CSCI 448 - Mobile Application Development (Android)

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For the Final Project, you and a team will create the app you've always dreamed of. The app content is completely open-ended and up to you. As the semester progresses, more information will be added to this page.

Part I - Elevator Pitch

The time is now! You've had this idea for a killer app that will make millions, but you never knew how to make it. This will be your chance. Unfortunately, your idea is too grand for you to implement by yourself. But don't worry, we have a team of developers at your disposal. The only catch, you need to convince them that you have the coolest app.

To do so, create a 30 second promotional video detailing your idea. Upload this video to Canvas. It is OK if there is already an existing app that does what you want to do. Try to improve it, add features you wish it had, etc. However, your app should not be a direct clone of the existing app. Make yours different and standout (something beyond a new color scheme).

Part II - Shark Tank

You will be assigned 10 random promo videos to watch and provide a brief review.

Part III - Team Formation

Now that everyone has heard all the ideas, the Sharks have decided that they will only fund 23 apps. You must now get together into teams of 3 and decide which of your three apps you will implement.

Each member of your team needs to submit a text document with the following information:

1. Team Name
2. Team Members
3. Whose app you are creating
4. App Name
5. One paragraph description of what the app will do

You will expand upon this document in the next deliverable.

Part IV - Proposals

Your team needs to come up with a company name and a catchy name for your app. The team must submit an app proposal that states the following:

1. Company Name
2. Team Members
3. App Name
4. Description of the App - What does it do? How will a user interact with the app? What service does it provide?
5. Database Usage - What information will need to persist? Is this data needed only for a single user and can be stored locally or is it needed across devices and needs to be stored in the cloud?
6. Components/Features of the App - What Android features/functionality does the app make use of? (see list below)
7. Planned distribution of labor - who will do what?
8. Road map - how will you implement this app? What steps must be accomplished? Do these steps need to be performed in a specific order? Start thinking how you will build this.
9. Deliverable Leaders - look below at all of the future deliverables that are team deliverables. There are six team deliverables to come. Each team member will be the deliverable lead who is responsible for making the team's submission. If the team deliverable is late or missing, then the lead will be docked the penalty (not the entire team). State who will be the lead for each deliverable. Each team member must be responsible for two deliverables.
10. Anticipated Challenges - what could go wrong? What difficulties lie ahead?
11. Sources - if any outside ideas contributed to the app idea, if you are using any 3rd party libraries. Give credit where credit is due.

Your app must meet the following specifications:

• Minimum SDK Version: API 26 (Oreo)
• Proper Permissions checking
• Local or Cloud Database
• Single Activity with Fragment NavGraph (You may have multiple activities across your NavGraphs, but you must submit a proposal addendum explaining why multiple activities are necessary and the purpose/role each will play. You must receive instructor approval to break from the Single Activity model.)
• View Binding

Your app must include at least three (3) of the following components:

• 2D Canvas Graphics
• 3D OpenGL ES Graphics
• Animation of Properties
• Background Services
• Bluetooth (not covered in class)
• Camera (not covered in class)
• Custom Views
• Maps and/or Location
• Microphone (not covered in class)
• Network
• Near Field Communication (not covered in class)
• Notifications
• Sensors
• Sound
• Gestures
• Other features not on this list with instructor permission

Your team needs to submit a PDF document that contains the above information. It should be at least three pages in length. Full credit will only be given for a well written and professional report.

Part V - Storyboards

It's time to begin designing your app - specifically the look and feel of the app. You must create a storyboard showing the following aspects of your app:

• The layout of each screen. Where do you want your text boxes? Where will buttons go? Is this a list of items that the user can scroll through?
  
  
• How the user moves through your app. If a user clicks on a button, what screen do they go to? How does that screen look?
  
  
• Will portrait/landscape orientations differ? Do components of the screen need to be placed differently to accommodate the change in screen area?

This step will not involve any code writing. It is all planning and will form the basis of your NavGraph. You will start to get an idea of what your Fragments will be.

Your team needs to submit a PDF document that contains all the screens/states/transitions your app will contain. It can be hand drawn and scanned, or more professionally done.

Part VI - Alpha Release

It's now time to start coding up your app! The main target of the Alpha Release is to turn your Storyboards into a working NavGraph. Convert each storyboard into a fragment with corresponding layout. Hook up the buttons and events to allow the user to move through the app.

There does not need to be any domain functionality at this point. It is perfectly acceptable to have the following:

• Normally pressing a button causes a large calculation to take place, a call to the web, and a pin dropped on a map.
• At this point, pressing the button displays a toast stating "Your location will be plotted on a Google Map".

Your team will not have the knowledge yet to complete all the functionality. The Alpha Release is targeting creating the structure of your app. We will discuss in class that you need to hook up your app to Crashlytics reporting.

At a minimum, you must have an Alpha Release that serves as a proof of concept focusing on basic UI flow and functionality. A user should be able to navigate through the the app and view the different screens. No backend functionality need be, or should be, present.

Your team needs to submit the apk for your app, an icon if you created a custom one, and a README. The README document must contain the following items:

• Any usage instructions
• Known bugs
• Areas you would like feedback on

These three items will be zipped together and submitted to Canvas.

Part VII - Alpha Feedback

Each student will be randomly assigned three apps to review the Alpha Release of. Fill out the provided form for each app to provide helpful feedback to the development team. As you fill out the form, think about what sort of helpful feedback you would like to receive for your app and let the other teams know. Try to break their app. If you succeed, then let the team know in a gentle manner. Also provide the steps to reproduce what you did. Examples of feedback will include:

• Usage problems - e.g. buttons don't do what is expected, tried to do X but it wasn't supported
• Errors - how to reproduce a nonfatal/fatal error
• Suggestions - it would be cool to add Y

Every development team will receive feedback from 8-10 students. Instructions for performing reviews will follow.

To install an APK, with your device connected to Android Studio open up a terminal and run the following command

• For physical device: adb -d install path/to/your_app.apk
• For emulator: adb -e install path/to/your_app.apk (you may also be able to drag-n-drop the apk to the emulator)

Part VIII - Beta Release

After receiving your first round of feedback, it is now your opportunity to respond to the comments left and fix any bugs that were discovered.

You must have a Beta Release that is an improvement upon your Alpha Release. This should include bug fixes, refactoring, modifications, improvements, and there should be SOME domain functionality in place.

Your team needs to submit the apk for your app, an icon if you created a custom one, and a README. The README document must contain the following items:

• Any usage instructions
• Known bugs
• Current areas you would like feedback on
• A list of the feedback you received for the Alpha Release and a comment stating how you addressed the comment

These three items will be zipped together and submitted to Canvas.

Part IX - Beta Feedback

Each student will be randomly assigned three apps to review the Beta Release of. Fill out the provided form for each app to provide helpful feedback to the development team. As you fill out the form, think about what sort of helpful feedback you would like to receive for your app and let the other teams know. Try to break their app. If you succeed, then let the team know in a gentle manner. Also provide the steps to reproduce what you did. Examples of feedback will include:

• Usage problems - e.g. buttons don't do what is expected, tried to do X but it wasn't supported
• Errors - how to reproduce a nonfatal/fatal error
• Suggestions - it would be cool to add Y

Every development team will receive feedback from 8-10 students.

Part X - Final Release

Take into account the feedback you received and address the errors/concerns that were raised. By this point you should have a polished app that not only accomplishes what you set out to do, but looks pretty slick as well. Your app should now be free of any bugs and does not unexpectedly crash. All functionality should be in place.

For this submission, you must now zip together your entire Android Studio project and upload all of your source code. Again include a README that states:

• Any usage instructions (should be self-explanatory by this point. Ideally your users don't need a tutorial to use your app)
• Known bugs (should be none)

These items will be zipped together and submitted to Canvas.

Part XI - Website & Video

Make a company webpage that advertises your app. If someone was to visit this page, then convince them to download your app. Show off its features, show screenshots, tell them about all the cool stuff it does.

Additionally, make a short video advertisement for your app. While it does not need to be professional in quality, it needs to be professional in content. You should include it on your webpage. Android Studio allows you take take a screen cast of your app running. You can see examples of videos from last year's apps in the App Store.

Zip together all the files for your webpage, along with your video (if it's not on YouTube or Vimeo), and upload to Canvas.

Part XII - Final Report

Your final report must include all documents turned in to this point (proposal, storyboards, alpha release notes, beta release notes, final release notes). In addition, be sure your report addresses these points:

• A Tutorial/Guide how to use your app. Walk a user through all the cool stuff your app does.
• Describe the technical aspects of your app. What is going on behind the scenes?
• Describe the components you added to your app. Why was each necessary? What do they add to the user experience?
• How did your final design differ from your original concept? Why were you forced to make these changes?
• Address the challenges your team faced during the development process. How did you overcome these hurdles?
• Include screenshots that exhibit the feature being discussed for each section above.

Upload a single PDF containing all of the above to Canvas.

Part XIII - Team Feedback

Each Team Member will provide feedback on the team experience. This will include division of labor and division of effort. How well did your team work together? Did everyone contribute equally towards the project? Did any problems arise throughout the process?

Part XIV - Final Presentation

During the Final Exam Time Slot, each team will give a 5 minute presentation demonstrating and selling their app. Your goal is to show off how cool your app is. Demo all of its features. Also give the audience an insight to the back-end, what's going on behind the scenes? What are the cool features and implementation details you included?

Additional details will follow.

Part XCI - Deploy to Play Store

Register as a Google developer and submit your app to the Play Store. Advertise your app everywhere! Extra points will be given based on the number of downloads your app receives. More downloads == more points!

Deliverables & Deadlines

Below is the timeline of deliverables. If Submission Type is listed as "Individual", then every team member is expected to provide a submission to Canvas. If Submission Type is listed as "Team", then the full submission only needs to be done by the deliverable lead member to Canvas. There are no late extensions on any of the final project deliverable deadlines. These are hard deadlines, penalties will be applied for late submissions. As we approach each deadline, additional details will be given as needed.

Documentation

With this and all future assignments, you are expected to appropriately document your code. This includes writing comments in your source code - remember that your comments should explain what a piece of code is supposed to do and why; don't just re-write what the code says in plain English. Comments serve the dual purpose of explaining your code to someone unfamiliar with it and assisting in debugging. If you know what a piece of code is supposed to be doing, you can figure out where it's going awry more easily.

Proper documentation also means including a README.txt file with your submission. In your submission folder, always include a file called README.txt that lists:

• Your Name / email
• Assignment Number / Project Title
• A brief, high level description of what the program is / does
• A usage section, explaining how to run the program, which keys perform which actions, etc.
• Instructions on compiling your code
• Notes about bugs, implementation details, etc. if necessary

Grading Rubric

Your submission will be graded according to the following rubric.

Submission

When you are completed with each deliverable, compile a file named

<NAME>_FP_<DELIVERABLE_ID>.<EXT>

where NAME is either your name (if individual submission) or your team name (if team submission), DELIVERABLE_ID is the ID of the current deliverable, and EXT is the file type expected for the given submission. Upload this file to Canvas under the appropriate deliverable section of the Final Project.