GatorMapp: a location aware app for new college students
Picture yourself as a new college student. You’re on a large campus for the very first time, roaming an unfamiliar terra incognita in search of a particular building. The paper map you printed from the college’s website isn’t helping — which way is north? — and there’s no one available to point you in the right direction. Like visiting a foreign country for the first time.
The new college student. This is one of the key personas, or end-users, that four Software Development students at Green River College had in mind when creating GatorMapp, a free mobile application for Android that helps users locate where they are on Green River’s main campus, then select and get to destinations.
Shristhy Naidu, Yoriko Sosa-Nakata, Alex Kwon, and Matt Gibson, who all expect to complete their Bachelor’s in Software Development this year, designed and built this innovative mobile application as part of a class project in IT 355: Agile Development Methods, a course Software Development students at Green River typically take in year 3 of their program.
The opportunity to learn by doing while addressing a real-world problem inspired this self-organizing team of students to build a mobile app that helps new students at Green River find their way on campus.
According to Matt Gibson, “The four of us saw how a mobile application like GatorMapp would solve a problem our campus holds. We also saw an opportunity to get experience with Android and create something useful. Developing for a mobile platform was something none of us had done before and provided a challenging experience that we could all benefit learning from.”
GatorMapp, naturally, presented several challenges. Building a minimum viable product (i.e. a working mobile application) within the fast-paced, 12 week time box of an academic quarter was no easy task.
Yoriko Sosa-Nakata described the experience. “We knew absolutely nothing about Android Studios, and at the time, knew little Java . We were also developing a brand new application from scratch and also had to figure out licensing. And because this was an application for Green River, we had to determine what stakeholders to communicate with on campus.”
“Another difficult part was learning to be flexible with design changes,” added Shristhy Naidu. “It’s painful to redo a week’s worth of code, but if it saves you from encountering more problems down the line, it’s better to nip it in the bud while you can.”
In keeping with their commitment to agile values of inspecting and adapting, the GatorMapp team rose to the challenge. They frequently tested and debugged their work, reflected on team dynamics via weekly retrospectives, and implemented ongoing usability testing.
“Valuing the importance of user experience above all else, including usability testing and utilizing feedback to continuously improve our product for the user, was one of the most important lessons we learned in the process,” observed Alex Kwon.
Another important takeaway? Learning to communicate effectively within a team.
“We definitely learned the importance of communicating clearly with members of our team,” added Matt Gibson. “Having everyone on the same page really helped create strong velocity. We also learned about working effectively in team environments and how to account for the different skills and limitations of individual members.”
12 weeks later, at the end of IT 355, the GatorMapp team presented their product to software development instructors, fellow students, and visiting industry partners from Rightside. They also showcased the app and gave a team talk on the importance of usability testing at Kent Station Web & Mobile Developers, hosted on meetup.com. They even demoed GatorMapp at a launch party on campus to 50+ attendees, including students, campus employees, as well as a representative from the City of Auburn’s Office of Economic Development, all to wide acclaim.
Hitting the presentation circuit further refined the GatorMapp team’s public speaking and presentation skills. I attended the class presentation, the meeutup talk, and the launch party, and in each case, I learned something new and gleaned a fresh insight into their agile, creative process.
The outcome: multiple departments on Green River’s Auburn campus, including the Welcome Center, Career and Advising, and International Programs, now encourage new students to download GatorMapp on Google Play.
And this is just the beginning. Shristhy, Yoriko, Alex, and Matt are currently working on an iOS version set for release this summer as part of a six month capstone requirement built into Green River’s Bachelor’s in Software Development.
They also hope to create new features including street views and a login for users to add favorite locations and to receive campus notifications. Adding a way for users to look up tutoring centers and other high-value places of interest on campus, as well as the ability to view quarterly class schedules, are also in the product backlog.
In sum, GatorMapp is, and continues to be, a shining example of student achievement, not to mention a powerful example of Green River’s distinctly agile take on project based learning in the software development classroom.
