The MASLO Mobile Application

Home Screen

The app first loads the home screen, which contains a list of all the content packs installed on the device. Clicking “edit” in the top right allows the user to manually delete installed content packs. This deletes the content pack from the device, but the pack is still available for download in the shop.

Installing a package

To install a package, the device has to be connected to a network. Clicking the shop icon at the bottom displays all the available packs on the download server. The user can scroll or search for the content package of choice. Tapping the install icon and following the dialog starts the download. Some time after, depending on the size of the package, a verification message appears, and the package is available on the device and accessible from the home screen. There is no visual for download status and the user is free to use the app while waiting for the content to be installed. If there are several packages installed, these can be sorted in alphabetical order in the home screen by clicking the sort icon in the top left.

Bottom navigation bar

Home

The home window contains a list of all the installed content packages. From here, the user can delete, sort and open the packs. Deleting a pack is done by clicking the “Edit” button, and selecting the pack to delete.

Shop

Displays all the packages available for download on the download server configured in settings. The status “Install” means that the package is not yet on the device, but is ready for download. “Installed” means the package is already on the device and ready to be used. “Update” means the pack was modified on the server and the version on the mobile device is no longer the most recent one. By clicking “Update”, the pack is updated to the most recent version and its status changes to “Installed”.

Search

Depending on where the user is inside the app, search inspects different areas.

From the home menu, searching for a string (it is not case-sensitive) returns all the content packages that contain the search value. It can be a caption of a video, part of a paragraph in an article, the title of an image, part of a quiz question etc. If there are no instances of the string found anywhere in any of the installed content packages an empty list will be returned. If search returned a pack, clicking it opens it up, displaying only the elements in the pack that contain the string that was searched for.

Searching within the shop functions the same way as within the home menu, except it searches in all the content of the packages available on the server instead of what is already installed on the phone.

When navigating in a content pack, the search looks at all the text associated with the element. Searching in a text highlights all the occurrences of the search string (not case-sensitive) and if the target is deeper in the page than the screen can display, it scrolls down to the first occurrence.

Notice: searching outside the package elements guides the user to the package element that contains the string. It will not highlight it. Simply commit another search after navigating to the proper element in order to see the word or phrase highlighted in the text.

The global search in the shop searches all the available content packs and requires a network connection, while all others do not.

Settings

The user can choose how quizzes handle feedback. The default setting is that for every quiz, the user can choose whether feedback should be displayed. The other options are to simply turning them on or off.

Additionally, the user has the option to select from a list of different content servers. In case a different content pack server is selected, installed packs remain installed, even if they originated from a different server.

Remember to save the changes before exiting the settings window in order for them to apply.

Help

The help menu offers in-app explanations of all the key features in MASLO. One can click on the topics, scroll or search for content within the help sheet.

Using the content

The user can explore a package by going to the home or shop menu and tapping its title. Notice if trying to open a package from the shop that is not yet installed it will automatically ask the user to do that. After opening the pack, it displays a list of all its content. Tapping on one opens it. Once within a package element (i.e. image, video, text or audio), navigating around is done by swiping left, right or using the little arrows in the top right of the screen. Notice that for audio, swiping is implemented to control the volume bar and is no longer used for navigation (use the arrows instead). For video elements, clicking the play button opens the integrated video player and clicking done returns to MASLO. Tapping the back button in the top left leads back to overview of the package elements. Images are clickable, and enlarge and highlight them on the screen. A second click closes it again.

If there is a quiz item in the pack, entering it first prompts whether the user wants feedback after each question. This option can be configured under settings. One can leave the quiz by tapping home or shop, and after opening the first question, swipe is deactivated. There is no way to return to the table of contents while in middle of a quiz and answers are not revisable after being submitted. After going trough the quiz, it displays the statistics pointing out which questions were correct and which were wrong.

Tilting the phone over to its side shows the content in landscape mode. The pictures appear bigger and tilting it back upright reverses it back to portrait.