A presentation about apps built by an R&D group to help people quit smoking.

1. MOBILE AND
NONPROFITS
Matt Bowen
MAY 26, 2015

2. 2
WHO WE ARE
• A research & development group
at the American Legacy Foundation.
• We look for ways of using new
technologies to help people quit
smoking and then studying the
effectiveness of these new
interventions

3. 3
WHAT WE’VE MADE (QUICKLY)
We
build
apps…
for
science!

4. 4
WHAT WE’VE MADE (QUICKLY)
The apps
• Ubiquitxt, a SMS system to help
people quit smoking
• This is Quitting, a mobile app for
young adults who are trying to quit
◦ Android and iOS hybrid-
mobile app
◦ Responsive Marketing Site
We
build
apps…
for
science!

5. 5
WHAT’S THE TEAM LOOK LIKE
• Attractive, youthful, fashionable
• …

6. 6
WHAT’S THE TEAM LOOK LIKE
• Lead by Dr. Amanda Graham, a researcher with multiple NIH-
backed grants
• Team itself is two PMs (one science-y and one technical) and
three devs
◦ Technical background is mostly in traditional CRUD webapps
and content management
◦ Design is partially outsourced, partially done by PMs or PMs
collaborating with devs. No dedicated designers on the team
though.

7. THE APPS!

8. 8
UBIQUITXT
• An SMS app that walks people
through a plan for quitting and
gives them an outlet when they
have cravings
• According to several studies,
SMS programs do help people
quit in the long run
• Strangely, feels like the simplest
mobile offering in a lot of ways

9. 9
UBIQUITXT
• It's nice because people
actually read their texts. They’re
even better than push
notifications!
• It's simple because there aren't
a lot of display issues or app-
stores
• It's complicated because you
need to respond to really random
things people send you
• It's obviously pretty limited in
what lends itself to being delivered
over SMS

10. 10
THIS IS QUITTING APP
• A mobile app for Android and
(soon) iOS
• Trying to offer both a sense of
community and a variety of
ways to quit smoking
• Been under development for
about a year, just went live on app
stores

11. 11
THIS IS QUITTING APP
• We used web technologies to
build the app --- it is "hybrid
mobile"
• In some ways simpler because
you have some control over the
"browser"
• In a lot of ways much more
complicated than what we're used
to --- very different from
traditional web dev

12. 12
THIS IS QUITTING SITE
• Responsive marketing site for
the app
• Made it so people might find our
app via Google
• Flexes from small phones to big
monitors
• Designed out of house but
implemented internally

13. 13
THIS IS QUITTING SITE
• Pretty much a static site
• Hardest part was getting old
browsers (IE8, IE9) not to choke
on code for the mobile responsive
stuff.
• Responsive because we expect
people to look for our app by
goggling using their phones AND
their desktops

14. 14
APP VS SITE: MAKE AN APP IF…
• You expect people to be coming
back specifically to YOUR
property to solve some problem
◦ For us, quitting smoking
is a process
◦ We expect users to come
back to our app repeatedly
as they try and fail and
finally success
• You have some plan to for
people to find out about your app
(we use ads!)

15. 15
APP VS SITE: MAKE A SITE IF…
• You expect people to find your
resources as they solve a
problem and to not care about
who you specifically are
• Be honest with yourself -- the
reach of the web is incredible, and
if you can leverage it, do!

16. 16
ADD SMS IF…
• You can imagine your program
delivered as a chat bot/choose-
your-own adventure
• You have some method for
signing people up (e.g., an
existing registration process, or in-
person intervention)
• You have a system for delivering
the messages :/

17. THANK YOU