U1 your phone? Check this app

Hi Chris! You’re developing an iPhone app for the Stagecoach Unibus service, which sounds great! I’m excited to learn more about it, but first I must ask – What got you first interested in creating apps?

I originally started getting into apps when I bought an iPod touch back in my first year of college. At this point I was just amazed at all the different things they could do, all from your pocket and no matter where you are. Unfortunately, I lost that iPod touch, but I was sold an iPhone 3G by my sister as she didn’t want her upgrade a few months later. It was from this point that I became interested in actually creating apps. I suppose the main reason is in the beauty of mobile devices and how they really give you an opportunity to help people no matter where they are. You aren’t constrained to the problems people have at their computer desk. I found these mobile problems a lot more interesting. I remember at the time even trivial tasks that we take for granted today were amazing. For example, if I’m in a new town at the railway station, how can I get to ‘X’? The maps application would instantly route you, right there and then: no forethought required. You can really get at people’s problems right at the moment when they need them solved.

It was from this realisation that I actively pursued wanting to create apps. I saw them as a sure fast way to get in front of a lot of people and solve emerging problems. It was a slow process from here to creating my first app, but it was nevertheless a realisation that still fuels my desire to create apps to this day. From here, I actually withdrew my entire life savings up until that point to buy a MacBook Pro (which I still use!) and follow my ambition, step by step.

Have you created any other apps previous to this one?

The major app that I created before this one was Firework Flare. Firework Flare is actually a game that I conceived in the first year of university rather than a conventional app. It blends Fruit Ninja swiping mechanics with a colour matching element, giving combos to selecting chains of fireworks of the same colour. This took just over a year to make, which is a crazy amount of time looking back at it. Of course, I was only ever working in my spare time, often working up until the very last moment I could before university work got in the way (as any procrastinating student would probably say!). This was the first app I created off my own back and thus it was quite difficult to go from knowing nothing to creating something, which is probably where the year has been spent. I started by working through Stanford University’s iPhone development course and then learned bit after bit when and where it was needed. The game hasn’t been majorly successful unfortunately. It still gets about 5-10 downloads a day, and has amassed about 2000 over its lifetime, but the lack of initial marketing really held it back. No one really knows about it.

I haven’t really spent the time creating apps under my name up until Unibus, but I have worked on a lot. In the summer of 2012 I interned at The App Business, working on apps such as Unilever Investor Centre, Soundbites and other in house applications. I also fully developed the iOS application for my second year group project which was based on trying to predict stock prices from news reports for Deutsche Bank.

So, what inspired you to create this Unibus app?

My main inspiration was just that I knew it was an annoying problem. There’s a good saying amongst entrepreneurs that a good bet is to solve problems that *you* actually have, as then you’re sure to have at least one customer and a real problem! I never had an easy app to open and check when the next bus was when either staying late at the learning grid or before I stand in the rain for 20 minutes waiting for the next bus on the parade. This was an inconvenience that just wasn’t necessary; there had to be a better way.  Moreover, through some research, I knew that other people had also experienced this problem. There is actually another app that attempts to solve this problem called Warwick Buscatcher. This app does a decent attempt, but it’s old and I felt it didn’t go far enough. There wasn’t good design and it was limited to only two bus stops. There is also the iWarwick app which had reviews mentioning the usefulness of the bus times. This was a good positive, but I again felt the functionality and design were left wanting. You could only see the next several buses after selecting drop downs of bus stops; it wasn’t a good user experience.
It’s also good to note what the current options are for finding the bus times as it gives a good insight into why students would benefit from a dedicated app.

Firstly, Stagecoach have a PDF document online that is annoying to locate and difficult to parse. It’s a table where some cells are blank, some cells contain symbols that aren’t explained anywhere, and at times the times are actually wrong (which I’ve pointed out to Stagecoach!). It also only contains the major bus stops along a route (about seven), leaving you all but stranded for the other 80. This also applies to the current bus apps.

Secondly, you can check bus times at the bus stop. By this point you may have to wait awhile and some bus stops don’t even have a timetable on them.

Could you tell me a bit more about the app and what features it will include?

Unibus is an app that makes it easy to find out the bus times that otherwise would be a complete hassle. It’s built to be easy, it’s built to be familiar and it’s built to focus around student use cases specifically at Warwick.

Why is it easy? When you open the app, you can instantly see the next bus time and be able to check all subsequent times for the next 24 hours. No menus, no forms, no PDF; just the information you need right there and then.

Why is it familiar? Its design is based around the iOS weather app. Instead of towns, it has bus stops. This makes it instantly recognisable to any iOS user.

I figured that the Unibus app is different than normal transport apps. Students aren’t trying to get from one side of the city to the other. After all, there is just one bus route. Therefore, the app is not about routing. Instead, it’s based around the idea that students have a bus stop they go to in the morning, a bus stop they generally come home from and perhaps a bus stop to their mate’s houses. The weather app centric design enables you to select these bus stops for your main screen and simply swipe between them depending on where you are. You don’t have to fill anything out and yet get just the information you need.

To select the bus stops for your main screen or simply see times for a one off bus stop, there is also a map view which shows every bus stop on the U1, U2, U12 routes, barring Coventry. This is not available anywhere else, so now can you know exactly where your nearest bus stop is.

Also a crucial part of the app is bus timetable estimations. You’ll never know bus times for a stop that isn’t part of the seven online without actually making the trip to the bus stop. I’ve solved this by developing an algorithm that takes the timetables of the major stops and estimates the times for these minor stops by using time and distance calculations. Therefore if there is a bus at the Gatehouse at 9:00, it will calculate that there will be a bus at the Library at 9:01, despite there not being any timetable online for that stop.

Unibus also promotes local photography of the university and surrounding areas. The app features a large photograph which I aim to change weekly with student’s submissions. These photos will also feature a reference to the submitter and hopefully promote their work whilst keeping the app fresh.

This is the basic feature set to see if people actually wish to use such an application. In the future I envision setting reminders for bus times and perhaps even a real time simulation of the Unibus network based on the information I have. Including the number 12 bus route for Coventry students would also be a plus.

The app is currently designed for iPhones. Do you have any plans to expand the app so that it is available on Android phones, Blackberries or other devices?

Not at the moment. However, if the app proves popular, people use it and there is demand for an Android app then I will definitely set about creating one. It would give me a solid reason to invest the time to learn Android development which I would be extremely happy about.

Blackberry is definitely a write off though. I don’t see it as a worthwhile investment given the state of their company and the lack of market share. Similarly for Windows phone, the lack of market share would be preventing me.

How much will the app cost?

Free! This should get the app to as many people as possible. I’ve yet to decide whether I should place ads within the application, or create a “premium” version for 69p (perhaps with features such as the reminders). I’m quite interested in perhaps speaking with local student businesses and seeing if they would be interested in advertising within the app.

And most importantly, when and where can we get this app for ourselves?

Probably early October. It’s difficult to put a time on it at the moment due to a lack of communication from Stagecoach (I’ve sent them a lot of emails, maybe they’re sick of me!). I need the October – December bus timetable so I can put it in the app as it’s currently not worth putting in the rest of the Summer timetable due to route alterations and the limited time it has left. Once I get the new timetable, I’ll spend a couple of days putting it in and then release it. You’ll be able to get it from the App Store by searching Warwick Unibus, or going directly to www.chrishowell.me/unibus once I get the website up and running later this month.