Some days back, I caught a neat Kickstarter project called AppSeed that’s able to quickly turn a “napkin sketch” into a functional prototype. Its even able to be pushed into Photoshop and from those layers, UX designers/developers can take those designs to their realized glory.
How do you get from idea to sketch to prototype to product?
Some folks have been asking for sometime about best methods to collecting data via mobile, or at least some best practices in doing so. For better or worse, those folks asking usually weren’t trained in the area of quantitative or qualitative research methods and so there’s a bit more of a learning curve when it comes to answering that. Nevertheless, there are some methods and practices out there and the Red Cross has pointing to a neat method/toolset called the Rapid Mobile Phone-Based (RAMP) Survey. Here’s a bit more about it:
RAMP provides a survey methodology and operations protocol that will enable national Red Cross Red Crescent societies, governments and other partners to conduct surveys rapidly, at reduced costs, with limited or no external assistance.
In 2011 and early 2012, RAMP was piloted by Red Cross societies, the IFRC and partners in Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria. In these countries malaria is a major public health problem. Programme managers were interested in finding out the extent to which malaria programme objectives were being reached. The surveys provided statistically significant data in a number of areas including: ownership and use of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs), and the percentage of children under five years old that were accessing health services within 24 hours of the onset of fever. A RAMP survey bulletin was available within 12 hours of completion of the final survey questionnaire with a full draft survey report available within 72 hours.
Read the rest at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
We’ll be getting this added to our listing of resources pretty soon, while the case studies section will link to the reports already posted. For some of you, this kind of info will speak directly to your efforts. For others, it might make for a means for you to move forward with mobile/mobile ministry, with some additional insight towards areas of opportunities.
Imagine the situation: you have been given a suite of mobile-friendly content by your organization. They expect you to learn the content, and then share it with others. You have an Android device, but not one with access to the Google Play Store. You get decent battery life, but not as good when you visit the church, bookstore, or the university. It’s not that you are at those places often, but when you get there and there’s not a workstation, you do use WiFi for a while. You are almost to the end of that content, and now need to start looking at how to share it. What are your options?
How would you use the analogy of a server and terminal to extend the reach of what you can do with ministry content? And once you have a point where you/content can be reached, what do you enable?
At Display Week in Vancouver. I wonder how things would differ if same attention was paid to interaction as presentation?
— Bill Buxton (@wasbuxton) May 22, 2013
Part of the opportunity that mobile has allowed has enabled all kinds of people-groups to be empowered to either create or have access to tools that traditionally were not as available. Depending on the motives of the programs though, several services have come and go, leaving both the designer and the consumer at a disadvantage of maintaining a connection to that service offering. Case studies which look then at the redesign of an application or service tend of be quite helpful therefore. You aren’t just reading a technical trope of the issues and opportunities of design or function, but you are also seeing how the consumer’s preferences factor into the planning, design, and final result.
A recent case study read which follows along this line of thinking was posted at Elezea in reference to the product/service Vumi Go. Take a look at it, and consider the entire scope of the problem and opportunity described.
If you have a case study which should be added to our listings, do get in touch so that we can get that added to the listing.