Using Apps Habitually

     During our last meeting, our group discussed apps we used habitually and how we can use this information when creating our own app. We looked at several apps, and contemplated their impact on our daily routines.

Instagram

     Instagram is a popular app which is part of many people’s everyday lives. People use the app to edit and share photographs of their life, and as a result of this will habitually check their phones and the app for notifications such as likes and comments on their images multiple times throughout the day. This habitual checking of the app is made easy by the option to be alerted by your phone when a notification is received, as this means that people constantly check their phones to see if they have received an alert. People also check their Instagram to see if the people they follow have uploaded any photos, and scrolling down their Instagram homepage has become a part of people’s daily routines, particularly when they have time to waste, such as when they are in a queue or waiting for a bus.

Snapchat

     Snapchat is an app which allows its users to send photographs to one another and therefore has also become a part of people’s daily- if not hourly- routines as they habitually check their phones to see if they have received an image or message from a friend. This app also has an option to alert the users phone when a notification is received and therefore people will look at their phones regularly checking for notifications.

Candy Crush

     Although the original hype that made Candy Crush a top selling game in the AppStore has died down since the first release of the app, Candy Crush is still used habitually by many people and more games in the series are being released. The five lives element of Candy Crush is part of the reason it became so popular and arguable the main reason it became such a major part in people’s routine when on their phones. This is because the user would be unable to play the game for a certain amount of time after using up all of their lives, meaning people would have to check their phones regularly waiting for a new life to become available. People were spending hours on the games waiting for lives and then using them, and thus the game became a part of their routine. People also played the game habitually when they had time to waste- similarly to Instagram- as it became an impulse for them to go on the app when they had some spare time.

After looking at these apps, we have decided that our app will be more successful if people come to use it habitually, something we believe will happen as people already watch television habitually and therefore will use the app in the same way, and it will become a part of their daily routine.