Mobile Apps

Apps are moving beyond web sites as the default architecture of the planet. But apps are not the same as web sites, trying to recreate a web site as an app is to miss the point. People use apps differently, people take apps with them, wherever they go, people dip in and out of apps. The new hand held devices, be they smart phones, IPods or IPads allow users to play and browse using gestures, tilts and turns. Apps should have a playfull element, an element lacking in most web sites. Playful often means games, but the word ‘games’ can be misleading. People often imagine games as shooting things or racing of some sort, but a quiz is a game.

A well designed Quiz can be an interesting and fun way to help people learn about a particular subject, location or facility. Organisations that need to impart lots of information that is not necessarily riveting can do so with a Quiz. Light interesting questions can be mixed with more dry subjects, the user is propelled out of curiosity and wanting to get a high score.

The Quiz format has started to become much more popular with the advent of mobile apps. Whatever you think about “How wants to be a millionaire” – the app, it does encourage users to make repeated short visits. It’s rapid fire ready mix of easy and obscure questions provide an interesting model for disseminating information.