The Encourage Me application is intended to lift people up in stressful times during their lives. Know a time when you are especially stressed out? Mark it down through the optimizer application and you will be blasted with a text message of encouragement from a famous inspirational person of your choosing.
I may never produce the
Encourage Me application, but knowing that there are useful technological
techniques at my disposal makes me realize that the application’s existence is
more feasible than I had originally suspected. In the beginning I thought “Hey,
this is a cool application idea but I don’t even know how I would make it”. I
don’t know coding or anything (yet) so I guess I still can’t really make it,
but I do know that with using things like cloud computing, databases, social
networking, and much more can easily birth this thought into reality.
I also felt that comparing my
idea with other existing products was a realistic skill. I think most times,
one wants to pursue a dream regardless of what exists because one believes it
is an original thought, however, in most cases that’s definitely not true. For
example, when I wanted to make an invention for this project, I had to throw
out dozens of thoughts just because someone else had been clever and faster
enough to have made it already. It was really a reality check.
It was even more of a reality
check when I began to find ideas that were really similar to my idea. Even
after funneling down my ideas to the most original, not-yet-invented concept
similar projects still existed. For example, applications like IStress that
desired to help people through message blasts provided the same uplifting
service, despite the content differentiation.
Additionally, other non
technology based assignments such as analyzing the style of technology bloggers
has benefited me in a way I didn’t expect. I realized that many bloggers had
the same sort of blogging style, but the ones who stuck out the most were the
ones who had their own flare and originality to blogging. For example, I
analyzed a blogger that specialized with technology production and demand in
the Philippines. Yes, it’s not the most glamorous topic, but it does draw a
pretty large audience do to it’s specialized nature.
In conclusion, I think that this
project made me realize that technology is not scary and it is not something
that is all about wires and batteries. There are social, psychological, and
economical elements which need to be taken into account when producing a
product that appeals to a wide audience. From the necessity of the product to
the delivery and advertisement for the product, there is much to be done in
addition to creating the code and technology for a simple application.
