The module’s over. Though it hardly feels like it. I loved the module. It’s the only one from this semester that didn’t require me to pick up a textbook or a set of notes and spend hours reading pointless paragraphs. This module was real. It’s what college should be about. What’s the point of all that academic knowledge and skill-sets if you don’t learn how to apply them in the real world?
To be honest, I did not go out of the way to learn coding. In fact, I didn’t even pick up a single language. The decision was a choice I made despite mounting pressure from Prof Ben at the start and then peer appraisals indicating that it’d be good if I knew coding as well. Thankfully, I have absolutely no regrets. I had made it clear that I was from a business background and that’s exactly where my talent and ability lies. If i could sell coke like gold, I saw no need to chase the coders’ skill-sets. Frank reinforced this, though he did concede that a business person who could code would be a lethal combination.
In 3216, I developed a new-found passion for working on UI/UX. It wasn’t an area that I usually dealt with because I felt that designers ware in a better position to call the shots. But since this project group did not have a designer, Frank and I combined to design the UI/UX. I enjoyed exploring the various possible interfaces and cross-referred to many apps existing on the app store to come up with new ideas.
Communication was another lesson learnt. Initially, I gave quite a lot of freedom to the developers to design and code the app as long as it mirrored my vision and direction in terms of functionality. This didn’t turn out to be the wisest move because at the group meeting with Prof, I saw the prototype for the first time and was completely surprised at the unintelligent nature of the UI/UX. It’s not the developers’ fault. It was primarily because of their unfamiliarity with the newly found Titanium framework and lack of common vision for the app.
The dot com bust back in the 1990s stemmed from entrepreneurs selling products that hardly existed to investors and capitalists. Today, the tech start-ups have made a paradigm shift in strategy. Entrepreneurs are selling working products BUT at unjustified valuations. Most of these products are rarely self-sustainable and these start-ups are spending more than they earn. I am unfortunately guilty of doing this. Touch Appétit was a mere idea that I was investing money and time on when it got taken over. It had a long way to go before it could be sustainable. The Appétit app that I pitched to the corporate clients for our final project didn’t even have a operational prototype at that point. All this made me realize that SALES & MARKETING is still the most important component in the real world. In my meetings with the firm that acquired Touch Appétit, I would often rave about building a functional and powerful product. But their CEO would often halt me, correct me and say it’s about selling the product and earning revenue.
Sales = Income.
A semester has traversed past in unexpectedly quick fashion. From 5 modules, I dropped Physics to make it 4. To accommodate the schedule of Touch Appétit’s corporate clients, I missed many a French lecture and tutorial. NUS language modules are quite the bi*ch so if you miss two in a row, you’re as good as gone. So yes, I’m as good as gone. And that’s quite the amusement to everyone around me cause I’m on a Concurrent Degree Programme, in the French LPP and in the Residential College Programme. In short, that’s quite a number of modules to complete before I graduate and I’ve already knocked 2 down the retake or screw over path.
Anyway, CS3216 was a module to remember. As a freshmen, it sets the mark for all future modules I take. It has made me reconsider what I’m in NUS for. I love Astronomy so I took Astrphysics as a major. That didn’t turn out too well cause I have no interest in studying physics 343984328 hrs a week. Business modules are dry and are nothing Google can’t teach me. Effectively, I don’t know what I want for my undergraduate education. As a young entrepreneur, being a college dropout was always seductive and I was at the peak of this temptation when Touch Appétit got taken over.
BUT here’s the interesting bit. The firm that acquired my start-up, introduced me to one of their huge-budget development projects, a project for the Cold Storage group. The details of this project are confidential but let’s just say that as soon as this is rolled out, a certain CS3216 legend who took a leave of absence from college to work on his web start-up is going to have the hardest time of his life. This made me realize that entrepreneurship isn’t a future, it’s an effect. My parents, degree-holders themselves, are probably right in saying that an undergraduate degree is as valuable as a savings account. One semester on, I’ve changed my view on college education BUT this time round I have no clue what I want to do in college. Polar opposite to five months ago.
I guess these are just the things you figure out along the way. I’m going to keep taking random modules that I fancy, akin to the American liberal education model, till I find something I love or make a decision on what I want to do. Meanwhile, it’s start-up buzz all over. Since the takeover, I have multiple projects to work on and am thoroughly excited to get back out in the real world’s playing field.
When I read the case study, I couldn’t help but realize an uncanny resemblance to my idea for my group’s Facebook Application, Penny Swap. The only difference in concept is that when someone needed help on Penny Swap, they were often willing to pay a token amount and likewise if someone wanted to offer a micro-service, he did it with an indicated amont as well. I mean come on, be realistic, the world’s not a charity nor is it a utopian Smurf village. Most people often help others expecting something in return (I don’t think it would interest many to be a leader on some virtual statistic board as opposed to a practical money-for-time incentive). AND what exactly is their revenue model? I’m guessing they plan to switch those exposed SQL strings with advertising space eventually? Pretty much the story of most iFrame app developers anyway. Not part of the case study to analyse the business model but from an entrepreneurial perspective, I just can’t help but do so.
Anyway, back to the case study. I’m going to analyse and evaluate this case study by screenshots.
Figure 1: Home page (also the New Project page)
To begin with, I think it was a good decision to build this app within Facebook as an iFrame. It makes a lot more sense for such a socially-interactive application to be bounded within Facebook than as an external standalone app.
That said, Facebook is a viral success story in the making. I don’t get why the app developers would develop an iFrame app and not emulate Facebook’s UI and UX strategy. When you launch Facebook, the home screen is your newsfeed. The intricate details are left for the inside pages. People who launch this app are likely to do so because they want to see who needs what help with what. They’re not launching the app again and again to post a new offer for help every time. That’s the secondary user experience. The additional details for posting an offer for help should be a drop down below the ‘I need help with.. ’ bar. That’s how Facebook does it. There is nothing social about an app on a social network that hits you with a standard template asking for information, as a home page.
There should also be a clear but non-intrusive ’How it Works’ link on this page.
“Good artists copy, great artists steal”. You’re on Facebook, follow Facebook’s laws.
Figure 2&3: Overview Page & Project Page
Overview should actually be integrated into the home page, aka Figure 1, as mentioned above. Because that’s the page with the user interactions and that’s the page which will gain the app user traction. Back to this page, I don’t get why all the tabs are in red. Basic cognitive psychology has long indicated that web users do not respond to red (stop/restrictive) as well as they do to blue (trust) or green (profitable/good move). It’s not as if they have a red theme going on. Speaking of which, they badly need a logo and a tag line to splash across each page of the app. In short, red tabs/buttons out of the window and give up some screen real estate for branding (logo, icon or tagline etc.
It would be pointless if users had to browse through lists of posts just to find another user whom they can help. There should also be the ability for users to view/sort/filter the different help posts according to friends, networks and category of help needed (IT/design/music etc). Most of us can only help others in a few categories, in accordance with our individual talent, ability and knowledge. For instance, most programmers wouldn’t take up design tasks and vice versa.
The discussion panel on the Project page should follow Facebook’s wall formatting, considering that they’re using the Facebook APIs. The alignment of the profile name, time posted etc. should be in sync with Facebook standards.
Figure 4: Statistics Page
This is the one page I find completely ridiculous because of the feature itself. Helping your friends or putting up genuine offers for help should not have a game like experience or competitive nature governing it. Anyway, even then this page has a terrible UI for statistics. Instead of using textual data (22 fires, 127 helpers etc.), the page should use graphics and charts to compare the statistics. And if you’re going to make this competitive, at least make the statistics look like they mean something significant, at the very least a numerical ranking next to the names.
Figures 1-4: All the Pages
This app, coupled with a proper feature set and mapping, does actually have a practical purpose. However, it needs to be attractive enough for continuous user traction. The app has missed out the simplest UI details like highlighting tabs when it’s on the selected page. For instance Page 4 is the statistics page however there is no indication on the tabs on the top that it’s on the stats page. Also where is the ‘home’ button or the logo for a quick return to app home page? These are the most basic of UI expectations. I already highlighted the colour red being used unnecessarily. But that aside, the app has to have well though-out font sizes and colour themes. Font colours presently range from black to blue to red with the occasional yellow highlight. Font sizes are also not in-sync to the primary features of the app. There are icons and pictures of all sizes and colours scattered across the app. Just feels like the developers did a lot of borrowing from Google images without making a stop-by at Adobe PS.
That pretty much sums up my analysis on this app’s UI and UX.
As the title suggests, that pretty much sums up my week since last Monday’s pitching session.
Let’s wind back time a tad. Monday’s pitching session was in all honesty not what I expected. Sure, they were 5 min pitches and were meant to just give a general idea of how both parties could collaborate for the Final Project. BUT I honestly expected a much higher standard of pitching from industry professionals, whom I assumed would be seasoned at presentations. Everyone of them pitched, none of them captivated.
Maybe as an entrepreneur in today’s setting, I envision brilliant ideas or new-age technologies seamlessly clicking together when I think of an idea pitch. Not so much the average start-up or corporate presentation. I don’t mean any disrespect for these individuals or their products, they’ve successfully trudged their paths this far. It’s just that I’m a sucker for groundbreaking and none of these turn me on.
So of course, I have an idea. Hopefully brilliant, possibly groundbreaking. It was one of my recent start-up ideas. 3216 did what it does best- connecting talents, and I got quickly acquainted with Frank. The gears clicked and I realised he would be a great partner to have in my start-up. So we’re a team now, with an idea that we want to take beyond 3216’s final project. The business plan is almost done, the prototypes are to be coded and developed and we’re down to sending it for all the usual biz. competitions lined up at year’s end. Exciting, promising and explicitly demanding.
Life’s no fairy tale and mine’s no exception. The brutal twist is simple. I’ve been lagging behind on my physics module. So far behind that my lab reports and tutorial submissions are exponentially past the deadlines. I’ve effectively lost 30% of my grade. I don’t want a CAP short of 4.0. No guesses what happens next.
I dropped the module. I’ve a ‘W’ grade to smirk at for the rest of my life. Am I disappointed? Hell yes. Do I regret? Nope. I was losing interest in Physics anyway. I was going after astronomy and if it’s going to take me 2yrs of college physics before I can dabble in astronomy, I’d rather quit school and play roulette with my ideas and start-ups.
So I’m technically on my biz. degree only now. BUT I’m going to go get that minor in CS too. Parents are totally disappointed, well mum at least cause she’s an academic, but I can’t quite be more contented that I’m dropping my Physics degree like a hot potato for a CS minor. I may or may not continue my science degree, depending on when the Dean’s office realizes the sudden spike in activity on my CORs. BUT either way, physics is out of the question.
Heck, it’s probably a matter of time before school’s out of the question.
I watched in amusement as the group presented the very app that I had downloaded and deleted in less than 15 minutes when I first got my iPad2 in May. It’s in all honestly a terrible application and I think the group did a fine job pointing out why it was bad and then going on to suggest exellent improvements for it. I’ll just discuss a few things that they mentioned.
First and most despicable of this app is the User Interface. I’m not sure if InClass actually conducts any market research, but if they did they would realise that there are numerous similar applications for students with intuitive interfaces that don’t have you clicking buttons helplessly for every single action. Whatever happened to multi-touch finger movements? It’s an iOS, not RIM technology! Indeed InClass may be the only free application in the market but as an iPad user for lecture notes, I actually purchased Note Taker HD at 4.99! (Before I jailbroke my iPad cos I got annoyed with a few other lousy apps that cost me quite a bit). I only used the app for like 10min back then so it didn’t really have time to crash but the group did show a screenshot of it crashing. That’s absolutely ridiculous if someone uses it to seriously take notes during a lecture. Already tapping away on the iPad’s keyboard slows you down compared to your peers. The last thing you need is for the app to crash and have to restart it.
It’s a pretty simple to understand app so I would deem their suggeston for a video tutorial pretty unnecessary. Rather an example project would make more sense. That’s what most of these productivity apps do because a video would be a longer spinning circle of doom when you launch the app, which is once again not something you want in a lecture. The suggested improvements on integration with cloud sharing apps like Dropbox or Google Docs is something that’s long overdue.
The team suggested a few new ideas to be part of the app, InTown and InSchool. They’re pretty decent ideas but I’m not sure if the team actually wants to integrate all of this into one app or are they looking at different apps? If it’s the latter, sure go ahead but if it’s the former, I think there’s a conflict of niche selling proposition. Sure, it’d be cool to have a whole-world-in-one-app concept which was something almost every group who presented a productivity app kept pushing for (even in a nightstand!). BUT honestly, I think apps exist in the millions because of their diversity. It may be convenient to have everything in one app but that just makes the app a lot less specialized and focused than it could be. I mean take Apple’s iOs for an example. They could have easily built in Safari, mail, notes and calendar into 1 default app with different tabs but they didn’t. I think it’s about the 1-touch concept. You want to get to your note taking app in a touch, just like you would for your ‘what’s happening in town’ app or your ‘module forum’ app. You don’t quite want your screen split 99-way with all the different features.
Lastly, I agree with the team’s view on the commercial potential. Despite its UI flaws, the product actually has huge commercial potential because it’s free. If they build the app right, they will have a huge database of users and their information. Information is a commodity and advertisers would pay for that. I’m not so sure about collaborating with educational institutions because iPad apps are becoming so increasing popular in academia that I would envision these institutions developing and customizing apps for their own students. (It’s already happening all over in the States and Australia btw.)
That’s pretty much my critique. Overall, the team did a good job on the presentation and slides (i like the whole chalkboard theme)!
So I tried. After some encouragement from my group mates and persistent nagging from dear prof in the last lecture, I decided I’d go check out these alien languages. PHP, CSS, HTML.
I had two data analysis lab reports due, was preparing my slides for the iPad seminar and was way behind on revision for my French quiz, all due on Monday. Yet I decided to take my chances with trying out at coding over the weekend. Guess what happened?
I never got around to finishing and submitting my lab reports (effectively just lost 15% of my final grade), somehow finished and prepared for the iPad seminar and totally smoked my way through the French quiz.
So what happened? W3schools.com did. Zhenling directed me towards these tutorials so that I could creep my way into the alien languages. I sat for hours watching a variety of the most dreary tutorials in the world (even my terrible marketing module lecturer’s webcast doesn’t eat my soul away). So after that many hours of random tutorials and painful lessons, I went on to codepad to take on the aliens.
I tried coding my first and most difficult input ever- ‘hello world’ with a smiley. I tried once, it returned an error. I tried twice, same thing. I tried thrice and I just shut the browser tab.
Anyway, Facebook assignment’s due so it’s time to spend long days and nights with the team. I actually enjoy testing the app, writing the reports and pitches. Sure as heck beats coding. Though I’ll probably have another go at HTML and HTML 5 after the submission.
Monday’s lecture was great. The two sharing sessions covered everything I needed to hear about the team mechanisms and basic software engineering guidelines. It was good to hear from both the previous students and Prof Ben how non-programmers can contribute significantly to the team work. Corroborates with my previous reflections.
One of the things mentioned that caught my attention was Agile Software Development. This is an highly adaptive and lightweight model that I use in my start-up projects as well. I’m an ardent believer of this model as opposed to the waterfall or spiral development processes. Simply because I value user validation to a great extent and prefer to produce an MVP, undergo sustainable development with changes and add features in phases. Customer needs, wants and satisfaction are the governing body of the incremental development process.
This model also pushes for very intimate communication and collaboration between the business minds and the programmers, often in direct personal contact as opposed to Emails etc. One of the most successful agile methodologies that I know of is Scrum which also emphasizes on daily or cycle meetings within the team. This is a brilliant tactic for project management because it allows the project and programming leaders to keep track of and review what has been done, what needs to be done and by when it needs to be done.
So anyway, the lecture ended at 8.30PM which was a complete surprise. I hadn’t had dinner yet and expected the lecture to draggggggggggg. I was totally caught back when Prof called it a day on time (It’s a good thing). This gave me and my assignment/seminar teams some well-needed time to get into discussions over our projects. We made some important decisions and it’s game on from now.
I’m especially excited about the Facebook assignment. The analysis and evaluation phase of the ideas have been promising and as the biz. mind, it’s my responsibility to work on the project proposal and feature lists/mapping. It’s killing me to generate module after module for the app but I think it’s only fair when I can’t contribute much to the programming. Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous entry, time is going to be the decisive factor here because the team definitely has the technical knowledge and ability to complete the project. With a proper development methodology and structured project management, we’re going to pull off an absolutely beautiful application.
I was all geared up for today’s workshop. It was going to cover everything technical that I’ve NOT known for the longest while. I’ve splurged my own savings and investor financing on professional software/IT consultation and product development countless times, even as I type this. All because I was never a coder nor did I come from a tech background. So this workshop was going to change everything. Right?
Wrong. I was absolutely disappointed during the workshop. Firstly, I use a mac and from what I’ve heard, most or all programming is done on windows. So I’d assumed that this SR room would be like a computer lab, with windows-operated PCs for us to use. I never saw the light of the PC today. I whipped out my iPad and tried to follow the class. UNIX was draggy and made no sense. AWS was more on just technical setting-up than a comprehensive introduction to cloud computing. PHP and MySQL was literally alien. I started the day with ZERO coding or programming knowledge and I don’t think that’s changed. So as I was saying, I was terribly disappointed that I was a lost sheep.
Just as I was mentally whining on how this workshop does me no good, I got an email. Prof Ben posted a link to one of his previous students’ blog entry. The entry was directed at us CS3216 students. Most of it was experiences and advice that I had heard before. Except point 3- be realistic.
Just to quote an extract, “I encourage you to be realistic with regards to what you can and are supposed do. for example, if you’re someone who has hardly touch programming, dont expect yourself to be able to pick it up within the time frame of the first assignment. your friends from cs3217, soc, engineering who have wowed you so during the show and tell have all been doing it for a while now. remember, you’re chosen for this class for your unique skills. work towards honing them.”
He’s absolutely right. That’s exactly what my intentions were when I first applied for this module. I wasn’t in this mod to become a coder. I wanted to be the best bridge a technopreneur could be between the developers and the business minds. I wanted to learn all I could ABOUT cloud computing. Facebook APIs and mobile platforms not so much to learn the technicalities that govern them.
It might or might not be too late to pick up programming. Either way, after today’s wokshop I know for certain that my focus in this module will be to hone my pre-existing knowledge and skills. I have no intention to chase after a wild hope of learning coding and being versatile at it. I was the 25% of the group who was brought in because I’m “interesting” and I want to make that count for something to my teams. If somewhere along the way I somehow pick up any programming language, that’s just an added bonus.
In short, I’m going to go with Jon Lew on this one. I have my value and I’ll make that value count with everything that I’ve got.
Today’s lecture was a fresh reminder of what I was getting myself into. As freshmen, most of my peers are dabbling in level 1000 major mods. Here I am, in a cross-faculty double major programme, in the French LPP, as well as the Tembusu College academia. And if all of that wasn’t enough, I’m attempting to pull off a level 3000 CS mod without any programming or coding knowledge. To ice this lava cake, the seniors who have taken this mod just don’t stop emphasizing how this mod will take over all my time, my complete social life and even compromise my other mods. As the title of this post suggests, those were my only thoughts for a while.
As a young entrepreneur myself, I know exactly why everyone who pinned down this module for taking over their lives still hold it with such high regard and value. Developing an idea into a product with a core team is a beautiful metamorphosis. As suffocating and choking as the experience may be, the excitement, passion and pride that fortifies the work process is the penultimate consolation. CS3216 is not about new venture development nor is it about software engineering. This module is nothing but a lie. A cover-up to connect the most diverse abilities on campus just to see what happens.
So anyway, after today’s lecture I’m more convinced then ever that CS3216 is not a module for me. Only a fool of a multi-discipline freshmen would make such a despicable move. But I am that same kid who gave up reading medicine because I was so inspired by the bicycling culture in Europe. I like the adrenaline rush that comes with risks. I’m a fool none the less for I don’t measure my risks. I take them and I never look back again. That’s how I’ve led my life and I’m pretty sure CS3216 will be one of the craziest risks I have ever taken.
Major learning point from today’s lecture- Education is about learning to learn. And the non-compliance with this principle is exactly why the system here is a complete failure. I see little or no value to a stereotyped college education. However, one who has learned to learn can replicate his skill-set in any given scenario or discipline. And these individuals, I believe, are the corner stones of success stories.
Applying for CS3216 was as daunting as my first ever scholarship interview. I knew I was getting into something undeniably possessive. But I wanted it. The waiting phase between application and acceptance was as nerve-wrecking as the day I stood in SAJC, waiting for my A’Level results or when Van Der Sar saved the last penalty in the Moscow Champions League final. A tad dramatic maybe, but point driven home-
I wanted CS3216 to happen so bad.
I gave up reading medicine so that I could pursue my entrepreneurial ideas. Decided to major in Astrophysics, a passionate interest since I was a kid. Took up the 2nd major in biz management to hone my existing knowledge (from dummies and idiots guides). Same goes for CS3216, I wanted it because it would give me the extensive technology and software background that I need.
When I got the email offer from my faculty for this module, I was completely taken aback. The timing was perfect. I was just beginning an idea/venture on the mobile platform and near field communications. I recognized the module as something that would add immense value and knowledge to me as a technopreneur. Plus, I would get to meet and learn from some of the best programmers and coders in college, people whom I can work with in the real world to develop ideas into products and products into successful enterprises.
My aim for CS3216 is not to learn programming (though i expect to pick up a tad) but to completely comprehend the bridging between a business idea and the technical knit-work that takes place behind the scenes.
My only niggling concern is that I have no programming knowledge, at all, so I hope that my experience, creativity and passion offsets this liability.
In short, I’m thoroughly excited about how this module is going to run out. As a technopreneur, ideas are aplenty. Not all are feasible, not all are sustainable and not all are practical. But with a good team, I believe we can develop a groundbreaking product.
