use Google Slides and your knowledge of the agile process to rapidly prototype an app or website.
Project 3: App MVP
In this project, you will use Google Slides and your knowledge of the agile process to rapidly prototype an app or website.
Background
Throughout this quarter, you’ve learned about different IS concepts. You’ve also learned about other concepts in your core or concentration classes. Now, it’s your chance to combine your interests and knowledge in a specific field and build a possible solution to a problem in industry.
Since this is an IS class, your “product” will be an app or a website. Your goal in this project is to create a prototype of your product, as if you were really going to test it with customers.
You may want to review the Agile and MVP lectures again. You will not need to do a pivot for this project.
Step 1: Identify a problem
Think about a problem you or your friends face, or identify one in your target industry (where you want to work after graduation), that can be solved or addressed with technology. Keep your problem small and realistic—building houses on Mars, for example, is not something that is easily solved with IS.
Once you’ve identified a problem, think about why it’s an important problem to solve. Who is most affected by this problem? What results do you expect after this problem is solved? What role does technology play in solving or addressing this problem?
Some good problem ideas from past quarters include immigration assistance (translating forms, etc.), campus safety, finding similarly skilled people for pickup sports games, and organizing schedules and routines for drag queens. You can be as creative as you’d like, but please keep it appropriate for school.
There are two problem ideas that are not allowed: campus parking (or any kind of parking), and the general concept of student loans (why should students get loans for college; why interest rates are so high; why can’t debt be erased; etc.).
Campus parking is an issue that almost all commuters to UCR face, and sometimes even faculty run out of spots. There are real solutions being proposed and in place. Back when I allowed campus parking as a project idea, most students submitted similar ideas: parking space counter, rideshare, and so on.
For student loans, I understand that many students face this problem, but the solution is rooted in legislature and finance, and IS plays a fairly small role. That said, you are allowed to create a student loan tracker if you feel that current apps and technologies do not solve the problem you are facing with keeping track of your student loans.
Action item: Create a new Google Doc. After typing your name and class information, make a new section titled “Problem Statement.” Clearly state your problem in one or two sentences. In a new paragraph, write a short summary of why you believe this is an important problem to address, who this problem affects, and what benefits you expect from solving or addressing this problem.
Step 2: Choose a solution
Thinking about your problem statement, come up with some ideas to address this problem. Remember to keep your ideas focused around, but not necessarily 100% related to, IS. We’re roleplaying a scenario here but we’re limited by time and class constraints.
Choose one idea as the basis of your MVP. It’s ok if your MVP addresses only part of the problem. Keep in mind that in a real world situation, you would use an MVP to see if your idea gets traction and also see if you’ve identified a problem worth solving in the first place. You don’t have to solve everything about the problem right now.
Your MVP will be in the form of an app or website / dashboard. Users should be able to use your MVP and get a sense for what the real product will look like.
Don’t just copy or build upon an existing app.
Action item: In the same Doc as above, create a new section titled “MVP Idea.” Briefly describe your solution. What specifically about the problem are you addressing with this solution?
Step 3: Choose seven features
Now that you have your solution in mind, it’s time to prioritize and choose your initial features. First, make a list of potential features. What do you want users to be able to do in your app? What features do users need to solve their problem (that you identified)?
Once you have a list of features, prioritize them in order of importance. Recall from the MVP lecture that the most boring feature is often the most important. From this prioritized list, choose the top six.
Action item: Notice that you’re choosing six features above. The seventh feature must be related to data analysis or make use of data. This could be a map, some sort of stats tracking, a global leaderboard, etc.
Optional: If you are not concentrating in IS but your problem statement is related to your target industry, feel free to make one or more of your features related to that industry. Sometimes this happens naturally. For example, if you choose the finance industry, likely at least one of your features will be related to finance. You must still have a data analysis feature.
Optional: If you are concentrating in IS, feel free to make one of your features related to a trending technology like blockchain or AI. You must still have a data analysis feature.
Assumption: For any of your features, you can assume that the technology is already in place and will work. For example, let’s say that one of your features is the ability to message other users. You can assume that some computer science team will design this and make it work later. Right now, you are just prototyping an MVP and you don’t have to worry about the deep technical details.
Assumption: You can assume that basic functions such as login and registration already exist. These basic functions do not count toward your seven features. A user profile, as long as it requires more than just contact and demographic information (e.g., a pet profile like breed and allergies), does count as a feature. If you are unsure whether a feature will count as one of your seven, please ask publicly (and anonymously if you wish) on Campuswire or at office hours.
Action item: In the same Doc as above, create a new section titled “Features.” List each of your seven features as bullet points. Clearly mark which one is the data analysis feature.
Sample output for Step 3
Let’s say that I want to create an app to find similarly skilled players for pickup sports games. I might have as my features:
- Player profile (sports I want to play and my skill level in them)
- Make a “player wanted” post for teams looking for a player
- Search for pickup games based on skill level, location, etc.
- Show a map of where pickup games often happen locally—this is my data analysis feature
So that nobody just copies this idea, I’m stopping here at four features. 😜 But, I hope this gives you an idea of how you should be moving forward. You might even think about drilling down into a specific problem. For example, people who want to play in a recreational golf league might face different problems than people looking to play pickup basketball or coed softball.
Step 3 is the tough part about this project so please ask for clarification on Campuswire or at office hours.
Step 4: Build your app in Google Slides
We covered this in class on Wednesday of Week 9. Please watch the recording from that day if you missed it.
Action item: Create a new Google Slides presentation. Build your prototype there.
Important points:
- If an object is clickable on a screen, make the object a standout color like orange. Your TA should be able to look at a screen and clearly identify what’s clickable.
- You are not making a 100% perfect and pretty app right now. It’s ok if your color scheme is black and white. However, you can use images you find on Google to help make your prototype look more real. For example, if one of your features is to show a map, you can look on Google for a picture of a mobile app map and use it in your prototype.
- You can build a “home screen” that links to your seven features. This is for accessibility; a home screen does not count as one of your seven features.
