October 1, 2009
UW information in the palm of your hand, with new m.UW iPhone app
Looking for a campus building, phone number of game time? The answer may be in your pocket.
A new service from the UW offers information about the campus — directories, course calendars, sports schedules, news, and more — in a format that’s easy to view and browse on an iPhone.
The application, or “app,” is named m.UW where the “m” stands for “mobile.” That name was chosen from a contest held over the summer. See our story about it here.
The Sept. 3 launch followed a busy summer for David Morton, director of mobile communications in UW Technology. His team rushed to get the application ready for the start of classes and the fall football season.
“We did it on an incredibly fast timeline and a lot of people worked very hard to get this out so quickly,” Morton said.
Feedback so far is positive, he said. In the first month the tool has logged about 6,000 downloads, from places as far-flung as Australia and Pakistan. Visitors to Apple’s online store give it four stars.
Incoming students commented that they’re glad to have access to maps as they navigate a new campus.
After installing the tool, a user first sees a white W on a purple background, then a splash screen with the university name that fades to eight gold icons. The icons on the home screen represent the main navigation categories: UW directory, athletics, maps, course calendar, video, news, events calendar and images.
Someone can, for example, click on the directory to look up a UW phone number and then touch the number to automatically dial that person. The user can then save the number to a contact list or add the number to an existing contact.
UWeek and The Daily articles are combined on the news tab, along with press releases from the UW news office. The video function draws content from YouTube and UWTV.
Sports fans can click on the athletics tab to access news, game schedules and scores. Real-time sports scores are not available because of licensing issues, Morton said. But fans can select their favorite event to see final scores, and see the time and location of future games.
Naturally, the course search is a favorite tool for University Registrar Todd Mildon, who helped develop that function.
“Part of our mission in the Office of the Registrar is to present information to students in the ways that they want it and that best serves their needs,” Mildon said. His office has various mobile devices that it uses to see how course information is displayed. But even the mobile-friendly Web sites it has created can be hard to navigate on a 3-inch screen.
“Rather than searching around for the right page, the app button actually says: ‘Here’s a course search.’ It’s a really convenient way for students to get the information they want, in the format that best serves them,” Mildon said.
Over the summer Tony Chang, a guest lecturer in the iSchool and integration architect for the UW Office of Information Management, showed students in his Web Tool and Development class the tool that he was helping to create.
“I showed it both as a way to showcase new technology at the UW, and as a learning experience of how things come to fruition, from idea or concept to actual product,” Chang said.
Chang said he likes using the app to access campus maps and check football scores.
The most common request for additional features so far has been to include personalized information, Morton reported. Students would like to view their schedules and Husky card balances on the phone, and use it to register for classes. The team is working to make this possible.
The map function does not yet include the Tacoma and Bothell campuses, but work is under way to change that, too.
The new m.UW app is part of a broader campus-wide Strategic Mobile Initiative. Four new cell towers were installed this summer and three more are under construction for AT&T and T-Mobile, the companies for which the UW has recently negotiated group discounts (see the Uweek story here.)
“We’ll have dramatically improved coverage with those carriers on campus, which will allow us to do all these other things” planned under the Strategic Mobile Initiative, Morton said.
The UW chose to create its first mobile app for the iPhone because wireless network statistics show that about 90 percent of mobile devices used on campus networks are either iPhones or iPod touches, Morton said.
People who use another mobile device, such as a Blackberry, Pocket PC or Google Android phone, can access similar services on the UW’s new mobile Web page, http://m.uw.edu. From a desktop computer this page will show an overview of the mobile tools. But from a mobile device this site offers interactive tools in a format designed for a small screen.
Future versions of the app will have an even more distinctive UW feel, Morton said. In this spirit he is now collecting names of UW students and staff to help develop new features and capabilities. Students or staff members who have these skills, as well as UW units looking to offer more services for mobile devices, should contact him.
“Cell phones are rapidly becoming powerful handheld computers,” Morton said. “I think we’re just beginning to see the handheld device become the primary way to access and utilize information.”
Find out more:
Get the app at http://m.uw.edu
Read David Morton’s blog on mobile computing, www.freshlymobile.com
Submit comments on the app and make suggestions for future versions at http://mobileuw.uservoice.com
Follow UW iPhone on Twitter: http://twitter.com/UWiPhone
