The Use of Apps in Everyday Life (Reader Response)

Have you ever wanted to order a pizza but didn’t want to call in and think about what type of pizza you wanted over the phone? Having to think about all the information, then having to relay it to the pizza guy, can be a hard task, especially when you have friends as picky as mine. Once in a blue moon, a few friends and I will get together, just hangout, and watch UFC Pay-Per-View fights. In instances like these, it is tradition that we order a pizza. The only problem with that, is me and my friends are big guys and picky eaters; between the 5-7 of us, we always have to order are own pizzas. No two of my friends like the same thing on their pizza, and we always have to get different things. Whether its extra cheese or a different kind of sauce, we can never reach an agreement. The very first time we tried ordering 7 different pizzas over the phone, it was an epic fail! We don’t know if it was us that stumbled while giving the information, or if the pizza guy didn’t process the information right, but whatever the case, it was a disaster. All the pizzas were completely wrong. After that, we vowed to never order that much pizza over the phone again.

The next time we ordered pizza, we used the Pizza Hut app. Not only was it successful, but also, they got every single one of the distinct toppings right without a single mistake, and they gave us an exact estimate on when the pizza would be done, which made my life easier and probably even the pizza guy’s life easier, too. If it weren’t for the application we used, we would still be getting messed up pizzas to this day. Apps make almost everyone’s life easier and are a big part of modern day culture because of how useful they are. Apps have a major impact on our everyday lives, and everyone should become more familiar with and use the applications available to them, because apps are important to the evolution of technology. Without taking the next step up the ladder of technology we cannot progress to newer technology if people don’t adapt to present technology.

Because of the usefulness and availability of applications, this essay will discuss various ways in which apps can make lives easier and more engaging, which will encourage user to download and purchase applications. First, I will illustrate a scenario in which the NFL uses their app, in order to give their fans a more immersive experience in connecting with NFL players and games; the app was developed to draw in fans in a variety of different and interactive ways. Secondly I will talk about what causes an app to sell well vs. what causes an app to do poorly in the market. In the next sections of the essay, I will discuss the creation of applications and the extensive process that goes into making them. Lastly, I will discuss how and why people review apps; along with why it is important for app users to write reviews, the responsibility of potential customers to read them, and how reviews effect future apps from the publisher. Therefore, consumers should constructively criticize applications in their reviews, in order for apps to continue to grow and be more effective, making everyday life easier.

In the article "There's an App for That." Greenhalgh, Greg, Brendan Dwyer, and Brian Biggio analyse the NFL and how they went about giving their fans a more interactive expeerience with the help of technology. They start by analysing how the NFL used mobil apps to give theirs fans an hands on experience with the use of apps by engaging their fans in the game with the use ideas such as Fantasy foot ball, News updates, and on demand streaming. To understand how these features impacted the fan experience first you have to know what they are. Fantasy football is when you make a virtuall team and play other peoples virtual teams in leagues. This gives fans a deeper insight in the game helping them get an indepth feel and look for each individual player which in return will allow them to follow real games closer. News updates are an instant live feed that allow the fans to see public information about each team and get live scores for every game. On demand streaming is when you use a portable device to watch a game from the comfor of anywhere your connected to the internet giving fans the flexibility to watch their favorite teams from virtually anywhere. All of these things contributed to one thing and that one thing was an interactive experience that engaged fans in the game impacting the way they watched sports boosting proffit margins and viewers for the NFL.

In the article “Determinants of Mobile Apps' Success” by Lee, Gunwoong, and T. S. Raghu the analyse what makes an app sell well. They start off by looking at what causes an app to die off. They then proceeded to do some surveys and found out that the number one thing that causes an app to fail is bugs and crashes. Since apps have such a major influence on our lives and we use them for much of the things that we do it makes sense that people wouldn’t buy in to a unpolished unfinished app. The next biggest things that caused an app from selling well are advritisements. It slows down the user from usung the app by making them listen to advritisement that their generally not interested in. All the 30 second advritisements can add up really taking away from the immersion of the app giving the app users a sense of their being sold a product instead of a sense of “im using an app.” With a well designed app and those things removed you have an app that will thrive.

In the third article "Capitalizing On App Development Tools and Technologies.” Luterbach, Kenneth, and Kenneth Hubbell analyze how someone would go about creating an app. They start off by figuring out first what types of people are creating apps. They found out that most of the people who are creating apps are not large corporations of professionals but instead normal app users that used an app first then wanted to try creating one. They did this by downloading development tools. These tools range in difficulty so that every one can use them. They have some for advance app creators and they have some for beginners. These tools allow anyone with an idea to create an app if they can get over a moderate learning curve.

The last article “What do Mobile App Users Complain About?" Khalid, HammadShihab, EmadNagappan, MeiyappanHassan, Ahmed E. talk about the importance of reviewing an app. They start this off by figuring out why people review apps in the first place. They came to the conclusion that it’s like reviewing anything else. If you dislike it your going to want to let other people know so they don’t waste their time on it like you did. But if you enjoy it your going to want to let every one know about it so they can enjoy it too. This has a big impact on apps as a whole because developers look at those reviews to figure out how to make their apps better giving up a better user experience.

In the first article the first article "There's an App for That." The authors talk about how the NFL incorperates the use of apps to give their fans an immersive hands on experience that draws them into the Sport more. I personally think that’s a great idea. They mention in the article how they statisistically boosted their fan base by doing this. It makes sense to me that they would get more fans by allowing an interative experience. In my opinion any time that you engage someone in a captivating way there is bound to be a snow ball effect and more people will come.

In The second article “Determinants of Mobile Apps' Success” the authors talk about what makes an app sell well. They talk about how apps sell poorly if they are overpriced or have bugs. I personally agree with them. As an app user I personally don’t want to pay for an over priced app. Also if an app has bugs it destroys the experience. Its like paying for an unfinished product.

In the third article "Capitalizing On App Development Tools and Technologies.” The author talks about the creation of apps and the type of people that develop apps. In the article the author says the main type of people creating apps are app users. This makes sense to me because I feel like apps are so small and easy to make that it would be a waste of a development teams time to create an app. If one person can create an app with an app creation too then it would make no sense to create it with a team and have to share the profits with something you can easily make yourself.

In the last article “What do Mobile App Users Complain About?" the author talks about App reviews and the impact app reviews have on the future of the app. If some one reviews an app bad then I personally am not going to want to use it. If I think this way then other people probably do to. If some one doesn’t want to use your app based off bad reviews, as a developer your going to look at those reviews and figure out how you can improve upon your app making it better so people will want to use it.

While my research has shown that apps can be useful tools with a variety of different ways of helping us become more productive and making our lives easier in many different ways some people believe apps are a distraction in and outside the classroom. Many teachers do not like the use of tablets or computers in class. They feel as if the device is a distraction and the student won’t get done with his required work if he is distracted. They also believe that students could use their tablets to surf the web, cheat, or do something their not suppose to be doing in class. So in their opinion apps inside of the class room is more like having a cell phone inside of the class room instead of a learning too and that it should be kept at home.

In my research I showed that apps could be helpful not only for making your life easier but also for school to. There are apps for not taking for example. Imagine if you were in class and you had to take note on what the teacher was saying and all you had was a pencil and paper. It would be impossible to take not that fast. But with the use of an app you can get all of those notes taken or even use an app to record them. In my opinion either one of those options would take more efficient notes then hand writing them. It also helps with organization too. People loose papers all the time but rarely ever do people loose computer documents. On top of that even if you did loose a document it would automatically be backed up making apps more efficient then what teachers give them credit for.

For future of apps in every day life I feel like its essential for developers to keep on making them and users to keep on reviewing them. Apps already have a huge user base but people need to know the importance of how far a review can go to help the growth of an app. Or how taking an innovative Ideas like fantasy football and incorporating it into an idea to make it more mainstream. Researchers need to do more studies on scenarios like this to inform people. This would help apps grow in the future.

In conclusion Apps make every ones life easier. Apps are a great tool that you can use in just about any aspect of life. Not only are they a great tool but they are also ridiculously easy to use. I’ve seen little kids use apps and I’ve seen the elderly use apps so it doesn’t matter what group your trying to appeal to theirs an app out their for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for entertainment or if your trying to do your taxes apps have a major impact on our lives.

Works Cited

Greenhalgh, Greg, Brendan Dwyer, and Brian Biggio. "There's an App for That." Journal of Applied Sport Management 6.4 (2014): 51-77. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 28 Jul 2015.

Lee, Gunwoong, and T. S. Raghu. "Determinants of Mobile Apps' Success: Evidence from the App Store Market." Journal of Management Information Systems 31.2 (2014): 133-170. Business Source Complete. Web. 28 Jul 2015.

Luterbach, Kenneth, and Kenneth Hubbell. "Capitalizing On App Development Tools and Technologies." Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning 59.4 (2015): 62-70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Jul 2015.

Thurman, Alexander C., Jessica L. Davis, Max Jan, Charles E. McCulloch, Benjamin D. Buelow. "Development and Validation of an App-Based Cell Counter for Use in the Clinical Laboratory Setting." Journal of Pathology Informatics 6.1 (2015): 7-12. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Jul 2015.

Khalid, HammadShihab, EmadNagappan, MeiyappanHassan, Ahmed E. "What do Mobile App Users Complain About?." IEEE Software 32.3 (2015): 70-77. Computer Source. Web. 28 July 2015.

Hennig, Nicole. "Evaluating Apps." Library Technology Reports 50.8 (2014): 15-17. Professional Development Collection. Web. 28 July 2015.