Creator and Product Designer aligning with a Co-Founding Developer. airrand is a web-based service for use on any web browser and smartphone which offers users the ability to link to-do/shopping list items to specific locations. Linking to a foursquare account users are alerted when they check-in to any location associated with a to-do item on their list.
mock-up of nav bar option
mock-ups of partners feature
airrand is a project that started in December 2011. I felt the absence of a to-do list that would alert its users based on a location and not based on time. When researching the space I found that there was no major location aware to-do list that was in the market - at least not in mainstream searching.
I was tasked with the product design of the application, the overall experience and marketing. My co-founder worked on both front end and back end development.
The Challenges:
Our largest obstacle was capturing the location of the user. “Always On” GPS creates negative results to current devices batteries. Although testing of geo-fencing to-do locations clearly showed the potential of location awareness, at this point in time we felt that the hardware was not ready for an “Always On” feature.
The Solution:
Since “Always On” GPS was found to have a negative impact on the overall experience, we opted as a minimum viable product to leverage HTML5. This eliminating the immediate need to develop native apps for the Android and iOS platforms and prove out the product with minimal time and financial investment. This also increased the speed to deliver feature enhancements as we could focus on one platform that touched most all OSs, mobile and desktop.
Once the GPS and HTML5 decision was made, we chose foursquare, due to its high volume of active users, to provide location content. Users are required to check-in to a venue in order for the application to be notified of their location. Additionally due to API constraints, users are also required to publicly check in, in order for the application to see the check-in.
early full browser first visit mock-up
© 2011 | michael massie | all rights reserved
first time landing page
