly aren’t are authentic selves on social media and we are posting what we want people to see of us.
Reading 2: Why Gender Matters in Mobile and Broadband Access
This video is about diminishing the broadband gender gap. There’s about a twenty percent mobile accessibility gap between men and women which directly affects the learning capabilities and knowledge of someone. Having more access to mobility allows for men in these less developed areas to gain more information and knowledge therefore putting them one step ahead. There are programs in the works to try and bridge this gap which then can translate into other markets where the gap is also largely divided. The large goal I found behind this overall is to change the perception behind the traditions of culture but being able to accept the modernity allowing for more equal opportunity.
Technology Application/Example:
I think that both the article and video directly relate to Instagram and that is largely related to the overarching topic of identity. Instagram is a large social media platform, but I think it’s very easy to conform to a specific identity because you are only posting pictures, which makes it different from any other platform. It’s very easy to keep your identity to a specific brand or way you want to be because you have most control over how your post look and how you want people to perceive you, which is why I think Instagram is so easily connected to mobile media and identity.
Discussion Questions:
Do you think you portray your life realistically on Instagram and other social media platforms?
Do you have a finsta, if so why do you use it?
Have you seen a gender gap portrayed with the use of mobile media?
The three competitors of my proposed calendar and productivity app are:
Google Calendar
Productive – Habit Tracker
Productivity – Daily Tasks
Analysis of each application:
Google Calendar:
Splash Screen: The splash screen is a calendar page with the number 31 on it to represent a date. It is a very simplistic design that only uses the color blue and uses white and grey to enhance the simplicity of the design. Overall it fits the google brand very well and it’s a simplistic calendar image that fits the branding of Google’s other apps.
Color: The main color of the app is blue, white and grey. I think that these colors were chosen because it is cohesive with the rest of the google office application and if coincides with how the app looks on the Google desktop version. Its clean and simple logo and the colors compliment that.
App Navigation: The app is navigated through your google account which is created through Gmail. In order to use the app you have to create a google account this is how the calendar is accessed. The calendar has access to all of your contacts and emails and it automatically inputs some events. For example, when setting this up it automatically inputted my weekly and monthly meetings that are set every month. It sets reminder and can be synced with other google users to create co-existing calendars. I use it to sync my sorority calendar with my internship calendar to keep myself on track. The features of the app are very simple and easy to use they include; schedule, day, 3-day, week, month, search, events, reminders, birthdays, holidays, settings, send feedback, help. The navigation is overall simple and easy to use.
Other: I like using this for the organizations I am apart of to keep track of large things, but I personally don’t like using it for everyday assignments or activities. I think its gets to be someone overwhelming when used in a complex detailed sense. Overall, I think the design is create though to sync your events with others and great in a work setting.
Design Popularity: I think this app is very popular and widely used in a variety of ways. I think it is used a lot within organizations in the working world because it allows many people to view, access, and edit the same calendar making the app very collaborative. The other reason I think it is widely used is because you can sync it with all the other Google applications and because it is simple and easy to use.
Productive – Habit Tracker
Splash Screen: The splash screen has a black background and includes a vertical set on the left side with three dots and on the rights side a vertical set of three lines. Horizontally one of the lines and dots together are the same color. The colors used include; blue, green and orange. This gives off the view of a to do list as the splash screen.
Color: The main color of the app is black with bright colorful accents. I think that the dark background was used to make the design of the imagery stand out more. It gives off an abstracts color blocking version of a checklist. I think these colors attract the eye to visually create the checklist. Overall, simple coloring and imagery created a simplistic app design.
App Navigation: The app is a paid app/subscription that sits at the price point of $6.99 a month or $29.99 yearly. The features of the app include your current stats that are updated throughout the day. This includes how fast and well you are completing your tasks and keeps accountable what does and doesn’t get done. It also includes a section for repetitive habits that happen daily, weekly or monthly. And then following that it includes events or habits that are a one-time occurrence. Overall the features keep track of the week, month and yearly schedules and habits to overall create a more productive lifestyle.
Other: I think the app design was designed well and had the streak feature that differentiated it from the other apps. This allows to gravitation of the user to complete more and be more productive to generate more streaks.
Design Popularity: I think this design is popular because it not only keeps track of your schedule and the daily tasks in the consumers life but it also uses the functions of the app to break habits and create new ones which I thought was very unique!
Productivity – Daily Tasks
Splash Screen: The splash screen has a light blue background, there is a white circle in the center. Within the circle there is a yellow/orange circle on the right side with a white checkmark in the middle and on the left side of the circle there are three blue lines. This gives off the illusion of a checkmark being made on a completed to do list.
Color: The main colors used in the app are blue, white, and a yellowy orange. I think that these colors were used because they are complimentary of each other, they are bright, simple and they compliment the design well without being too overpowering.
App Navigation: I think the navigation of the app is very user friendly and simple. When you enter the app, it allows you to create a long-term goal where you can create a target, track milestones and create a plan of action. Or you can create a recurring goal where you can create your routine and set up your daily schedule. There are weekly and daily planning section within the app. As well as daily reflection, a spot where you could write in a journal, a break and meditation section and many other features. I found all of the subsections very easy to use and incorporate within my day to day activities.
Other: I don’t have very many additional points for this app, I think it incorporates a lot of the aspects I want to use in my app design. Its overall very simple, easy to use and realistic.
Design Popularity: I think this is popular in terms of design because it’s very user friendly and because it can be catered to a large variety of needs, including every day needs and long-term goals.
There are several features that I found within all three of these apps that I want to include within my app design. The first is similar to the Google Calendar feature. I would like my app to allow users to share and connect their calendars with others to make it easier to see all of their events and to-dos in one large glance. The second feature I would like to include is from the Productive-Habit Tracker app, I think being able to track how quickly and often you are completing tasks could be very beneficial. This could allow users to see how often they are improving or what areas of their productivity they would like to work on. The final feature I would like to include is from the Productivity – Daily Tasks app. I would like to include a variation of the feature they used where you can track your daily life through short terms goals or have the option to create a long-term goal that tracks your progress and has good measurability to keep the user on track. This is something very interesting and unique that I found wasn’t apparent in most apps, and I would like to include a variation of it!
Reading 1: Homeless ‘Journeyman Hacker’ Launches Eco-Friendly Mobile App
This article is about the journey of a New York homeless man who chose to accept two months of coding lessons from a stranger rather than a sum of money. With this experience he was able to rather quickly release his app called, “Trees for Cars”. Two months wasn’t enough time and with the help of others Grand and McConlogue were able to spend five weeks tirelessly developing the app. I really enjoyed this because it showed how one man’s kindness led to a whole new life for another person. I found this very inspirational and very cool how much passion was show through both people involved.
Reading 2: Can Life Apps Deliver Social Change
This article is about how a group of filmmakers, broadcasters and developmentalists came together to bring together the diversity in our society. The goal was to create an application that would help the smart phone users in East Africa. This lead to the development of the Life Apps series of mobile applications. The developing team wanted to create a reach into the parts of the world who aren’t able to have access to mobile phone within their society. I found this to be a very interesting article and a very interested concept that I don’t think many developers have tapped into. The intent of the series is to not only help those in rural communities but provide them with a technology to help them better function in our technology advanced society which I thought was awesome!
Technology Application/Example:
I think this connects to what we have been learning about mobility in several ways, but I think the topic of social justice connects to creating apps for a greater good. With most of what I have read in these sections the goal is to use mobility and technology to create a larger outreach which I think is awesome. When I think about this I often think of large social media campaigns rather than an app, GoFundMe is a great example of this. After looking more into this, one app that is a great example of this is eGood. eGood allows users to check into business affiliated with the app that donate a certain percentage of every purchase to the charity of their choice. This is something I really like and since researching an app that I have downloaded. Knowing that a lot of business and corporations are taking part in creating a change within our community is something that I really like!
Discussion Questions:
Do have any apps that you use to create social justice?
Do you think that more apps can be used to start creating social change within our society?
If you were to create a social justice application what change would it create?
Week 9 Reading Response: Mobile Sensing and Location-Based Technology
Reading 1: Wikicity – Real-Time Location-Sensitive Tools for the City
This article/excerpt is about the WikiCity project that is about real time mapping in a city demographic. The application allows users to create their actions on better informed basis using real time map changes. The goal of this is to increase overall effectiveness in the city making things run smoother for consumers. It allows those in the city to make more informed decisions to make a better use of their time. The goal of this is to increase the overall flow and efficiency of the city. I think if most cities were able to adapt to the same if not a similar context as this the public transportation system would be a lot more efficient especially in bigger cities. This platform enables the information to be distributed through interface platforms such as mobile phones. Allowing the inhabitants of the city to use the data to make more informed decisions. I think if this was more developed and used it could become something very beneficial in our society.
Reading 2: Real Time Rome
Real time Rome is an application that used cell phone data to better understand the city’s urban dynamics with a more updated time. This has allowed individuals to make better decisions about the environment where they live. This real time visualization monitors and observes people and transportation systems. It visualizes the usage of different streets and areas within the city. The reason behind doing this is to understand the present of what is happening in the city and use that information to predict what is going to happen in the future. Overall collaborating the use between mobile tracking information and public transit the application can better distribute public transportation through the city for the more population dense areas.
Technology Application/Example:
I think that both of these articles are very prevalent to what we are learning throughout the course, because they both focus on how technology can track almost your every move through your devices. This is happening whether people realize it or not. I think this connects really well to the location sharing feature on snapchat. This is not something I personally share on snapchat because I do not want people who aren’t my close friends to have my location constantly. The features allows for you to share your location with all your friends on the app, you can go to the map and see where someone is. You can access people’s locations if they are sharing them even if you are not. I think this is a great way to know where friends are but it can also become a safety concern, because most of the time you aren’t close friends with everyone you have on snapchat. This is just an example of one app where most people allow it to have full access and information to where you are at all times.
Discussion Questions:
Do you tag your location on social media posts, if so how often?
Is your location constantly available on platforms such as find my friends or snapchat?
Do you think that your safety has been compromised as your location become more readily available over the past few years?
This Ted Talk discussed our use of mobile phones and how they affect our daily lives. When we are bored or unfulfilled or dealing with an emotion we don’t want to we gravitate toward sour phones to distract the attention and start focusing on something else. The talk touched on the concept of being Alone Together, which is about being with another person while also wanting to be connected through a device to a multitude of other platforms. The underlying concept the speaker touched on about why we do this is because we want to have control of what we are doing, and how we are being perceived. This leads to only paying attention to the things that interest you. I found this something I as well as many other students could connect to. I often think I am good at multitasking or listening to someone while also sending a text or email. At the end of the day we can’t do that. I think the speaker was spot on with only choosing to listen to what we want to because I see that happening in my everyday life. She also introduced the Goldilocks effect which is about finding that middle balance between what is just about right in terms of being connected and having relations. I thought it was sad when she used the example of the 18-year-old boy who wanted to learn how to have a real conversation, especially because at 18 you are an adult in our society. I find it very sad that technology has evolved so much that younger generations are becoming accustom to not having face to face interactions. This is something I strive to fix in my life when I can by either calling or facetiming friends or family when I have time instead of sending a text. I really enjoyed this Ted Talk and the insight the speaker gave.
Reading 2: Connecting, Coordinating, Cataloguing: Communicative Practices on Mobile Social Networks
This reading focused about the social interaction and aspect the media mobility and technology can bring, both in the positive and negative aspects. The article talked about how some mobile interactions are locative and some are not which I thought was interesting. Some interactions don’t use the mobility to connect with people nearby. I found this interesting because I feel like most social interactions are used to connect with people far away instead of nearby. In the somewhat contradictory viewpoint, it also mentioned how sometimes these online interactions can create in person ones which is something I hadn’t really thought about. I think this is the most applicable probably for YouTubbers and Influencers who’s career is online based, those working online relationships have probably cause a lot of in person ones as well. I really enjoyed this reading and found it very easy to connect to class material as well as life!
Technology Application/Example:
I think that both of the readings connect back to the idea of social media, we use it as a tool, a connection and as a distraction. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can all be used in the business setting or personal in a lot of positive ways such as connecting with old friend or using it as a promotion platform. This aspect is very prevalent to what we work with and have been learning in class. It has also created a large disconnect with social interaction in person as well as always trying to portray your life as something it’s not online. I think being able to find a balance and not letting online life consume you is hard struggle that many face, myself included. I think if our culture could move away from such a large online presence and get back to the root of communicating with other human beings it would make a large culture change that could guide the new generations immensely.
Discussion Questions:
Do you often find yourself trying to multitask, and only choosing to listen to the information you think is applicable to yourself?
When you are hanging out with friends do you find yourself engaging in your phone more than you do in conversation?
Do you think that social media is isolating our generation and future generations?
Reading 1: Building Mobile Experience – Discovering What to Build (Chapter 3)
This chapter of the books focuses on how to build and generate what is right for the market and the process of doing so. Developing and designing the actual application or product is the easy part where as the part that takes the most is the establishing the concept. I found this interesting because I always thought establishing a concept would be the simpler portion because it’s the whole reason behind what you are doing but through this chapter I found it is a lot more complicated than that. You have to understand the market, demographic and needs of the consumer to start to generate new concepts. The book mentions that often time some of the best concepts come from observing interactions between people, their context as well as through the media. This allows for data collection from observation which guides new insights making the discovery process easier. This quote helped me further understand the importance behind studying the people behind what you are trying to develop, “It is important to understand how people currently interact with technology and each other in the domain you’re interested in”. I interpreted this as in order to develop a mobile application or product you need to have a full understanding of the use of technology and how consumers use it and use it to communicate with each other. This along with several other points throughout the chapter helped me better understand what it takes to start building up a mobile technology such as an application. I found it very helpful, especially with the app proposal assignment being due this week.
Reading 2: The Anthropology of Mobile Phones Ted Talk
The first portion of the talk when he is focusing on what do you always leave the house with/what do you carry and then of that what do you actually use, was something I find very interesting. Most of the time if we leave the house with a purse or a backpack we often don’t end up using the majority of what we bring. Personally, I found that for myself this happens because my devices take over for the function of most of what I use. The talk also touched upon Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and I really enjoyed this connection because this is something that I have learned a lot about in several of my other classes. The aspect I found interesting is that most people stay upon the bottom two levels of needs because that is where they are the most comfortable and feel safe. For example, always carrying your phone with you because it is a safety device. A large theme I found within the talk as he connects it to so many different cultures is social connection. The idea of connecting societies through different ideas and engagements. I thought that his idea of being connected and his idea of mobility was very fresh, and it gave a great background into how it’s used within other cultures. I really liked the talk and how it applied to this week’s assignment.
Technology Application/ Example:
The example I chose this week is my phone. My phone is something that I have on myself at almost all times and something I have become very dependent upon. This has both positive and negative effects. I find myself getting overwhelmed more often than not with the amount of notifications that come in throughout my day. I really like being able to talk and connect with so many people throughout the day but managing texts, calls, multiple email accounts and social media can create a notification overload. On the positive aspect though being able to constantly being in communication allows for things to get done faster because you can be in communication so often. Allowing to enhance the busy lifestyle that most have taken upon. The apps I am constantly using are iMessage, Gmail, Outlook, Phone and FaceTime. This allows me to have constant communication and stay up to date with what is going on communication wise. I feel like I’m missing something if I don’t have my phone with me or near me at all times and this is something I wish I wasn’t so dependent upon, but in today’s society I don’t think that’s possible. This largely relates to mobile media and the topics we discuss throughout class because of the large overarching concept of always being connected. Mobile media plays a large part in allowing this to constantly be happening.
Discussion Questions:
What do you always carry on you or leave the house with?
Do you consider yourself someone who is depend on your phone?
What is one app that you would develop to benefit your life regardless of development costs?
The subject I chose for this project was one of my good friends Juniper Kleinsmith. Juniper is an elementary education major who is currently managing 17 credits, a job, and a position in her sorority. I wanted to choose someone for this project who I feel embodies an average student here, so I could develop an idea to help make the average student’s life on campus easier. Juniper is someone who is very busy and who uses mobile technology not only for social purposes but as part of her education as well as her job. Most students our age are very involved with the use of social media and other apps for social purposes with the intent of staying up to date with friends or posting pictures to show their life in a specific aspect. Some students such as Juniper are gaining experience through their time at school understanding how to use social media in a more professional setting and learning how to brand a specific company.
Juniper manages her sorority’s social media pages which is a large aspect of how she uses mobile media on an everyday basis. She manages Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and a website. To do this well, she has to compile many pictures throughout the week from various events to continually be able to post content. In her daily routine she spends hours tracking the social media of the current members to pull from content that they are posting to then create her own content. Being able to pull from someone else’s content to manipulate it in creating your own content is a very prominent skill in the industry currently and it is seen with a lot of influencers and large social media figures. This is something that isn’t thought of to be very hard until you run into the problem of lack of content being posted. She talked about how sometimes this can be a struggle when there aren’t very many weekly events, so coming up with new content can sometimes be frustrating. When overcoming this she does research within other sororities nationwide, this includes researching different trends within other chapters and other universities. In the interview, she talked about how this is very interesting because social media trends tend to vary throughout different parts of the country, so sometimes trends at the southern schools aren’t seen here until later. Seeing what type of content they are posting and what the current social media trends are, help formulate new ideas. One trending theme she mentioned that has been consistent throughout the different pages she has looked at was the use of preset filters on photos. This has been a consistent theme throughout social media in general, she said that it makes it easier to post because you spend less time editing the pictures because the filters are already made. This is a fast trend within social media channels and something she doesn’t think will last much longer. I thought it was very cool how she puts so much research into a post when she is lacking content, because I feel like this is something that most wouldn’t think of, especially for a sorority social media page. During the conversation, I found that the posts that are the chapters favorites or that have the most engagement tend to be posts that have elements that are trending currently on social media, not only including filters but also fun stickers or borders. After the interview I analyzed the chapters social media accounts and there were a lot of engagement on posts when it was highlighting a specific event or incredible accomplishment that a member did. I thought it was very cool how she embodies her position as the social media liaison, especially because this is not something she studies within school. Juniper was able to take her personal experiences and knowledge within social media to apply that to multiple different types of social media channels to brand a chapter’s online presence.
Another connection Juniper has to mobility and media is through her major. As an education major she spends time looking at new apps and technologies that can be used within the classroom to help progress learning for the future generations. As like most students in the interview she mentioned how she uses different apps and technology to help her find resources and research for various things. This includes seeing what other concepts and ideas other educators have created, finding new creative ways to teach material and the best way to focus on teaching principles. There are many apps that Juniper uses on a daily basis to help grow her learning that she applies for herself but as well for her future students. The first app is called Class Dojo, an app that lets teachers communicate with students and parent’s, allowing for photos/videos, reports and updates throughout the student’s day. Juniper talked about how this mobile application has helped students who are struggling immensely. This allows for worried parents to see how their child is performing in school throughout the day which helps give them a peace of mind. It can also help show the progression of how far the child has come if you look further back on old interactions. Juniper talked about how this creates a positive culture between students, teachers and parents. She believes that this app is something that is going to becoming prominent in more classrooms in the next few years and that more apps similar to this will start to develop. Through her interview she talked about how the use of apps in the classroom is becoming very helpful as classrooms are becoming more technology based. This has helped her find apps to help with more visual learning-based students as well as find fun new interactive ways to incorporate learning material.
Overall, I found it very interesting to see a perspective and the use of mobile applications through the eyes of someone who uses it in a different daily context than I do. Seeing an education major be able to comprehend and use mobile technologies and applications on a daily basis really shows how far the industry has come and that its expanding into most career fields. I think most people have connections and use this more frequently than they know but don’t necessarily focus on the application connection as often. I learned a lot from this interview and found that I became very interested in the thinking that goes behind running a social media account from a perspective of a student whose studies aren’t focused on social media.
The app that I have chosen to develop is called Lola. Lola is the loyal, organized, leading mobile assistant that every student needs. This application manages students’ schedules, extracurriculars, classes, appointments and virtually anything they need help managing. The goal behind this app is that it essentially can act as a personal assistant for students to help them relieve stress and leader fuller lives worry free. When conducting my initial interview and talking to my friends about this assignment over the last week I found that a common theme within students my age is being too stressed out, not having enough time in the day and not knowing the best way to manage all that is going on. I wanted to create a solution to help combat this issue because this is something that I also struggle with on a daily basis. The app is a calendar, planner, gradebook, and reminder system all in one. The goal behind this is to have everything in one place and have notifications constantly reminding a student what is going on throughout the day to keep them on track. There are several features of the app that I have already developed and much more to come from this. For example, in the weekly calendar section of the app it will show what you have due, what events you have, and reminders for appointments calls or anything else that may come up. You can view this weekly, monthly or daily. As events, due dates or anything comes up a notification will pop up on your phone and remind you of what is going on either the day before, day of and one hour before its happening. This can all be controlled in settings so that students can set reminders as frequently as they would like. The point of this is to ensure that nothing is ever forgotten about or missed, and if things come up last minute they can easily be inputted into the app. When on this page there is also a feature at the bottom from Lola that can remind you for some sort of mental care such as take a 20-minute nap, take a 10-minute social media break, or anything that can relieve the student’s stress and distract their mind for a short period of time. This ensures more overall productivity at the end of the day and a space for student to take a break and take care of their mental health. Ideally, this app reminds, guides and helps students be as successful as possible not only in school but also their extra curriculars to make balancing college life easier.
The course topics that I chose to focus on that are applicable to the app that I’m creating and the interview topics I discussed were Mobility, Accessibility and Mobile Research and App design. Mobility is very crucial to not only the development of new apps but also when it comes to the overall performance, you want this to be accessible on a variety of devices and platforms. I think temporal mobility directly relates to this because that is in regard to the app, use of it, or sociability of it being somewhat temporary. This would be the case because only students would be using the app while they were attending school, because it is a student specific app. The concept was explained very well in Expanding the ‘Mobility’ Concept by Masao Kakihara and Carsten Sorensen, “Technology inherently influences temporality of our social activities. Efforts to invent new technologies and introduce them into existing work settings are motivated to a large extent by the desire to accelerate the pace of work and to save time” (Kakihara). Though the app will be temporarily used by the students the goal of it is to help instill lifelong habits and traits that they can carry forward with them. Temporal mobility is apparent, but the overall mobility of the app allows users to use it whenever and however fits best within their busy life. The second concept that I chose to connect to was accessibility. I think that accessibility and the use of it is something that I overlooked before this course because it isn’t something I personally have to be aware of for my needs. I would like my app to be helpful and accessible to all. I think being able to install features that are automatically brought up in the app will help with this so that users don’t have to go into their phone settings. I would like to include a microphone option so that text can be spoken into the app and then I would also like to include some sort of magnifier so that users can better see what they are doing. Lastly, I would like to implement a special vibration text tone, so that users can differentiate their reminders from other phone notifications. This is something I think was best described in the Mobile Accessibility Guidelines and Resources, “Mobile accessibility” refers to making websites and applications more accessible to people with disabilities when they are using mobile phones and other devices” (Brewer). Mobile Accessibility is often something that can be overlooked but I think it needs to be included in my app because a lot of students could benefit from basic accessibility features already being installed in the app. I think some don’t know they need the features and having some already installed in my app will help with this but also make it easier to use for those who do need the features. The final concept I chose to be focusing on when throughout the duration of working on my app was Mobile Research and App Design. I felt that the concepts from this lesson could help give the broadest perspective on what I should and shouldn’t include when trying to find an app that is appealing to my target demographic. Coming up with any new product or application takes a lot of research in the field and the most successful in my eyes are things that are needed. Though there are many calendar apps already on the market I feel I can push mine to the top through the things that differentiates them through consumer needs-based research. The biggest part of the concept that has stuck in my head about discovering and development was “Discovering what to build is often the hardest part of creating new products that seek to fundamentally change the ways in which people interact and communicate. By ensuring that a new concept is rooted in users’ behaviors and needs” (Bentley). The focus on this section allowed myself to analyze not only my interviewee but other students in the demographic and what I am trying to accomplish with my app. It allowed the beginning ideas I had to further develop into the starting phases for the mobile application. Overall, I think that all three of these concepts have been very prominent within our course so far this semester and well as everything I have learned from the research and development within this assignment. Below are the two visual design app prototypes I have.
Sources
Bentley , Frank, and Edward Barrett. “Discovering What to Build .” Building Mobile Experiences , MIT Press, 2012.
This section of the book was about mobile gaming, somewhat of the history behind gaming and mobile video entertainment. In the late 1990’s Nokia was the first phone company to embed a phone game into their phones and this then launched mobile gaming. Mobile gaming started gaining more popularity in other places of the world but didn’t gain popularity in the U.S. until 2003. Mobile gaming was and still is primarily significantly more popular in Asia due to cultural differences. The culture of their gaming has players looking for a more immersive gaming experience that is similar to more standard console gaming. I also found it interesting that in the stats about mobile gaming it talked about how women are more loyal to fewer games where as men are constantly looking for a new game. Another thing I found interesting through reading the chapter was the reason behind why Asia and Europe somewhat dominate the mobile gaming industry. If because there is a much larger use of public transportation in these countries, allowing users to spend more time on their phone when getting from point A to point B. Overall, mobile gamers are going to tend to be those who have a more mobile lifestyle, those who have experience and perspectives about mobile devices.
Reading 2: SuperGaming: Ubiquitous Play and Performance for Massively Scaled Communities
This book excerpt is about social-network, the communities associated, and several examples to help further explain this. But I want to focus on Ubiquitous computing and Supergaming, because I did not know what these concepts were prior to reading this. Ubiquitous computing is essentially the process behind embedding more mobile computing devices/network technologies in public spaces. The concept behind this is about trying to create better scaled large communities, this allows for more mutual communication and a larger percentage of those communications. Supergaming is something that is also similar to ubiquitous computing and I found some commonalities between the two. Supergaming are large scaled, publicly projected gaming. The point of it is that it heightens the capability that players have. I thought both of the concepts were pretty interesting and innovative because it allows user to connect on a much larger scale in a public setting while still being a part essentially of the social networking/mobile gaming community.
Technology Application:
This topic of mobile gaming and the overall evolution of it largely connects to our course topic of mobile media. Mobile gaming has expanded largely over the years and game app developers and gaming companies in general have incorporated social media and online communication into their online technology. The fact the you can share your score or level up on a social media platform such as Facebook for friends to interact with is huge. This is also a huge concept for advertisers just like most things on social media. It’s basically free promotion that guides other to download the game and play with friends. Overall, the connection between mobile media and mobile gaming has allowed users to play games against friends, share gaming updates on social media and expand the industry in general.
Technology Example:
The technology example I think applies well to the concepts of mobile gaming and mobile media is a game such as Words with Friends. This is a game that allows users to take turns playing a version of scrabble, it’s a very similar concept. When you play the game, you are able to play against your friends and share you results online. For me personally, this is one of the first games I was aware of where you were able to play with the friends you wanted instead of random opponents online. The app allows you to play with both but for my generation at least I think this is one of the games that started the concept of making online gaming more social.
Discussion Questions:
Do you have games on your phone that you play frequently?
Do the games you have on your phone, or have previously played allowed for online interaction with opponents or social media sites?
Do you think it’s surprising that other countries such as Asia and Europe have a higher mobile gaming rate than the United States?
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