Mobile Apps & Location-based Services

Announcements

• Paula Andras’s presentation from last week
• Class is back in AIM 222 next week

Design Notebooks

Let’s take a few minutes to review some of your Design Notebooks from last week.

Mobile Apps & Location-based Services

“Forget about the mobile internet…” ( social grade refs )

User Context

Which device to design for? Depends on user context; What are they doing? Why are they accessing (or contributing) content? Where are they?

Designing for read-only content on multiple device forms? Consider HTML5/responsive web design.

Designing for data collection? Consider the type of data:

• Text? Maybe a web form…
• Photos? Web form or mobile app…
• Images or QR-codes? Mobile app.
• RFid or iBeacon? Mobile app.
• Other sensor data? Mobile app.

Sensors

• Camera
• Microphone
• * Wifi / Bluetooth / Bluetooth LE / RFID
• GPS (not indoors)
• Accelerometer
• Magnetometer
• Gyroscope

For more info on cell phone sensors and how they work, check out Sensors and Cellphones

Responsive Web Apps

• Responsive Design Basics – Flexible Layout, Flexible Images & Media Queries

Example Responsive Web Framework

• Bootstrap

Mobile Apps

Native or Code Generated?

Native Apps

Native apps are typically coded using Java (Android) or Swift/Objective-C (iOS).

• Pros – better performance, direct access to hardware & sensors
• Cons – lower-level programming required, (sometimes) more expensive to implement

Code-generated Apps

Code-generated apps are built using standard web technologies like HTML, CSS and Javascript, and then run through a processor application to convert the input files into native code.

• Pros – easier/faster to build (HTML, Javascript, CSS)
• Cons – slower performance (extra app layer in there), more limited access to hardware & sensors, UI likely not completely native, maybe confusing for the user

Examples

• Cordova
• Appcellerator

Other Mobile Options

• Voice & Messaging apps – good for feature phones

Assignment

Active Participation in Museum Exhibits

• Watch Jake Barton’s “Museum of You” Ted Talk

Culture Labs

• Read Culture Labs
• Create a new slide in your Design Notebook and title it “Culture Labs”
• Write a short paragraph describing the nature of “Discovery” and how it facilitates learning.
• Write another paragraph comparing David Edwards concept of “Culture Labs” with Jake Barton’s concept of active participation with museum exhibits?

The Internet of Things

• Read “The Internet of Things” in NMC Horizon Report 2015 Museum Edition pp. 46-47
• Read “When Stuff Talks Back” in TrendsWatch 2013 pp. 24-28
• Create a new slide in your Design Notebook and title it “Internet of Things”
• Pick one or two examples of IoT being used in the museum setting and write a short descriptive paragraph. How might something similar be applicable in the NJSM setting?
• Can you find any other examples of IoT in exhibit design?

Submitting Your Work

This week’s homework assignment is due next week before class. When you’ve completed them, post a comment on this page (First Day of Class), including a link to your Design Notebook.