Design a free mobile application to assist users with at least one issue caused by COVID-19. The application does not need to be health related.
- Gerard Kolan
1. Clarify the scope:
- Mobile application: Is this a mobile web app or mobile app? Deciding to design a mobile app which runs both on android and ios to maximize reach
- The app will be built without the goal of any revenue monitization
- Goal?
- Is to help users navigate through this Coronavirus situation effectively
- Increase installs for the app once built, so to do that we need to build a product that has maximum effectiveness in this situatuion and is not covered by other alternative solutions avaiable in market
- It says atleast one issue, but I would prefer looking into multiple needs of the users and prioritize what to go ahead with
2. User groups:
- Coronavirus users can be grouped by 2 facets
- Facet 1 Age: 1-2 years (young babies), 2 to 15 (Kids), 16 to 50 (Mid Bracket), 50+ (Seniors)
- The reason of breaking this by age brackets is that coVid affect more on seniors like 50+ and young babies more than other groups. Kids are listed separately as they need adult super vision at this time and may have different needs than a Mid bracket user who can look after their own.
- Facet 2: Geo divide: Developed vs Developing vs Poor nation
- The reson for treating this group separately is because based on the healthcare professionals and facilities avaiable, financial freedom of majority population we need to treat the users coming from diffewrent nations in a separate way
- For the sake of this problem lets us focus on the Developed nations like America and countries in Europe, across all age brackets. The reason for choosing this user group is beacuse these are most affected communities at this point in time and can have maximum reach for the solutions we are building
3. Use cases/ user needs for our selected user group:
- CUJ#1: Users want to be aware of the reach of coronavirus within their locality and how they can be sure of distancing from users or neighbouhoods already affected of coronavirus
- CUJ#2: Users need to be able to get a regular supply of essential food and groceries replenished at their homes
- CUJ#3: Users have to ensure they are following all neccesary precautions and things to do as shared by credible organization like WHO / CDC
- CUJ#4: Users want to keep themselves fit and regularly exercise when they stay within their house premises
- CUJ#5: Users need to connect virtually with other members of friends, family / colleagues to not feel left out
- CUJ#6: Parents need to engage with their kids and keep them happy and mindful of the situation affecting them negatively
- CUJ#7: Seniors and old parents who needs doctors assistance cannot go out in teh fear of contracting Covid
- We are conciously keeping aside the use cases for users/employees who are working from home and focus on more generic sort of use case that address more users
4. Narrowing down the problem:
- Given the expansive sort of use cases this scenario I need we need to prioritize and focus on one or two use case and dig deeper into those and solve for them
- CUJ#1 is being addresed by some global dashboards from Univerties and Org like Bing and Google. Local clusters of coronoa infected neighbour hoods are also being handled by heath ministries accross the globe
- CUJ#3 lots of work accross FB, Youtube, #4 headscape, yoga and health apps, #5 GHangouts, Zoom
- CUJ#2, CUJ#6, CUJ#7 are sort of novel and unaddressed
- CUJ#2 seems to me to be of a higher priority, as food supply are essential to ensure no one is hungry in these tough times
5. CUJ#2, what are the sub use cases:
- Food Ministries (Country and state) wants to ensure essentials food supply is provided to users in a regular fashion
- Food Ministries want to keep a track of users not gaming the system by stocking supplies and inflating family members number
- Food Ministries want to ensure food supply happens for free or paid based on the average income of teh households so that it doesnot do to places who can afford their supplies
- Food Ministries want to ensure easier logistics by meeting demans with local suppliers
- Well off individuals wants to donate food to the people in need
- Well off individuals wants to pay for their family supplies that they receive including bearing the charges for delivery
- Well of individuals wants to distribute extra food item in stock people in need
- All consumers need to be able to raise a request for food supply to replenish stock
6. Solutions:
- Build a app which different access controls for Food ministry, Logistics provider, consumers
- Consumer features:
- Feature to raise a request for replenish supply on tap
- Payment gateway to pay and donate
- Transparent rtacking of donations made
- Tracking of requests
- Food ministry:
- Easy view of order request pipeline
- Payments tracker
- Tracking of suppliers and logistics provider
- Logistics provider:
- Maps feature to ensure accrurate delivery
- Other ideas: (Non MVP)
- Optimized logistics delivery with real time data tracking of suppliers, vehicle location and consumer location with the help of historical data and using ML models
- Generate transperancy into the system by creating a live analytics dashboard for donations, payments and supply visible to all the user groups
- Create Amazon like dash key for needy users not having access to a smartphone or for senior users who cannot navigate through an app to raise a request for replinishing stock

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