Foot Stop App Plan

FOOT STOP APP 2

1 RESEARCH THE MARKET

4

3

IMPROVE ON EXISTING APP

GET THE RIGHT TEAM

5

MONETIZE YOUR APP

USE SOCIAL MARKETING

How often people buy new shoes QUARTERLY

MONTHLY

21.74 %

30.43% ONCE A YEAR

8.70%

39.13% EVERY 6 MONTHS

43.48%

47.83%

I don’t shop online

Easy

Hard

Is Shopping For Shoes Online Easier Or Harder Than Shopping Physically?

Idea Online Shopping with accurate size 65.22%

Physically Shopping

34.78%

Where Do You Buy Your Shoes?

52.17% BOTH

Development

39.13%

8.70% ONLINE

8.70%

STORES

Device

User

BAR CHART COMPARISON Previous online shoe shopping experience

What is important while buying shoes

1

Good

26.09% 31.82%

Comfort

1

2

Excellent

21.74% 23.81%

Durability

2

3

Fair & V. Good

17.39% 22.73%

Appearance

3

4

I’ve never shopped online for shoes

13.04% 13.64%

Cost

4

Do you wear half sizes?

50%

50%

Yes No

ever y INC H coun ts

The data that I retrieved from my survey proved to be a great deal of help by giving me most of the responses to the questions that would support the app. My first questions data helped me by letting me know about where people generally buy their shoes from and this shoes the significance on store shopping compared to online shopping. This tells me that a lot of people don’t shop online and that area requires work to be done (on my part). My second question tells me about how often people invest in shoes and this in turn would be similar to the beginning usage of my app. My third question simply lets me know if online shoe shopping is easier than physically shopping and this would let me know about the online databases that I would be using to generate suggestions. My fourth question lets me know if the respondents would be interested in online shopping (considered that they aren’t based on the earlier questions) when given the right choice and size. A majority of the respondents said that they would be interested in online shoe shopping if they had the right size and choice. This lets me know and pinpoint the main problem with online shopping and therefore helps me with rectifying it and working more on it. My fifth question is about simply knowing the experience of the respondents while shopping online for shoes. This lets me know about the peoples approach and their general experience towards online shopping. My sixth question is a detailed question, which is about knowing if the respondents wear half sizes. This is to give me data on whether to provide half size shoe suggestions or not. My seventh question is about knowing the importance of certain features so that I can enhance my search engine capabilities for the app.

My New Idea: An app that measures the size and shape of your foot and based on that, gives you accurate suggestions from different online shoe shopping stores. There are narrow feet, wide feet, regular feet and flat feet. Most people’s comfort ability lies in the fitting of their feet in the shoes, which they have to physically try on. The app reads your foot size and analyses your foot’s shape and provides you accurately appropriate suggestions from online databases/stores.

Where do you buy your shoes?

1. Online 2. Stores 3. Both

Is shopping for shoes online easier or harder than shopping physically? (3) 1. Easy 2. Hard 3. I do not shop online 4. Sizes aren’t accurate

How often do you buy new shoes? (2) 1. Weekly 2. Fortnightly 3. Monthly 4. Quarterly 5. Every six months 6. Once a year

Would you prefer shopping for shoes online if you had the accurate choice and size or would you still prefer shopping physically? (4) 1. Online 2. Physically

Your previous experience on a scale of 1 to 10 while shopping online for shoes: (5) 1,2,3,,4 – bad 5,6,7, -­‐ average 8,9 – Good 10 – Excellent I’ve never shopped online for shoes

What is important to you when buying shoes? 1 being most important and 5 being the least.

1. Durability 2. Comfort 3. Appearance 4. Cost 5. Name of the brand

Do you wear half sizes? (6)

Yes or No The methods that I will use to deliver these surveys are survey monkey, Facebook, emails and personal interviews.

Based on all the research and the noodling sessions, I came up with a set of questions, which would retrieve the necessary data that I would require to go ahead with the application. The first question is about knowing where the respondents buy their shoes; this is to back up ‘’online shopping suggestions’’ as a necessity for my app. The second question is about knowing the frequency of shopping for shoes.

This is to receive data about how many people would be using the app. The third question is to know the approach towards shopping for shoes online. The fourth question provides the respondent with a valid solution to a new option versus the old option. The fifth question is about knowing the respondents experiences (if any) in online shoe shopping. This is to modify the functionality of the shoe suggestions.

The sixth question is about improving the suggestions as well. A lot of detailed improvement is required in making a bad experience a good one and a good experience, a better one. Therefore I have concentrated on that aspect a little more.

The seventh question is about the basic preferences of people when it comes to picking shoes. These questions are designed to provide data that pertains to the necessity of the app, the detailed functionality of the app and the frequent usage of the app.

Risk

Risk Analysis

Likelihood Consequence

Inaccurate measurements due to faulty algorithm input.

Low

Scale of Impact Wrong measurements will provide

wrong shoe suggestions and therefore that loses customers.

They lose their trust in the app.

High

Online store collaborators not giving their best, due to the projects small scale. High

This would change the quality and availability of the shoe suggestions.

Low

Application compatibility with newer versions of mobile software in apple Medium and android devices.

The app may crash or may not be able to function with the updated software. This would lead the High customers to uninstall the app.

There is a certain advantage in analyzing risks beforehand when it comes to creating and developing mobile applications. The reason I say this is because pretty much every application is tested before it is officially launched into the market. Testing the application before launching it would give an app developer a good amount of time to fix the already feared problems that were analyzed as risks, similar to the content in the above table.

For the first risk, I will require my coder or application building service to figure out the problem with the algorithm not supporting the measuring tool in the application. Then I would have the algorithm revised accordingly to support accurate foot measurements. If the algorithm is deemed as not fit for this concept, it will immediately be changed to a simpler backup algorithm, which will be created for this sole purpose.

For the second risk, I would be communicating with the most frequently used online shoe databases. I will firstly explain the need of the application and tell them how much they would benefit from this simple collaboration. All they would need to do is provide accurate suggestions to the measurements that would automatically be sent to them by the app. Based on my research, a majority of people prefer shopping physically over shopping online. The main problem with people shopping online is the lack of trying the shoe on physically. My applications measurement feature will eliminate this problem and encourage customers to buy shoes online. This would benefit the online shoe databases in a major way,

as it would increase their sales percentage rapidly. I would need to explain this to them in a way that they would see my motive and their success at the same time.

For the third risk, I would most likely be able to fix this during the testing of the prototype. I would make it a point to have the prototype tested in all of the new and updated software. This problem can be fixed to a certain extent. However, the functionality of the application may be possibly hindered by a few other devices, which are not really compatible with certain coding features in the application. This is because; it differs from one device to another.

Project Timeline Description (Feb 24th – Mar 25th) Timeline Link: http://www.dipity.com/martinpaul16/Foot-­‐Stop-­‐App/

1. Begin sketching App visual structure: Duration of task: 2 days Creating a visual structure for the app is a process, which will be undergoing changes and improvements until it is finalized. I will start off with a rough draft of how I think the app should look and then I will share it with friends who can review it and give constructive feedback. I will also be taking help from a graphic designer.

2. Complete research: Duration of task: 1 week I have already completed the research and it took me 1 week to retrieve more than sufficient data to support the app. hence the given duration on the timeline. Based on my qualitative and quantitative research, I created an online survey to find out the necessity, approach and current statistics regarding the application. The data that I received has proved to be of great help and support.

3. Decide which API (Application Programming Interface) platform to use: Duration of task: 1 day Based on the feedback I receive from the mobile development students that I will be talking to, I will be able to decide a suitable platform for my application.

4. Signup as a developer on decided platform: Duration of task: Same day as step 3 All I need to do is signup as a developer on the platform that I decide to choose. Once I do this, I can begin the coding process.

5. Download the API or find a coder: Duration of task: 2 days

To complete this step, I have decided to network with a few friends from the mobile development program. I am on the look out for mobile development students who have completed “Application Deployment 1” or more. The students usually complete that particular class by the 11th month of their course. Once I find someone with the appropriate skill sets, we will proceed to the step.

6. Design the functionality of the App: Duration of task: 3 days This step requires me to design the functionality, which would determine how the App would work and the roles that each feature plays. The better the functionality, the more user-­‐friendly the application is.

7. Create Storyboard for App navigation: Duration of task: 1 day The main motive here is, having a certain flow between one screen and another. Each screen needs to have a connection and should be leading on to another. To ensure proper navigation through the application, I will be creating a storyboard with the help of one of the mobile development students. I will be making a rough draft of mobile screens on paper, and will roughly state which screen should be redirected to the next respective screen. This will give me a rough picture of how the navigation should work.

8. Create a prototype: Duration of task: 4 days Once the design and layout is completed, I will have a prototype created by one of the coders or a regular app building service. This is just to test the app.

9. Test the prototype: Duration of task: 8 days I will be asking friends, family, classmates and professionals to review the prototype and test run it. I will be requesting them to give feedback based on functionality, dead-­‐end links and identifying flaws, if there are any. The application will also be tested on various network frequencies such as a low signal, 3G, 4G and wireless networks as well.

10. Launch: Duration of task: 1 day After the prototype is tested and polished, I will be uploading the application to the platform’s website and will need to wait for the app to be approved.

Once it is approved, the application is officially on the platform. I will be informing everyone about it and thus my promotion and marketing begins.

11. Promote and Market: Duration of task: 1 week Promotion and marketing are similar processes. I will be creating online campaigns on Facebook, twitter, Instagram and YouTube, introducing the new application. I will also be printing out flyers with the applications information to distribute physically. I will be posting the introduction of this application on Full Sail’s Connect page as well. I will also have the online shoe databases advertise the application on their online platforms. I will be mentioning this in a contract between the application and the databases.