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Interactive brief

Facebook sports and betting application

Title

Let’s make some money

Summary

This brief is about creating a new application for Facebook users. Based on information gathered

from users the concept is a Sport app/betting app. The aim of this app will hopefully entice new

users to join Facebook with the hope of earning some winnings. It will be available men and women

over the age of 18, with a Facebook account, who enjoy sports or just enjoy gambling.The design of

the app will fall into two parts, the first being the sports section with details of games and leagues

and the second being the betting section. The app will have a desktop version and mobile siteso

itsfits in with peoples lifestyles.

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Rationale

Why are we doing this?

Well in the beginning I began my research by looking into to Facebook users. I recorded in two

essays what kind of lifestyle these two users had, how a typical week went in their lives. The point

of this character summary was to determine how they use Facebook and how it fits in around their

lives. The users were from different age groups and both used Facebook very differently.

The first character was a 23 year old woman whose use of Facebook mainly evolved around her love

of Kickboxing. Being a fighter for 6years she had acquired quite a lot of photos, videos and even

friends within the world of full contact fighting. In the beginning it was for social reasons but it soon

became a free way of storing her files, sharing them and keeping in touch with people all around the

world. As it is free it was a great way of adverting shows and events and a quick way of spreading

the word.http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/my-profile-10649665

The second character was a 41 year old woman whose life was kept exceedingly busy by her 5year

old son with T.O.F (Trachea oesophagealfistula). This character was a Facebook user only because

of a teacher from her degree asking the class to make a profile. Unimpressed for the first few uses

she kept her posts to a minimal, but after graduating and becoming a master’s student she soon

found Facebook a lot more useful. It became a way of chatting with other families with a TOF child,

keeping up with classmates, and even post photos of rugby games and scores, but her main use

evolved around raising awareness of the condition. http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/catrina

After completing my character summary I created a short presentation based on my findings. I put

together four slides for each character showing what I believed was their motivation for using

Facebook, their interface, of what they used, their interaction which was what they did whilst online,

and the visual, which what they seen.http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/facebook-10649466

These essays and this presentation was printed off and placed on a display board for 18people to

read. Once read different coloured stickers were used to leave comments on the print offs. The

comments were broke into the four groups of motivation, interface, interaction and visual like I had

done myself, only these comments were design ideas. The point of the exercise was to write down

quickly the first thought that came to mind to help me determine where I could find the opportunity

to change Facebook to suit the users; even it was just to change the colour.

Once these comments were gather I was able to complete a spread sheet of my findings and again

present them in PowerPoint.http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/facebook-data-10649500 .

This exercise proved more useful to others than it did me. From my first findings I received no

comments for interaction, and very little for others. I had to take my characters to outside sources

to gather more ideas.

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This was more productive and I was able to make another spreadsheet that was a lot fuller in

opportunities than the first. I wrote comments next to the ones I received to show my own

thoughts, even if the comment was reporting ‘I do not understand’ it was still important to record

my thoughts.http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/finalspreadsheet2 . From here I was able to

build a filter spread sheet, and start scoring these ideas. I used 10 filters to determine good ideas

from bad, for example, what mobile app opportunities were there, what was hi-tech and what

would make money. http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/veyfinalfilterspread . This was the

most useful piece of information I completed as it now allowed me to move forward and create and

bar graph visually showing the popularity of ideas and a scatter chart of them. The bar graph was

scored on the filter spread, by simply counting any good scores the idea got, some scored nothing

and were left out. http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/bargraph-10649586 . The scatter graph

was created using the yes/no and mobile/not mobile filter. I was able to put the ideas into

categories using this simple method and cut my ideas down either further getting me closer to my

final result. http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/scattergraph-10649557 .

Now it was time to present all the findings and determine the clear winner. I put together a final

presentation of all this analysis. http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/final-anaylsis-pres . After

completing all this this clear choice seemed to be the sports application with the betting options.

The reason being wasthat both users had used Facebook, if even in a small way, for sport related

posts. Creating file backup and storage would have made Facebook money also but there is quite a

lot of competition and some even for free. Majority of people are already using Icloud and even

external hard drives. Design opportunities such as changing the layout of the mobile app and adding

customisable options online would there already if it was an issue that affected Facebook’s number

of user. I believe Facebook’s crisp clean white and blue layout is a fresh look welcomed by users

after such social networks such as Bebo that look extremely busy. Ideas like these won’t encourage

more users, but the thought of maybe a little making money in one visit to Facebook might.

Betting is something that has been around for a long time and something that most people

participate in at some point in their life, even if it is something friendly between friends. Having an

app on Facebook makes sense as almost everyone has a Facebook account and most follow some

sort of sport. It can be used to find sport information, buts gives the option of placing a bet which is

what is important. It’s the user’s choice to spend or not spend.

http://www.slideshare.net/charmaine22/sports-and-betting-application-for-facebook

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Vision and scope

Impression of the design

The concept is a Sport’s betting app based around all the popular sports such as Tennis, Horse

racing, Rugby and Football. Having multiple sports means that the app isn’t a seasonal thing, it’s

available all year round. It’s aimed at men and women over 18years of age that use Facebook

regularly with a passion for any sport or who just enjoys the fun a gambling.

It is important that the application doesn’t just have to betting side but provides up to date

information for the user too. For example, if you wanted to bet on a six nation’s game you can log in

to the app find your sport, find your league table and check the leader board and all the points that

each team have. As well as this you can see when, where and what time each game is being played

for this league. It is also important that the odds for each individual game are included into the app

too.

As the app will be versatile, it is very important that the app will have not only an amazing desktop

version but a user friendly mobile site too. Each version will have to have similarities so the user

recognises it immediately as well as being easy to use. It should be neatly set up, possibly like a web

page within Facebook, although as its part of Facebook, user’s will access it from their homepage,

sae as other apps. Maybe the app will give the opportunity to change your name or create an avatar

like in the gaming apps.

If it is to become successful the app needs to fit into peoples busy lifestyles. For example, you

forgot to place a bet on this evenings football match but you’re in work and have offered to work

through your lunch. No problem, in five minutes you can have logged in and bet on your team all on

your mobile! This app will allow users to place bets on any game they like, whenever, and where

ever they like with no more queues at the local bookmakers.

This application is a fantastic opportunity for Facebook to, not just expand the amount of users it

has, but to make a little money and have fun doing so. Daily give away and spot prizes could the kind

of thing Facebook has the opportunity to create in order to encourage its users into spending more.

Most people watch some sort of sport, and let’s face it, almost everyone is on Facebook, this could

be the leg up needed to promote use of the app over competitors, and as Facebook knows it users, it

would be able to send emails and have relative adverts on profiles. Facebook could give user’s the

chance daily to win credit by simply inviting friends to use the app. This app is aboutFacebook giving

its users the chance to make a little money and have some fun.

It is very important that the users that are betting on this app are over 18. As the sports section

dose not require an age restriction it should be made available to everyone. So how when designing

this do we check I.D’s and ages to make sure we don’t have underage gambling? Maybe ask for

photocopy of photographic I.D or does this make it too easy to use a fake account to match a fake

I.D? Ask for the national insurance number? Whatever the solution,this is very important to the

design as underage gambling is illegal!

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Another problem that may occur in the design of this application is how to we get the users to

actually pay? Well one thing that has worked in the past for other apps, such a Farmville or The Sims

social, is buying a bundle of their virtual cash. It’s a simple transaction using any visa card or debit

card. It is a different price for different bundles and they come in a set amount of virtual money.

Once you place a bet you know that any virtually cash left stays in your account for next use, and any

cash won is credited to your account. But even withthis design comes the issue of how dose the

user get it his or hers winnings? Dose the virtual cash just get refunded back into the bank account

at it real cash equivalent? It is the most important feature of the application in a way as the user will

want to know the application isn’t just safe for online bank transactions, but that they won’t be

ripped off, and will receive their full winnings. This is something that will need resolved quickly in

the design process.

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Deliverables

What are you expected to produce?

First on the list of deliverables is a high quality finished design of the ‘home page’ or the design of

what the user first sees when they log in and begin. This layout is important as it sets up all

important information for the user. This design will include the app name, indication of where the

user’s information will be place and an example of any other information included. This will be

mounted on A4 black card.

The next thing in this list of deliverables is a storyboard. This will be a step by step account of a user

logging in, using the sports app for gathering their information and finally showing how the user

would place the bet. Each slide in the story board will be an illustrated screen shot of the application

in use and can be completed in any media.E.g. Drawing, Photoshop. There is no limit to the amount

of slides produced, so long as each indicates the actions mentioned above. The finished storyboard

should be completed to a high quality and mounted on Black card.

Following this story broad will be a flow chart of functionality. This flow chart will show how the

money transaction is completed. It should start at the beginning when the user pays in and end to

show how the winnings are received. This can be hand drawn or an excel spread sheet, just as long

as the information is provided.

Next include all designs for the mobile application, noting any features that has been simplified or

discarded in order to make it work as a mobile app. This is important as the mobile version and the

desktop version will have some differences, these designs will show how these problems were

resolved. No story board is necessary for this; just high quality final images presented A4 on black

card.

The design of this app should include a logo and a running theme should be recognisable. The logo

will be preferably be finished in illustrator, but a Photoshop version will be acceptable. Again this

will be mounted on A4 black card.

All back up design work, sketches and research will be presented in an A4 Sketch book;this will

include any problems that occurred during the designing and clear indication on how it was resolved.

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Deliverables

6 deliverables

1. Homepage design

2. Storyboard

3. Flow chart

4. Mobile application design

5. Logo

6. All back up design work and research

All deliverables to be completed to a high quality finished and mounted on A4 black card.