LO3 - Planning the App

  Purpose -

  The idea and concept for my Social media application is an app that allows users to socialize, discuss and rate different restaurants that they have been to. The purpose of this is to allow restaurants to gain a reputation and as a result business due to a 'word of mouth' style of feedback. The app will also allow users to leave comments and discuss their restaurant experience, as well as sharing photos of their dining experience and also private messaging users.

  Content -
    The reason that I have decided to do this as a mobile app is as I believe that my content will work well and be easier to navigate through an app instead of a website as it used a lot of interactive elements and will also appeal more to the audience I have targeted (See next section).

    The app will consist of four sections that the user can traverse through. The first section will be an interactive map that has restaurants tagged at their location, this allows users to click and view information on that restaurant and lead on to the rating part of the app or 'check-in' to the restaurant so it displays on their profile where they have been. The second section of the app will be the users profile, this is the place in which they can edit their own settings such as privacy and also customize the app more to make it feel personal, this includes uploading a 'bio' about themselves and also a profile picture if they choose, this is a classic element of a social media that is core to the user experience. The third section of the app will be the messenger section, this will allow users to message each other and have a 'share' option that allows them to send location marks to other users and chat with each other. The fourth section of the app will be the 'rating' system in which users can rate their restaurant experience.

   Target user & Membership -

  The signup for this product would be free as most social media products are. Users would be able to register an account with any valid email address or sign up using a Facebook account, this feature allows them to easy post things across platform which is becoming more of a convention of social media products. It also means that it will be open to more of a user-base as its a simple 'click and sign up'. 
  I have made this as a mobile application because this is the most popular way for young adults to access websites and also stay connected socially, this is because Young people are digital natives and have grown up using this technology so they are both comfortable and familiar with this aspect of technology.

     The target use for this product would actually be fairly broad, the only specific requirement needed to use this product would be somebody that enjoys going out to eat food at restaurants and venues. However specifically the demographic for this type of Social media would be Young Adults aged 20-28 in the ABC1 category. This is because the majority of people in this age range were born and grew up with the bloom of social media and are technologically native, they are used to frequently using social media while also going out to eat and because of this would be the type of people who would get full use out of this product.

Possible revenue streams -

There will be two types of way in which this social media will make money to start with, firstly there will be a small box in the top of the application which will have targeted cookie based advertisements that will be based on a users interest and search history, this is a typical type of internet ad and is a reliable source of income for an application as long as a lot of users continue to use the mobile app. The other type of advertising that will be used is a sponsorship format. Restaurants can pay to appear at the top of the list of available places that fit a users requirement, there will be a small symbol next to these that will let the user know that they are sponsored. Although this will be a less frequent form of income it will cost significantly more for a restaurant to appear at the top based on the amount of users who will see it.

Hosting -
The way that the hosting would work is that a company would be hosting all of the data from my application, such as the login information for each of the users, the images found on my application and all the connectivity between the user and the application. In order to get the hosting decided I would look at various companies and compare there prices, I would also research existing popular social media applications such as Facebook/Twitter and see what type of hosting they use.

After looking at various web-hosting services specifically designed for social media networks, I have decided to go with a company called Broadvision. They specialise in working with large databases such as MySQL. and as this network will feature a lot of information both on the restaurants and also user information I believe that they will be the best option for handling the large amount of information.

Software -

My social media product would initially be made and written in the coding language PHP. this is because it is one of the easier languages to learn initially while also being one of the more customisable ones and it leaves me room to expand and improve it as I learn more and the application gets more successful.  Another reason why PHP would be my best choice is because it works really well at loading graphics and other types of media really fast and as my app will be very visual then this would work well at keeping everything fast and uninterrupted, Pintrest and Instagram were initially coded in this language and then converted to other coding languages once they got more popular, this is why I think it will be a good starting point for my application.

Information flows and how pages link together -

The way to navigate the app has been designed in a way to be as easy as possible. There will be a 'main page' that has links to all the other sections of the app. I believe that this is the best way to navigate through an app on a mobile phone as there is limited room for navigation buttons as mobile screens can be small. Designing it this way will allow me to have all the features that I want while not making it difficult for the user to find what feature they need.

Consider users/members needs and how they will use the website & Justify your choice in relation to target user/membership usability -
A user will be using my social media app on their phone, A users login information would be automatically remembered once they login for the first time so that it is convenient for the user. They will be using the application to message other users and also share content such as images. I have provided easy to access features for the requirement of the users that I have listed above, also because of this I have made sure that all of the icons and ways to navigate the app are large enough for a user to access the various sections of the application. I believe that this will suit the usability of the members of my app as it is easy to use and find what the user is looking for.

Relevant legal and/or ethical issues are considered (copyright of images, data protection, SSL) -
My social media app will be fairly image heavy and as a result of this I need to make sure that the images that I am using in my app are not copyrighted, I will allow users to submit their images to the app themselves and make sure that my terms and conditions state that the images are not to be stolen from other users and allow the use of an optional watermark. For the data protection side of my app I will be using standard SSL security throughout to make sure that all the data that passes through my application is encrypted so that users can be assured that their details are kept safe.

Production plan with launch date and timescales that is realistic (complete research on how much it costs to create and app/social media website. full production plan – can you give yourself 6 months and backtrack) -
For the production of my social media application, I used this website to give me a realistic time frame for creating my application based on the average time it takes professional developers to create a social media application, I then composed my own gannt chart with all the tasks that will be needed to be done -

 After conducting research on the costs of a social media application with all the development and design factors considered, I need to have a realistic budget of £15k-£25k in order to make the application as sleek as possible and make it be able to compete with the already popular social medias on the market. I think a launch date of October 2016 would be a realistic time for my application to be developed for.