FINAL APP DEVELOPMENT REPORT -DONE

2016

Mobile Application Development Report

App Development Marketing ResearchDr. Jennifer Zarzosa

May 4th, 2016

Prepared for:

Henderson State University School of BusinessPresident and Provost

By:John KennedyKatie MileySasha Zavala

A p p D e v e l o p m e n t R e p o r t | 1

Table of Contents

Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………………………...2Problem & ApproachResearch Design

Major Results……………………………………………………………………………………...3 Recommendations ……………………………………………………………………………..….3Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………...5

Major Secondary ResearchManagement Problem 6 Research Questions

Method……………………………………………………………………………………………….....6Overall Research Design 6

Qualitative Research DesignQualitative Data Analysis/Results………………………………………………………………...7

In-depth Faculty Interviews 7In-depth Alumni Interviews …..………………………………………………………...8Student Focus Groups

Quantitative Research Design ……..………………………………………………………….…9Sampling Techniques & Sample Size Scaling Techniques ……………………………………………………………………10Questionnaire DevelopmentData Collection

Results ……………………………………………………………………………………………..…11Research Question 1Research Question 2 Research Question 3

Major Findings Limitations

Conclusions and Recommendations ……………………………………………………………….11Recommendation 1Recommendation 2 ……………………………………………………………………………..12Recommendation 3

Appendix …………………………………………………………………………………………..…141. Interview Guides2. Questionnaire4. Back-Up Data Tables5. Data File


Executive Summary

Problem & Approach

The Marketing App Development Interns at Henderson State University started a

marketing research project to assist Henderson State University School of Business in

Arkadelphia, AR. This project has been created with the purpose of determining the overall

engagement and usability of mobile applications from different stakeholders at the university's

school of business. The overall goal of this project is to integrate new tools to ease the

communication between stakeholders. We have conducted qualitative and quantitative research

while working in a cross-disciplinary team, along with school’s innovative media and

communication departments to create a mobile application prototype. This is to be presented as

part of the new strategic plan for the School of Business that will hopefully bring current and

future Reddies together in an engaging and innovative way.

In this report, we will be analyzing the qualitative and quantitative research findings from

our stakeholders at Henderson State University, School of Business, Faculty, Students, and

Alumni.

Research Design:

The app development interns began by speaking with Dr. Louis Dawkins Dean of the

School of Business along with Associate Dean Dr. Nathaniel Campbell to get an insight to find

our research problem and questions. The interns then searched and interviewed stakeholders in

the target market. Using our secondary research (benchmarking) and our interviews data we were

able to create a survey via Qualtrics Premium Survey builder. After the survey had been created,

the survey was tested by the interns to fix problems before being sent out to our mailing list. A

total of 391 emails were sent via Qualtrics, containing emails from our stakeholders. From those

emails 376 were students, and 15 were faculty. 121 surveys had been created, and 114 were

completed with a response rate of 33%.


Major Results:

After looking at the results from both Qualitative and Quantitative research, we

determined that students were interested in having an event calendar, a feature that had

information about job/internship opportunities, degree information/plans, and a feature that

would allow them to check their grades. Faculty were interested in an event calendar feature,

student degree information, a directory, and job/internship opportunities for the students. Faculty

were also interested in the GA and MBA program information being added to the app. Alumni

wanted an event calendar and to see program information the School of Business is currently

doing.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Student A/B Testing

● As part of our ambitious plan we were hoping to have two or more prototypes at the end

of the semester to be able to do A/B testing of layouts, design, features, etc. Due to lack

of time we recommend for future marketing research students at the School of Business

to take on this project in the upcoming fall semester to conduct a more thorough and

complex A/B testing phase that will guide and help with future development and

promotion of the mobile application for the school.

Recommendation 2: Promotion

● Once the mobile application has been approved through iOS and Android stores, we

recommend the School of Business promote the mobile application through different

IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) channels such as social media, social share

(word of mouth), public relations, videos, websites, and events.

● The School of Business can create social media content to be shared through their

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. This content can be infographics or tutorial

videos on how to download and use the new mobile application.

● The School of Business can also create events through school organizations and programs

such as the “Business Beyond the Classroom” and “Center of Student Excellence” to

promote the app within the school, as well as having the Business Ambassadors promote

the app through word of mouth.


● The School of Business along with Henderson State University’s Public Relations can

collaborate to create press releases concerning the new mobile application. These press

releases can contain personal interviews with new users explaining their experiences

while working/using the application. These press releases can also be shared through the

school’s website (www.hsu.edu) and social media accounts.

Recommendation 3: Campus Enlargement

If the mobile application were to be successful at the School of Business and were to be

taken into consideration to be a whole campus mobile application for Henderson State

University, we recommend to the school to hire a Mobile Application Developer with experience

in marketing and computer science to take over the project. Due to budget and resources, the

prototype application is supported by AppPresser, a WordPress application development

platform with limited features. If this mobile application would be taken for campus

enlargement, it would have to be supported by coding which is one of the features that

AppPresser does not require users to apply.


INTRODUCTION

Henderson State University School of Business, is a higher education facility with 16% of the university’s overall enrollment as business students in the different areas of Accounting, Business Information Systems, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Management, Marketing, and MBA. Since its establishment in 1933 Henderson State University School of Business has focused on the individual welfare of its students by providing excellent faculty, enthusiastic students and engaged partners to collaborate in experiential learning activities. Dr. Louis Dawkins Dean of School of Business along with Dr. Nathan Campbell Assistant Dean worked on an idea to bring the School of Business closer in communication via an innovative technology concept financed by beauty expert and Henderson alumni Mrs. Shannon Curtin. As part of their new implemented Strategic Plan, Henderson’s School of Business plans on integrating new tools to improve the communication with different stakeholders such as Students, Alumni, and Faculty. Our goal is to determine the needs and wants of these stakeholders to create a mobile application that will be engaging and innovative to its users so it can improve the educational experience of current and future Reddies at Henderson State University, School of Business.

Major Secondary Research Findings:

To begin our research, we started by benchmarking against mobile applications from different Schools of Business on the iOS and Android platforms. This helped us gain a better understanding of what features schools consider important on their mobile applications. Aside from benchmarking against schools, we also researched popular mobile applications on both the iOS and Android stores. By doing this, we discovered features that are common amongst all mobile applications. All of the features that were discovered during our benchmarking phase encompass the following:

● Event Calendar● Directory● Building Tours● Grades● Images● Campus Maps● Scrolling● News Feed● Side Swipe Layout● Menus● Course Information/Schedules ● Social Media


Management Problem:

To determine how Henderson State University School of Business can better communicate with their stakeholders. In answering this question, we conducted research to conclude that the School of Business will have better communication with its stakeholders by implementing a mobile application.

Research questions

What features do the students want in the School of Business mobile application?

What features do the faculty want in the School of Business mobile application?

What features do the alumni want in the School of Business mobile application?

Method

Overall Research Design:

For the overall research design, we used both exploratory research and descriptive

research. Exploratory research was done by doing in-depth interviews with stakeholders and

studying secondary data (benchmarking). We then proceeded to descriptive research by

analyzing a survey that we created to collect primary data. We developed the survey after

gaining insight about stakeholders’ needs.

Qualitative Research Design:

For the qualitative design, the app development interns divided the stakeholders into

separate groups so that each intern could have a section of stakeholders they could interview.

These sections consisted of stakeholders that included students, alumni, and faculty. To select

our stakeholders for each focus group we created a screening questionnaire that let us separate

the focus group participants by phone usage and gender.


Qualitative Data Analysis/ Results

In-depth Faculty Interviews

Different types of topics were asked during the interview with Faculty. Questions concerning communication with students, information about a directory, school programs, and calendars were some of the themes asked.

Trend 1: Internship

“It would be very beneficial to have potential employment information for students. Sometimes people ask for part-time and full-time positions not only internships.”

Trend 2: Directory

“A directory would provide students with easy access to office hours, faculty emails, and telephone numbers. I believe that all of us would like that to be in one place.”

Trend 3: Information about School of Business Programs

“We can put information about the different school programs like Beta Gamma Sigma, which is the higher business honors in college that you can get, only top 7% of juniors and top 10% of seniors get invited to be part of it. Sometimes people don't know how to be part of the organization; you have to earn it with good grades.”

Trend 4: Event Calendar “We do so many events that I think students may not be aware of. I think it would be wonderful to have a better way to communicate events.”

Conclusion

After doing the in-depth interviews with the faculty, we noticed a recurring theme; they wanted to open up more communication with students. Every feature that the faculty members wanted to see (event calendar, program information, a directory, and internship information) was related to sending out information to the user. We used these findings to inform our questions on the survey. We specifically asked faculty members if they would like to see a social media feature on the mobile application. A social media feature could be used to open up communication between the students and the School of Business.


In-depth Alumni Interviews

The themes that emerged were: Event Calendar, School Programs Information, Push

Notifications, and Social Media.

Trend 1: Event Calendar

“Communication within the fraternity was kind of a challenge. As a student involved, maybe

there’s some kind of events page for students…not just within Mooney, within the whole

university. A calendar of events of something like that would be cool.”

Trend 2: Program Information

“I want to see what new programs the business school is putting together. Where are we going 5

to 10 years and what should we be teaching? If we are not putting new programs into Henderson

to attract quality students for these different curriculums, then we’re making a bad mistake.”

Trend 3: Push Notifications

“I think that an app would go a long way if you could encourage alumni to download that app

and maybe even receive notifications, push notifications…everybody is connected with their

phone.”

Trend 4: Social Media

“If you want to connect alums, I think it would be really cool to have an alumni section to where

I could go in and see other alums and maybe connect with them in a way they wanna be.”

Conclusion

Based on the information we collected from the in-depth alumni interviews, we decided

we didn’t need to collect any information from alums on the survey. We learned that this

stakeholder wanted an event calendar to stay current with program activities on campus. One of

the most important trends was that every alumni mentioned was they would prefer push

notifications when new announcements were added to the mobile app. A social media aspect

would allow alums to stay in contact with both faculty and students.


Student Focus Groups

Trend 1: Event Calendar

“I would like to see a calendar of events and have it send reminders of what’s happening.”

Trend 2: Push Notifications

“I would like to get notifications! That is what draws me to open my apps most of the time. If I were to get notifications about class assignments, that would make my life so much easier.”

Trend 3: Directory

“Yeah, with easy access to all of the business faculty phone numbers and emails. They can have their own profile; you can go to their profile and set up meeting times, check class information such as due dates for assignments or when they will cancel classes that day.”

Trend 4: Internship Information

“Having a place where we can go look for internships would be cool to have, we don't hear much about opportunities other than by word of mouth of professors, but I think having a place where we can go to see the latest internships or job opportunities could be very beneficial to us.” Conclusion

Our findings show that students are interested in an event calendar, push notifications, a directory, and internship information from both alumni and other business owners. With this information, we made sure to include questions asking about possible feature options on the survey. We also wanted to ask questions about student/teacher communication to measure if social media aspects would add value to the mobile application.

Quantitative Research Design:

For our Quantitative research design, we used Qualtrics, a premium survey platform. Out of the

391 possible respondents, 140 started the survey, and 129 completed the survey.

· Sampling Techniques & Sample Size (for quantitative design): We used a census

sampling technique. The respondents were obtained through an email list from the School of

Business. The sample size was 391. Of the 391 people emailed, 140 started the survey, but only

129 completed it. There was a 33% response rate.


· Scaling Techniques (for quantitative design):

Overall for the survey, we used multiple scales to include nominal and interval. The

nominal scale was used for demographic questions (gender). Interval scales were used mainly for

the opened ended questions (stakeholder opinions).

· Questionnaire Development (for quantitative design):

The questionnaire was developed in two steps. The first step was interviewing the

stakeholders to see what trends emerged and if there should be questions about those trends. We

decided that the questionnaire should include questions on the amount of phone usage, types of

apps the respondents use, features respondents want to see in a school of business app, how

respondents get school news, and demographic questions. The final step was sending out the

actual survey.

· Data Collection (for quantitative design):

For data collection we used the list of emails provided by the School of Business. We

sent the survey that we created in Qualtrics to 391 possible respondents. After a short period of

waiting for respondents to complete the survey, we ended up collecting data from 140 people

who attempted the survey, 129 of which completed it. The information was sent to Qualtrics

where the data was collected to be analyzed.


RESULTS

Research Question 1: What features do the students want in the School of Business mobile

application?

Research Question 2: What features do the faculty want in the School Business mobile

application?

Research Question 3: What features do the alumni want in the School mobile application?

Major Findings:

The results of the both the qualitative and quantitative research show us the major overall

findings and can be broken down by stakeholder. Students were interested having an event

calendar, a feature that had information about job/internship opportunities, degree

information/plans, and a feature that would allow them to check their grades. Faculty were

interested in an event calendar feature, student degree information, a directory, and

job/internship opportunities for the students. Faculty were also interested in the GA and MBA

program information being added to the app. Alumni wanted an event calendar and to see

program information the School of Business is currently doing. All three stakeholder groups

wanted push notifications and to be able to communicate with each other through a social media

feature.

Limitations:

The overall project was limited in one major way: time. Another two months of data

collection would have helped us tremendously. We could have done in-depth interviews with

students and conducted A/B testing on the prototype of the app. With any research, the more

time the research is conducted, the more conclusive the data.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Student A/B Testing

As part of our ambitious plan, we were hoping to have two or more prototypes at the end

of the semester to be able to do A/B testing of layouts, design, features, etc. Due to lack of time


we recommend for future marketing research students at the School of Business to take on this

project in the upcoming fall semester to conduct a more throughout and complex A/B testing

phase that will guide and help with future development and promotion of the mobile application

for the school.

Recommendation 2: Promotion

Once the mobile application has been approved through iOS and Android stores, and it's

ready for download, we recommend the School of Business to promote the mobile application

through different IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) channels such as social media,

social share (word of mouth), public relations, videos, websites and events.

● The School of Business can create social media content to be shared through their

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. This content can be infographics or tutorial

videos on how to download and use the new mobile application.

● The School of Business can also create events through school organizations and programs

such as the “Business Beyond the Classroom” and “Center of Student Excellence” to

promote the app within the school as well as having the Business Ambassadors promote

the app through word of mouth.

● The School of Business along with Henderson State University’s Public Relations can

collaborate to create press releases concerning the new mobile application. These press

releases can contain personal interviews with new users explaining their experiences

while working/using the application. These press releases can also be shared through the

school’s website (www.hsu.edu) and social media accounts.

Recommendation 3: Campus Enlargement

If the mobile application were to be successful at the School of Business and were to be

taken into consideration to be a whole campus mobile application for Henderson State

University, we recommend to the school to hire a Mobile Application Developer with experience

in marketing and computer science to take over the project. Due to budget and resources, the

prototype application is supported by AppPresser a WordPress application development platform

with limited features. If this mobile application would be taken for campus enlargement, it would


have to be supported by coding which is one of the features that AppPresser does not require

users to apply.


APPENDIX


APPENDIX 1 INTERVIEW GUIDE

Graduate Assistants Focus Group Questions 1. What kind of apps or websites do you use?2. What app is your favorite other than social media?3. What time of day do you check your apps?4. Other than for homework what other times are you on your phone?5. Do you use your phone when you aren’t in school?6. What features do you like about your favorite apps?7. Is there a design scheme that you prefer over others? (colors, layouts)8. Which news apps do you use?9. Do you follow anyone specific (business leaders, celebrities) on social media?10. Do you follow school news? Reason why or why not?11. What features do you want to see for a school of business app?12. What content would you like to see in the school of business app?13. What would it take to draw you to using an app everyday?14. What are your thoughts on apps linking to other apps?15. Thoughts on communication with faculty? How is that relationship?16. What do you think about using camera features in apps?17. What do you think of location features of apps?18. What features would MBA students like to see in a business app?19. How is alumni communication? (student to alumni communication) Business Ambassadors FG Questions:

1. Do you have a smartphone?

2. Tell me about your average day?

3. How do you use your smartphone every day?

4. When do you use your smartphone in general?

5. Why you use your smart phone?

6. What you like to do on websites?

7. What is your favorite app?

8. Why are you constantly using the apps that you use?

9. What attracts you to the apps you use?

10. What kind of apps you use on a daily basis?

11. What about none social media apps?


12. What kind of features you would like to see in the app

13. What would drive you to use/open the app?

14. What kind of layout you prefer? Visuals

15. Are you interested in community information? What would you like to hear?

16. What kind of educational websites you use?

17. Where you get your campus news

18. Where you get your general “news”?

19. How do you feel about interacting with students with the app

20. Name? - #BusinessHSU

Alumni Questionnaire – Secondary Audience 1. How do you stay connected with the school of business?2. Do you think there’s a problem with communication with alumni?3. What you think is the problem with alumni communication?-4. How do you stay connected with more alumni?5. What do you think more alumni would want?6. What need would you have to actually download the HSU School of Business App?7. How would you use it to stay connected? With who? Students, faculty, school of business8. What kind of features you would like to see in this app for students?9. What do you expect to see in the school of business app? (Email) 10. What kind of features you would like to see in this app for alumni?11. Will you be interested in letting students contact you through the app?12. From the apps that you use, what kind of apps you use that you think have a cool feature that can be beneficial to students?13. Do you see the app be beneficial for students to connect with alumni?14. What you think young alumni are looking for?15. Do you think that an old alumni that graduated long time ago has any need to open a SoB app?


APPENDIX 2 QUESTIONNAIRE

Q1 Are you currently a student at Henderson State University? Yes (1) No (2)If No Is Selected, Then Skip To Are you currently a faculty member of...

Q2 Do you have a smartphone?Yes (1) No (2)If No Is Selected, Then Skip To The following section will contain qu...

Q3 What time of day do you use your phone the most?Morning (5am-11:59am) (1)Afternoon (12:00pm-5pm) (2)Night (5:01pm-4:59am) (3)

Q4 How much time would you say you use your smartphone in a day?less than 10 minutes (1)11 to 30 minutes (2)31 minutes to 1 hour (3)2 to 3 hours (4)more than 3 hours (5)

Q5 Do you use apps?Yes (1)No (2)If No Is Selected, Then Skip To Do you use the Henderson State Univer...

Q6 What types of apps do you use? (Please select all that apply)


Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter) (1)Education (MyHenderson, Angel, Blackboard) (2)Entertainment (Games, Netflix, Hulu, Music,) (3)Resource (News, Job Search) (4) Business (Banking, Stocks) (6)Shopping (Amazon, eBay) (7)Other (5) ____________________

Q7 Please enter your favorite app?

Q8 Do you use the Henderson State University Website? (www.hsu.edu)Yes (23)No (24)

Q9 How you get your Henderson State University news?Email (1) HSU Website (2)Social Media (3)Word of Mouth (4)Print (Flyers, Posters, Banners) (5)Other (6) ____________________

Q10 What features would you like to see in the HSU School of Business App? (Please select all that apply)Event Calendar (1)Directory (2)Teacher Biographies (3)Degree Information (Accounting, Fiance, Management, Marketing, etc) (4) Graduate Program Information (5)Graduate Assistant Information (6) Student Organization Information (Alpha Kappa Psi, Beta Gamma Sigma) (7)Student Programs (Business Ambassadors, Center of Student Excellence, Business Beyond the Classroom) (8)Job and Internship Opportunities (9)


Alumni Information (10)Chat Function (Students and Teachers) (11)Virtual Tour of School of Business (12) Class Grades (14)Student Achievements (15)Arkadelphia Event Information (16)Other (13) ____________________

Q11 What would drive you to open the School of Business App daily? (Please select all that apply)Push Notifications (1)Articles Related to Course Work (2)Trivia Game (3)Class Information (5)Other (4) ____________________

Q12 Which of these names do you like for the School of Business App the most?ReddieBiz (1)HSUBusiness (2)BusinessHSU (3)HSUBUS (4)Other (5) ____________________

Q13 Would you use the app to communicate with professors?Yes (23)No (24)Maybe (25)

Q14 Would you use the app to communicate with Alumni?Yes (62)No (65)Maybe (67)


Q15 Are you currently a faculty member of Henderson State University School of Business?Yes (1)No (2)If No Is Selected, Then Skip To The following section will contain qu...

Q16 Do you have a smartphone?Yes (1)No (2)If No Is Selected, Then Skip To The following section will contain qu...

Q17 What time of day do you use your phone the most?Morning (5am-11:59am) (1)Afternoon (12:00pm-5pm) (2)Night (5:01pm-4:59am) (3)

Q18 How much time would you say you use your smartphone in a day?less than 10 minutes (1)11 to 30 minutes (2)31 minutes to 1 hour (3)2 to 3 hours (4)more than 3 hours (5)

Q19 Do you use apps?Yes (1)No (2)If No Is Selected, Then Skip To Do you use the Henderson State Univer...

Q20 What types of apps do you use? (Please select all that apply) Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter) (1)Education (MyHenderson, Angel, Blackboard) (2)Entertainment (Games, Netflix, Hulu, Music,) (3)


Resource (News, Job Search) (4) Business (Banking, Stocks) (6)Shopping (Amazon, eBay) (7)Other (5) ____________________

Q21 Please enter your favorite app?

Q22 Do you use the Henderson State University Website? (www.hsu.edu)Yes (23)No (24)

Q23 How you get your Henderson State University news? Email (1) HSU Website (2)Social Media (3)Word of Mouth (4) Print (Flyers, Posters, Banners) (5)Other (6) ____________________

Q24 What features would you like to see in the HSU School of Business App? (Please select all that apply)Event Calendar (1)Directory (2) Teacher Biographies (3)Degree Information (Accounting, Fiance, Management, Marketing, etc) (4)Graduate Program Information (5)Graduate Assistant Information (6)Student Organization Information (Alpha Kappa Psi, Beta Gamma Sigma) (7)Student Programs (Business Ambassadors, Center of Student Excellence, Business Beyond the Classroom) (8)Job and Internship Opportunities (9)Alumni Information (10)Chat Function (Students and Teachers) (11)Virtual Tour of School of Business (12)


Class Grades (14) Student Achievements (15) Arkadelphia Event Information (16) Other (13) ____________________

Q25 What would drive you to open the School of Business App daily? (Please select all that apply)Push Notifications (1)Articles Related to Course Work (2)Trivia Game (3)Class Information (5) Other (4) ____________________

Q26 Which of these names do you like for the School of Business App the most?ReddieBiz (1)HSUBusiness (2)BusinessHSU (3)HSUBUS (4)Other (5) ____________________

Q27 Would you use the app to communicate with students?Yes (23)No (24)Maybe (25)

Q28 Would you use the app to communicate with Alumni?Yes (62)No (65)Maybe (67)

Q29 The following section will contain questions describing yourself. Remember your answers will be anonymous.


Q30 Please select your sex.Male (1)Female (2)Prefer not to answer (3)

Q31 How old are you?16-20 (1)21-25 (2)26-30 (3)31-35 (4)36-40 (5)41-45 (6)46-50 (7)51-55 (8)56-60 (9)61-65 (10)66-70 (11)71-75 (12)76-80 (13)81-85 (14)86-90 (15)Prefer not to anwer (16)

Q32 What year are you?Freshman (1)Sophomore (2)Junior (3)Senior (4)I am a faculty member (5)

Q33 What is your major?Accounting (1)Business Information Systems (2)


Entrepreneurship (3)Finance (4)Management (5)Marketing (6)Aviation (9)Other (7) ____________________I am a faculty member (11)

Q34 Please select your ethnic background.Caucasian (1)African American (2)Hispanic/Latino (3)Asian (4)Other (5) ____________________Prefer not to answer (6)

Q35 Do you live on campus?Yes (1)No (2)Prefer not to answer (3)I am a faculty member (4)


APPENDIX 3

BACK-UP DATA TABLES FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2


FIGURE 3

FIGURE 4

FINAL APP DEVELOPMENT REPORT -DONE

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