P9: Explain analysed feedback for project feasibility
Below is a video of the feedback I have been given.
The panel really liked the confidence in my delivery, the detail in both the presentation and the proposal, the cross-platform integration and the idea of the app itself. I received a couple of questions, one about what the start up costs will be, and another about how I will use social media to promote the app. I answered the second question in the video above, where I explained what type of content I will post on each social media platform. The fourth panel member said that she was concerned about privacy from reading the proposal, but I covered this issue in my presentation. Therefore, to make sure there is no confusion I will make a second version of my proposal with this information added in - as shown below. The first slide is the original legal and ethical page, which does mention that the app is password protected, but it could easily be skimmed over, so I added this feature into the introduction page as well so that it is more prominent.
In terms of the start-up costs, according to the following article, the cost of starting up an app can be anywhere between £20,000 and £800,000 depending on how complex the app is and what/how many platforms you want it to be available on. savvyapps.com/blog/how-much-does-app-cost-massive-review-pricing-budget-considerations I will follow their advice shown below, since this is from someone experienced in making apps, so I will set the budget for the first version of the app for around £600,000 for the first 18 months. This includes the cost of employing staff, legal fees and designing the app.
According to the diagram below, smaller companies don't spend as much on their app as bigger companies, so if this initial £600,000 covers all of the costs with lots of money left over, then I will put this into marketing the app.
I think after receiving this feedback, my app is still feasible because the improvements I had to make were fairly minor, and the panel seemed enthusiastic about the idea of my app, and they felt it was well thought out and would be beneficial to real people and their lives.
In conclusion, if this app were to go into development, I would need to consider the budget and marketing. I need to think about how I can best raise the money that I need to start up this app, so approaching a company that might want to invest in it could be very helpful to get the app off the ground. I could use crowdfunding or sponsorships, but since I have found out how much my app will cost to make, I will need to think about the best way to generate these start up costs. I will also need to heavily consider how I will market Care Share, because if no one uses the app because they don't know it exists then all of the planning and production will have gone to waste. To resolve this, I will ensure that I hire an experienced marketing team to give my app the best possible shot at success.
D2: Critically evaluate how the negative impacts of converging technology will be minimised within the proposed campaign
There are many pros to technological convergence, but some cons have come with it too, and I will need to consider these negative aspects in relation to my app in order to ensure it is successful. The first negative impact I have identified is that some media platforms are dying out, as technological convergence has meant that people have no need for that product anymore. For example, the magazine industry has suffered a lot in the past couple of years because audiences feel that they can find the content they would want from a magazine much more easily and for less money - whereas in the past, magazines were the easiest way for readers to find information about their hobby/interest all in one place. Many magazines are now only available online, or have stopped printing completely, because the internet is now so vast and easy to navigate through that potential magazine readers can find all the content they want with only the cost of their mobile device/computer and the cost of internet connection. Radio has also suffered for a similar reason - the internet means that audiences can find all the content they need by themselves, and many people would rather consume something that is audio-visual than just audio. I don't think this negative aspect of technological convergence will impact on my app, because apps on mobile devices are the way that the digital age is moving, so they are becoming more and more widely used.
Another negative impact is that on-demand content is now expected, so this puts more pressure on media professionals to make their products available anytime and from any device. We expect everything to be instant, so in the case of Care Share, it might be an issue that if someone finds a bug in the app, it will need to be fixed as soon as possible to keep customers happy. If slow fixes make the users annoyed, then they may switch to a different app, so having good customer service is essential to the success of my app. I will make sure that this issue is kept to a minimum by trying to update the app as quickly as I can if there is a problem, and while it is being fixed I will tell users on social media when they can expect the app to be working again, as this will keep audiences more happy than not telling them anything.
Social media has also created the pressure to look good and conform to beauty standards - and since many teenagers and children use social media, and they are more impressionable so these unrealistic standards are more likely to affect their mental health. Instagram - being an image-based site - especially has this issue, where some influencers will photoshop their pictures or promote an unhealthy lifestyle to their young and impressionable audience. Seeing images of the ideal (but often unobtainable because of editing photos) body, looks and lifestyle every day can make young people less confident by comparing themselves to these accounts, and self-esteem issues can lead to depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. However, my app won't feed into this ongoing issue, because Care Share doesn't allow users to interact with users other than the friend(s) or relative(s) who help them care for their loved ones. Users can't interact with users they don't know, and interactions within the app are limited to just sharing care information. This is because children will be using the app if they are a young carer, so I must be able to keep them safe from potentially harmful content and from strangers, therefore I haven't included a community feature so that there is no risk of people misusing the app.
The last negative impact I have identified is privacy, since Care Share is designed to store sensitive medical information. In recent years people are generally more aware of privacy online, especially after the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica incident in 2018, but there are still some people who don't see the dangers of sharing your whole life online. Technological convergence has meant that we now have mobile phones, which we can take with us everywhere, and often have on our person all the time - these devices allow us to share anything across the world in seconds, which can mean that we might not think rationally about what information is appropriate to share. We are also more at risk to hacking, especially if users are using a public wi-fi connection to access sensitive data like passwords or bank details. For example, sharing your address online can be very dangerous, and we may not think about just how much information someone can find just by putting your name into a search engine. Since my app will be used by children and young people, I need to be especially aware of how to protect their privacy, since they are more impressionable than older users, and might not be able to see the risks of something before doing it. As mentioned before, I am not including a community feature within Care Share, so there is no risk of sensitive information being scammed out of users, and the app will also be password protected, so no one else can access the app except the user. I think privacy will be the biggest potential issue that I have to be aware of, but by putting measures in place to protect users, I feel confident that my app won't cause any harm to those who use it.