Inspiration

Walking around the city is boring. Birthdays without competition are boring. Visiting a science fair can actually also be boring .. Why is there no game that makes these activities more fun? When everyone has a mobile, when mobiles have powerful functions like camera’s and geo-positioning, social networks can connect everyone, and new AI-technology can be trained on patterns to recognize or generate its own content .. why should any hour be boring? Bring on the games, the competition, the entertainment. Turn every event into a scavenger hunt. Welcome to my I2 project.

 

Goals

I want to create a mobile app that families can use to explore a city with fun, that business colleagues can use to bond through competition, that mom’s and dad’s can use to turn a birthday into a bash. Families are able to play parties or events based on the group’s interests. Businesses are able to bond by working together and racing around the city to complete the scavenger hunt before the other teams. The reason I chose to create a scavenger hunt is because of the exploration component, the hunt forces you to walk around and explore while competing to find clues. 

 

Development

To build such a mobile app, I will follow a common design process, which iterates from early ideas, through prototyping and user testing, to a successful product. The first development step is coming up with concepts. The second step is designing the app. This starts with user stories, including defining who they are and what experience they would get from the app. Next step is to describe these experiences in the form of feature/functionality. The first software design step is UI/UX design, outlining the visual elements on each application screen. The third step is the development of the app itself which starts with selecting a so-called technology stack. I actually already researched this and chose to use a no code development environment called Thunkable with three cloud backends: Google Firebase for user authentication, Google sheets as simple database, and Cloudinary for external content management. The fourth step is to actually develop the code that delivers the specified features and make sure that it is fully functional. For that I will test each feature using the Thunkable web-based emulator, as well as the Thunkable simulation app.

 

Prototype Launch

The fifth step is user testing. For this I plan to launch a prototype at the I2 Showcase, with one or more scavenger hunts specifically designed for the SHC campus. These hunts will be freely available so that visitors can download and immediately play with the app during their visit.  I plan to include a feature to track usage metrics and request user rating/feedback, so I can better understand if my application is liked by my target audiences.

 

Business Opportunity?

After my launch at the I2 showcase I plan to take the user data, analyze it, and make improvements to my app. And if things look promising, I may develop a draft business plan for a commercial version of the app. And I may have an opportunity to pitch my plan to some friendly acquaintances in the venture capital community to see if it has commercial potential. That would be very exciting.

 

My I2 Learning

This project will enable me to explore what it takes to build software, from ideas to a functional working application. I’ve been curious about that, as my father “works in software”, but I don’t really know yet what that means. In addition, this project will provide me with the opportunity to learn more about “Artificial Intelligence” and what it can do. From what I’ve read, AI can generate its own content and images. I can imagine AI could power some cool features in my app. Thirdly, this project enables me to learn more about what it’ll take to create a so-called “business plan”, and how entrepreneurs get their ideas funded. I have heard about market research and estimating revenue forecasts, but don’t know how that’s done. Finally, my I2 project may even help me think through whether a career in the software industry could be a good fit for me.