Unofficial EN iPhone (mobile) App Brainstorm Thread
There are a lot of folks with great ideas out there, and we'd like to collect them in one place. We don't have the means to make an app as of this time but would like to have a general sense of what you'd find useful. From our mind, we are looking for a more general tool that would go beyond the Team (to other triathletes) that could help spread the Koolaid and get folks to join our growing ranks.
Could be a race day app? Who knows...you tell us.
Thanks for playing!
Patrick
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Comments
For EN folks:
-customizable workout views: today, this week. Both with zones/paces pre-populated, based on data tool
-access to the data tool
-access to forums (vertical and horizontal viewing), with a non-read forums option, just like the web
-race day tracker
External:
-blog access
-training plan purchase
-sign-up
That's all I can think of for now...more to come I'm sure...
I never really understood this whole need for an app thing until I got a Droid- just this weekend I was wishing Athlinks and EN both had apps to make it easier for me to get info off the sites.
That said - don't forget Android Apps too :-)
Devils advocate here:
Do we really need an app? I can get the athlete tracker via my iPhone browser Favorite (soon to dump for an Andriod so x2 what Nemo said), FB and also Twitter link from TeamEN and the coaches tweets gets me there as well. I can also get to the training plans as well on my phone. Not sure there is that much of an ROI unless you get the masses (whatever that number may be) to use it. But I guess you won't know that until you build it.
The key for me with info. apps is constantly adding new content so I open it again. If it doesn't change, I remove it. Seems like a lot of work to me.
Just my .02
For the members side:
I like the idea of being able to see my own workouts for the day and the week. I also think it would be cool to be able to post and read the dashboard from it. This could produce much more activity on it and make the interaction more Facebook Like for lack of better words.
For Non members:
You could post podcasts, links to articles and blogs.
It could even have push notifications when there are new items within TEAM EN.
The exposure alone would probably be worth it to get an app int he App store. You would probably get huge number of hits to the website based on the number of people worldwide that traffic the appstore on a daily basis. Even if it starts out as informationalabout Team EN's Philosophy on Training. There are a huge number of newbies(myself included) always looking on the app store for the next new gadget to expand my training and consumption of training material.
From an EN 'marketing standpoint', there are probably people that would have an increased interest if only for the sake of EN having an app on iPhone. So, it should, life P said, have a 'deliverable' to non-members. I think having it revolve around training plan delivery and support information would be good.
I agree with everyone else on being able to reach it via the browser...but an app does have a 'coolness' appeal!
Having said that, if an app were going to be created here is what I would want on it:
Forums
WIKI
Training Plans with the ability to listen/watch podcasts right there.
Dashboard
Yup! That pretty much nails the need right there !
Most importantly, it would be nice if all of the media files worked on an iPhone. Right now some play, and some don't. The ones next to the the current week's workout do not, for example, which is a bummer. So to listen to those I'm tied to my computer.