How to Develop a Smartphone Application for College Students to Use - Research Paper Example

MR2300- Business Research Marketing Research Project Part Two: Research Design Report CNA- Qatar Smartphone Application Hind Ahmed 60075863 : Greg Springall Introduction In this report, I will talk about how to develop a smartphone application (apps) for college students to use. This type of mobile phone application is very important and allows the students to become more effective and efficient and helps them get better marks and high GPA in the college. My report will look at many features to include in the application and what students think them, how can they be developed and distribute the application as well as future plans to gather information about improvements. A research was carried out to investigate the usability of the features and how easy it was to use the applications among the college students. It will also investigate the effects of the mobile phone application and whether it really helped the students with their day to day activities. In this way, they can be able to give recommendations on how to work effectively and how to improve the said applications to serve them better. Background This type of mobile phone application is very important and allows the students to become more effective and efficient and helps them get better marks and high GPA in the college. This report will look at the many features to include in the application and what students think of it, how we will develop and distribute the application as well as future plans to gather information about improvements. Since the application is meant to help the students at the colleges and to keep innovating new technology that would be useful to the people. In this way, they can be served appropriately and make studying in the college much easier. The management has been dealing with this problem for quite a while and hence such an innovative application for the students. Management Decision Problem The North Atlantic College in Qatar is classified as a modern college, since it keeps innovating for better technological development. Moreover, in previous years, the college has contributed successfully in various scientific inventions. The management of the technology communications revolution has made major changes; so they decided to build a new college application for student to use through smart phones. Communication within the colleges is vital for any college. There is a lot of information that needs to be passed from one section of the school to another and therefore there is need for better methods of communication. The college needs to come up with ways that they can communicate to everyone freely and fairly and at any time that they wish. Students also require to have a platform where they can air their views at any time without having to wait for the management staff in their offices. The CNA-Q application will offer this modernistic technology that is widely useful to both current CNA-Q students, and the new students, who will join the college in the coming years. In addition, the application will also benefit the instructors, professors and staff team at the college. The role of management decision problem is to decide whether the smart phone application is necessary for the college or not. The studying will show if the application will affect the students’ outcome marks positively. Furthermore, the management should double check if the CNA-Q application will be beneficial to others, such as, parents, sponsors, etc. The managers at the management decision problem must be responsible for what they decide upon. They must determine if it is essential to have an application serving the college or not, and if it will improve the college services’ entirely. Sampling procedure The research methodology will be survey method. In survey method research, participants answer questions administered through interviews or questionnaires. (Hale, 2009). The information that I will be asking will help me analyze the market I am targeting. Students will be chosen from every class in the university and a member of staff from all the departments in the university. A sample random size study was used since it would be impossible to get all the students to answer the questions. After giving out the survey, a survey calculator was used to get accurate answers. The method to be used will be the questionnaire which remains one of the best method to get information from the respondents. The respondents will be free to give their opinions and their views anytime that they are free to do so. However, this method can be limiting since there is no accountability on the part of the respondent and the response rate may be very slow. The targeted respondents would be the students, a section of the staff of the college and the management of the university. Twenty two respondents responded to the survey and most of the respondents believed that smart phones would make their lives in the colleges much easier. Analysis There were 22 respondents in total. Of the 22, one did not respond to the gender question. Females were 15 and males were 6. This can be explained in the sense that women are more likely to respond to questionnaires than men. Another issue would be that women are better t asking for directions than men and they are always willing to ask for help whenever they are stranded. The next question was about the age of the respondents. One person failed to answer this question. About 85.71% of the respondents were from the ages of 18-24. This is mostly the students and the rest of the population consisted of those between the ages of 25- 30. This mostly consists of some of the students and pother workers as well No respondent skipped this question. There were 95.45% students and 4.55% instructor of the CNA-Q application. One person failed to answer whether they had a smartphone. 20 respondents had smartphones while only one person lacked one. The respondents to this question believed that they would buy a smartphone if it helped them in their college life. This question was probably answered by the respondent who did not have a smartphone. The other did not need to answer simply because they already had a smartphone. Most of the respondents downloaded applications on their phones meaning that they would be willing to download the CNA-Q on their phones as well. The respondent who did not answer the question most likely did not own a smartphone. In a week, 85% of the respondents downloaded about 1-3 applications on their mobile phones. 15% downloaded between 3-6 applications each week. This shows the willingness of the people to download the applications and how willing they would be to explore any other option. There respondents skipped to answer whether they are interested in the CNA-Q in order to succeed in in their studies. 18 respondents were interested while one was not interested. This means that the students were willing to try anything that would help them to succeed at their college. On the issue of price for the application, 10 respondents were willing to pay between 10 and 20 QR, five respondents were willing to pay between 20-30 QR, two were willing to pay between 30-40 QR and two more were willing to pay between 40-60 QR. In this sense, the cheaper the application, the more people would buy. The respondents were asked on what they mostly o on the internet. 16 of the respondents use their smartphones for entertainment, 11 respondents used their smartphones for educational purposes, 8 respondents used their smartphones for surfing the web and 13 used their phones for communication. The versatility of the smartphones can allow most respondents to do whatever they want with their phones and to make their lives much simpler. 11 of the respondents had IPhones, 4 had Samsung smartphones, 1 had an LG smartphone and two had other brands. This shows that the IPhone is the most popular brand of them all and therefore the application had to be compatible with the IPhone first to be successful. The application would be used for very many purposes. 72.22% of the respondents would use it for confirming their schedules, 22.22% would use the chatrooms, 33.33% would use it to pay their tuition, 44.44% would use it for notification of the parking area, 72.22% would use it for sue date reminders for their assignments or exams, 55.56% would use it for class reminders, 55.56% would use it for notes and slides, 27.78 would use it for news, 38.89 would use it for checking events, 61.11% would use it for checking grades, 44.44% would use it for the E-textbook and 72.22% would use it for checking the exam schedule. Most students believed that the most important task to be performed by the application would be checking the exam schedule. The next important task would be to check their grades, remind them of their due dates, check on their notes and slides, class location reminder, the e-textbook, events, parking, news, chatrooms and finally for paying their tuition. On the usage of the application, 7 would be using it less than five times in a week, four would use it between five to ten times in a week, four would use it between ten to twenty times in a week and finally, three respondents would use it more than twenty times in a week. More than 94% of the respondents believed that the application was very helpful and thus would mean that they would welcome the use of the application. Reflections This application has the potential to grow and to become a bran to reckon with in the college. Most students are always looking out for a better way to remember their schedules and basically their activities at the colleges. The application, as opposed to writing notes on paper and books, is very convenient. It cannot get lost or torn away. Furthermore, it is very efficient as the person only has to check their phones regularly to know what they are meant to be doing. They do not even have to check their phones since they can customize an alarm for that and in this way, they do not get to forget and they will always be on time. The fact that those who do not have a smartphone would be willing to buy a smartphone so that they can download the application means that the application is likely to get very good feedback from the university. On the downside, the application can be duplicated by anyone and therefore making the application lose some share of the market. In the event that the college decides to come up with its own application, then it means that most people would use the one from the college since it is likely to seem more credible. It is likely that in future there will be very high levels of competition which would make my application lose some value in the market. Besides, most people would prefer an application that has been around for some time as opposed to an application that is new in the market. Recommendations For this application to be successful, the developer will have to be a developer with great knowledge on the application and good knowledge in programming and computers. Since I lack such extensive knowledge, I will have to get someone to do it of me. The technology to be sued should be very up to date and have a very easy to maintain and change whenever changes are required in the application. The application should be compatible with most of the phones used. To ensure that people pay for the services application, there should be a system that ensures any user who does not pay for the services is blocked. The mobile phone app is something that anyone can download anywhere in the world. This means that there may be some people who can copy the app and make fake copies with everything the same. This is called copyright infringement. To make sure that this does not happen I will have a copyright and patent on the app so that no one can make a copy and sell it for less money. The app is very easy to use and does not have any effects on the environment because it is virtual and does not do any damage to the environment. Therefore, it is likely to cause any alarms among the environmentalists and thus cause the popularity of the application. Most of the respondents believed in the stability of the Qatari economy and they would be able to maintain their applications with time. Conclusion In conclusion, this remains a very competitive application for most college students. Although there are competitors especially those that are already established in the market, the application can cut a niche for itself by being for college students. However, this may also be one of its major weaknesses as well. It may seclude a section of the population that may find the application useful and important. Therefore, efforts need to be made to ensure that the application can suit a large section of the population. References CIA. (2012, March 20). The World Factbook. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from Central Intelligence Agency: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/qa.html CNAQ. (2013). Presidents report 2013-2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from https://www.cna-qatar.com/Documents/Presidents%20Report%202013.pdf Khatri, S. (2011). Report: Qatar very connected, but slow internet speeds hamper online usage. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from Doha News: http://dohanews.co/post/8506500367/report-qatar-very-connected-but-slow-internet-speeds The Peninsula. (2012, February 19). Vodafone to hold first ever mobile apps contest. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from The Peninsula: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/183961-vodafone-to-hold-first-ever-mobile-apps-contest.html Read More