Mini Challenge
Activity 12.a
With social media dominating the world, there has never been a time when
we have been more connected: 75% of the world’s population own a
mobile phone (that figure rises to 93% in the UK), Facebook now has over
a billion users, and there are more than 800 different social networking
applications in existence!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jottDMuLesU
Your task over the next few lessons is going to be to ‘Find the Gap’ in social
networking…
It’s not often we say this to you – so make the most of it!
1.
2.
Make a quick list of all the social media apps you have on it, and give an
estimate of how often you check them, or how long you spend per day on each
one.
In groups, collate your results and use them to complete the table, looking at the
function of each app, the target audience, and anything else that is of interest.
EXTENSION: List any apps that you used to have but have deleted, and make a note
of the reason why you deleted them.
Carry out a survey (online or on paper) to
establish how well people feel that their social
needs are met by current social media,
whether they feel represented by the current
sites and apps, and what they would want from
a new up-and-coming social media app. Think
carefully about the questions you ask – do
they need to be open or closed, do you need to
give a number of options to choose from, do
you need to make sure that you aren’t leading
your respondents in any way…?
Collate the results of your survey, and create
the profile of your missing person or feature.
This will become your new target, the focus for
your app. (If the results of your survey were
more mixed, then decide on one group or
aspect to focus on.)
You need to consider:
O The age range of users
O What they want from an app
O Where they would most use the app (via
website, smartphone, or tablet)
Work together to design the Next Big App!
You could gather and record your ideas in any of the
following ways – whichever best fits your needs…
You must include:
Name
Logo
Description (to include the
main purpose of the app, the
key features, and an
explanation of how it works)
How it would be
advertised/gain members
What makes it different – why
it fills ‘The Gap’
(or a good old-fashioned mood board!)
The SWOT analysis tool
All the great inventors (Thomas Edison,
Alexander Graham Bell, John Logie Baird,
Mark Zuckerberg…) created their famous
products after numerous attempts. They
tried, tested, evaluated… and tried again!
Market
Research
Complete a SWOT
analysis of your app
idea – and then get
some market research
feedback (ideally from
the people you are
creating it for!).
It’s time to prepare for your assessment.
Using the work that you produced for
your design and the information you have
gathered from your evaluations, create a
three to five minute presentation to pitch
your idea for the next social media app.
EXTENSION: Create the app, market it,
and become billionaires before your 18th
birthdays!
In whatever format works best for
you, reflect on what you have learnt
during this Finding the Gap activity.
Be sure to consider:
- What went well.
- What went less well.
- Which skills you developed.
- What you will take with you for
the next activity.