Students create digital tools to solve problems

Since the Apps for Good Awards in June this year, the winning teams have been busy developing their apps. Throughout the summer and into the new school term, the students have been working hard with professional developers, learning how to transform their idea into a real working product.

Each winning team has met with professional experts to discuss further all aspects of the final app. The students have received specialised advice on how to tweak the design, functionality, marketing and branding of their app in order to produce a feasible product that meets the needs of their target market.

Most teams have now created a landing page for their app and are linking this to an email communications system and social networking sites in order to launch and then manage their marketing strategy. The students are also learning how to use online analytics tools so as to better understand their potential audience and build a more targeted marketing campaign as a result.

In all, the student teams have learnt important business skills and sharpened their appetite for the technology world. One of the students from the team producing the ‘Social Bank’ app has explained how he felt the post-competition process has completely “exceeded” his expectations as “working with the experts is amazing” and he has described the whole experience as “incredible”.

The range of different types of apps currently being developed by the student teams is huge. Amongst others, there is an app to encourage owners to keep their pets healthy, an app to guide children through tuning their instruments, an app to help those with learning disabilities and Alzheimer’s disease and an app to support young people looking to develop their creative writing skills. Keep an eye out for these apps on the market when they are officially launched in January!