App review: Forest

August 29, 2018July 17, 2019 marcabrahamLeave a comment

My quick summary of Forest before using the app – I think I first heard Nir Eyal, who specialises in consumer psychology, talk about Forest. Given that Nir mentioned the app, I can imagine Forest impacts people behaviour, helping them achieve specific outcomes.

How does Forest explain itself in the first minute? – “Stay focused, be presented” is Forest’s strap line which I see first. This strap line is followed swiftly followed by a screen that says “Plant a Tree” and explains that “Whenever you want to focus on your work, plant trees.” This suggests to me that Forest is an app which aims to help people focus on their work and eradicate all kinds of distractions.

How does Forest work? – The app first explains its purpose in a number of nicely designed explanatory screens.

After clicking “Go”, I land on a screen where I can adjust time; presumably the time during which I want to focus and avoid any interruptions.

I set the time at 10 minutes and click “Plant”. I love how, as the time progresses, the messages at the top of the screen keep alternating, from “Don’t look at me!” to “Don’t look at me!” to “Hang in there!” Nice messages to help keep me focus and not fall prey to checking my phone. At any stage, I can opt to “Give up” which presumably means that the tree that I’ve been planting – through staying focused – will be killed.

I’m motivated to see this through and plant my first tree. When I complete my 10 minutes of uninterrupted time, I expect to see a nice tree right at the end of it. Try and imagine my disappointment when I don’t see a tree but instead am encouraged to create a Forest account.

Did Forest deliver on my expectations? – I can see how Forest helps people to focus and avoid checking their phone constantly. Just want to explore the gamification element of the app a bit more.

App review: Vipps

May 5, 2017 marcabrahamLeave a comment

I’m always on the lookout for new payment apps and I recently came across Vipps. Vipps is a Norwegian peer to peer payments app, currently only available to Norwegian users.

Fig. 1 – Screenshot of Vipps – Taken from: https://www.vipps.no/

These are the main things I’ve learned about Vipps:

Use the recipient’s mobile number – Similar to the way the likes of Monzo and Uber work, with the Vipps app all you need is the mobile number of the recipient. If you need to send money to someone else, your friend needs to download the Vipps app and the amount will be sent to his/her account registered with Vipps. Select the person you want to pay from your phone’s contact list or enter their mobile number.
Use Vipps to split bills – For example, when you’re eating out with a group of friends, you can ask your friends for money when splitting the bill. Create a group name – e.g. Nando’s on Friday – and add the names of the group members. Now people in your group can enter all expenses that are to be shared between the group members. Once all the amounts have been entered and everyone has confirmed that there are no more outlays, it is easy to see who owes what.
Personal account registered with Vipps – Vipps doesn’t have it’s own current account. Instead, users can send money through Vipps from any Norwegian bank, provided that they have a bank debit card and a bank account with the bank in question.
Getting started with Vipps – To be able to use Vipps, users need to enter a Norwegian national identity number, a Norwegian mobile number, the details of their payment card (Visa or MasterCard), their Norwegian bank account number and an email address. Once you’ve created a four digit code, you can start paying or receiving money. When logging into Vipps, you can use your personal code or Touch ID.
Vipps’ charges – Vipps doesn’t charge for amounts below NOK 5 000. For payments of NOK 5 000 or above, the charge is 1 per cent of the total amount. There is no charge for receiving money.

Main learning point: Love how apps like Vipps are making it easier and easier for people to pay and receive money. The splitting bills functionality is very welcome!

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Fig. 2 – Vipps’ peer-to-peer payments – Taken from: http://anti.as/news/vipps-by-dnb

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Fig. 3 – Screenshot of Vipps’ Android app; making a payment – Taken from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.dnb.vipps

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Fig. 4 – Screenshot of Vipps’ iOSapp; selecting a contact or a company that you want to pay – Taken from: https://www.appannie.com/en/apps/ios/app/vipps-by-dnb/

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App review – Qapital

October 26, 2016November 2, 2016 marcabraham2 Comments

As my readers might know by now, I’m always on the lookout for new apps or any other technology innovations that provide a simple but great customer experience. I think I’ve found another one in Qapital, an app that enables people to “Save small” and Live large.” The app lets people make small savings in an automated fashion. Qapital makes it easy to create (1) saving goals and (2) set up rules to trigger deposits into one’s Qapital account (see Fig. 1 below).

Fig. 1 – Qapital user interfaces – Taken from: https://letstalkpayments.com/keep-lookout-amazing-pfm-app/

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These are the main components of the Qapital app:

Choose a Goal – User can set monetary Goals through the Qapital app. Unfortunately, the Qapital app isn’t available in the UK yet, so I couldn’t set up a Goal through the app. However, once you download the Qapital app, users can set their own saving goal or select one of Qapital’s pre-selected goals.
Create a Rule – Qapital users can create Rules to managing their saving habits. Rules are events that trigger the Qapial app to transfer money fro a user’s linked account to their Qapital account. For example, if you find yourself spending a lot of money on guilty pleasures like tech gadgets or trendy trainers, you can set up your own “Guilty Please Rule” (see Fig. 2 – 3 below).
Connect to IFTTT – Users can link their Qapital account to their everyday (online) activities through IFTTT. IFTTT is a free web-based services that enables users to create “recipes”, which are simple conditional “If This Then That” statements. These statements are triggered based on changes in services such Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest (see Fig. 4 below).

Main learning point: I love how Qapital encourages people to save and makes it very easy to do so! Call it gamification or jusr great user experience, Qapital has created a very compelling proposition and product in my view.

Fig. 2 – Screenshot saving Rules on Qapital’s app – Taken from: http://www.tested.com/tech/android/564019-google-play-app-roundup-qapital-dub-dash-and-evo-explores/

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Fig. 3 – Rules that users can create on Qapital – Taken from: https://www.qapital.com/how-it-works

The guilty pleasure rule – This Rule has been design to help users curb their spending habits. If you feel that you really gotta have it, you can create a Rule to save a set amount when you give in to your guilty pleasure.
The spend less rule – Users can decide on a cap for how much they want to spend in one place, and they can then challenge themselves to spend less than that. When you come in under budget, the remaining amount is automatically to sent to a user’s Goal.
The roundup rule – This Rile lets users round up their change every time they make a purchase with their card linked to their Qapital account. Qapital’s average user saves $44 each month with this Rule.

Fig. 4 – Connecting users’ Qapital accounts to their online actvities – Taken from: https://ifttt.com/p/qapital/shared

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Learning more about EdTech (2)

November 4, 2015 marcabrahamLeave a comment

A few days ago I wrote about some popular apps within the educational space and I’d now like to focus more on some of the current (technology) trends within the “EdTech” space:

Shift from ‘asset based learning’ to ‘continuous learning’ – We’re already seeing a shift away from the traditional educational model – where learning happens through courses or certificates and has a defined endpoint. John Seely Brown, in a talk called Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Learner in the 21st Century describes this traditional model as an ‘asset-based’ approach. Instead, we’re starting to treat learning as a lifelong process consisting of deliberate practices aimed at constantly getting better. I can imagine that this will have a significant impact on educational technology. For example, learning might become more of a ‘playful’ activity and something which is ‘consumed’ much more on ‘pick and mix’ basis rather than the more linear approach that we’re used to.
Subscription learning – Some trend watchers have been predicting a model where for example universities do much more than just providing you with academic content. It’s about creating a “full stack” model whereby the education provider becomes a school, recruiter, a lender and an employer, all merged into one. This could mean that students have a lifelong relationship with their university, coming back to it as their career and their professional skills evolve.
Combining adaptive learning and competency based learning – The combination of a student picking up some specific competencies (‘competency based learning’) at a pace and in a format tailored to the individual (‘adaptive learning’) is something that technology can well facilitate. I believe this will be one of the biggest trends to watch in the EdTech space over the coming years. As a simple example, I’m currently doing a UX Design course online where I can work through the modules at my own pace and go over specific aspects with my tutor, who I Skype with once a week.
Gamification in education – Gamification, as the concept around motivation and rewards, will continue to have an impact on education. The channel through which you access the educational content becomes secondary, it’s all about the ways in which people the subject matter is presented to people and how hooked they become. As a result, learning effectively becomes an ongoing habit (see my point about ‘continuous learning’ above). A good example is Lifesaver which is a prize winning campaign that combines interactivity, live-action film footage and time based decision making activities to teach CPR on your tablet, smartphone or computer.
Enable ‘flipped learning’ – Flipped learning is an approach whereby students watch lectures and read related content online, and then go to a physical classroom to do their homework, under the personal instruction and guidance of teachers. The underlying idea here is that it will increase student engagement levels, both in and out of class.
Bring Your Own Device – The ‘BOYD’ approach builds on the reality that a lot of students already bring their own devices to school and use them for their own needs. Rather than trying to constrain the educational approach and content to a single device or operating system, the idea here is that the content should be device agnostic. I’m sure that over time the technology will get better at ironing out scalability, security and compatibility issues, but BOYD taps into the reality of students having their preferred devices and ways of working.

Main learning point: It feels like there’s a lot of opportunity for innovation and transformation within the educational space. It will be interesting to see at what pace this change will take place and its impact on our education.

Image taken from: http://www.videojeeves.com/blog/e-learning-for-kids/

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App review: Meerkat

March 11, 2015March 15, 2015 marcabraham1 Comment

The other day is saw a discussion about whether Meerkat will or won’t last. Meerkat is a simple video app which lets people stream live to their Twitters. It launched about two weeks ago and has been talked about (and used) a lot since. Let’s do a quick review of the app:

How did the app come to my attention? – Simple. My wife told me about Meerkat about a week ago. I also came across the app on ProductHunt.
My quick summary of the app (before using it) – This app lets me stream live to my Twitter follows.
How does the app explain itself in the first minute? – The first time I open the app, there’s a screen that introduces Meerkat’s ‘rules of conduct’, explaining that “Everything that happens on Meerkat, happens on Meerkat” and thus making it clear that my Meerkat recordings will be shared on Twitter (see Fig. 1 below).
How does the app explain itself in the first minute – The Meerkat login screen says “Tweet Live Video”, which clearly suggests that I’ll be able to tweet live video streams. At the top of my personalised screen I see a text field which says “Write what’s happening …” with two big calls to action – “schedule” and “stream” – underneath (see Fig. 2 below). I’m not quite clear about what will happen when I write something in the text box, or what to expect when I click on “schedule” or “stream”. Nor am I clear on why certain posts appear under the “upcoming” header; I’ve got three upcoming streams from Index Ventures in there, but I don’t understand where these posts have come from. Are they based on Twitter accounts that I follow or are they just placeholders to deal with an initial ‘cold start’ problem? Also, I know I’m not a designer but the light grey font used for the “upcoming” header doesn’t work particularly well against a dark grey background in my opinion.
Getting started, what’s the process like – I type in “Playing with Meerkat” (see Fig. 3 below) and then click on “schedule” to put in a time that works for me (see Fig. 4 below). Et voila, a tweet announces my live stream and off we go (see Fig. 5 below).
How easy to use was the app? – Fairly easy. I guess I personally could have done with a bit more to better understand how Meerkat works and perhaps see some examples of other live streams. For people like me who don’t do video that frequently or who are who conscious of the things they share on Twitter, a bit more context on the app would be helpful. For instance, I can see on the Meerkat leaderboard that Nir Eyal, who I know and trust, is an avid Meerkat user (see Fig. 6 below). It would be good to see some of Nir’s video streams directly from the app.
How does the app compare to similar apps? – Qik, which is now part of Skype, and Periscope, which is currently in private Beta are similar to Meerkat in a sense that enable live video streaming from a multitude of devices. It will be interesting to see what Periscope will look like when it goes live and to learn how easy to use the app is in comparison to Meerkat.
Did the app deliver on my expectations? – Yes. The app is simple – perhaps a bit too simple in places – and does exactly what it says on the tin, nothing more and nothing less.

Main learning point: It will be interesting to see what Meerkat’s usage is like once the current hype has subsided and once competitors like Periscope have entered the fray. The app is easy to use, but I feel it could yet do more in terms of its explanatory interface and enabling users to discover content. Considering that this is only the first release of Meerkat, it feels like a good and effective product.

Fig. 1 – Screenshot of the Meerkat screen which introduces the Rules of Meerkat

Fig. 2 – Screenshot of my personalised screen on Meerkat

Fig. 3 – Screenshot of my personalised screen on Meerkat after I’ve typed in something in the free text field

Fig. 4 – Scheduling my live video stream via the Meerkat app

Fig. 5 – Screenshot of my tweet announcing my live video stream on Meerkat to my Twitter followers

Fig. 6 – Screenshot of the leaderboard on the Meerkat app

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How TransferWise is changing the way in which we transfer money

November 13, 2014February 19, 2016 marcabraham8 Comments

TransferWise is one of those companies where you can just sniff groundbreaking success. TransferWise is a London-based peer-to-peer money transfer service which was started in January 2011. Earlier this week, the company was in the news because of rumoured discussions with well known Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, which could result in a valuation of nearly $1bn.

Transferwise is looking to disrupt the current status quo in banking land whereby premium (hidden) fees are charged when transferring money abroad. TransferWise was created to solve a problem that its Estonian co-founders Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann had experienced personally.

As Estonians working between their native country and the UK, they felt the “pain of international money transfer” due to bank charges on the amounts they needed to convert from euros to pounds and vice versa. With TransferWise, Taavet and Kristo are looking to remove the often felt frustration around transferring money abroad by significantly reducing the fees that one has to pay when transferring money. Banks charge up to 5% in (hidden) fees whereas TransferWise users pay 0.5%.

I’ve only just started using TransferWise myself, so I’ve start to look into how TransferWise works more closely:

Peer-to-peer – When looking at the steps involved in transferring money through TransferWise (see Fig. 1 below), the component that helps in keeping Transferwise’s rates low is the fact that one’s outgoing money transfer is matched with people sending money in the opposite direction. This is different to how traditional banks tend to route payments abroad. Instead of transferring the sender’s money directly to the recipient, it is redirected to the recipient of an equivalent transfer going in the opposite direction. Likewise, the recipient of the transfer receives a payment not from the sender initiating the transfer, but from the sender of the equivalent transfer. This process avoids costly currency conversion and transfers crossing borders (see Fig. 2 below).
Word of mouth – Given that Transferwise is peer-to-peer, growing its user base is critical to its success. TransferWise has a friend referral programme which incentivises users to invite their friends to TransferWise (see Fig. 3 below). I’m curious to find out more about how effective this programme has been in spreading the word and growing TransferWise’s user community. Currently, referrers are rewarded with cash incentives; it will be interesting to see whether TransferWise will – in the true spirit of gamification – motivate with the use of data instead of or as well as money. Businesses like Dropbox, Fab and Evernote have all created very successful referral programmes, using a number of gamification mechanics. I can imagine TransferWise have a solid group of customer advocates, who’ve derived tangible value from using its services. I wonder if these user champions are utilized by TransferWise in some sort of capacity, whether they have a formal customer advocate programme, engaging these users into campaigns or product improvements.
What do users say? – Just to get a sense of how successful TransferWise is in delivering on its mission and its differentiators, I had a quick look at some of the user reviews on TransferWise’s page on Trustpilot. A quick scan of some of the comments on there shows a lot of happy customers. If there is a negative point, it’s the lack of speed with which the money transfers are completed. Some users feel that TransferWise is slower at transferring money than some of the other money transfer services but they seem to offset this against the money they save in transfer fees.

Main learning point: TransferWise is one of those businesses that is truly exciting. Firstly, their whole mission is about shaking up an industry by introducing a new way of doing things. Secondly, they are delivering tangible value (i.e. less money spent on money transfer fees) to their customers. I’ll definitely continue to use their services and I’ll keep a close eye on how they grow their user base over the coming years.

Fig. 1 – How does TransferWise work? Explained in 4 key steps – Taken from: https://transferwise.com/en

Get started – Enter how much you’re transferring and where to. You can send to your own account abroad or another person or business.
Upload money – Pay TransferWise in your local currency. Use your debit card, just like shopping online, or make a normal bank transfer.
Conversion – TransferWise converts your money at the mid-market rate and matches you with people sending in the other direction.
Money sent – The converted money is sent to the target bank account. Everyone gets notified by email, so you always know where the money is.

Fig. 2 – Comparing the usual concept of money transfer vs the peer-to-peer concept of money transfer – Taken from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transferwise.jpg and created by Shaviraghu – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Fig. 3 – Screenshots of Transferwise’s online referral functionality

Fig. 4 – Some excerpts from user reviews on TransferWise’s TrustPilot page – Taken from: https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/transferwise.com

“Transferwise was very easy and emailed me every step of the way to tell me where my money was. As I’d never used a service like this, I called customer service several times and they were very helpful and assuring. It’s not as fast as a wire transfer between banks, but if you don’t need the money straight away, it’s worth it. The conversion rates are way better than what your bank will offer you, and you can avoid any international currency fees banks add on top of that. Would recommend to friends in the future.” “Kelly” on 13 November ’14
“If you used a main UK bank the minimum charge is around £25 and can take a while to complete, the exchange rate is usually fairly poor too. No such problems with Transferwise, small charge of £4.98 to send £1,000 and got €1,270.92 (1,277.3 less fee). We should all be using TransferWise.” “John Clive Williams” on 13 November ’14
“I hate hidden fees. Transferwise is even faster than they claim. And they did everything they promised. Perfect.” “Mark” on 13 November ’14
“I was trying to send money using my debit card and I received a misleading e-mail stating that I should contact my bank and transfer the money to Transferwise’s bank account. I didn’t want to do that so I tried again with my debit card and it worked. But the transfer was made twice… Lucky it was a small amount.” “Catherine” on 12 November ’14
“over the moon with TransferWise, the ease of transferring my money, the rates offered and the fantastic minimum charge is the best around. Saved a lot of money with this service. Thank you” “Gerard” on 12 November ’14
“Not quite as fast as the competing “more commercial” services, but the best rates we have ever achieved by some way.” “Simon” on 13 November ’14

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Luke Jerram and Playable Cities

September 23, 2014October 10, 2014 marcabrahamLeave a comment

I really like the concept of a “Playable City”. At a recent conference, Clare Reddington, Creative Director at Watershed, spoke about the concept of a Playable City. A Playable City is a city where people, hospitality and openness are key, enabling its residents and visitors to reconfigure and rewrite its services, places and stories. In other words, the concept of Playable Cities enable inhabitants to interact with their cities in a way which is very different to their everyday interactions. I guess the concept can be best explained through some great examples:

Luke Jerram – “Park and Slide”

“Park and Slide”, a one-off interactive art installation by Luke Jerram which took over a Bristol high street last year, with people taking turns on Jerram’s giant water slide.

Jonathan Chomko and Matthew Rosier – “Shadowing”

With this project by Jonathan Chomko and Matthew Rosier, Bristol’s city lights have been given memory, enabling them to record and play back the shadows of those who pass underneath.

Design I/O – “Faces”

“Faces” is an interactive installation that captures your portrait and sketches it at large scale, projected onto a building across the street. It was installed for six months as part of San Francisco Art Commission’s “Lights on Market St” Project. During that time, Faces captured and displayed 30,000 portraits, with an average of 160 portraits a day. Pan Studio – “Hello Lampost”

“Hello Lamp Post” was a playful SMS platform project that ran in Bristol and which enabled people to strike up conversations with familiar street furniture using the text message function of their mobile phones. As a result, people shared their thoughts and stories with streetlights, parking meters, letter boxes, bridges and boats in Bristol, with over 25,000 text messages sent by players in just 8 weeks.

Main learning point: I love the concept of “Playable Cities”, enabling people to see their cities in a new light and to interact with their everyday environments in a completely different way. Apart from the playful element involved in some of the Playable City projects, I believe that we can also learn from the new ways in which people interact with everyday objects. We can apply these learnings to other product areas and interactions.

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As I learn …

This site is about everything digital, giving an update on new things as I learn

Category: Gamification

App review: Forest

App review: Vipps

App review – Qapital

Learning more about EdTech (2)

How TransferWise is changing the way in which we transfer money

Luke Jerram and Playable Cities