From Backcountry Skiing to PTA meetings

One of the few vices I have left is backcountry skiing. I categorize this as a vice due to the selfish elements of potential danger and time consumption – both drawbacks with a family and a business to run.

As I’ve grown older, and hopefully wiser, (all the while avoiding adulthood), I’m more cognizant of my personal safety and its implications to my loved ones. Something I’ve always been aware of is notifying people of my intended destination and approximate return deadline (lest I end up having to gnaw off an arm a-la Aaron Rawlston). Following my creed of “there’s an app for that,” I researched and purchased a GPS mapping app that would allow me to transmit my location coordinates to a predetermined list of recipients. I would always accompany the information with a notation of what I was doing and when I expected to return.  If I was overdue, they would have my last known location and intended route information to send Search and Rescue. Upon my return, I would send a message notifying them I was home safe. I thought this a sound system and lauded myself for being so responsible and considerate.

On further investigation of my “system” of notification, I discovered that the email messages did not originate from my email, but rather the email of the app. Half the recipients didn’t know what it was, the others had it diverted to their SPAM box. Not exactly a lifeline upon which I wanted to depend. I began to consider the problem and went about solving it. I identified the core elements of the situation and matched these with the simplest functionality that required a minimal amount of user interaction:

• Location services, check.
• Contact list, check.
• SMS & email messaging capabilities, check.
• Emergency button that would transmit location and notify authorities with a single touch, check.
• Alert timer that would automatically send a message if user is overdue-check.
• Simple, yet elegant user-interface, check–well, in the works.
• Memo to programmer: dude, let’s light this candle and make it available to the, like, uh, 10-12 backcountry skiers that own iPhones and have a few bucks to spare.

This was really more of a personal project than a commercial endeavor and a chance to really learn some cool location services data.

One afternoon at a PTA meeting at my daughter’s school (my wife is PTA President, so I guess that makes me “First Dude”), I was talking to another father with similar recreational proclivities and was telling him about my latest project. As I made a case for the functionality, he listened politely (that politeness often reserved for listening to your spouse’s day in agonizing detail). When my diatribe was finished, he pondered for a moment then said “You know, I have a teenage daughter that I would love to be able to keep track of.” “Sha-Za-amm!” said I to myself.

Now, I’m a lot of things. Some good, some… not so much. But my highest calling and the thing I’m most proud of is being a father. You know the type, the guy whose face lights up when his kids enter the room. I confess, that’s me. I stumbled into fatherhood later in life after a long and legendary bachelorhood. As a result, I’m crazy about my kids as well as obsessed with their safety and wellbeing.

Having survived the teen years of twin boys, I’ve learned a thing or two about keeping tabs on them just enough to be assured of their safety and not enough to be disgusted. It’s a thin line, and one best not crossed. (Disclosure here: my sons are really great kids. They didn’t put me through any of the stuff I put my parents through.) We also have a daughter that’s 9 going on 30. I’m bracing myself for the teen years. My wife informs me that an ankle bracelet tracking device would subject her to countless forms of ridicule in Middle School and is really not a feasible plan. So I’ve been open to suggestions.

My wife and I got the boys cell phones when they were in 8^th grade. They had proven themselves responsible and knowing they were in contact gave us assurance as their geographic range increased exponentially. From as early as I can remember, our boys always had the earliest curfew of any of their peers – with the stipulation they could always get an extension provided 1) they called in advance to let us know and 2) they had a defined destination and activity (just hanging out looking for something to do did not meet this criteria). The reason for this early, yet flexible curfew was two-fold. We trusted them and their judgment and (selfishly, I admit) I didn’t want them calling and waking us up at 11:55 asking if they could play Halo 3 at Tommy’s for a while longer. The rule was, call by 10:30 and you can do whatever you like. Call after 10:31, your butt is home by 11. BTW, a text wouldn’t cut it. We wanted the assurance of a phone call and a conversation.

I set about to repurpose my logic and functionality, the end-result is an app that balances the need for assurance of the parents while not infringing on the privacy of the child.

aWareAbouts is a parental communication app designed to help manage the freedom and responsibility that comes with giving your child a mobile phone. The fact is your child is safer if they always have a mobile phone on them, our app takes this safety a step further. It allows you to know where your child is at all times, without spying or being overly intrusive. Some apps are designed to literally spy on your child, ours is designed to make kids safer without having to violate trust.

It works like this: A time is entered into your child’s phone by which they are to  check in with you. When this time comes, the app activates a reminder for the child to check in. If the child does not respond to the app within 5 minutes, an automatic message (text or email) is automatically sent with an emergency message containing the child’s location coordinates. The app also has an ‘emergency’ button that your child can press that will send out an emergency message with location coordinates and auto dial either 911 or your number. There is also a “Just Checking In” function that allows the child to send a message (text or email) along with their location at the single touch of a button.

Because the app is for the parents, yet is installed on the kid’s phone, it’s got to look cool and facilitate quick interaction. aWareAbouts offers 3 visual themes: one specifically designed to appeal to girls, one for boys and a unisex theme derived from the Nintendo 64 video game system.

aWareAbouts is inspired by my experiences as a father while taking into account the advances in technology. My hope is to keep children safe and parents informed and at peace (as much as we can be). I was hoping to have my daughter be one of the testers for this app, but my wife says she’s to young for a phone (so I got her an iPad).

How did we get here?

Most people that know me are aware that I absolutely love being an art director & designer. Everyday I show up to work, I feel like I’m getting over on society. As I turn on my computer and hear the startup tone, I mutter under my breath, “suckers, I get to do this for another day.” But seriously, I love employing art and the principals of design to engage the human race into whatever I am endeavoring, whether it be an ad, a website or a product design.

In my daily life, I am drawn to good design an user experiences. This inspires my graphic & product designs. The first question I ask when evaluating an execution is “Does this make sense for the actual human being that will be interacting with this”? If not, no matter how elegant or cool the design may be, it doesn’t make the cut.

After years of tagging my BlackBerry emails with “and nobody cares that you have an iPhone” mostly out of envy of my correspondents whose messages were signed “sent from my iPhone”, I paid the money to terminate my Verizon contract and joined the ranks of the technologically elite and purchased an iPhone 3Gs. I was hooked right away. I offered to do the same for my sons and converted them as well (we kept my wife’s Verizon contract intact in case we actually needed to use a phone to place a call).

Having designed products and websites for years, I naturally began thinking about mobile apps. In every endeavor, whether work-related or recreational, I was always looking for an app for that. When I couldn’t find one that suited the task at hand or when the offerings were less-than-inspiring, I would begin to think about what I would want in an app for this pursuit. I began to map out apps in my spare time and then started targeting them toward a purpose On multiple occasions, the end result has been an app for a completely unrelated purpose (see upcoming posts on our new parental-notification app aWareAbouts).

The result has been a complete paradigm (love that word) shift and business model change. For the first time in my professional life, I’m actually producing something I own – selling a product instead of simply generating an invoice for intellectual property and moving on to the next project (don’t get me wrong, I like generating these invoices, especially doing the work along the way). I’m totally stoked to bring these apps into people’s lives that will hopefully enhance their days when they use them.

Now, where’s that dang “Like” button? I’d press it if there were one!