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For the duration of phase 2, the key goal has been to decide what form a Happy Packages iPhone application should take, with several (quite different) ideas being considered

One of the big ideas that we took forward to a prototype explored the notion of 'channels' to categorise the individual trails (Quick recap, a trail is a set of locations that the user is guided to by different means to recover digital content). A rough working model was produced to investigate how user interaction and navigation might work for this system. It also led to a new way the application could be monetised. I would like to share how we envisaged such an application.

What is a channel?: A channel could be based around a brand (Nike Channel), an organisation (Greenpeace Channel) or an event (Bristol Festival Channel), and would work in a similar way to YouTube Channels as a way to organise content (the trails) within the application. The application would have a tabbed menu with one of the tabs displaying a list of these channels.

On every invocation, the application would contact a remote server and update its channel list. The update could even include locational information to bring results relevant to the user's current position. A user could also specify things they are interested in to influence the results (posssibly as part of a user account setup).

A user can then browse through the channels and select one to see its summary screen. This screen would be a blank canvas to be completely themed around the channel. It could contain information about the brand/organisation, image, links to web content, links to videos, anything that the iPhone supports.

The application would be made in such a way that new channels could be added remotely into the list by administrators without the need for the user to update it.

Theming / aesthetics aside, the key function of the channel would be as a container of one or more trails. As such, a consistent UI element to see the trails should be placed in a notable position (In the screenshot, the right hand button in the navigation bar). The channel implicitly categorises trails to make it easier for the user to find something they like or are interested in.

Example: A Harry Potter Channel could be created to support the launch of a new film. The user sees the channel (it could be highlighted as 'new' to bring it to the user's attention) and touches the name to go to the channel summary. Here he sees a dedicated Harry Potter screen, with appropriate theming and branding. It has links to trailer videos and showing times. The user then touches the view trails button to see different trails connected with Harry Potter that they can do. (This could be, find the runes to make a spell, etc...but that's the subject of another blog!)

My Trails: The prototype also uses the idea of 'My Trails', another tab on the tab bar which provides quick access to the trails the user is currently interested in. This is essentially a bookmark/favourite function which brings the trails out of the many different channel lists and into one easy to find place. A user can quickly add any trail into My Trails from the channel at any time.

Monetising: With such direct exposure to the public, and the flexibility on the look and theme of a channel screen, the opportunity for a company/brand to have a channel with the application would be a great marketing opportunity. As such the application could be distributed to end users for free (to get a large user base), and charges made for the privilege of owning a channel.

Conclusion: At present we are still considering other ideas which might completely change the notion of what a trail is (see previous posts), and so we are not sure whether the channel model fits in with what our end product could be. However, it is something the public should already be familiar with, as it is used in many popular websites already. As a useful way to categorise our traditional idea of trails, to us it makes a lot of sense.

One concern is that with the flexibility of the channel screen, any media content or web links could obscure the original purpose of the channel, i.e. to contain trails. The design of the application should consider this carefully!

Posted by Tom Dowding