Assignment 2: Seek ’n Meet

1. The application

1.1 General description

Our project consists in the development of a mobile application, called Seek ‘n Meet, that allows the user to meet other people based on their current location. This application is especially aimed for tourists that wish to meet people at their current destination, but even local residents can use this application as well.

1.2 Application’s core function

This application has as its main function to locate other users that are currently in your surrounding area in order to be able to contact them via text messages and see their profile information. 

2. Market analysis

2.1 Target group

As previously mentioned, our purpose is to make of this application a popular system and therefore there are no major segmentation factors defining our target group. Probably age is the only demographical factor that could have some relevance for identifying our target group. We think that younger people might show more interest in meeting new people. Furthermore and thinking of the fact that this application would be used by tourists willing to meet other tourists in the vicinity, this requires a more adventurous spirit, something we believe is a more frequent characteristic amongst younger people. Nevertheless, this is not a rule and that is why we think our potential users belong to an extremely wide spectrum.

2.2 Core service to be offered

Seek ‘n Meet is basically a social network. The key element that differentiates this application from other social networks, such as Facebook, is that the search of people is based on geographic location so that the users can only come in touch with other people located in their proximity. So far, we have thought of the user only being able to chat with other users and see their profile information, but one can definitely think of eventually developing the application even further by incorporating new tools and functions.   

2.3 Product availability

We want to make this application a massive product available for a wide range of users around the globe. Our application is intended to get revenues from advertisement that will be shown in some sections of this app and therefore having many users around the world will contribute to maximize profitability as we get more companies advertising in our application (see Section 2.4 for more details on this topic). That is why we intend to have this application available in both of the main application stores for mobile devices: the AppStore (for iOS devices) and Android Market (for Android based devices). Since iOS and Android use different programming languages this implies that one has to invest in the development of two applications. This means that one will have higher development costs, but we believe that this is actually a good choice if one is to make this application widely available to the general public.

2.4 Main source of revenue

Our business model consists in making this application available to a large group of people, which means that, at least in an initial stage, users will be able to download it for free from the application stores straight to their mobiles or tablets. Our main source of revenue will come from partnership with sponsoring companies that will be able to advertise their products or services through our application in form of clickable banners.

Since the application has a global character the idea is to get sponsors in different areas of the world. The application will be designed in such way so that the user will only be able to see the advertising of companies that operate in just the geographical area where she is currently located while running the app. We intend to have two main ways of displaying ads in our application, each one having a different price. One mode of displaying an ad will be showing it at full screen for a few seconds (probably four seconds) directly after the user logs in. Since this ad will be shown at full screen every time the user logs in then this ad will be the priciest. Another alternative of advertising in this application will be in form of small clickable banners. Since the screen in mobile phones is relatively small then we have decided that this banners will be shown only when the user clicks in a button in the main menu that will take her to the advertising section of the app. Because these advertising banners are shown only if the user chooses to visit this section then these advertising banners will have a lower price.  For more information about the fashion in which the advertising is going to be displayed go to Section 4.

3. Technical analysis

3.1 Hardware requirements

 Since this application collects geographical positioning data of the users, it is then required that the device running this application is equipped with GPS receiver or other similar system for geo-location. We have thought of smartphones and tablets to be the main type of device for running this application, not only regarding their geo-location capabilities but also due to their reduced size and weight, which make them extremely portable.

3.2 Selling platform and operative system

We aim to make of this app a globally used system and because of this very reason is that we want to make it available for as many types of user as possible. Ideally the application should have a cross platform character, which means that it should be available to run in the two main operative systems for mobile devices, namely iOS and Android.  

4. Interface

4.1 Interacting modality

As previously mentioned, we have planned to develop this service as a native application to be run in mobile phones and tablets. This means that the interface for this system will be mainly based on touchscreen interface rather than a conventional physical keyboard or other pointing device such as a mouse.  

4.2 Description of the navigation structure

Section 5 shows the preliminary design of the user’s navigation structure and the main menu including all the different options that the user can choose from. Note that the colors used in these illustrations were randomly chosen and do not represent the final graphical profile and colors to be used in the final version.

Screen 1 is the intro page that will show the name of the application (Seek ‘n Meet) and its main logotype. This screen will be shown for around four seconds. Then the app will show Screen 2, which is the log-in and registration page. Since this application is a social network where users can find new people then we decided that it is mandatory for the user to register (screen 3) in order to be able to use this service. In order to prevent people to change their profile at any time with information that could eventually be false, then we decided that the users would only be able to change data in their profile maximum twice a year. Right after the user has logged in Screen 4 will be displayed showing an advertisement of a sponsor that operates at the user’s current location. This ad will be shown at full screen for about 4 seconds. Right after that Screen 5 will be displayed showing the application’s main menu. If the user chooses “Send alert” then Screen 6 will appear. In this section the user can select how often she wants the application to update her current location. In that same section the user can also select how far from her current location will this alert be available. This option is meant to let the user determine a certain perimeter around her current location. The user will therefore be unreachable for people located beyond this established perimeter. After the user has determined these two elements (update frequency and perimeter around current location) then the user can tap on “Send Alert” and the signal alerting other users of her presence in the area will be sent. If being in the main menu (screen 5) the user selects “Seek friends” screen 7 will be displayed. In this section the user can determine the size of the perimeter around her current location where she wants to seek for other people, leaving any other users that are located outside this perimeter out of the search. Once the user has determined this factor and after taping in “seek friends” screen 8 will be displayed. This section shows a list of the users that have sent alerts of their presence that are located within the established perimeter around the current location. When the users select a person shown in the list then screen 9 will be displayed. In this section the user can select among two options: to start a chat with the selected person or to see the profile information of that same selected person. Another option in the main menu in screen 5 is “see local offers”. Selecting this option will bring screen 10 to appear. In this screen one can choose amongst different interests, for example, shopping, sport, food and beverage, etc. Choosing one of these options, say food and beverage, will display screen 11, which will show several advertising banners of local restaurants and bars that are available in the user’s current location. These are small clickable banners that when selected automatically open the website of the chosen restaurant. Finally, the last option in the main menu (screen 5) is “edit profile” where the users can edit their personal information such as name, age, profile photo, etc.    

5. Appendix

5.1 Preliminary design of the navigation structure

5.2 Preliminary  logotype