This blog will be focused on my university project, which I’ll be working on throughout the second semester. Each of the students from my group is proposing their idea for a media product, and then, after getting the proposal accepted, expanding the concept and developing it.
My first idea was related to supporting cooperation between the artists and help them work on the same projects while being separated by a long distance. I quickly found out that it wasn’t very innovative, as Adobe set up a platform which exactly responds to my idea around a year ago. The main point of my project was an efficient screen sharing and a possibility of editing the same file by a few users. Universality of the platform would support their cooperation within Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro and many other types of software.
My second approach was an app that’d help users recover from basic illnesses, based on the symptoms that they select. The app would be suggesting to stay at home/have a short refreshing walk, drink a specific type of tea in order to stay hydrated (with lemon and honey for example), and other natural useful tips on how to recover quickly, in relation to specific symptoms. I also thought it could be somehow expanded in cooperation with professional doctors and guided by the NHS. Although, the more I thought about this idea, the less I liked it. Also, there’s obviously a huge demand for health apps and a wide selection of them. At this point, I decided to come up with something more interesting and entertaining. I wanted to make people more motivated and willing to work on their fitness.
Again, it’s really hard to come up with something inventive and original. But it’s not impossible. Recently, I paid for a brilliant app which helps in focusing on what’s important in life rather than staring at our smartphones. A simple game of planting a tree, which you can fully grow if you manage to stay focused during chosen time, and which dies if you quit the app, helped me in working on my projects. I actually didn’t want to kill my lovely little tree and kept going. That’s when I decided to add an element of gamification to my app.
An example of a running game is “Zombies, Run!”. The only way to escape the monsters is to run away from them. But in this case, it’s us actually running and having a feeling of being chased.
My app will be based on building up as we run. Literally building. Every kilometre that we register on our GPS will be converted into a point added to our account. The bigger and more interesting building we want to build in our Run City, the more points will have to be spent on it. It’s not only points that will help us in creating something interesting, but also challenges and seasonal events, related to the time of the year. Want an impressive monument in your city? You’ll have to run for 20 kilometres without stopping. Is it winter and you’d like to have an exclusive igloo? Not a problem, just do a short sprint, even though it’s cold outside. It’s just examples of course. Viewing other people’s structures and interacting with them will create a long-lasting society which could also be joined by our friends. For those who feel generous, points could be donated to charity which supports funding prosthetics for those who can’t afford them (it’s one of the features of “Forest” that I really like. You can spend points you got from focusing on planting real trees around Africa).
I’ll write more about this idea when I get my proposal finished and the whole idea planned.