What do you say to the finalist teams in this year’s Apps for Good Awards? Not much really. They have all crafted an idea for an app that showcases their abilities to use technology to solve real life problems. And in doing so they’ve gone on an amazing journey that has seen them demonstrate their understanding of the target audience and mobile technology, through to communicating their value proposition and how to monetize their app. All pretty impressive stuff. Even more impressive given the brains behind these innovations are from primary and secondary schools. So all that was left for me to discuss with 5 of the finalists last week, was how to pack the most punch in to their elevator pitch by guiding them on how to tell a compelling story in just 60 seconds. Hopefully they took away some useful pointers.
What follows are some of the tips I shared with them… (the examples below all reference the team’s ideas and apps that have been shortlisted for the finals).
Help your audience to visualise the story you are telling
You have literally seconds to paint a picture. Yes, a picture says a thousand words, but some carefully chosen words can paint a pretty powerful picture. You’re not painting a Monet, but just enough for the audience to quickly visualise the opening scene of the story you are telling. So as you introduce the main character (persona) and set the scene, try to imagine the picture you are painting for your audience. Consider how changing something as simple as “Laura is learning to play an instrument” to “Laura is learning to play the piano” helps the listener to visualise it.
Create the drama
You’ve set the scene. Now you need to get your hooks in and create a bit of drama. This is where you communicate the problem you are solving. Imagine you are delivering an Eastenders style cliffhanger – it needs that level of impact. For example, “Our app will help make a huge impact on Sandra’s children’s lifelong relationship with food by encouraging healthy eating habits.” You can almost hear the drum roll…
Drop some big numbers
You have set the scene and delivered the drama. At this point the audience is most probably nodding their heads, “yes, seems like a good idea.” Now you need to land a jaw-dropper. Go for the kill by dropping a large number that puts in to perspective the potential your idea has to really make a difference. For example, “Ten percent (10%) of the British population are dyslexic.” Boom! Of course, make sure the numbers are accurate!
How will your idea solve the issue
A good story has a resolution. You have a character, a setting and plot, have built some tension (with your big numbers) … now you need the resolution. This is a one-liner of epic proportions. This is not what your idea will do, but how your idea will do it. The difference is in the detail. For example, go from “our app will help children with dyslexia to plan their day…” to “the app will provide tools, that puts the user in control, allowing them to plan and manage all aspects of their daily routine.”
There will most likely already be apps competing in your space. With so many apps being created daily, it’s difficult to find a problem that someone isn’t already trying to tackle, regardless of whether they’re doing it well or not. But it’s not always about being the first. It’s about having that x-factor, a certain something that gives you the nod over the others. A good way to set out what sets your app apart from the others is to complete this sentence, “our app beats the socks off the rest by ….”
How are you going to drive app engagement?
About 22-25% of apps are downloaded and used only once. What is it that will make your app get a return visit? Make sure you communicate why your users will keep coming back to use your app.
For example, “Our users don’t want to miss out on the latest hair style trends. They’ll come back to stay on top of the latest trends, comment on latest styles, and get advice from their friends before their next visit to the hairdressers…” This helps to communicate how your app has a real sense of stickiness.
Make your app easy to use
There is a growing culture of impatience. The ‘Impatient Nation’ demand instant gratification. Apps therefore need a high convenience quotient. What does all this mean? Well, if your mobile app doesn’t allow your user to quickly and easily achieve their goal then you risk losing them. But saying your app is simple and easy to use isn’t quite enough! This goes back to the first point about helping the listener to visualise your idea.
For example, “All Daniel needs to do his select guitar, and pluck the bottom-E string. Within seconds Daniel receives advice to turn the tuning key for the bottom-E string…” This is a powerful way to help your audience to understand not only how your app works, but how easy it is to use.
Talk the talk
You’ve designed a mobile app, so make sure you use language that helps the audience to further visualise your app being used. Drop in references to mobile gestures such as pinch, zoom and swipe or discuss what happens when you rotate your phone. And highlight any features of the smartphone that your app uses such as the camera or GPS. As well as helping the audience to be further immersed, this also demonstrates your understanding of the mobile environment.
Make your app enjoyable to use
An app that is useful isn’t enough. It also needs to be usable. And still that’s not enough. We’re emotional people that like to be engaged. Apps need to be delightful to use too, so help the audience to understand how your app delivers an emotional punch. You can achieve this by providing engaging content and functionality, focusing on aesthetics, or incorporating elements of game design. So don’t focus purely on your apps functionality, but just as importantly communicate how users will be ‘engaged’ by your app.
Games are inherently more engaging, and reward mechanisms are a powerful gaming mechanism. If you are using such reward mechanisms to encourage users to eat their greens, or provide badges or other indictor of progress for say tuning your guitar in your fastest time, then get these powerful mechanics across when you present your idea.
Make sure your story flows
Everything you have covered until now needs to flow. Good flow is one of the most important elements of good storytelling. Good flow minimises the cognitive effort to breakdown the information, by just adding layer upon layer to the original picture you helped to visualise. If the flow stalls or stutters then the visual image starts to fade. You need to keep the flow and keep the listener engaged throughout…
There’s my pennies worth. Now that’s all left for me to do is congratulate the finalists and wish them all the best for next week’s judging session.…
