1. EpicMove™ By: W5-2 Cheong Chee Jun Lee Jing Xian Ng Sei Li Tan PuayHoon Melissa Yap Kar Yee Lydianne
2. 1. Overview and Reason. EpicMoveis …. a social networking and mapping mobile application designed to help female youths (13-18 yrs) find suitable exercise buddies or group based physical activities of their interest. AIM: Rationale: - one key reason why female youths lack the motivation to exercise regularly is because they do not enjoy exercising alone. Target group: - Female youths who require an exercise buddy or prefer group based physical activities BUT have difficulties finding suitable ones. Engage in regular exercise + Meet people in real time to exercise together
8. Difficulty in finding friends to accommodate spontaneous impulse to exerciseTech- Savvy Frequent use of social networking sites Peers’ opinions matter Different exercise preferences Exercise mostly during PE lessons or CCA activities Students 13-18 years
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10. about 60 mins of moderate intensity physical activity
23. Information about users’ activities is controlled by users’ themselves > Potential solution: when recording group activities, participants must approve each others’ records
What is EpicMove? In simple terms, it is a social networking and mapping mobile application designed to help female youths (13-18 yrs) find suitable exercise buddies and/or group based physical activities of their interest. Aim of the app : 1) to encourage female youths to engage in regular bouts of daily exercise and 2) to meet people in real time to exercise together. Concept/Rationale behind our idea: The rationale for the design of our app is simple. Based on our research findings, we found that one of they key reasons why many females youths lack the motivation to engage in regular physical activity because they do not enjoy exercising alone. In other words, they either prefer having an exercise buddy or that they find group based physical activity more enjoyable. Our target group therefore is: Female youths who require an exercise buddy or those that prefer group based physical activities BUT for various reasons have difficulties finding suitable ones.
Research findings: What is most significant about this study is that 100% of focus group members revealed that they’ve: experienced problems scheduling exercise with partners expressed a need for tools to support spontaneous exercise with partners
Hence, we thought it appropriate/ideal to utilize online social networking as a platform for youths to find either friends they can exercise with or new people who share similar exercise preferences with them. This is based on the idea that social networking tools can be a powerful tools in connecting friends and like-minded people. Currently, none of the existing exercise related apps provide this service. In fact, there are several key issues with current exercise related mobile apps: Tend to focus ONLY on helping users keep track of their physical activities (eg: logging in distance ran/ no of steps they’ve climbed etc)Also tend to focus merely on one physical activity (ignoring the fact the diversity in preferences of exercise activities) More importantly, none of these apps (as far as we know) have tried to integrate the concept of social networking with exercising. Some apps have have gone as far to include social networking element but none have really tried integrating the two platforms. Our app therefore aims to : Capitalize on power of social networking (positive peer influence) to motivate female youths to engage in regular physical activity. How? 1) By providing them with exercise tips and info based on their real time location (thereby making it convenient to engage in daily bouts of physical activity) 2) enable users to find friends to exercise with as well as the possibility of meeting new people with similar exercise preferences. (works 2-ways)
General characteristics of female youths (13-18yrs) : (they are typically students who are …. ) Tech- savvy Use social networking sites frequently (eg: Facebook, friendster, twitter) Impressionable ( influenced by their peers ) Have very different exercise preferences (some prefer indoor physical activities , some enjoy outdoor ones etc) For a majority of them, the only exercise they are getting are from their PE lessons and CCA (sports) activities.Several key reasons why they are not engaging in regular physical activity: Do not like or find it inconvenient to exercise aloneDifficulty in finding compatible exercise partnersDifficulty in coordinating schedules with potential partnersDifficulty in finding friends to accommodate spontaneous impulse to exercise-
What our app aims to achieve: ( HPB suggestions) Engage in small bouts of daily exercises, about 60 mins of moderate intensity physical activity. Aim: To incorporate physical activities into their lives without much change to their usual daily livesHow our target group will be using the app: User to upload personal schedule into the application.*Social networking to act as a form of motivation for user.*To locate nearby exercise facilities
Here, 2 contexts are applicable:Physical context: > Require a Smart phone (GPS and Internet connection) to use the application.Social context: > Similar to social networking sites (ie: Facebook), location awareness & mapping applications (ie: Foursquare) > supportive environment for exchanging exercise tips, keeping track of each other’s exercise progress
EpicMove is based on 3 key concepts, namely: mobility, instant connectivity and interactivity. Mobility - means that users can access our app on their phone from where ever they are. And with this, they can view info on nearby exercise facilities and of friends/fellow users who are in the vicinity as depicted in the picture onscreen. 2) Instant connectivity – ensure that users can receive real time updates /notifications ( ranging from their Friends’ exercise activities, Exercise and Health tip of the day to other exercise related info.) obviously, the app will provide users with the option of controlling the frequency of updates. 3) Interactivity ( focal part of our app) – users can Interact either with existing friends or choose to meet new people with similar exercise preferences on this social networking platform. A key feature under this section is the search filter and social matching system, which will allow users to search for people with similar exercise preferences. They can then invite them to exercise with them or could search for and join group based exercise events organized by other users. (several ways to go about finding an exercise buddy/ies and joining group based exercise activities. The key features of our app can be summarized as follows :provide info on exercise tips based on user’s real time locationInfo on nearby exercise facilities, view andfind friends or fellow users with similar exercise preferences.
Here are some screen shots of our app: ( from left to right) This is how the home screen will look like. View nearby exercise facilities and friends who are nearby based on your real time location. How the user’s Profile page will look like. Users can key in their exercise preferences, schedule , set exercise goals for themselves and track their own progress. Just like in Facebook, users can view their friends’ physical activities, their schedules and exercise progress etc. There are several ways users can go about finding an exercise buddy using this app. > go to the home screen and view friends in the vicinity who are available to exercise and send them an invite > alternatively, go to your ‘friends’ list’ , scroll and find someone whom you wish to exercise with. From there, you can get the app to ‘SYNC’ your schedule and your friends’ to identify common available time slots. > OR use the SEARCH FILTER to find someone with similar exercise preferences. ( app will filter out suitable people and provide social matching recommendations based on the keyword search. 5) Send an invite 6) How your inbox will look like. (:we have also incorporated additional features of to motivate users of our app to use our tool to engage in regular exercise : (opt)EPIC Achievement Board ( encourage friendly competitive spirit. Top 30 achievers of the month; criterion: how regularly you exercise. ) EPIC Status ( based on achievement. tied in with above point. eg: ranging from level 1 to 50, status as a form of motivator; diff labels for each level. Eg: level 50 ‘EPIC status) EPIC MIX Board ( an achievement board solely for people who either take part in or organize group based activity. The more grp based activity you organize e, the higher your status will be, the more ‘followers’ you will gain. Those who organize a substantial no of such activities could build a fan base (‘followers) to achieve ‘celebrity’ status on this app. ) ---
We’ve categorized the strengths of our app based on our 3 key concepts: App enables users to look for exercise partners by searching for friends/fellow users who are either: 1) free during the same time slots 2) in the same vicinity 3) similar exercise preferences. Mobility : Our app makes it convenient for users to find exercise partners by notifying users of friends/users who are in the vicinity .Interactivity: Connects users with friends and encourage real time interaction and bonding through healthy exercise activities. Platform where users can share their interests and preferences on physical activity. platform for Social support in that users can encourage and motivate each other in their exercise progress.Instant Connectivity: Instant feedback and comments from friends( like in the case of FB) – serve as a form of motivation for users to keep up with their exercise regime/ progress. * Finding an exercise-buddy with similar schedule or exercise preferences becomes very convenient.
Privacy Concerns: There are sensitivities to having one’s location shared and this is a typical concern of most location awareness apps. To address this, provide users with options of customizing their privacy control settings.For instance, users can change their privacy settings such that only a selective group of people will be able to view their location and activities. Give users control over WHO will be able to view their information and the EXTENT of information that can be viewed as well. 2) Use of application is naturally limited to those with GPS enabled phone and a data plan. Some female youths within this age group may not own a mobile phone or they have a data plan. In either cases, they will be able to access our app. However, most youths within this age group do have access to both. In designing the app, important to ensure that it will be available across all mobile OS and compatible with almost all brands of mobile devices. information input by users may not be very accurate Ultimately, much of the information about user’s activities is controlled by the users themselves ( users key in and log their own physical activities). In other words, there is potential room of manipulation of information by users. Solution: only users who upload photos of themselves exercising / group exercise activities as evidence of proof will be awarded with pointsAlternative solution: when recording group activities, participants must approve each others’ records