Tanner Freeman's Archive

For the most part this project made me realize how far we’ve come as a class, and myself as an individual.  The pre-design process definitely resulted in a better final product. The areas I struggled with included how to manage various different levels of content and hierarchy that where of equal importance. For example my design lacked solutions for design opportunities, my inventory overlook which served as a mediator between the sliders and the submit button, consisted of only a list.  I also struggled on certain elements like what would happen to the login bar after you logged in. Some places where i was successful however included the overall visual aesthetic, the needs feed, and the map element. Overall I think working to develop one idea as a class greatly improved our product.

HOME PAGE

the user can search for parks: based on several categories ranging from hike, bike, swim, boat, run, skate, and disc.

The user is notified of burn bans or park closures…

The user can go to each parks individual profile and leave comments, and share photos taken with the camera function

The user can sort parks based on proximity using the map function

the user can use the map as a way to find directions to the park

The user can post events and view events which include detailed information about the lacation, date, time, and host of the event.

The user can use the camera function to take photos and post to park galleries

Robin is fresh out of college and is working at a local news station, and when she’s not at the Newsroom, she likes spending her time outdoors.  She is beginning to fear that Abilene is a desolate  post apocalyptic waste land after all. Then one day she comes across a mobile app, called Abilene Parks & Rec., the app has everything. She easily navigates through the categories and happens upon Seabee Park, pulls up the maps portion of the park and finds it.  After looking at the parks hours of operation and rules, she realized she could camp there for the next forty eight hours. So she loaded up here tent in a 92 Ford Fiesta an headed for the park, and somehow managed not to snake bitten or ran over by a Redneck.

Jeff is a typical Abilene transplant from California, and is a student at ACU.  He loves to mountain bike, and long board, and is dissatisfied with Abilene’s lack of hills. One day he was browsing through the apps on his iPhone, when a buddy texted him, and told him to download one called Abilene Parks and Rec. After downloading the app he found that Abilene actually had a lot to offer, and when he started browsing through the categories, he even found out about a place called Buck Creek Ranch, and mountain biking facility, not to far from campus.  Jeff was also really impressed with the apps ability to create community, through event posting, and a photo gallery. He was also impressed by the functionality of the app, that made it very easy for him to get connected minus logins, usernames, and a friend list. Before hitting the trails he even picked up a pizza to celebrate his find.

My findings include that people like community when it comes to parks and mobile apps. Other commonalities included apps such as hipstamatic and instagram, which incorporate photography and social media, such as posting to facebook. Other apps like fantasy football and MLB at bat where also brought up when it came to most used apps. When I aked people what their favorite park was here in town, most where at a loss for words and typically refered to them as “the one over by or close to…” which presents a whole other list of problems. Some commonalities occured between the functionality of an app and the things people tend to enjoy about parks. These findings included Ease of use, community, usefulness, enjoyment, proximity, ect.

After interviewing severeral of my friends and neighbors, I also started to consider the funtionallity of events and notifications. In which ways can something like a park clean up be sponsored by a bigger online community, and how does something like a burn ban be announced. When it comes to online communities for the most part your name or username is everything, but a park is different in the sense that for the most part everyone there is a stranger, and would like to remain anonomous.

CHOICES…

For the most part my projects in this class, have all had CMS elements to them. So when this project rolled around I thought i was golden, however it was a lot harder than I originally anticipated. Between the bold simplicity I wanted and the hierarchy nuances that are so critical to the style I was going for I kinda got lost.  My technical mistakes included a weak organization of navigation elements, that seemed to all be of equal importance and lacking hierarchy.  Another mistake I made was in not including a way in which to submit comments.  Conceptually I think I’m close though, there seems to be a fine line between simplicity and unfinished final product.  One are that my theme was strong however was the organization of the site overall, although it lacked hierarchy, the categories and tags stayed consistent from page to page. Things I need to improve on include the hierarchy between post and comments. I improved mainly in the consistency and feel from page to page.  And lastly I need to develop a process and attention to detail i have for print.

FUDO

F8 lite