What's Good Tonight? is a mobile applicaiton that allows users of social media platforms to access information quickly and with real-time data. The app directly pulls the user's information and posts from Facebook and Twitter; eliminating the process of scrolling through each social media site separately. WGT? is directed towards the target audience of young adults and the tech-savy generation interested in night-life. Thus the design concept incorporates a predominately darker colour pallet with the accenting colour yellow, representing a nightnight entertainment scene.
The logo and banner title of WGT? is all set in lowercase text. Social media generally is a relatively casual atmosphere amongst friends where users tend to avoid proper sentences structure, grammar, and use of vocabulary. The design goal was to veer away from any academic feelings and keep the theme open, light
and casual; ensuring users of a similar aesthetic appeal to that of the primary apps in which they are
posting content.
Since the app is pulling real time data, we chose to follow suit in keeping with an up-to-date real-time look and feel. The user is always aware of the time, their battery strength, etc.We also chose to include this to follow suit with both social media services we are pulling data from: facebook and twitter, as opposed to privately run apps independent of real-time or third-party data.This similar stylistic element is key to the design’s fluid integration of multiple social media services. The goal is to, as quickly as possible, give the user the data they require. We didn’t want too many options made available to the user earlier on in the navigation system; only relatively immediate access to information in a one-stop location. This allows the user to quickly make last minute arrangements and plans for that night to come.
We chose to circulate through the entirety each individual’s social media accounts in order to provide the user with options to attend and what to potentially avoid for the night; hence the title “what’s good tonight?”, directly plays to the target audience using a similar linguistics. The user is given the option between twitter and facebook, and with a single touch they can find information from either social media platforms in a timely fashion.
We provide the user with an advance search option, which allows them to further search through their social media friends to find a specific keyword search of what the majority or a specific individual are planning. The steps after this point, include contacting the user’s friends who post, by linking them to the perspective twitter or facebook home page of that friend. This app is simply to show information, as there is no input of data to the app itself. It is a contextual information space gathering from primary information input systems.
As shown above, the app automatically searches the word tonight. The user then has the ability to refine the search based upon the results found. For example, if the user is interested to see what friends in his/her network are attending the Kings of Leon concert that evening, they are able to refine the search; pulling real-time data.
Upon further development, the app could potentially include BBM, Google+, etc. WGT? could also search for commonly used slang when referencing the word ‘tonight’. The app has the potential ability to expand as a brand and use an internationally recognized system, similar to the hash tag (#) used by twitter; WGT? Would implicate the use of an asterisk (*) before the word “tonight”, which would become an iconic symbol and dominated by the WGT? brand.
This collaborative project was completed with myself and Richelle Rogers in 2011. The application was hosted and run off of the York University server, pulling live data from Twitter, and a work-around solution for Facebook. For more information, please contact myself at design.cmac@gmail.com or Richelle at rogersrichelledesign.@gmail.com
Thank you so much!!!
