MDDN 352, Project 3, Beta Presentation

We just had our beta presentation for our app. We had most of the functionality done. Every button which you press goes onto another page, even if it just goes to a page which doesn't have anything useable or relevant on it yet. This is the layout of the main screen of the app which we showed.

The Barcode button goes to the barcode scanner and when you successfully can a product it goes to a page which tells you the barcode number as well as what type of recyclable product it is. At the moment we are only working with cans so it only tells you that it is a aluminum product.

We had 4 different cans so that does show that you can scan other stuff. Unfortunately the counting system wasn't implemented for the beta which is kind of a disappointment because we really wanted to have that one in to show the tutors.

We got google maps working in our app. At the moment it finds your current location (as long as GPS is on) and also if you want you can tag your location. The tagging point of our app is meant for if you are by a recycling bin you can tag where that bin is so that other users can find that bin which you have tagged. We got that aspect implemented properly so that is a good thing.

The About and Statistics button done just go to pages which show the icon for that page.
All the back buttons work and sends the user to the main home screen.

We got some really good feedback about our app and all the tutors and lecturers like it. They really liked the barcode scanner aspect. The art of the app could use some touching up because what we realized the day before the beta is the just looking at the app without knowing anything about it is that you would have no idea that this is an app for recycling.  That is something which we definitely need to change for the hand in.

Another thing which we were told we need to do is have user feedback whenever you press a button or when you successfully scan a product. I was thinking that we could either have the phone vibrate or if a small sound plays, or even both. We were also told to get rid of our boarder which we have around our app. Kah said that it isn't necessary as most people do know that the edges of the phone are the end and nothing usually goes past that point unless it is something important and its meant to be there.

Overall I think that the beta went well and we are quite on track for getting the app done by the final hand in. Going forward from this we are going to get all of the pages working and flowing nicely. We will have a lot data in our database for more products as well as the art looking a lot better and be relevant to being about recycling.