Home - philricciardi/autostat GitHub Wiki

Wednesday, November 5th 2014

Idea Proposal & Research

  1. What is/are the problem/s you want to solve? Please provide background based on research. For example, if I am building a mobile app to improve maternal health in India, you will need to know how many mothers are dying due to pregnancy and how many children under 2 are dying in India.

Every time we go to get our cars serviced, we are told that we will be given a call back when the car is ready. The problem is, we do not know what happens between the time we drop off the car to the time we come back to pick it up. The development of the autostat app will disrupt the car service industry by increasing transparency of what happens after you drop your car off for service.

AutoWatch – A service existing repair shops sign up with that allows customers to log in and see the status of their repair. The status is mostly a manually updated status from the mechanic. The mechanic can upload pictures in case of a body related repair. “AutoWatch™ is a unique customer service and marketing tool. With this system, your customers will be able to literally "see" the progress of their vehicle repair through the Internet and your interactive web site.” – Autowatch.com

GoTime Repair – Mobile App that is connected to AutoWatch online

RepairPal – Tells you the right prices to pay for your repair, finds mechanics in the area, tracks repairs, and gives one-touch access to roadside assistance

According to Consumer Reports, out of 5400 subscribers contacted, about 25 percent of people reported that they were not satisfied with their repair shop. Twenty-one percent of the unsatisfied people reported that it was due to their repair or service taking longer than expected to complete the work.

  1. Who are the users you are targeting? Please use a Personal to describe your users. For example, this sport solution is for John. John works on Wall Street and owns an iPhone. He earns more than $200,000 a year + bonus. He loves baseball and would love to use a fan app that permits him to stay in touch with his favorite team.

The target users for autostat are people that have a license to drive a car and are responsible for maintaining a car. The users of this application might be people who have had bad experiences in the past with car service, or people who do not want to be left in the dark when it comes to who is working on their car and what they are doing to it.

Autostat is the perfect app for Tom. Tom is a car enthusiast. Tom drives a 2014 Race Red Mustang GT with a screaming v8 engine. Tom really loves his car. Unfortunately, high performance cars are high maintenance, and sometimes have issues that other types of cars do not have to deal with often. It makes Tom really sad when his car needs to go in for routine service, and forget about it if there are mechanical problems or body damage. If it could not get any worse, now Tom has to deal with having people he does not know work on his car and do things to it that he is not communicated to about. Tom would really like to repair his own car, but he does not have the time, because he works full time as a Software Engineer and needs his car to get to work every day. Tom would really like to use an app that communicates to him who is working on his car and what the mechanic is doing to his car at any given moment.

  1. How will this solution solve the tackled problem/s? Please provide a vision statement of the solution. (Description in less than 250 words)

The app would increase transparency in the car service industry by letting you know what is being performed your car at any given time, as well as who is working on it, what has been performed so far and what is left as well as the overall progress of the service. There will be no more guessing or wondering involved after dropping your car off for service.

  1. What is your 140-character pitch for this solution? Car service redefined. Real-time service updates results in stress free car servicing. Know what is done, what is left and who is doing it.

  2. What are the major features of the solution? List the features. • Being able to see who is performing your service • See the overall progress of the service • See what work has been done so far • See what work still needs to be completed • App notifies you when the car is ready

  3. How is this solution unique? How does it relate to existing solutions on the market? What are 5 solutions similar or related to what

  4. What are the risks associated with the development of this solution? Why wouldn’t it be delivered completely, on time and on budget? Identify 4 to 6 risks that are relevant in your case. • Mechanics and Service shops may not be interested in providing this type of service • Mechanics may feel using this app puts more pressure on them to get work done quickly • There is an issue with what different mechanic shops consider a standard service. This may have to configurable to the mechanic, causing the app to not be delivered on time and within budget • Market Risk - Users may not adopt this new technology, because they may still feel like they would like to call instead of look at an app for updates • Market Risk – Users may not find this to be useful

  5. What technologies, APIs etc will you be using to develop this solution? Provide links and explanations. I am currently unsure of any APIs that will be needed at this point.

Initial Design Work: Link to inDesign: http://invis.io/VH1N6VAY5