“Don’t miss the adventure that’s just down the street!” – Seattle.Gov Parks

With 400+ city parks, 100+ state parks, 180 King County parks, two national forests and six national parks; the Seattle area is full of more than enough natural resources to attract the 1.9 million that live within King County and those who visit. Most of us live within 30 minutes of lakes, rivers, hiking and biking trails, play-fields, golf courses, playgrounds, skate parks and amazing views!

Unfortunately, in order to locate our nearby parks we have to search several different sites, download a couple of apps or drive around all day. Seattle’s outdoor enthusiasts need a mobile application that helps them locate parks that fit their needs. They need an app that opens directly to a map of parks in their location and gives them access to information such as directions, hours and if there is anything else they need to know before they go. There is an inherent need for this app to be mobile because many outdoor enthusiasts are very active and often need access while walking, driving, riding in buses or even on their boats.

Audience:

SeattleParks is designed for iPhone toting outdoor enthusiasts who live in Seattle or are just visiting. While this is maybe somewhat of a niche audience, it will likely be used by a wide demographic of active male and female adults. A columnist from the Orange County Register recently wrote “…in Seattle’s Cascade neighborhood, most people appear as if they’ve stepped out of an REI catalogue.” (Whiting) This type of portrayal by the media of Seattle residents as being outdoorsy is not uncommon. For Seattle’s outdoor enthusiasts, installing and using SeattleParks would be the first, most logical step to planning the next adventure.

Seattle has several very well-known parks and public recreation facilities including Cal Anderson Park (recognized by Forbes.com & Yahoo! Travel as one of the nation’s best parks) and Powell Barnett Park (recognized by Disney’s family.com as a top park for kids of all ages). The Seattle area also has a large population of technology savvy iPhone users; making it a prime location for version 1 of SeattleParks

The SeattleParks app has a purpose for anyone with a desire to find new places for recreation. Want to find a nearby beach to get some sun? How about a nearby playground for your kids? Whether your traveling or exploring new places near your home, SeattleParks would suggest recreation areas that match your desires.

Functionality (version 1):
When you open SeattleParks it uses your location services to display a map with parks in your area. At the bottom of the screen is a toggle to switch to an activity menu that displays a list of activities available in your area including baseball, basketball, saltwater beaches, freshwater beaches, bike trails, hand carry boat launches, motorized boat launches, cricket, dog parks, disc golf, fire pit, football, golf, hiking trials, horse shoe, playgrounds, p-patches, skate parks, soccer, tennis, track, view, volleyball and Wi-Fi enabled.

Scenario 1: Babysitting at a friend’s house and want to find somewhere to take the kids.
To find parks located in the area, open SeattleParks and tap “ok” to allow location services. Once the location has been found, tap the thumbnail icon in the desired location. Information about the park and directions are then displayed.

Scenario 2: Just bought a kayak, where are all the public boat launches for hand carry boats?
To find a small boat launch for hand carry boats, open SeattleParks and tap the “Activity Menu” tab and select “Boat Launches (hand carry)”. A map with paddle boat icons appears and after tapping on one in the desired location, the app takes you to more information about the park. To select a different park, press “Back”.
Scenario 3: Need to send park information to a friend.
To quickly send the location of a park in the SeattleParks database to a friend, tap the sharing button in the upper-right corner of the park information screen and choose the method of sharing you prefer.

Proposed version 2 updates & added features:

• Easily readable mobile browser pages with address, contact info, photos, hours and other details
• Full foursquare integration
• Option to text search parks database
• Trail maps and park layouts
• Ability to tag or bookmark favorites
• In app notifications for park closures, required permits, etc.
• Ability to send feedback to developer within the app
• Help section
• Added feature categories (campgrounds, community centers, etc)

Features to be consider for later versions:

• Ability to purchase a park permit, view the current weather, watch live webcam (were available) or upload your own review/photos
• Warning symbol located next to the park name in the list if a park permit or other fee is required
• Offline mode allowing use of most feature with little or no connection

User Research to be completed:

• Which section of the app is used most?
• Helpful to have activity menu auto populate with recently selected activities?
• How useful are user generated comments/ratings about parks?
• What area is the app is most accessed from?

Data Sources:

Several sites would need to be scraped for data to create a comprehensive database of outdoor recreation spaces in and around Seattle. It may be possible to approach these organizations and request they package the needed data in such a way that it can easily be imported into the SeattleParks database. Version 1 would use the Google Maps API and include data from City of Seattle Parks and King County Parks. Version 2 could incorporate Washington State Parks, the National Parks Service, National Forest Service BLM public lands, campgrounds, ski resorts and other recreation sites.

• Google Maps API
  • Let’s you easily send your location
  • Easy to find related user generated content, maps and directions
  • Upload and view photos with location attached

• National Parks Service (NPS)
  • Directions (ex.)
  • Operating Hours & Seasons (ex.)
  • Fees & Reservations (ex.)
  • Park Maps (ex.)
  • Contact info (ex.)

• National Forest Service – (Colville, Gifford Pinchot, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Okanogan, Olympic, Wenatchee)
  • Find a forest by state (ex.)
  • Park descriptions, pictures and live web cams (ex.)
  • Fire danger level posted (ex.)
  • Current conditions & district reports contact numbers (ex.)
  • Recreation reports (ex.)
  • ESRI GIS data (ex.)
  • Currently in the process of updating website (8/7/10)

• Washington State Parks (access.wa.gov)
  • Park feature search
  • Information park maps
  • Reservation park maps
  • Online reservations
  • ADA facilities & sites pdf

• City of Seattle Parks
  • Over 400 parks and open areas
  • My Neighborhood Map
  • Find Parks by Feature
  • Centers & Pools
  • Reservations & Permits
  • Activities
  • Addresses, contact info, hours, description, features, size, history, directions, pictures & parking info (ex.)
  • Trail maps (ex.)
  • Off-leash dog areas (ex.)
  • Fields & athletic facilities (ex.)

• King County Parks
  • 180 parks
  • Organized as parks, trails and rentals
  • Picture, description, size, trail length, use and directions (ex.)
  • Google map of access points (ex.)

• Bureau of Land Management – BLM public lands in Oregon and Washington.
  • Recreation Site Search
  • Fees,Passes & Permits
  • Maps and Data
  • Season dates, activities permitted, facilities, directions, contact info, site maps, google map, pictures (ex.)

Rationale:

Currently gov. sites such as Washington State Parks have databases with large amounts of data that is under utilized. There are plenty of apps for National Park maps and finding dog parks but currently there are no apps that include all of the city and county parks in the Seattle area.

One of the core functions of this app is the ability to browse by recreation activities. This ability would appeal to a wide audience of mobile users because it would allow anyone looking for a specific type of recreation space to quickly find information about the closest available locations.

Maintaining Brand Identity:

We decided to have the iPhone icon consist of the traditional Seattle symbol: the Space Needle, as well as a green background representing the natural beauty of the Evergreen state. In addition, we took familiar sign icons from state parks and recreational spots and converted them to fit within a compass to illustrate the concept of navigation to outdoor parks and trails. Once inside the application the same icons are utilized to demonstrate specific park offerings.

Competing Apps (iTunes App Store):

While there is a wealth of park related apps already in the iTunes app store, there currently aren’t any that allow you to find parks based on features and location that contain enough data for the Seattle area to make them useful. All of the apps were tested for difficulty and accuracy of both finding parks in the area and finding parks with specific features.

There were several apps we checked out such as ParkFindUSA, Smart Maps – Seattle, and Park Maps that included only one or two of the databases listed above and were missing the find by feature functionality.

Dog Parks NYC (Apptika, Inc)
Price: $0.99
Description: WHAT DO YOU WANT? ACCURATE INFORMATION vs. USER-PROVIDED CONTENT
Category: Travel
App Store Rating: 3 stars (17 votes)
Last Update: October, 2009
Features:
With Apptika’s Dog Parks App, you have an ACCURATE listing of dog-friendly parks, beaches and trails in New York City with:

• Quickly locate the closest dog parks to your location
• Browse the entire county
• Get turn-by-turn directions
• Provides address, amenities, hours of operation, leash law requirements, phone contact information, web site address and special information, when available, such as fenced small/frail dog areas, park size, prohibited areas, foxtail alerts, etc.
• Ability to save to Favorites.
• Separate app for the iPad!
• Built-in interactive map utilizes geolocation

Assessment:
The good- Loading screen tells you its working, interface is clean, intuitive and all of the necessary information is included. Generally good branding.

The bad- No way to search by amenities. Some of the amenities symbols are grey and some are the same shade of green as the app icon and buttons. Advertising is rather bold and takes up a large portion of the screen (on the iPad). When you click on directions it takes you out of the app. When you re-open app it loses your place. Link in iTunes store to Apptika’s website is not working.

iLocate – Parks (Brighthouse Labs)
Price: $0.99
Description: ****DISCOVER YOUR WORLD, IN A WHOLE NEW WAY – TODAY!**** ****SLEEK NEW DESIGN GUARANTEED TO IMPRESS!!!!****
Category: Navigation
App Store Rating: 2.5 stars (9 votes)
Last Update: October, 2009
Features (as described on the Apple website):

• Provides database of all Parks including directions and contact info.
• Supposed to work anywhere, using your GPS.
• Call park with one click on iPhone
• One Touch Search.

Assessment:
The good- The app uses the convenience of GPS navigation to help users locate parks nearest to them.

The bad- After opening the app and allowing it to find my location I was taken to a somewhat worthless list of parks that also included museums and baseball associations. When I tapped on “Map” I was taken to a map that shows relatively few parks mixed in with lots of clubs and tourist attractions. They give an option to “view map in maps app” but instead of going to the maps app, it goes to the Google Maps website in Safari. No option to find by features.

One reviewer said that she was searching for parks that consisted of athletic fields or playgrounds but instead found botanical gardens and a restaurant. It seems like this app doesn’t realize what the word “parks” encompasses and may be too limited to fulfill its description.

Parks n Rec (SeaBloom & Associates, INC)
Price: Free
Category: Navigation
Description: Looking for a local park or recreation area? Interested in getting the kids out to play or finding an outdoor place to relax? Vacationing and need to know where the parks are? Parks n Rec pin points locations for you.
App Store Rating: 3 stars (9 votes)
Last Update: July, 2010
Features (as described on the Apple website):

• Provides database of all Parks including directions and contact info.
• Includes athletic parks, courts, trails, etc.
• Allows users to add pics and ratings influencing user contribution and increasing app stickiness.

Assessment:

The good- A free app with a small community of people populating the database. Ability to save as favorites, upload pics (likely unfiltered), list of park features (limited- see below).

Reviewers seemed very pleased with this free app. One reviewer related the process to a treasure hunt. It also seems to help crowd sourcing. Traditional outdoor enthusiasts as well as extreme athletes can utilize the features on this app.

The bad- When you first load the app it sits on your current location and doesn’t show any parks unless you double tap it to zoom in (see screen 2 in the screenflow). Profile feature is very confusing, allows anonymous logins and pops up on first use (after installing). The park features listed are not taken from the parks website, they are added only by users and thus many park don’t have any listed. No address, contact info or link to the park website is provided. If you want to search for only one specific activity you have to turn off all of the other activities (see screenshot). The in-app advertising is not relevant and shows up in strange places within the app. Doesn’t include all of King County Parks (Cougar Mt.).

Other park related apps:

National Parks Companion (Shaun J. Chu), Find Parks (DoubleTapApps), Olympic National Park Map (Dubbele.com), National Park (Alpine App, LLC), National Park Maps (Cartosoft, LLC), US National Park Maps (DMBC), eParkMaps (eParkGuide, LLC), Sports&Recs (Michael Quach), Park Maps (Big Air Software, LLC), ParkFindUSA (Timestar Services, LLC), Smart Maps – Seattle (Alexandru Halmagean)

Possible Sponsors:

Several organizations have been identified as possible sponsors. On the corporate side, there are many Seattle based companies such as REI, Eddie Bauer and Outdoor Research that would likely be interested in donating funds or taking ownership. There are also companies which already offer some type of park mapping products like Mapdango that may be interested in having an app in the iTunes store.

The preferred sponsor would be gov. grants, the parks and rec. dept, local city govs. or non-profit associations. Gov. grants and money from sponsoring organizations may have certain requirements attached but they would likely allow us to create an app that truly benefits the community rather than a corporation.

In-app advertising would be the fall back position in-case corporate or gov. funding fell through. At between $1-$2 per click, even a small user base could support further development.

Marketing:

There are many cross marketing opportunities for SeattleParks. Since the application will be launching in the Seattle market, funding will likely be provided by Seattle-area sporting good stores or related outlets. After all, there is a culture full of outdoor enthusiasts throughout the Northwest. We need to capitalize on that market by contacting and cross promoting with brands that are already recognized. We want SeattleParks to become an essential part of the outdoor entertainment culture in the Pacific Northwest. From hiking spots to boat launches and baseball fields; SeattleParks will be the go-to guide for both athletes and outdoor enthusiasts.

Cross Promo Marketing

It will be important to utilize local resources for cross marketing opportunities.

For example, local sporting goods stores typically have some sort of pamphlet of flier that advertises nearby venues to bike, hike, swim, etc. We could have pre-printed inserts and ask if we can place them inside the pamphlets. It would be hassle free for their staff and since most outdoor retailers pride themselves on being knowledgeable and involved in the area, it would be against their best interest to refuse providing their consumers with this resource.

Another goal would be to have the application icon featured on the store website as a travel resource.

There are two ways we could go about sponsorship. One is to go to a large corporation like REI and ask them if they would be involved in sponsoring our app, and in turn we would brand it with the REI symbol. While this could be a great way to quickly bring in some money, it is definitely not the only solution.

SeattleParks can also gain sponsorship by offering an exchange package. If the stores are willing to feature SeattleParks in-store and in web advertisements for a specific amount of time, the store would be advertised within the app itself with a link to each vendor’s online marketplace. Vendors could run ads featuring anything from sale of the week to special deal codes offered only to SeattleParks’ users.

Candidates for this type of partnership include:

• REI
• Eddie Bauer
• The North Face
• Mountain Hardwear
• Outdoor Research
• Play it Again Sports
• Outdoor Emporium
• Big 5

Even though it’s important to hit the large outlets, it would also be beneficial to link up with local, smaller shops to emphasize the connection with the local culture.

These types of shops include:

• Montlake Bicycle Shop
• All About Bike and Ski
• Evo: Ski, Snowboard, Wakeboard
• Second Ascent

In addition, a similar partnership would work with northwest outdoor resource websites such as:

• Northwest Source Seattle
• Washington Free Campgrounds
• Local Hikes
• Washington State Parks – iBoats.com

Tip: Before offering to advertise for any of these outlets it may be wise to simply ask for endorsement as one of their nature resources. If they refuse to offer the free promo, then you can move on to the mutual sponsorship option.

Establish a SeattleParks Community

In order to keep users coming back and spreading the word about your product it is important to make them feel like they are part of an exclusive community. Giving them a sense of belonging by building a network structured specifically around their passion for the outdoors will only increase user loyalty.

There are many different established groups of outdoor enthusiasts in the Seattle area. These would be great places to begin building a newer, larger community of park users. Networks such as The Mountaineers, PNW Hiking and Adventure Group, Women Climbers NW, Pursue the Outdoors and the Seattle Bicycle Club are great networks for SeattleParks to infiltrate. Going to events would not only help the SeattleParks team learn how to better serve their users, it would also give users more faith and connection to the application itself. Getting involved lets the users know you care, and makes you and your product relatable. It also gives them a story to tell. Promoters handing out business cards and demoing the app should emphasize the importance of joining the SeattleParks community.

The networking can happen both online and off. By getting involved in meet-ups SeattleParks could get exposure right where it’s needed most, among users in the field. In addition, creating buzz online among these networks can get them talking about the app on their own blogs and social networking platforms. After all, Seattleites love to blog. Enthusiasts like these are always looking for new places to go, that’s why they joined these networks in the first place. SeattleParks could be just what they need to open their horizons even further. Once SeattleParks has an online presence, generating buzz by posting links to the SeattleParks page on forums and blogs should bring traffic to the app.

The people who will join and integrate into these networks will likely be volunteers, interns, or dedicated believers in the app (the team of designers and developers). We would refer to field promoters as our “active team” and they would be responsible for hyping the app and writing about their adventures in review blogs.

Join the Basic Social Media Platforms

In addition to joining established outdoor networks, it will also be important to build an online presence in the most frequented social networks to hit the secondary targets; those who may not be classified as “enthusiasts” but just need something to remind them that they can get out and do something different. It will be essential for this app to utilize an online identity or avatar for users to “like” or promote the app via their own online profiles on Facebook, Twitter or other social networking platforms. By tweeting about featured trail sites, beaches, etc. the application will also show up in search engine results when people are looking for local venues. The app icon for SeattleParks should be used on all of these pages to strengthen brand recognition.

Once SeattleParks has a handful of followers, the app administrators can get them involved by having online events like organized meet-ups or even by introducing an online badge competition. The followers of the networks can vote on the badge and it could be downloaded from the main website or from Facebook. When others begin spreading the word about the app and downloading the badge for their own web profiles the earned media will aid exposure. Ultimately this app would have an online newsletter and organize large community gatherings among the followers to make them feel even more like part of an exclusive network. This will increase app exposure as well as repeated use by constantly updating patrons on featured outdoor spots.

Facebook ads are also an important asset because impressions or clicks are extremely affordable. These ads would be targeted toward people that live in the King County area and enjoy all sorts of outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, biking, etc. Facebook is now the most popular site on the internet according to an article at CNNMoney showing that content sharing has become a huge online force and that it is changing the way people search for products and services. SeattleParks will need a strong presence there.

More Social Production
It will be important to have demos of the application available for reviewers and fans to link to. While the optimal result would be to drive everyone to the SeattleParks website, we cannot forget well-known social production platforms like YouTube and SlideShare. These are perfect locations to build more online profiles and demonstrate the app’s functionality in an easy-to-follow manner. The more we bombard the internet with SeattleParks content, the more we increase our likelihood of going viral.

Foursquare will be an integral part of the second version of our application, therefore it will be important for SeattleParks to maintain a presence on there as well. We suggest creating personal profiles for each member of the active team and checking in each time you visit a new park. Include a picture for good measure and a little review about what you did there. Because we have foursquare integration you will actually be building your own database through their platform. In addition, it will help others discover the app when they see friends checking in and using it.

Build an Online Blog Site to Serve as Main Web Resource

Keeping a blog up to date with current events and outdoor venue features is an ideal way to stay in the top of search engine results and build a community of followers. It will also be a great way for others promoting the application in their own platforms to link back to a resource with controlled data, not just a listing in an app marketplace. This blog should be like an adventure or park review site. Every time a member of the SeattleParks active team (field promoters) goes to an event, joins and group, or visits a new park it should be blogged about.

Ultimately the online blog will serve as the homepage for SeattleParks. All networks will drive users back to this page so they can find out more about the app and get download information. I checked on GoDaddy.com and SeattleParksApp.com is an available domain.

Search Engine Optimization

The Website: In order to have an optimized website it will be important to have frequently updated content. Remember that outdoor enthusiasts may not be searching for an app at all; it is more likely that they will be searching for nearby trails or reviews of them. This is where the SeattleParks website comes in. By including keyword dense reviews on the SeattleParks blog site about good trails, parks, and other types of featured amenities you are much more likely to show up in search engines. Similarly, potential users may also be searching for sporting good items, and once ties are built with the local vendors SeattleParks can rate and praise their products and link back to sponsored sites as well as drive people to the app.

Mobile Web: In today’s tech culture many are searching for park resources and references via their mobile phone. For this reason the main website should be optimized for the mobile platform as well. All we need to do to have the website optimized for mobile browsers is have a mobile-specific CSS code that simplifies the site by removing most images and fancy features.

Another thing that is important to remember is that mobile browsers are often location-specific. A way to get on their radar is to join all the local directories and include as full a profile as possible to maximize keyword density. Websites like CitySlick.net and CityStar have local directories for businesses that participate in providing sports and recreational services.

Ultimately, the goal for both web and mobile optimization is to have as many inbound links as possible. Joining these directories is a simple start as well as getting reviews on blog sites and social networks. Once we have sponsorships those sites will link to SeattleParks as well.

Both the mobile and web platforms should also be monitored with Google analytics to see which marketing initiatives are working and optimize the amount of hits the application gets. It’s absolutely free and is an extremely useful tool for SEO and figuring out which keywords and links bring in the most traffic. This is especially useful in a small business startup because marketers can narrow down the best places to focus their time and energy.

App Site: Keyword density is important for all of the SeattleParks platforms, and the iTunes store is no exception. It will be important in the app description to include the general location of the parks (Seattle metro) as well as the different “types” of people who may like this app. While iTunes does not want you to keyword stuff (list a bunch of irrelevant keywords to trick searches) there are ways to get yourself seen on a wider scale, legally. It’s all about context, for example saying “This app is for people in the Seattle area who like to hike, bike, swim, camp….etc” allows you to use a list of potential keywords that are directly relatable to the app. That way anyone searching for Seattle and any of those recreational activities will likely see this SeattleParks. Similarly, the description should also reference competing apps that are already established so we show up on their searches too. One way to do this is by saying “Others apps like this include…[list of competing apps here].” Also link to positive reviews from your app description, and try to get reviewers to link to the page too.

Online PR – Big Launch

1. Pick a Special Day to Launch

If possible it may benefit to launch SeattleParks on a day when people may be extra enthusiastic about outdoor activities or healthy living because press outlets will be much more likely to feature the app. Good days for an outdoor app release would be Earth Day, the First Day of Spring, Arbor Day, May 1 (the beginning of National Physical Fitness & Sports Month), National Safe Boating Week (May 7), World Environment Day (June), Child Health Day (1^st Monday of October), National Forest Products Week (3^rd Sunday of October), and Good Nutrition Month (November).

2. Start With Who You Know

Email marketing is a great way to spread the word about your application with minimal effort and without spending a dime. Think about the people you know in your professional and personal life and begin creating a list. Have your friends, family, and staff do the same. You may be surprised how many names and emails you come up with. Design a nice email that is a direct reflection of the application. Utilize an exporter like www.mailchimp.com, if you have less than 500 subscribers it’s free, and it will track click and open rates so you can see where you failed and succeeded. It also automates a trackable share link so your email can easily be shared with unlisted third parties.

3. Reach Out to Locals

While SeattleParks should not forget to submit the app to standard app review sites, it will be just as important to reach out to local residents who are influential among the outdoor enthusiast communities. For example it would be a good idea to contact outdoor bloggers such as Seattle Outdoor Adventures Seattle Hiking, and Seattle Song and ask them to write a review on the app trial right before or just upon launch. We could give them the beta version and see if they have any input. By making them involved in testing they will feel personally invested in the project and will be much more likely to promote it. People in today’s age are more apt to trust blogs and networks than typical advertisements because we all hold personal recommendations to a higher esteem that traditional marketing and sales.

Creating a digital press package may also be a good idea when reaching out to potential reviewers. The easier you make it on them the more likely they are to pick up the package. Put together a list of important links like the link to the website on the app store as well as the website along with a downloadable logo or badge so reviewers can easily link back to the SeattleParks page.

4. Traditional PR

Even with today’s referral driven market, bloggers aren’t the only writers that should be contacted upon launch of SeattleParks. It is also important to remember traditional PR resources such as magazines and newsletters. Here is a list of a few publications that have both print and web presences in the Northwest outdoor entertainment market:

• Outside
• Seattle Met
• Backpacker Magazine

5. Buzz up the Social Media Networks

Utilize social media in all the ways previously mentioned but be sure to have countdowns on your pages for the launch and make periodic announcements to remind people of features and benefits of using this app.

By creating a buzz about the app prior to and immediately upon launch it will be easier to maintain the buzz through the viral online environment expanding on the initial excitement about the app. The more resources that are notified about the launch of SeattleParks, the more likely we are to get exposure that will continue throughout social networks and throughout search engines.

SeattleParks app team members:

Corey Christiansen: I am a Social Media Manager for M80 working on several campaigns for Microsoft and a first year graduate student in the Master of Communication in Digital Media program at the University of Washington. I spend most of my time managing social networks and researching emerging technologies.

Danielle Gatsos: I am the Vice President of Marketing for The William Craig Company (WCCI) an Appraisal Management Firm, and am one quarter away from finishing my MCDM degree (Fall is my last). While I love digital design and multimedia production I am also an avid outdoorswoman enjoying hiking, fishing, soccer, snowboarding, camping, mountain biking, etc.

Icons (57×57 & 512×512):

Anyone interested in getting an app to market knows that it takes far more than just developing the interface however few understand just how much work gets done in a short amount of time to develop the majority of successful apps. In my post Hitting the jackpot with an iPhone app, I mentioned that the problem with low/no budget app development is that it’s usually not sustainable. As I’m putting the finishing touches on our strategy for SeattleParks, I’m beginning to see that there may be a way to get certain types of apps to market much quicker than others using app builders like RedFoundry and Appmakr. Once the app has an audience and a budget from investors, advertising or app sales; the developer can spend time or resources on developing the functionality beyond the limitations of the app builder and leveraging the current users to create a buzz for marketing.

One of the things I find most intriguing about the relatively new mobile app market are the guerrilla marketing techniques used to corner companies into financing an app. Apps such as Order Pizza have stepped past the traditional funding options and instead have looked at how they can position themselves well within the scope of what, in this case, pizza franchises need.

Positioning an app in any kind of market requires finding out everything about your competitors you possibly can. Simply searching the app store and reading descriptions is not enough. Market research requires opening apps, working through scenarios, reading marketing materials and scraping reviews for pressure points.

Brad Ellis from RogueSheep showed us their app Postage and talked about icon sets the second week of class but it wasn’t until I started working on SeattleParks that I realized just how central icons are to mobile apps. Because of the creativity involved with illustrating these icons, creating a coherent icon set can be a big challenge to the one man app developer. When looking through the American Airlines (iTunes), Alaska Airlines (iTunes) and Southwest Airlines (iTunes) apps our group noticed that one of the key differences was the creativity and branding portrayed in the icon set. The Southwest Airlines app was by far the most colorful, but the American Airlines app looked far more professional. Because of the screen size of mobile phones and the use of touch gestures, icons must be quickly recognizable and follow brand principles.

Many of the learning goals I outlined in my post at the beginning of the course stayed the same although we really didn’t touch on the Android platform. Now that the course is complete, I feel like I have a much better understanding of overall strategy, market research, business plan development, UI design, wire-framing, app submission, promotion and designing an update road-map.

Sometimes I like to compare my job to the movie Office Space. This clip really sums a lot of the work I do taking online marketing campaign specs from the customers, developing a strategy and passing the creative pieces off to professionals. The various aspects of mobile apps that I’ve learned in this course have enabled me to more clearly explain to clients what can be done in the mobile space. It has also allowed me to better articulate clients’ expectations and branding concepts to developers.

Back in June some of the press turned sour when Apple announced that it had just passed $1 billion in revenue paid to developers and $1.43 billion in total app sales. While this seems like an impressive number to some, Tomi Ahonen, a writer for The Bright Side of News equated this out to be on average $6,355 per app (over two years) in his article Are iPhone Apps a Failed Business Model? Although this is just an average, it’s definitely cause for concern if you’re planning on investing a significant amount of money or time into developing an app.

Even if you aren’t interested in making money, maximizing your user base and presenting a positive image for your brand is likely a top priority. Part of the problem I often see with low/no budget app development is that it’s usually not sustainable. While putting together the strategy for Play Space I’m continually running into the problem of needing someone to do not only the things I’m not good at, but also updates and support. This seems to be a notorious problem for advertisers who decide their brand needs to have a mobile app. Allocating money to cover customer support and future updates can be quite costly and hard to predict. Without covering all the basis you’re likely creating a liability for your brand that could leave you wishing you had a better strategy to begin with.

Another key learning is that helping to create positive sentiment for an app that has the potential to spread virally should start before you even begin building the app. By baking in features such as in-app help, demos and the ability to send the developer feedback (as talked about in The Business of iPhone App Development) you can avoid many of the negative comments that would otherwise be posted in the app store. Extensively testing, eliminating cognitive friction and using social network integration also gives your app a running start.

I recently came across an article on howtomakeiphoneapps.com that rated not becoming or hiring a marketer as one of the top ten iPhone app marketing mistakes to avoid. Even if you think you mastered market research and have all the necessary features and incentives for people to easily share your app, there’s still a lot of marketing opportunities you may not know about. On the flip side, many of the successes I’ve heard about including the Order Pizza app utilize extremely creative marketing ideas that a traditional marketing professional might not think of.

1. Solo, small team or large group-

Several of our guest speakers have warned of the dangers of investing to much time and money into an app without knowing what it’s worth. If working for a large client with say 20k+ to spend then a large team might make sense in order to quickly produce a high quality app. More likely though, you need to produce an app using the least possible resources. A small team of 1, 2 or 3 often makes the most sense and can save you from incurring costs you might not be able to recover.

2. Competitive analysis-

The shear number of sites that have been setup to help with this prove the importance of this step. Your competitors will surely do some form of analysis so the more you do, the better chance you have that you can one up them. Whether you’re just beginning the ideation process or you’ve already completed an app, competitive analyses are beneficial if approached objectively. Remember to cast a wide net when selecting competitors to evaluate including other platforms and related domains. It can also be helpful to develop and use heuristics to cover specific areas of interest for your app that may not be covered by other heuristic methods. ” (Designing the iPhone User Experience, 143)

Here are some sites that will help you search for a wide range of apps.

Top app Charts, Appolicious, AppShopper, Apptism, Fresh Apps, Macworld AppGuide, Yappler, AppSafari, iGoApps, AppStoreHQ, iPhone Apps Finder

3. Pricing-

When deciding how much to charge for your app you’ll need to take into consideration what others are charging for similar apps, what your demographic will spend and whether or not it makes sense to advertise within the app. Free apps account for approximately 95 percent of the apps downloaded from the iTunes app store therefore even if you feel that your app is worth $0.99 or more, you should also consider whether or not you can make more money by giving away your app and making your profit through affiliate links. (Wooldridge, 107)

4. Crowd source name, icons and other important design elements-

Unless you have an experienced developer on your team, designing your icons and even your user interface likely will need a lot of your time and you will benefit greatly from asking others what they think of it. There are many paths to take with this but if research isn’t done before submitting to the app store you’ll be stuck having to remove your app to completely re-brand it. Keep in mind that your app name and icon are likely the only thing your potential customers will base their decision on so they’re incredibly important. “Your app’s shelf life on a user’s Home screen is exactly as long as it can hold that user’s attention.” (Clark, 42)

While your customers might make their decision based solely on the icon, they may ditch your app and/or avoid buying anything your create in the future based on your user-interface. Remember that a real person will interact with your product, not some abstract corporation, so you must regard people’s personal goals as higher than your own or the corporation your work for. (Cooper, 105)

5. Don’t go overboard-

Often while planning or developing an app, you’ll out-think that which can or should be included in a single app. Let the negative app reviews  in the app store that don’t speak to the core function of the particular app be a warning not to include unneeded or glitchy functionality. Also keep in mind that “[d]esigning software for iOS-based devices requires a state of mind that may or may not be second nature to you. In particular, if the bulk of your experience lies in developing desktop applications, you should be aware of the significant differences between designing software for a mobile device and for a computer.” (iPhone Human Interface Guidelines)

No matter the app, there should be a core function that is streamlined and obvious to the end user. By bloating your app with unnecessary functions you’re not only wasting time developing these functions but your also confusing your users as to what it is that your app does. Best to start out with plain and simple and then continue to update as your user base requests and to stay ahead of your competitors.

References:

Designing for Power. Inmates Are Running the Asylum, The: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity. Alan Cooper. (2004)

Designing the iPhone User Experience: Ch 5, Evaluating the Competition. Addison-Wesley Professional. (2011)

iPhone Human Interface Guidelines. Apple.

Is It Tapworthy?. Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps. Josh Clark. O’Reilly. (2010)

The Business of iPhone App Development: Making and Marketing Apps That Success. Dave Wooldridge, Michael Schneider. apress. (2010)

App Idea: GovCast

Audience: Reporters/journalists, gov workers, educators/students, people who watch C-Span

Purpose: Ability to watch public videos from all branches of gov.

Competing Apps: C-Span Radio (iPhone), The White House (iPhone), NASA App (iPhone)

Possible Sponsor: Gov grants

GovCast could provide anyone with a smartphone the ability to watch videos from a wide variety of gov databases that may or may not already be available online. A small data center consisting of several video encoding systems would be required to standardize and compress the audio/video. A script would also need to be written to parse through XML meta data.

App Idea: Best in Town

Audience: Travelers, anyone looking for top rated, local businesses

Purpose: Find top rated businesses based on your location.

Competing Apps: Best of NH (iPhone), Yelp (iPhone)

Possible Sponsor: businesses, Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau

Users could use a mobile web app with location services or a standard browser website with search to easily find top consumer rated businesses. Best in Town would combine databases such as Yelp and Citysearch to show the top rated businesses within a given distance and category. Users would also be allowed to upload there own ratings, reviews and photos upon logging in with a form of openID.



App Idea: Play Space

Audience: Parents, teenagers, outdoor enthusiasts

Purpose: Ability to find outdoor activities and venues that are free or low cost.

Competing Apps: Park Maps (iPhone), National Parks Companion, Spot Finder (iPhone), Find Parks (iPhone), misc. park guides

Possible Sponsor: Gov grants, parks and rec. dept.

Outdoor Play Space would live in a mobile web app with location services or a standard browser website with search and connect to a database of all types of public and private parks. There are many guides to parks and even dog park locators but there currently aren’t any apps that allow you to simply find all of the nearby spaces to hike, bike, kayak, ski, skateboard, golf, etc. Like other apps, users would also be allowed to upload there own ratings, reviews and photos upon logging in with a form of openID.

Above Average:

DropBox for iPad | App Store (free)

DropBox is essential because it lets you easily share all types of files with all kinds of devices. It provides excellent central storage for files that you regularly access. One thing I recently learned is that it’s possible to transfer files from DropBox onto your iDevice internal storage so that you can open them in other programs and access offline (i.e. loading PDFs into iBooks).

Seattle Freeways for iPad | App Store ($2.99)

At first I wasn’t too impressed with the Seattle Freeways app but after comparing it to Beat the Traffic I noticed it had a few more options that could be quite useful and that it was updated more often. Some of the things I liked about Seattle Freeways that were not offered anywhere else is the ability to bookmark cameras, check border crossing times as well as commute times and look at mountain pass reports (handy when I drive to Vancouver, BC or Spokane).

Mocha VNC for iPad | App Store (free)

I’ve tried all of the free VNC and remote desktop apps as well as some of the free ones. This is the best so far. The setup interface and options are quite simple and Mocha VNC has several features I haven’t seen elsewhere including keyboards in different languages, 32-bit color mode, vibrate when dragging mouse, the option to use the accelerometer to scroll the screen and shake to show/hide buttons. Tempted to buy the paid version and see what else they might have.

Still need work:

UploadingIT for iPad | App Store (free)

UploadingIt is another “cloud” service that is somewhat like DropBox but because it’s for the most part a web app- the file integration with iDevices is missing. I was at first quite impressed with the 20gb. storage offered for free but then realized that there is actually no way to upload files through the app. Instead you must mail attachments to your storage space which in mind is not the greatest method.

Beat the Traffic for iPad | App Store (free)

Beat the Traffic is one of those free apps that makes you think you’ve got it all. Based off Google Maps, Beat the Traffic shows you three different shades of traffic density with camera and construction overlays. One interesting option I found was a button that supposedly allowed you to see a forecast of what the traffic would be like 20, 40, 60, 90 and 120 minutes out (I haven’t tested). Some of the features I think should be included are approx. commute times and border crossing times. I also like the interface of Seattle Freeways better in that it you can tap the icons on the map or choose from drop-down menus.

Remoter (VNC) for iPad | App Store (free)

Remoter was one of the first apps I download for controlling my PC connected to my TV. At first I thought it worked ok but started having problems after disconnecting and trying to reconnect. I also noticed that several of the pop-up status indicators are glitchy (see the screenshot). One thing I liked about it was the bars with buttons on the top and bottom of the screen; they look much more professional than the buttons in Mocha VNC Lite.

Those interested in phones with versions of Windows Mobile prior to Windows Phone 7  traditionally have done their homework and most likely have a need for the specific feature set or they’ve been given one for free/at a low price. It’s obvious from the Windows Phone UI Design and Interaction Guide that Microsoft is working hard to change this and is learning from Apple and iOS app developers. The first steps to borrowing from the success of iOS was incorporating an app store in Windows Mobile 6.1 & 6.5. Microsoft is advancing to a whole new level with the introduction of Windows Phone 7 and their design principles originally codenamed “Metro”.

When comparing Apple and Microsoft’s guides I found that several of the concepts were universal. Take this for example- from the Windows Phone guide – “The goal is to clearly direct end users to the content they want. Metro interfaces are supposed to embody, harmonious, functional, and attractive visual elements.” And from the iPhone guide – “A great user interface follows human interface design principles that are based on the way people-users-think and work, not on the capabilities of the device…. a beautiful, intuitive, compelling user interface enhances an applications functionality and inspires positive emotional attachment in users.”

Microsoft is also attempting to bank on the fact that Window Phone 7 will be easily integratable with other Microsoft products such as the Zune, Xbox 360 and the Silverlight video player. This native integration caused quite a stir in the mobile development world when announced back in February at Mobile World Congress because it’s a major selling point for apps if implemented correctly by developers. Whereas the iOS runs Objective-C and is used by the iPhone, iPod and the iPad; the Windows Phone 7 OS will run Silverlight and XNA which are currently runs on the Zune, Xbox 360, and most computers running Windows or Mac OS X. In the future, I fully expect to see several slates running the Windows Phone 7 OS as well.

This new integration or method for running the same code on multiple platforms is in my mind a major benefit to developers and opens up an untapped market. As discussed in “The business of iPhone app development”, people have been known to switch from one mobile device to another to utilize specific apps and functionality. (1) Suzanne Ginsberg also notes in her article “Designing the iPhone user experience” that while it’s valuable to focus on the iPhone space, to consider branching out to other platforms such as web, desktop, or other mobile solutions. (2) Judging from the developers I’ve interacted with, having to learn Silverlight/XNA or coming up with an innovative and useful app idea won’t bar them from developing for Windows Phone 7. Initial phone sales, I believe will determine the number of developers that decide to either port their apps over or to create new apps that take advantage of the untapped markets. Whether or not the new features allows Microsoft to take a chunk out of Apple and Google’s market-share is still a mystery. In any case, Windows Phone 7 will make ripples in the mobile app market that will ultimately lead to further innovation and integration with rest of the devices we regularly use.

I envision there being lots of health and fitness games/apps for Xbox Kinect (check out Your Shape) that can be controlled from your phone using it’s many sensors. Several of the current government and health/fitness related apps in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile are web apps that run inside of Internet Explorer and I imagine these will be the among the first to be added to the new Marketplace by their developers.“The Making of Coffee Buzz”provides many useful tips on iPhone development but I found that some are becoming less relevant as Windows Phone and Android feature sets grow. One such tip- “If you’re making an app that could exist on the web, or on another mobile platform, it probably won’t make the most of iPhone, and probably won’t be a very successful iPhone app” would have been hard to argue with when published in early 2009 however now that the majority of smartphones have accelerometers, GPS, a camera, video player, gesture support and touchscreens it may be feasible to create an app that utilized these features across multiple platforms.

I highly recommend reading the “Windows Mobile, iPhone, Android – Marketplace Comparison” for more depth on this subject.

1. The Business of iPhone App Development: Making and Marketing Apps That Success. Dave Wooldridge, Michael Schneider. apress. (2010)

2. Designing the iPhone User Experience: Ch 5, Evaluating the Competition. Suzanne Ginsberg. Addison-Wesley Professional. (2011)

• BGR – As the about page reads, BGR is  ”…constantly breaking stories in the mobile gadget space.” BGR provides a rich source of news about everything related to mobile devices but is categorized in such a way that it is easy to find stories on specific areas such as Blackberry or 4G. All of the stories I’ve read are for the most part objective in that they avoid trash talking brands and spreading rumors.
• TechFlash – TechFlash is one of my favorite tech news sites in general and provides a wide range of mobile related news. Their tag line reads: “Seattle’s Technology News Source” and they are just that. It could be argued that since many of the authors have ties to Microsoft they are biased in their stories but I still find this site extremely useful.
• Engadget – No mobility list would be complete without Engadget. These guys have  ruled the mobile world for quite some time their reporters such as Joshua Topolsky are well know but in this space. When Windows Phone 7 was announced, Engadget was by far the leading source of news on nearly every channel including TV news media.

Several months ago I created a list of tech news sites. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the “mobility ” tab.

C-Span Radio in the iPhone apps store

C-Span radio wasn’t quite what I was looking for but turned out to be a decent app and it gave me some great ideas. Some of the key features I found were the ability to listen to C-Span radio, C-Span and C-Span 2 and links are provided to all of C-Span’s Podcasts. I downloaded the iPhone app onto my iPad and although the features are simple, the sound quality is good and I had no problems streaming, even while tethered to the 3g on my phone. Pixel doubling on the iPad slightly blurred the graphics but not nearly as bad as some of the other iPhone apps I’ve used.

Unfortunately one of the features many users are excited about, being able to play audio in the background (multitasking), doesn’t work on the iPad. Something else I was disappointed to see missing was some kind of meta tags or description of what is playing.

WebMD in iPad app store

I had quite a hard time sorting through the saturated healthcare & fitness category for an app I thought I might actually use. I settled on WebMD because it appeared to have a high quality UI and good ratings. This app was recently updated (last week) and now provides the ability to quickly attach information from the app to an email. Some of the key advertised features include a symptom checker, first aid essentials, pill identification tool, local health listings, as well as information on conditions, drugs and treatments. One of the things I liked was the ability to click on different parts of the body and see a list of possible ailments.

Some improvements I thought could be made to the WebMD app are to include how-to videos, offer suggestions for specialists in your area based on symptoms and to include locations specific phone numbers for organizations like the CDC.

m.UW in iPhone app store

I heard about the m.UW app several times last year but didn’t have a compatible device until now. Today I loaded it up on my iPad and initially I was impressed with what it has to offer. Of course the video icon on the main page caught my eye but after browsing through this section and several of the others I was disappointed to see the content isn’t updated regularly.

The comments section in the app store revealed several reasons why this app needs to be replaced soon. Unfortunately the app was made by Blackboard for UW and thus only has the data available on the Blackboard site. The ratings in the app store are surprisingly high (3.5 stars) but by reading the comments you can see people either love or hate it. Several people commented that the students in CSE could build a far better app however I would argue it would take a much larger task force to tackle gathering all of the data needed to make an app that is useful to the majority of students, faculty and administrators.