Liam Yue Wei (0327686)
Usability and Mobile Application I
Project - Researching
Planning
Week 4
We were asked to list down 3 to 4 ideas that we have at the moment for the project. I have done a little bit of researching on different types of applications. In my case, I sort of prefer lifestyle applications.
1. Health and Fitness
2. Productivity App
3. Music
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| Doing research on categories of application |
I have done some research on the topic that I am most interested in at the moment, health and fitness app. The reasons for health and fitness mobile apps to be successful nowadays is because they are more convenient and they have many benefits for us:
1. Able to store amount of data such as prescription, diet and workout plan.
2. Monitoring the physical state is faster and easier.
3. All obtained data can be easily transferred to physician.
4. Motivate lazy and busy people to do workout.
5. Sometimes can save one's life.
Categories of Health and Fitness Apps:
1. Physical Activity Trackers
2. Workout Apps
3. Personal Coach Provider
4. Yoga App
5. Diet and Nutrition Planner
How to Build Health and Fitness App?
1. Technical Luggage
2. HealthKit and Google Fit
3. UI/UX Designs (First Impression)
4. Must-have features package.
5. How much does it cost?
Reference that can be used
Cattel, J., Watson, Z. (2016). 'The 38 Best Health and Fitness Apps'. [Online]. Available at https://www.active.com/fitness/articles/18-best-health-and-fitness-apps-of-2018/slide-7. [Accessed 17 April 2018].
TecSynt Solutions. (No data). 'Health and Fitness Mobile App Development'. [Online]. Available at: https://www.upwork.com/hiring/for-clients/health-fitness-mobile-app-development/. [Accessed 18 April 2018].
Week 5
Week 5
After deciding on the topics I am interested in, I looked for several mobile applications to find out why are they successful, what are the must-have features, what makes them unique, the graphics and such.
Health and Fitness
Top Health and Fitness Apps:
1. Couch to 5k
2. MyFitness Pal
3. ACTIVEx
4. Sleep Cycle
5. Happify
6. Fooducate
7. Pocket Yoga
8. Calm
3 Types of Health&Fitness mobile app:
1. Workout and exercise app : Can be divided into...
-personal trainer app: offer an exercise complex that can be tailored for each user. Users just need to choose a level of complexity and a set of exercises they prefer. Important to show how exercises should be done.
-logbook app: Most minimalist, works as to-do list and basically just store information about workouts. Preset libraries with exercises and a wide choice of workout routines are available for the users.
-workout fitness app that pair with devices: Best option for those sports fans who can't imagine working out without a fitness band or other wearable devices. All the data collected immediately shows up on the display of the smartphone.
2. Nutrition app : Main focus is setting personal goals. Control weight by counting calories cosumed and burned, controlling water balance, and encouraging healthy eating habits. Help to track how much coffee users drink and keep body fat, weight and percentage in control.Help users stick to healthy nutrition, create grocery shopping list, and collect healthy food recipes.
3. Activity tracking app : suitable even for those who don't go to gym or not fond of sports. Count calories and track distance walked with geolocation, sleep quality estimation, and smart alarm clocks. Can be paired with wearables.
Statista's research shows that main reasons people use Health&Fitness applications:
1. Goal tracking (30%)
2. Awareness of health issues (28%)
3. Motivation (27%)
4. Identifying unhealthy habits (7%)
5. Medication adherence (5%)
6. Connecting with an expert (2%)
7. Competition (2%)
Examples of Must-Have Features:
1. Creating Accounts
2. Integrating with Other Services
3. Adding Personal Info
4. Configuring Notifications
5. Setting Targets
6. Settings
7. Gamification
For Workouts Apps
8. Pre-set Exercise Routines
9. Live Streaming
For Activity Tracking Apps
10. Integration with Wearable Devices or Mobile Device Functions
11. Activity Tracking
12. Geolocation
For Nutrition or Diet Apps
13. Food Logging
14. Barcode Scanner
Reference
Cherednichenko, S. (2017). [Online]. Available at: https://www.mobindustry.net/health-and-fitness-app-development-must-have-features/ [Accessed 22 April 2018].
Productivity
Top Productivity Apps:
1. Blinkist
2. Buffer
3. Cisco Spark
4. FocusList
5. Forest
6. Hours
7. Mindfulness
8. Noisli
9. Pomodoro On The Rocks
10. Overcast
Interesting features:
1. Tap to start or stop tracking time from every place on earth.
2. Alternatively create time entries manually.
3. Generate reports of your time.
4. Browse your projects and tasks.
5. Log your time offline.
6. Easily make notes on every time entry your are working on.
7. Edit time entries with just a few clicks.
8. Mark time entry as billable or non-billable.
9. Browse and edit your historical data or plan your future.
Music
Top Music Apps:
1. Pandora
2. Shazam
3. Spotify
4. iHeartRadio
5. Slacker Radio
6. TuneIn Radio
7. SoundCloud
8. Google Play Music
9. Musi
10. 8tracks
Features for music streaming app like Spotify:
1. User profiles and authorization - forms for users to register and login, using email address or social media accounts.
2. Audio streaming service - to enable constant online access to music files through cloud storages.
3. Search and organize options - search and navigate algorithms to find songs by titles or artists, and save favorite tracks.
4. Playlists - that users can save, edit and listen and share both in online and offline.
5. Online availability - saving music to users' devices or computers, or caching files.
6. Social sharing - options to share songs/ playlists with friends and see what others are sharing, privately or publicly.
7. Notifications - to get news from friends, artists and community.
Week 6
During this week, I have decided to go with Productivity (With Music) app.
Things to consider for this week:
1. features
2. color
3. layout design
4. music choices
I found a website talking about what kind of musics help people to focus on work Science Alert. I figured that I can use this as reference for this project.
Musics that help motivate you
- Songs that include sound of nature
- Songs that you enjoy
- Songs you don't really care about
- Songs without lyrics
- Songs with a specific tempo
- Songs played at medium volume
Interesting features: (Research from week 5)
1. Tap to start or stop tracking time from every place on earth.
2. Alternatively create time entries manually.
3. Generate reports of your time.
4. Browse your projects and tasks.
5. Log your time offline.
6. Easily make notes on every time entry your are working on.
7. Edit time entries with just a few clicks.
8. Mark time entry as billable or non-billable.
9. Browse and edit your historical data or plan your future.
Other mobile apps for me to refer to:
1. Focus-To-Do: Pomodoro Timer &Tasks List Organizer
2. Pomodoro Timer - Work Focus
3. Goodtime productivity timer
4. Brain Focus Productivity Timer
5. Tide: Stay focused, be peaceful
6. Forest
7. Dreamie Planner - Note & Diary
I think some people prefer clean and simple interface, simple color scheme. Whereas some people prefer being able to choose cute and lovely themes too. There are productivity apps that provides either calendar/ planner, timer, to-do list, or white noise (sound). Some of the apps have reports or statistics after each day to show the users' productivity too. Sometimes there are apps that combines 2 of those features but there is a risk to it, the app may too be complicated if too many features are included. That being said, the apps have similarity to them, which is the ability for users to adjust their own working time/ break time and such.
Things to consider for this week:
1. features
2. color
3. layout design
4. music choices
I found a website talking about what kind of musics help people to focus on work Science Alert. I figured that I can use this as reference for this project.
Musics that help motivate you
- Songs that include sound of nature
- Songs that you enjoy
- Songs you don't really care about
- Songs without lyrics
- Songs with a specific tempo
- Songs played at medium volume
Interesting features: (Research from week 5)
1. Tap to start or stop tracking time from every place on earth.
2. Alternatively create time entries manually.
3. Generate reports of your time.
4. Browse your projects and tasks.
5. Log your time offline.
6. Easily make notes on every time entry your are working on.
7. Edit time entries with just a few clicks.
8. Mark time entry as billable or non-billable.
9. Browse and edit your historical data or plan your future.
Other mobile apps for me to refer to:
1. Focus-To-Do: Pomodoro Timer &Tasks List Organizer
2. Pomodoro Timer - Work Focus
3. Goodtime productivity timer
4. Brain Focus Productivity Timer
5. Tide: Stay focused, be peaceful
6. Forest
7. Dreamie Planner - Note & Diary
 |
| Slight research on each apps |
Week 7
Articles or Online Sources:
1. Research Shows Listening To Music Increases Productivity (and Some Types of Music Are Super Effective)
2. The Power of Music, Tapped in a Cubicle
3. How Music Affects Your Productivity
I have collected some information from people around my age (Teenager - Young Adult) to find out their preference on things such as the music they listen to when they perform task, the tasks they do and design. They agreed that listening to music boost their productivity.
Music choice:
Pop (72.7%)
Soundtracks from Anime or Games (54.5%)
Rock (45.5%)
Classical Music (27.3%)
Nature, Electronic/ Lo-fi, Jazz, Heavy Metal (18.2%)
Answer added by a respondent: Rap (9.1%)
Type of Tasks:
Studies (72.7%)
Hobbies (63.6%)
House chores, Sports (54.5%)
Answer added by a respondent: Database work (9.1%)
Music choice based on the tasks?
Most of them do not choose music based on the tasks they do. However there are people who prefer to listen to soft music if they are studying (such as soundtracks).. If it's boring tasks, they prefer to go for fast and upbeat songs. One of them also prefer to listen to electronic songs when they do physical intense work. One of them too mentioned that if it's simple work like sketching, they would go for lo-fi music, if it's long hours work then they prefer to alternate between rock and lo-fi.
Features:
To-do list (81.8%)
Planner/ Calendar (72.7%)
Reminder (63.6%)
Timer/ Reports on Efficiency (27.3%)
Answer added by a respondent: Journal (9.1%)
Design for the App:
Simple and Clean (81.8%)
Motivating Colors (18.2%)
Something I can refer to for Productivity tools: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-productivity-tools-2017/?IR=T/#the-self-journal-1
1. Research Shows Listening To Music Increases Productivity (and Some Types of Music Are Super Effective)
2. The Power of Music, Tapped in a Cubicle
3. How Music Affects Your Productivity
I have collected some information from people around my age (Teenager - Young Adult) to find out their preference on things such as the music they listen to when they perform task, the tasks they do and design. They agreed that listening to music boost their productivity.
Music choice:
Pop (72.7%)
Soundtracks from Anime or Games (54.5%)
Rock (45.5%)
Classical Music (27.3%)
Nature, Electronic/ Lo-fi, Jazz, Heavy Metal (18.2%)
Answer added by a respondent: Rap (9.1%)
Type of Tasks:
Studies (72.7%)
Hobbies (63.6%)
House chores, Sports (54.5%)
Answer added by a respondent: Database work (9.1%)
Music choice based on the tasks?
Most of them do not choose music based on the tasks they do. However there are people who prefer to listen to soft music if they are studying (such as soundtracks).. If it's boring tasks, they prefer to go for fast and upbeat songs. One of them also prefer to listen to electronic songs when they do physical intense work. One of them too mentioned that if it's simple work like sketching, they would go for lo-fi music, if it's long hours work then they prefer to alternate between rock and lo-fi.
Features:
To-do list (81.8%)
Planner/ Calendar (72.7%)
Reminder (63.6%)
Timer/ Reports on Efficiency (27.3%)
Answer added by a respondent: Journal (9.1%)
Design for the App:
Simple and Clean (81.8%)
Motivating Colors (18.2%)
Something I can refer to for Productivity tools: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-productivity-tools-2017/?IR=T/#the-self-journal-1
Progress
Feedback
Week 4
Mr.Shamsul said that I can start doing background study on each ideas. Look for examples and features each app provide. Look for gap and niche.
Week 5
-No feedback was given-Week 6
Mr. Shamsul said the idea of Productivity app + Music app seems interesting, so I can go for it instead of Heatlh and Fitness app.Week 7
Mr. Shamsul advised me to find articles or any online resources that prove that music can improve productivity (to prove that my app design is not for a waste), what kind of music, what kind of tasks do people do when they listen to music to improve productivity, or even "The relationship between specific tasks and the music". The music I put can have different categories like Spotify. I cannot design the app for users to use the music for ANY task, I should decide on specific tasks such as studies/ sports/ house chores and so on, but then again these tasks and the musics I put will be based on the results of focus group. The focus group should have about 4 to 5 people who share the same habit as I do ---- Listening to music while doing tasks. It's okay to design the app for users to do 2 or 3 specific tasks (but just not everything), also together with different kinds of features like timer/ report/ planner/ to-do list, but don't put too much as well because we want our app to be as simple as possible for the users. Even with the features too, make sure to design them in a way that users can see and use it properly.
Things to show next week: Interview answers, process flow chart, design... (decide my tasks and musics)
Things to show next week: Interview answers, process flow chart, design... (decide my tasks and musics)
Week 8
Mr.Shamsul told me to decide on whether the music or the productivity feature is the main feature. Then, the additional features need to complement with the main one, they cannot be contradict. The tasks for people to do while using my app can be studies or hobbies (those calmer and quieter activities). Mr.Shamsul said my mobile app (music) should be online because users do not want the music to occupy the phone storage, he advised me to review more music streaming app and look at the features they have. To-do list, planner/calendar and reminder are like a set, they should be together. I can have other functions like users being able to login with Facebook or even link this mobile app with other mobile apps like Spotify, iTunes and more. Another function to consider is the sharing feature, share to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and more, with Camera features (link to gallery) as well.
Things to remember:
1.What makes my app unique from other music streaming app/ productivity app?
2. Complete Process Flow Chart, Wireframes and everything into slides and present it tomorrow.
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