members - Emory Swanger, Kincaid McGee, and William Hannon
Our project is a simple fitness app that will allow a user to time workouts, store relevant YouTube videos, keep calorie and workout journals, and create custom workout templates. Our motivation is that a lot of fitness apps that we’ve used before come with bloated or premium features, and we thought that we’d take a crack at crafting a better, user-oriented experience. Our idea is not novel, as it will in all likelihood come to resemble many other fitness apps, but we hope to, again, offer a more free and lightweight experience. Collectively, we have a fair amount of experience using Android Studio alongside a high amount of experience with C++ and its relatives.
Our primary customer is someone who exercises or wants to get into exercising, but is intimidated by or for some other reason doesn’t want to use other workout apps on the market. These apps may have tons of features that the customer simply doesn’t know how to use. Our app would seek to be as simple and user-friendly as possible, letting the user focus more on their workout than the digital utilities they use. We will know that customers got the benefits of a lightweight exercise utility if they are indeed putting more time and attention on the workout itself than they are interacting with our product.
Our software will be able to store YouTube videos, track a user’s calorie count, offer workout programs, time workouts, and allow the user to keep a journal/notes about their fitness journey. To make these functions a reality our software will consist of databases for storing all the user’s information as well as the various YouTube videos and workout programs, a professional interface for easy navigation and overall use for the user, as well as using API’s from YouTube and other databases to easily retrieve and use their data. The minimal system that would have value to the customer is a functional app that can assist them with fitness related information and activities. Customers may appreciate a possible enhancement such as AI to the app which would be able to suggest meals based on their calorie counter and possibly suggest workouts based on their previous workouts. We will test the software in an emulated android device which can run the app as well as an actual android device for further error checking.
Most of the team has never created an android application before. That being said, the process of creating and coding the app will be a great opportunity to learn for everyone. We look forward to learning it and what is needed to create an android app. The roles for the team will be organizing meetings, assigning tasks, creating portions of app, and checking on the status of assigned tasks. The roles will be rotating so we all bear equal responsibility throughout the project.
Role: Manager
Skills:
- C, C++, Java, Python
- android app development and Leadership experience Responsibilities:
- Create and delegate tasks, Keep up with deadlines
- Ensure tasks are completed are time
Role: Developer
Skills:
- C, C++, and linux scripting
- customer service experience Responsibilities:
- Design and implement the android application
- Test the software
- Update the software as needed
Role: Developer
Skills:
- C, C++, Java, and bash
- databases experience Responsibilities:
- Design and implement the android application
- Test the application
- Update the software as needed
These skills will help the developers learn android development quickly and help to create the app. Our team also has skills in team work, leadership, customer service, and communication. These skills will help our team work together to accomplish tasks and work together to complete this project.
Below are the deadlines assigned to and must be completed by us. Between each deadline, we will have zoom meetings on the weekends to ensure that all members are synchronized. There are also goals we would like to have done before each deadline.
2/11 Write and present preliminary project proposal
-Learn the basics of android development
-Further refine user interface
2/18 Revise project proposal
-Begin implementing and testing app’s simplest features
-Learn basic graphic design and for the app’s aesthetics
-Write status report
3/4 Design and implement a minimal viable system. Submit iteration 1 status report
-Debug code
-Implement graphics and aesthetics of app
-Write 2nd report
3/18 Iteratively improve minimal viable system. Submit iteration 2 status report
-Add more advanced features
-Debug code
-Write 3rd report
4/1 Iteratively test and refine solution. Submit iteration 3 status report
-If advanced feature implementation is successful, aesthetics will be added
-Write final report and practice project presentation
4/15 Complete project implementation. Write project report and present finished project
CONSTRAINTS - Currently, our largest constraint is our collective lack of app development experience. As for legal constraints, we just need to be sure we are not breaking any copyright laws. Also, we will add a notice saying that this app is an experiment and is no substitute for a certified professional trainer or a healthy lifestyle. This is to prevent any legal ramifications such as charges of fraud.
RESOURCES - We will gain educational material from youtube, both for us and later storage for users. For nutritional information, we are looking toward datasets offered by google, government resources, and wherever else.
DESCOPING - The main educational goal of this project is to help members learn the basics of android app development and version control via GitHub. The most important features we plan on implementing are expected to be very simplistic. More advanced features are not required; they are icing on the cake. Instead of planning on descoping, we plan on starting very small and working our way up. In essence, we are under-promising so that we can overdeliver. The challenge of increasing the general fitness of people is a vast and complex one; one to large for a team of three to solve. Rather, if we can create an app that makes it easier for some to get started on their fitness journey, then we have achieved our goal.
MINIMUM VIABLE SYSTEM: Our minimum viable product will be an Android app written in Java or a similar framework (Dart, Flutter, etc.) that will contain the following features:
- a timer designed with workouts in mind
- a mechanism for saving YouTube video links
- a calculator for caloric intake
- a journal for organizing exercise routines
The app will be minimalist not only through its feature set, but also through its visuals and user interface. What assets there are will likely be simple vector drawings and the different modules will be accessible via an elementary list menu.