Question

Assume that the owner of a bike rental shop at a popular summer resort wants to create a mobile application to aid customers who want to book bikes via their mobile systems. You have been hired as a consultant to recommend the best strategy for creating such an application.

In an essay, describe some features you will include in this application to ensure a quality user experience. Make your recommendations specific to this application for this particular bike shop. In addition, propose either a thick-client or a thin-client application. Provide reasons to justify your choice.

Answer 1

For an application designed for a bike shop, we have a lot of scopes that we can cover. From the specific style of riding to the area of use, intensity, the weight of the individual, particular preferences to the parts of the bike(say a gel-padded seat), etc. We need to create our application robust enough to cater to every possible need a rider might have, thereby reducing the need for constant upgrades which can benefit in the form of saving up on capital investment.

The first consideration is the platform of the application. Given that there are different operating systems such as iOS, Android, and Windows OS, developing a separate code base for all platforms would become difficult. Similarly, excluding specific OS would limit our ability to target our customers. While a native codebase is the most stable on its native platform, having three different platforms would limit our flexibility. The answer to this would be to develop a hybrid application, based on a single code base and able to be compiled to different platforms.

The second consideration is the UX and UI. The application has to be easy to approach while still being able to provide the user with the smallest available customization. It can be targeted by creating two separate UI elements, which can be switched from an advanced layout to a simple one within the options, catering to all types of customers in the same implementation. The UI should be minimalistic, and the use of the color scheme should be consistent and not distracting.

The final consideration is the customizable ability. Based on the specific needs of the rider, the app should be able to show available configuration, the time it could be available and the different options for customization such as a navigation module for a mountain bike, electronic speed and distance module for different purposes and the ability for the client to select the bike frame, paddles, seat position and height, and selecting a model according to their body composition.

With all the following consideration, we can approach a developer with specificity and a targeted approach and begin building the application.

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