Assignment 2: Seek ‘n Meet
1. The
application
1.1 General
description
Our project consists in the development of
a mobile application, called Seek ‘n Meet, that allows the user to meet other
people based on their current location. This application is especially aimed
for tourists that wish to meet people at their current destination, but even
local residents can use this application as well.
1.2
Application’s core function
This application has as its main function
to locate other users that are currently in your surrounding area in order to
be able to contact them via text messages and see their profile information.
2. Market
analysis
2.1 Target
group
As previously mentioned, our purpose is to
make of this application a popular system and therefore there are no major
segmentation factors defining our target group. Probably age is the only
demographical factor that could have some relevance for identifying our target
group. We think that younger people might show more interest in meeting new
people. Furthermore and thinking of the fact that this application would be
used by tourists willing to meet other tourists in the vicinity, this requires
a more adventurous spirit, something we believe is a more frequent
characteristic amongst younger people. Nevertheless, this is not a rule and
that is why we think our potential users belong to an extremely wide spectrum.
2.2 Core
service to be offered
Seek ‘n Meet is basically a social
network. The key element that differentiates this application from other social
networks, such as Facebook, is that the search of people is based on geographic
location so that the users can only come in touch with other people located in
their proximity. So far, we have thought of the user only being able to chat
with other users and see their profile information, but one can definitely
think of eventually developing the application even further by incorporating
new tools and functions.
2.3 Product
availability
We want to make this application a massive
product available for a wide range of users around the globe. Our application
is intended to get revenues from advertisement that will be shown in some
sections of this app and therefore having many users around the world will
contribute to maximize profitability as we get more companies advertising in
our application (see Section 2.4 for more details on this topic). That is why
we intend to have this application available in both of the main application
stores for mobile devices: the AppStore (for iOS devices) and Android Market
(for Android based devices). Since iOS and Android use different programming languages
this implies that one has to invest in the development of two applications.
This means that one will have higher development costs, but we believe that
this is actually a good choice if one is to make this application widely
available to the general public.
2.4 Main
source of revenue
Our business model consists in making this
application available to a large group of people, which means that, at least in
an initial stage, users will be able to download it for free from the
application stores straight to their mobiles or tablets. Our main source of
revenue will come from partnership with sponsoring companies that will be able
to advertise their products or services through our application in form of
clickable banners.
Since the application has a global character
the idea is to get sponsors in different areas of the world. The application
will be designed in such way so that the user will only be able to see the
advertising of companies that operate in just the geographical area where she
is currently located while running the app. We intend to have two main ways of
displaying ads in our application, each one having a different price. One mode
of displaying an ad will be showing it at full screen for a few seconds
(probably four seconds) directly after the user logs in. Since this ad will be
shown at full screen every time the user logs in then this ad will be the
priciest. Another alternative of advertising in this application will be in
form of small clickable banners. Since the screen in mobile phones is
relatively small then we have decided that this banners will be shown only when
the user clicks in a button in the main menu that will take her to the
advertising section of the app. Because these advertising banners are shown
only if the user chooses to visit this section then these advertising banners
will have a lower price. For more information about the fashion in which
the advertising is going to be displayed go to Section 4.
3. Technical
analysis
3.1 Hardware
requirements
Since this application collects geographical positioning data of the
users, it is then required that the device running this application is equipped
with GPS receiver or other similar system for geo-location. We have thought of
smartphones and tablets to be the main type of device for running this
application, not only regarding their geo-location capabilities but also due to
their reduced size and weight, which make them extremely portable.
3.2 Selling
platform and operative system
We aim to make of this app a globally used
system and because of this very reason is that we want to make it available for
as many types of user as possible. Ideally the application should have a cross
platform character, which means that it should be available to run in the two
main operative systems for mobile devices, namely iOS and Android.
4. Interface
4.1
Interacting modality
As previously mentioned, we have planned
to develop this service as a native application to be run in mobile phones and
tablets. This means that the interface for this system will be mainly based on
touchscreen interface rather than a conventional physical keyboard or other
pointing device such as a mouse.
4.2
Description of the navigation structure
Section 5 shows the preliminary design of
the user’s navigation structure and the main menu including all the different
options that the user can choose from. Note that the colors used in these
illustrations were randomly chosen and do not represent the final graphical
profile and colors to be used in the final version.
Screen 1 is the intro page that will show
the name of the application (Seek ‘n Meet) and its main logotype. This screen
will be shown for around four seconds. Then the app will show Screen 2, which
is the log-in and registration page. Since this application is a social network
where users can find new people then we decided that it is mandatory for the
user to register (screen 3) in order to be able to use this service. In order
to prevent people to change their profile at any time with information that
could eventually be false, then we decided that the users would only be able to
change data in their profile maximum twice a year. Right after the user has
logged in Screen 4 will be displayed showing an advertisement of a sponsor that
operates at the user’s current location. This ad will be shown at full screen
for about 4 seconds. Right after that Screen 5 will be displayed showing the
application’s main menu. If the user chooses “Send alert” then Screen 6 will
appear. In this section the user can select how often she wants the application
to update her current location. In that same section the user can also select
how far from her current location will this alert be available. This option is
meant to let the user determine a certain perimeter around her current location.
The user will therefore be unreachable for people located beyond this
established perimeter. After the user has determined these two elements (update
frequency and perimeter around current location) then the user can tap on “Send
Alert” and the signal alerting other users of her presence in the area will be
sent. If being in the main menu (screen 5) the user selects “Seek friends”
screen 7 will be displayed. In this section the user can determine the size of
the perimeter around her current location where she wants to seek for other
people, leaving any other users that are located outside this perimeter out of
the search. Once the user has determined this factor and after taping in “seek
friends” screen 8 will be displayed. This section shows a list of the users
that have sent alerts of their presence that are located within the established
perimeter around the current location. When the users select a person shown in
the list then screen 9 will be displayed. In this section the user can select
among two options: to start a chat with the selected person or to see the
profile information of that same selected person. Another option in the main
menu in screen 5 is “see local offers”. Selecting this option will bring screen
10 to appear. In this screen one can choose amongst different interests, for
example, shopping, sport, food and beverage, etc. Choosing one of these
options, say food and beverage, will display screen 11, which will show several
advertising banners of local restaurants and bars that are available in the
user’s current location. These are small clickable banners that when selected
automatically open the website of the chosen restaurant. Finally, the last
option in the main menu (screen 5) is “edit profile” where the users can edit
their personal information such as name, age, profile photo, etc.