LO1 Report - P1 + M1: Be able to research the development of digital media technologies to support the planning of a new product.

LO1: Be able to research the development of digital media technologies to support the planning of a new product. 

My idea for a new interactive product is to create an app that focuses on helping consumers with their mental health. The app would include features like a daily mood tracker, tips on how to improve their day-to-day activities, and some calming music in the background. When the consumers opened the app, they would be greeted with a standard home page, which would be customisable to each individual user. They would be able to change some aspects of the design such as the colour of the backgrounds or fonts of the texts to name some examples. The navigation would be achieved through the different main pages by either clicking the icons on the navbar at the bottom of the page or by swiping left or right to each section. This was influenced by and is similar to both popular social media apps Instagram and Snapchat, which appeals to the target audience (specifically the teenaged and young adults) because they are likely to use both apps daily and have a good knowledge of how to operate the app. My app would be in the same category and would have similar goals as other apps such as NAOMI - personal mental wellness assistant, Headspace, MyPossibleSelf: Mental Health, and InnerHour Self Care Therapy.  

 

Due to the way the digital revolution has progressed into modern-day technology, I chose to make an app due to its easy accessibility to everyone. Since the first mobile phone was invented in 1984, sometime throughout the 90s everyone from adults to teenagers owned a mobile phone. And moving forwards, going into the 2000s social media started to appear alongside apps, which previously were meant for games, on people's mobile phones. From 2010 onwards, it has become normalised for people to be on social media and have access to communicate online to people all over the world, which lead to globalisation, but also by seeing other people's lives the amount of unhealthy self-images have been increased among the population. 

The development of Web 2.0 has helped create this, since with user-generated content out online for anyone to see and interact with, people or specifically celebrities and social media influencers show only the best and happiest parts of their lives and it is rare to see how real the people are behind the screen. This implements more pressure on the rest of society to match their pictures and assumed lives, which can lead to negative self-imagery. Due to this, parents of these children and teenagers are becoming concerned over their child's mental health and has caused a moral panic. The term 'moral panic' came about after the media theorist Stanley Cohen created the Moral Panic theory in 1972, stating how the mass public are affected by the release of new media products and how they can threaten groups within society, in this case being the young people. 

Furthermore, with today's society and culture becoming more aware and educated surrounding mental health, more people will be wanting an app to help learn or manage their own mental health. This is why my app will be more individual-focused and self-centered, without any access to contact other people on the app, allowing the user to really pay attention to their own needs. I decided to not include ideas such as direct messaging or adding friends because this could affect people's mental health in a negative way. Whereas this feature would be helpful and fun in a mobile game app so you can compare your progress with others, this idea of competition should not be applied towards people's mental health as this is more personal. 

The development in technology that affects my product would be how the mobile phone has evolved over time. This has created more opportunities for my product within the app development industry for example some factors that contribute to aiding my product would be the amount of storage the mobile phone contains. This is because the higher the amount the better as it is more likely that the consumers have spare storage to download the app from the App Store. The creation of the App Store in 2008, and its' equivalent for other devices, for example, the Play Store for Android phones, is also fundamental for my product because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to easily distribute it. People would be able to find and download my app through searching the App Store or looking under the 'Health and Fitness' Category. 

My mental health guidance app could be advertised cross-platforms as it could be advertised on YouTube before a video which could be seen either on the website or the app or on people's interactive TVs. It could also reach its target audience through advertising on social media such as Snapchat between viewing stories or having a sponsored post on Instagram, which would increase the range of people who have been reached by the advertisement. Furthermore, the producers creating the app could communicate online either via social media or by using project management software which is also available to download from the app store. An example of this would be Monday.com which is advertised specifically as a work management and team collaboration app ensuring instant communication with staff who could be hours away. This wasn't possible before the creation of Web 2.0.