MIT Technology Review: WifiSLAM

Whilst doing further research for my app idea, I came across this review article of a piece of technology which would be perfect for my app idea 'Find Your Way'. I spoke about possibly using Wifi to enable my app to work indoors, however I wasn't sure how this technology would work and I couldn't use NFC as Apple devices do not support this technology, which would limit my app to Android and other devices. This article explains how Wifi would work indoors to help people navigate around just using their phones.

GPS in mobile phones led to a rapid increase in location based app and services. However when you enter a building GPS often stops working, after all it is designed to help people navigate outside not indoors. What if there were apps/services that helped you navigate indoors? Using Wifi we could allow people to navigate inside various buildings, this technology has been developed and tested. Students from Stanford university founded this technology, which enables a phone to work out its position by using Wifi networks and information taken from the devices compass. However this technology is only accurate to within a 'couple of steps' says Anand Atreya, the cofounder of WiFiSLAM. He explains that this technology could be used in bigger and more complex building such as supermarkets, airports and even hospitals.
It explains the way WiFiSLAM and the device works together to find the exact location when you are stationary and when you are moving. It analyses the signal strength and unique IDs of all the Wifi networks around it, and the estimate location can be improved if the devices moves slightly allowing WiFiSLAM to gather specific information on that network and work out where you are.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/424213/using­wi­fi­for­navigating­the­great­indoors/ 

Initial designs

Above is the first design for my loading screen, I incorporated the logo as the main feature. This is to emphasis the branding of my app, so that the audience become familiar with my logo and recognise it during the marketing part of my project. The background of my loading screen will be cream, and I am currently working on the colour blocking of my logo. As for the text in the loading screen, I want that to stand out and have chosen three creative fonts to chose from that will feature within the App.

This second sketch (above) shows what I would like my home screen to look like which is where the users will choose which function they would like to use when they first open the App. I wanted to go for a simplistic look, so that all ages would feel comfortable when interacting with it. This design allows the user to clearly see where they want to go and what feature they would like to use in the app. 

Moving on from the actual screens, I started to design my logo for my App. This is my first design, as soon as I started to think about my logo I thought about buildings, as this was the main part of my concept. I wanted buildings to really stand out so I decided to have a building skyline as the main feature of my logo. 

This logo design was more plain compared to the previous one, however I still felt the simplistic look of the App was the best choice. Having the skyline as the only feature fits in with the updated user interface of iOS 7, as it looks professional and clean.

This was the worst of the three designs, as when I showed it to my peers none of them knew exactly what it was. I tried to incorporate more of the building design into the logo, the bottom half of this design is building blueprints, however as no one recognised this I decided not to use this one.