A MARKET AND PERSONA FOR YOUR APP

A MARKET AND PERSONA FOR YOUR APP

When brainstorming iPhone Apps it is sometimes helpful to look at other apps already developed. The best way to check out other apps is on the iTunes store (iTunes is free).

Start a blank Google Slides presentation. Using a 12 point font, complete the following exercise using complete sentences and paragraphs.

Content and Style

In one or more paragraphs describe the situation or problem that your app is designed to address. Note that you are not limited by technological constraints. Your app can have superpowers.
In one or more paragraphs describe your solution to the situation or problem.
In one or more paragraphs list at least three benefits that your solution will provide. You may use bullets.
Describe three market segments that would buy your app—one of which must be your classmates. Provide demographics for the market segments—e.g., age, education, household income, gender, geographic location, and so forth.
Now pick one of those segments and create a fictional persona in the target market. Tell us details about your persona—where they live, how much they earn, where they go on vacation, if they have a girlfriend/boyfriend, and so forth. Remember that your persona must be willing to buy the app.
Deliverables: Electronic submission: Share your Google Slides presentation responses with your instructor.

Plan and Design Your App
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Brainstorm an app that solves a business problem
2. Identify and describe a target market for an app
3. Create process flows that will help you plan your app.
4. Mockup an iPhone app using a variety of methods.
Analyze the Problem
Your app needs to solve a business problem for someone in order to be marketable. For the sake of this lesson, your classmates compose your target market—people like you.
You are asked to identify a problem then describe how your app will solve the problem. Your app should provide some tangible benefits for the target market.
Finally, you are asked to describe a fictional persona in the target market. Having a persona helps you make decisions in the design of the app.

Analyzing the problem and describing the marketability of the Hi Mom app. This app is designed to ease Mom’s worries while giving the student more free time. You should make your own original example.

Define Requirements with Process Flows
After analyzing the business problem, you need to set requirements for the design of your app. We will envision requirements using process flow diagrams.
Some students struggle with what they should create for their app screens until they do process flows. The key is to construct an app swim lane in the process flow. Then look at the app swim lane of the To-Be process flow to help determine which screens to create. The screens should follow logically by looking at the action the app is taking (e.g. ask user X or show user X). The connection will not necessarily be one screen per action. In fact you may have multiple screens for each action. It depends upon the level of detail in your process flow.
Creating a planning diagram almost always saves time in the end. It is much easier to add, update, and remove actions from a process diagram than it is to add, update, and remove screens from your app.
Process flows also highlight the importance of doing business process management and business process redesign and why business process is so important to information systems.
How different will your As-Is and To-Be diagrams be? If you are migrating an existing computerized process to the iPhone, they may be fairly similar. However, if you are comparing a non-computerized process to one that uses an iPhone, then they are likely to be quite different.

Continuing the analysis (As-Is) and setting the requirements (To-Be) for the Hi Mom app. You should make your own original process flows to match your app.

Design Your App According to Plan
Now that we have discussed target markets, laws of branding, icon design, and process flows, you are ready to design your iPhone app. Your app should have a close relationship with your process flows. In other words, the actions identified for the app in the process flows should be illustrated in the mockups.
Fortunately, the iPhone interface is highly standardized, which means you have fewer decisions to make about the placement and style of interface elements. This allows you to focus more on the content of your app.

The status bar should appear at the very top of the screen and display important information about the device itself. The status bar displays information such as the current time, battery level, network provider, and network strength.
The navigation bar appears at the top of the screen directly under the status bar and displays the title of the page currently being viewed.
The tab bar always appears at the bottom of the screen and should appear on every screen of your app. The tab bar allows the user to switch modes or views very easily.

Multiple screenshots from the Hi Mom app. You should make your own original screen shots using the MockApp template and library.
Techniques
The following techniques, found in the PowerPoint section of the software reference, may be useful in completing the assignments for this chapter. iPhone Interface Map • Hyperlink • Shape-Insert
L1 ASSIGNMENT: A MARKET AND PERSONA FOR YOUR APP
When brainstorming iPhone Apps it is sometimes helpful to look at other apps already developed. The best way to check out other apps is on the iTunes store (iTunes is free).
Start a blank Google Slides presentation. Using a 12 point font, complete the following exercise using complete sentences and paragraphs.
Content and Style
• In one or more paragraphs describe the situation or problem that your app is designed to address. Note that you are not limited by technological constraints. Your app can have superpowers.
• In one or more paragraphs describe your solution to the situation or problem.
• In one or more paragraphs list at least three benefits that your solution will provide. You may use bullets.
• Describe three market segments that would buy your app—one of which must be your classmates. Provide demographics for the market segments—e.g., age, education, household income, gender, geographic location, and so forth.
• Now pick one of those segments and create a fictional persona in the target market. Tell us details about your persona—where they live, how much they earn, where they go on vacation, if they have a girlfriend/boyfriend, and so forth. Remember that your persona must be willing to buy the app.
Deliverables: Electronic submission: Share your Google Slides presentation responses with your instructor.

A sample student write-up for the L1 exercise. You Translate is an app that does translation. You should make your own original example.
L2 ASSIGNMENT: DEMONSTRATE THE BENEFITS OF YOUR APP
By creating As-Is and To-Be process flow diagrams, you will be able to analyze the benefits of the app. Here you show us how your persona engages in a business process with, and without, your app. The app should build a strong case that the To-Be process is a significant improvement over the as-is version. Create both the As-Is and the To-Be process flow diagrams of the use of the iPhone app. The As-Is diagrams should model how the persona performs the task without the app. The To-Be diagram will describe how the task is completed using the app.
Setup
Start a blank Google Slides presentation. Using a 12 point font, complete the following exercise using complete sentences and paragraphs.
Content and Style
• Create each process diagram on separate slides.
• Use a combination of drawing shapes (lines, arrows, etc.) and text.
• Use design principles to maximize professionalism.
• Label each diagram with an appropriate title and your name.
Deliverables: Electronic submission: Share your Google Slides presentation with your instructor.
Sample student process flows for the You Translate app. You should make your own original process flows to match your app.
L3 ASSIGNMENT: CREATE A MOCKUP OF YOUR APP
In this assignment you will create an iPhone app mockup based on your analysis. This mockup acts as a visual model to use in a product proposal. Using the templates provided, design a creative and useful iPhone app.
Setup
Content and Style
• Create an original mockup.
• Create an icon for your app with an appropriate logo on the first slide.
• Apply and follow all graphic design principles.
• Include all of the necessary images.
• Create hyperlinks between your PowerPoint pages to simulate the app in action. You should build hyperlinks off of the buttons, not the text on the buttons. (Otherwise the text will be underlined, which does not look right).
• Include your name as the wireless carrier instead of AT&T (in upper left corner).
Deliverables: Electronic submission: Share your Google Slides presentation with your instructor.
Sample screen shots for the You Translate app. You should make your own original screen shots using the MockApp template and library.
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