CompetitiveAnalysis-AnnetteTrujillo

From CS 160 User Interfaces Sp10

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Contents

Background

Our skater app is intended to give skaters the ability to checklist tricks they can do, associate each trick with a video they can upload of themselves, and organize their tricks into a map based on where they were done. Our group link: The A-Team

List of Competitors & Analysis

  • File:skateropolis.jpg Skateropolis (link to site that app is based on: http://www.skateropolis.com/, video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T86SnWRs_QI)
    • Target User Group: Same as ours, skaters who want to post videos and pictures about themselves and be connected with skateparks.
    • Functionality: Offers the benefits of finding skateparks, posting videos into groups (you can become a member of a group of users), posting videos and photos onto skatepark profiles, ability to create an avatar which can appear on a skatepark page if person is a "top contributor", and stay connected with friends like on twitter. Our idea differs because we want to give a skater the ability to "checklist" the tricks they have done, with each trick being linked to a video of them doing it, and linked to the place it was done. This list makes it easier to brag to friends and show them all the tricks you have done, plus the proof that you did each trick.
    • Usability: After reading the reviews, I found that people really liked the large database of places to skate, which was not limited to skateparks. It seems issues people had were technical logging in issues. So it seems this app was very successful at allowing people to post their information, at helping people find skateparks, and helping skaters connect with each other. I think a challenge with this type of skatepark finder app is that it is hard to keep the skatepark database in the app updated, and people don't like seeing false or missing information.
  • File:iskateboard.jpg iSkateboard (link to site: http://www.iskateboard.com/)
    • Target User Group: Somewhat different than our target group, skaters seeking information on skate spots, skateparks, and skate shops.
    • Functionality: Have a large database (over 30k) of street skate spots, skateparks, and skate shops all around the world. Ability to rank and comment skateparks, and discussion forums. Also has GPS capabilities for driving to your nearest spot. Our app differs because as mentioned before, we want to give a skater the ability to "checklist" the tricks they have done, with each trick being linked to a video of them doing it, and linked to the place it was done. This app has a slightly different goal than ours, but it was hard to find any related to our idea.
    • Usability: After reading the user comments, some people complained that you can't add your own skate spot, and that after knowing your local skate spots, parks and shops, you have no use for this app. Also, if you live in certain countries in the world, you are not guaranteed that this app will have information for you (there is no way to know in advance before buying the app). Also, that some spots don't have pictures (so you might now know what the spot actually is), and it lists places that don't exist anymore or does not list new spots. I think what these developers did great, which was also their biggest challenge, is collecting so many skate spots around the world (over 30,000). This gives the app more variety. Also, I did not read complaints about the GPS functionality for finding the spots, so I assume the developers made that work well also. However, it seems this app is too plain for users that want to be able to do more than just look for locations. Another challenge for an app like this is keeping their database updated, and it does not seem they are doing too well with this. Also, I think they should maybe provide a list of countries where they have more than 1 location in the app, that way people know before they buy.
  • File:golearn.gif GoLearn Skateboarding (link to app info: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/golearn-skateboarding/id299483661?mt=8)
    • Target User Group: Skaters who are interested in watching instructional video's out while they are in action. Different than our target group.
    • Functionality: Combines instructional videos with a GPS Skate Park locator, and offers a skateboard mechanic with video demonstrations of proper care and maintenance. This app also has a slightly different goal than ours, so our app differs because of the same reasons as the above apps. User's can't upload videos of them doing tricks they learned, and our app idea does not involve instructional videos.
    • Usability: In reviews, people complained that the app takes up too much disk space, which relates to complains that it takes too long to download. I think this is related to the challenge of providing enough instructional videos. Other than that the app's GPS capabilities were designed good, and the video's were very helpful.
  • File:tonyhawk.png Tony Hark: Trick Tips (link to app info: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tony-hawk-trick-tips/id337619445?mt=8)
    • Target User Group: Skaters, particularly Tony Hawk fans.
    • Functionality: Provides skate videos from basic to advanced levels, so that all skaters can find use in their videos, as well as the latest news about Tony Hawk, Tony Hawk sweepstakes, and sound effects. So Tony Hawk fans would really enjoy this app, as it is geared towards them. Our app is not geared towards any type of fans, so ours will have more general info.
    • Usability: In reviews, people complained that they want more beginner videos, but that was just one person's opinion. All other reviews seemed to love it, and they claim it has helped them a lot in learning new tricks, so I think this app did great at appealing to Tony Hawk fans.
  • File:tsw.jpg Transworld Skateboarding Videos, How-To's & News (link to app info: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id349385247?mt=8)
    • Target User Group: Skaters who are interested in watching How-To videos by professional skateboarders themselves. Once again a different target audience than our app idea.
    • Functionality: Offers news and how-to videos of professional skateboarders. Our app idea does not involve news about professional skateboarders, or how-to videos, so this is a different scope, and because of this our app will be very different in its goals and functionalities.
    • Usability: This is a fairly new app (released Jan 2010) so from the reviews I read, it seems there are no complaints, everyone loves it.
  • File:berrics.jpg The Berrics Skateboarding Videos (link to info: http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=295239&expand=false)
    • Target User Group: Skaters, particularly fans of Steve Berra and Eric Koston (professional skateboarders).
    • Functionality: Watch videos of Steve Berra and Eric Koston skateboarding, plus the ability to text or email them. A different goal than our app idea.
    • Usability: One complaint I saw in the reviews was that people would like more frequent update of videos. This is the main challenge for these types of apps, and all you can do is try to frequently update to keep the users happy.
  • File:skatr.png skatr (link to info: http://www.skatr.us/iphone)
    • Target User Group: Skaters seeking information on skateboarding spots.
    • Functionality: Designed to help skaters decide where you want to skate with the following features: spot details, comments, photo uploads, add your spot, search, and street view. Our app is not intended to help skaters find skateboard spots, so we can't really improve on this idea.
    • Usability: A lot of complaints that the app doesn't load, that it crashes a lot, etc. It seems this app was poorly developed and not well tested before being released. Overall, customers were not satisfied. What our group can learn from this is just to make sure everything works!
  • File:skatetricks.jpg Skate Tricks (link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skate-tricks/id350150943?mt=8)
    • Target User Group: Skaters interested in watching instructional videos.
    • Functionality: Provides how-to instructional videos in slow motion teaching skaters new tricks. Different goal than our app, but it provides functionality we can consider on our app (instructional videos).
    • Usability: Reviews were generally good. The challenge here is making sure there are enough videos for all skating levels, and I saw a comment on that in the reviews.
  • File:skate.jpgS.K.A.T.E. (link to info: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/s-k-a-t-e/id331984103?mt=8)
    • Target User Group: Skaters interested in playing a skateboarding game with their friends (a physical game, not video game). The goal of this app is different than ours but these apps were the closes I found related to our app idea.
    • Functionality: Keeps track of the process of the game S.K.A.T.E.. Also has twitter and facebook options so people who win can brag in the social network. Also has a "trick spinner" similar to the sk8 dice app above. Differs from our app idea.
    • Usability: I'm not sure if this app is fairly new or just plainly unpopular, but the three reviews I found all complained that the "trick spinner" didn't work, and that was the whole reason they had bought the app to begin with. Maybe the designers should have made sure all the features they list in the app profile actually work. This is a challenge of every app and this was one of the app's that didn't seem to meet expectations.
  • File:sk8.jpg Sk8 dice (link to site app is based on: http://www.sk8dice.com/)
    • Target User Group: Skaters interested in playing a skateboarding game with their friends. This app is also very different than our idea. It was very hard to find app's in the iTunes store related to skateboarding, but I liked this idea, I thought maybe we could think about adding some of this type of functionality in our app.
    • Functionality: Gives skaters the ability to roll four die, the first of which specifies which trick to do, and the other three specify how to do the trick (180 degrees, etc.). Our idea is very different, as ours involves no game.
    • Usability: In reviews, people generally enjoyed this game. They thought it was fun. So the developers did a good job at making sure it worked well with no problems.

Summary

All of these apps were found in the Apple app store, and even though some had a different goal than ours, they were of the limited few I found to have the same target audience as ours: skaters. What has definitely been covered in the field of skateboarding apps is instructional videos and skatepark/shop/spots locators (that use GPS to get directions). No apps really give a skater a personalized profile where they can keep track of the tricks they have accomplished, with linked videos and linked maps. I think our checklist idea is great, and could be expanded so that each checklist item has an instructional video to help the user accomplish the trick. I know this would be more helpful and useful, but I'm not sure if for the purpose of this class we have the time or resources to accomplish this. That is the main thing I found missing in our app idea, after doing this assignment.

Credits


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