Reasoning

The reasoning for the development of an iPad application is twofold:

1. ‘These apps are streamlining workflows and making everyday tasks infinitely more productive.’ (iPad for Business, Apple Website). iPads are now commonly used in the workplace to increase productivity and due to its networking, allows for ease of communication across companies.

2. The second reason being that the project should be security conscious for its consumers and the data security capabilities on the iPad is extensive and appeals to its customer base.

Simplified Functionality

This application is a variation of other online banking applications in that it directly provides a reach on accessible MicroFinance to consumers. Given the target audience the design will need to be simplied whilst also maintaining functionality. The application will consider a landscape format for its user to enter set amounts of data that is submitted in conjunction with an algorithm.

As a standard legal procedure the application will ask for all relevant home and bank details to be able to fill out a financial application form. The design of this needs to be easily feasible as well as coincide with the brand identity. It will also coincide with the website design and the colour palette and needs critique to be developed further.

The application will have a  fingerprint authentication service that protects its user’s personal finances. This is a similar design to Awamo where businesses get a fingerprint scanner for customers to login.

The major difference between this application and the customer application is that this simply offers businesses ways to reach out to customers.

Direct Costs

The main cost around producing this project would be gathering marketing data from rural Chinese households. Of course this would be travelling to China and staying in affordable accommodation that is travelling distance away from these households. The price comparison website skyscanner.net is extremely useful for finding the lowest costs of both flights and hotels. I estimate that the research would take 10 days to produce in order to ask a feasible amount of people.

Results show the cost of £363.

The price of hotels varies between the affordable costs of £263-£393. Anything below £400 would be ideal for this kind of research. Then travel and eating costs must be factored into the research trip which I estimate would be around £300 for 10 days worth of research if done on a budget. However this could have a leeway of +20% if needed.

For this project I have used/plan to use the majority of design elements within the Creative Cloud suite. Using the programmes inDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Muse. To rent the Creative Cloud suite it would be £38.11 a month.

(http://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/business/teams.html?promoid=NLMHRH83&mv=other)

I estimate that the project would be completed over the course of two months which would bring the software package to £76.22 for 2 months.

Indirect Costs

According to creativereview.co.uk the average UK design daily rates (per 8-hour day) are:

Junior designer: £100
Midweight: £130
Senior: £250
Design director: £275

(http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/january/on-the-money/)

Considering the market research and the scope of designing the product and associated services which include two package applications for customers and businesses as well as a website I would charge £18/hr per 8-hour day to sustain the amount of work required to be completed. I may choose to work in a team in which case the workload would be shared but completed in a shorter amount of time. Which could be ideal and they would be on similar wages.

Other Costs

Based on the fact that major social media networking sites are blocked in China due to political ideologies Facebook cannot be used to advertise to users. Therefore other means of promotion and marketing are needed. The Chinese equivalent, Weibo, does not display banner ads but moreso focuses on interactive ads:

“Our aim is to allow advertisers to retain loyal customers through interactive forms of ads and help them to directly drive sales, not just selling advertising space,” Wang told an interviewer from ShanghiDaily.com (http://socialgarden.com.au/social-media-marketing/how-to-advertise-on-weibo/)

Weibo Statistics:

• 600 million users
• 176 million active users per month
• 50.1 percent male users, 49.9 percent female users
• 82 percent of Weibo users shop online
• 70 percent use the mobile app to access Weibo

Setting up advertising and associated costs on Weibo would require contacting them directly.

Barclays Partner Finance

The Barclays Partner Finance homepage drew me to the development of a website that would function for both personal use and business use. Since the intended idea behind this project is to provide for both businesses and customers with an all-in-one package. I thought it would be suitable to develop a collection of operational webpages.

Barclays chose a particularly strong centre image with some key text on their homepage to target certain audiences. Barclays claims to aid business partners to ‘maximise their sales opportunities by helping their customers afford new purchases.’

Barclays Partner Finance Homepage

Using wireframe.cc I started to map out a similar style for a webpage:-

Early Website Design

To fully develop the interface of the website I went along the design of the Barclays website. The menu buttons will prominently feature login screens to track finances as well as work in harmony with the finance lenders that China has to offer.

The main image displayed along the top will primarily be aimed at the bustling farming industry of China, therefore an energetic image of workers and fields will be shown. The remaining icons along the bottom will focus on personal finances as well as implementing the calendar that displays dates at which information comes out.

Early Website Design

Test Mock-Up

To kickstart the development of my website I chose to implement that elements I had researched into. I took a royalty-free image of a Chinese farm and used it as the backdrop for development and growth. The current octagon’s are placeholders for images/icons that will be developed alongside the application design in an Iconography post. At this point I simply wanted to place the key elements in a layout for future reference. At the moment colour choice is influential to its own success. The subtle blue is similar to Barclays and may be changed to a light green in the near future.

Adobe Muse 

Using Adobe Muse and the basic wireframe I had created I developed a basic outline for my website with functioning web pages. Much like Barclays I have divided the navigation system into Business and Personal. This takes you to specialised pages that are accustomed to both the customers and businesses. The colour palette is typically finance based. I chose to use a set of colours that influenced the site [insert site here].

At this point in my design some of the images are placeholders for future development. I plan in changing the blue placeholder images to octagons.