Field Trip – notes from “what can android do” conference

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          A cool breezing evening at the Container bar, just at the port of Jaffa, with aninteresting first speak of John Hanke from google.

          His talk was called “Breaking the Bubble: Reconnecting Digital Citizens with the Physical World”, and it really focused on data and how can it be incorporated in an Android app.

The app which he focused on is “Field Trip”:

a quote from google play:

“Field Trip is your guide to the cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around you. Field Trip runs in the background on your phone. When you get close to something interesting, it pops up a card with details about the location. No click is required. If you have a headset or bluetooth connected, it can even read the info to you.

Field Trip can help you learn about everything from local history to the latest and best places to shop, eat, and have fun. You select the local feeds you like and the information pops up on your phone automatically, as you walk next to those places.

The hyperlocal history experts of Arcadia will unveil local lore in places you never expected. Trend-setting publications like Thrillist, Food Network, Zagat, and Eater will point out the best places to eat and drink. Experts at Sunset, Cool Hunting, WeHeart, Inhabitat, and Remodelista will guide you to the latest unique stores and products. Atlas Obscura and Daily Secret help you uncover hidden gems no matter where you are. Songkick and Flavorpill guide you to local music.”

The app basically includes a service which updates the user on particular places once he passes by them. with many data providers of the cloud, the amount of historical data which it can offer is simply amazing, with the “citizens” of the application which will be able to add their own data to the application, one can only imagine the large scalability and exact and detailed information which it can offer its users.

One of the questions from the audience was: “how to set the equilibrium between displaying the proper notifications and not annoying the users?” and the answer was that it can only measured by usage and statistics from users throughout the whole spectrum of power users and normal everyday users. this is a very good question, because it’s always a serious question when discussing update frequency or push frequency, and what is relevant and what is not”. I will write a post in couple of weeks about some of the best practices which I know of which allow the user that much control on how the app is notifying him and how to design an app in such a way that sets this balance at optimal.

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