Backend as a Service Blog case-studies

Periodically, we’ll highlight apps that are backed by Kinvey. Fetchnotes is a fellow TechStars Boston company that built a new kind of productivity app and turned it into a full-fledged business.

We like to highlight mobile development agencies who use Kinvey for their backend. Today, we’re showcasing Intrepid, a Boston-based agency that built Toucanect, a productivity app for iOS.

Every once in a while we showcase an app backed by Kinvey. Today, we’re highlighting a new app in the Apple App Store called “FIND IT.” The app combines mobile gaming, photo apps and social networking into one interactive, digital scavenger hunt.

Every once in a while we like to highlight mobile development agencies that are using Kinvey for their backend. I’m so very excited for our first “Development Agency Spotlight” in this ongoing series. Today, we’re showcasing a Boston-based agency, Ballast Lane Applications LLC.

We’ve started a new blog series called “Our Favorite Apps.” Every now and again, we’ll showcase an awesome app backed by Kinvey. This week, we’re highlighting an app called Evolution Prize.

Apps that effectively use Facebook’s Open Graph are ones that fill the loop to keep users coming back to your app again and again while simultaneously encouraging new users to try it. Facebook users can now do more than “like,” “share” and “comment.” Open Graph ties other app-specific verbs to timelines in the form of user-action-object.

Every once in a while we’ll profile an awesome app that was built on Kinvey and has recently gone live. The first in this series of “Our Favorite Apps” that we’re very excited to showcase is Toucanect. It’s a productivity app to organize your busy schedule and share it with the people in your life.

In early January, I spoke to Matt Lauzon, Jennifer Lum, Cort Johnson and John Clark about an idea to build an app for #RubyRiot. They felt that, during the event scheduled for February 21, it would be hugely valuable for the attendees to make requests for help and for others to pay it forward through a mobile app, and then connect everyone through Facebook and Twitter.

So, during a hackathon sponsored by Facebook on January 20th, we quickly built version-1 of an HTML5-based mobile app for #RubyRiot. During the hackathon, Mark, our new Kinvey team member, and Morgan ran into some interesting race-condition issues with Facebook, which was extremely insightful for us. Over a few subsequent days, we used PhoneGap to convert it into a native iOS and Android app and submitted the apps to the respective markets/stores.

In the world of health and fitness most people realize that in order to have an effective workout or diet plan they will need it to be custom fit to their individual needs, goals, and limitations. A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t cut it. Mobile apps need this same versatility.

A perfect example of this need to customize would be to compare an Olympic swimmer’s dietary needs to that of your average corporate cubicle warrior.  While a swimmer may need to consume in excess of 12,000 calories a day, a sedentary person that spends eight plus hours sitting at a desk per day and does not regularly exercise probably needs less than 2,000 calories per day.

The same concept applies to health and fitness mobile apps.  If an app can adapt to better suit its user, than said user will be more likely to find the app useful and therefore increase the odds that they will continue to use the app.

It is the equivalent of comparing the fit of a custom tailored three-piece suit to a blanket with sleeves.

In our research at Kinvey these comparisons could not be more obvious. On one end there are static apps like Arm Workout that provide a rigid set of information that stays the same regardless of the user. While on the other end there are dynamic apps like MyFitnessPal.com’s Calorie Tracker that require the user to provide vitals like age, height, weight, sex, weight loss goals and activity level. MyfitnessPal.com’s app then takes the user supplied data and uses it to manipulate the app to feel like it was tailored for its user.

Take a wild guess which app between static and dynamic had a near perfect score and which scored an 11 out of 100… I will give you a hint the winner rhymes with dyed hammock.

I really liked when this became the motto of the political service group Citizen Change in 2008. And when I found out P.Diddy was the founder of Citizen Change-I loved the saying. The question in 2012 is how can politicians instill the same “motivation” in citizens to become active in politics as the all-mighty P.Diddy did in 2008? The answer is in the app.

Voter turnout remained low at 40% in 2010. However, Smartphone use is on the rise and expected to reach 50% in the next year. Apps are clearly in a position to combat voter apathy, but how? If my economics class taught me anything it’s that the world revolves around INCENTIVES.

Luckily, mobile apps are experts when it comes to creating incentives. One simple solution is for apps to use LBS (location based services) to show events and volunteers opportunities in the app user’s area. More importantly, apps need to reveal what extra can be gained by participating. This is where LBS can take apps to the next level. Through tools like Foursquare, app users are informed of a number of reasons why they should attend events or volunteer.