02Planning

Feasibility Study

Of the three prototypes, the list has been narrowed down to two, those being DressIT and Social Cloud. The following is a feasibility study of each.

= Social Cloud = __**Economic constraints** __  The expected cost of developing Social Cloud would not outweigh it's expected benefit. While there is cost included in the obtainment of the licenses from Facebook, Twitter and the other social networks, an app that allows users a user to easily manage all of their networks on the go would be a highly sought after app. Social Cloud is simply a culmination of already existing apps therefore less money would need to be spent on trademarking and patenting. This could result in a lower cost price for users.

__**Technical constraints** __  The technical requirements of developing Social Cloud would be the same as developing any other app. While in the brief it states that the Apple development team would be coding the program, it can be assumed that they would be using something similar to Xcode (an amalgamated (Cocoa and Cocoa Tough) IDE powered by Objective C (OOP) ). In terms of technical requirements of running the app Social Cloud is compatible with iOS version 3.1+ however is more productive with iOS 4.1+ and it's multitasking features. Like any app Social Cloud requires either an iPhone 3G+ or an iPod touch.

__**Schedule constraints** __ While the app may take longer than other apps to create due to waiting on licensing, it will be able to be developed and an ad created within the given time frame of roughly two months.

__**Organisational constraints** __ Social Cloud will both fit into the Social Networking category of Apple apps and meet the needs of adolescents. Social Cloud is a combination of social networking tools making it eligible for the Social Networking category of the Apple App store. Adolescents make up a large majority of social networking users with social networking becoming an increasing feature of peoples lives (ABS, 2009). Most adolescents have between 2 and five different social networks. Trying to juggle these networks while at school, on the bus or out at the shops with friends on the weekend can commonly be a hard task. Social Cloud fixes this issue with an easy to use interface that allows users to easily manage multiple social networks at the one time.

DressIt
__**Economic constraints** __ It is unsure if the expected cost of developing DressIt would outweigh it's expected benefit. While the development of system would be basic and be able to be produced at a relatively minimal cost to get the app up to even minimal functionality requires a lot of initial user input and interaction with the system. This amount of effort required may deter an adolescent.

__**Technical constraints** __ The technical requirements of developing DressIT would be the same as developing any other app. While in the brief it states that the Apple development team would be coding the program, it can be assumed that they would be using something similar to Xcode (an amalgamated (Cocoa and Cocoa Tough) IDE powered by Objective C (OOP) ). In terms of technical requirements of running the app DressIT requires iOS version 4.1 and the iPhone 4 for it's HD camera capabilities (taking clear picture of person and clothes).

__**Schedule constraints** __ The app does not need to wait on any licenses and the majority of the content that will be included in the app will be user generated this will make development quicker than apps like Social Cloud. It will hence be able to be developed and an ad created within the given time frame of roughly two months.

__**Organisational constraints** __ DressIt will both fit into the Lifestyle category of Apple apps and meet the needs of adolescents. DressIt is a app that helps adolescents chose appropriate outfits for different occasions making it eligible for the Lifestyle category of the Apple App store. Adolescents are a demographic that are concerned with fashion, appearance and peer judgement. Picking out outfits to wear to go to the shops, to the party on the weekend or even to just simply go out is an activity that is usually placed with high importance. Hence an app that will allow them to easily flick through their wardrobe and make decisions without trolling through their actual clothes would be very appealing to adolescents.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 27px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 39px;">Analysis Report
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After long consideration the solution that has been chosen as the app to design an advertisement for is the social networking app Social Cloud. Social Cloud is a single interface that allows users to juggle multiple social networks and RSS feeds at the same time.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Social Cloud has been chosen firstly because it meets the needs of the target audience, adolescents. As stated above the app allows adolescents to manage their multiple social networks. As we know a large majority of adolescents spend their day school, away from home and access to their social networks. While there is already social networking apps in existence that adolescents can use while away from home, these apps commonly deal with just one social network eg: the Facebook app that was discussed in Understanding the Problem. By designing an app that allows students to access their social networks without having to go through school proxy's and filtering (over 3G), developers are allowing these adolescents total social networking control anytime, anywhere. Such control is a highly sought after thing. Nowdays with a large majority of telcommunication companies (see Optus Prepaid [Optus, 2010]) including "Data Time" or a certain amount of MB download in both their Prepaid and Cap Plan services, using 3G technology is no longer an expensive option for adolescents.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Social Cloud has also been chosen for it's technical feasibility. There are apps in existence that perform the same function as Social Cloud eg: LB-Social. However these apps require iOS 4.1+, meaning that users would require an iPhone 4 for maximum OS performance. While adolescents are "digital natives" (Prensky, 2001) and large consumers of technology, they do not yield a large amount of gross income. To obtain a iPhone 4 they would either have to save a large majority of their income or obtain it from another source (parent or relative). Therefore by offering an app compatible with iOS 3.1+ users can use any iPhone since second generation (3G, 3Gs or 4) or iPod touch, devices that are substantially cheaper and hence more likely to be owned by an adolescent.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Social cloud has also been chosen as a result of it's structural nature. Social Cloud as previously stated is simply a culmination of already existing systems; all the app does is wrap these systems into one user-friendly interface. An app like DressIt requires a large amount of user input upon first use to make it functional ie: users need to upload a picture of themselves and all of their wardrobe. Wardrobe pieces would also require some kind of standard (pictures taken in a certain way) so that they could be wrapped around the image of the user (also required to be uploaded). This would be a hard element to implement requiring a lot of precision or effort to execute and may consequently deter some adolescent users.

Social Cloud has also been chosen because of it's economic feasibility. As stated Social Cloud is a one interface that wraps multiple existing social networking systems. While Social Cloud would require a licence to use these existing Social Networks, it has possibility of less costs on patenting. While the app interface as a whole would need to be patented it would not require a patent for every single aspect of the app.

Licensing is one area where Social Cloud is not as feasible as other options like DressIt. Social Cloud's development is reliant upon receiving a license from these social networking services and the cost of this license could be set at any price by the social network developer. Apps like DressIt on the other hand are driven almost entirely by user generated content and would not require such licensing.

This being the case the benefits of such an app like Social Cloud far outweigh it's costs/limitations. Hence the app that will be chosen to move into the design and implementation stages is Social Cloud

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 27px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 39px;">Design Specifications
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hardware requirements for user:
 * **Hardware for app** || **Hardware for ad** ||
 * <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">iPhone (2nd Gen +) or iPod Touch || Internet delivery: personal computer or device with access to the Internet (PC, laptop, Smartphone, iPhone/iPod

Television delivery: TV ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hardware requirements for developer:
 * **Hardware for app** || **Hardware for ad** ||
 * <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">PC with RAM in excess of 4GB DDR3 (functionality for testing high res) || <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">PC with RAM in excess of 4GB DDR3 (functionality for playing back ad at high res) ||
 * Required peripherals for testing (speakers, monitor, appropriate graphics card [anything ATI or Nividia] etc) || Required peripherals for testing (speakers, monitor, appropriate graphics card [anything ATI or Nividia] etc) ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Software requirements for user:
 * **Software for app** || **Software for ad** ||
 * <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">iOS 3.1+ || Internet delivery: Adobe Flash Player (if possible make a ad that is HTML5 compatible [Google supported codec h.264 (Youtube supported) ]) ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Software requirements for developer:
 * **Software for app** || **Software for ad** ||
 * <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">xCode or similar IDE to program app || Video or Animation Creation tool like Adobe Flash or Apple iMovie (a combination would be best) ||
 * iOS tester if not included in SDK (software developer kit ie: xCode) ||  ||