The Prime Minister’s Office in collaboration with Google organized a contest to create the official Android application for Prime Minister’s Office. The competition was divided into three phases, with the first phase being the submission of ideas for the app. I participated in the second phase of the contest along with my colleagues in which we had to submit wireframes based on the app blueprint.
Find the wireframes here.
Phase 2
After weeks of designing and brainstorming, we submitted wireframes which documented interactions for 46 screens. The wireframes were designed keeping the strict guidelines given in the app specification document. We were elated when we found out that we had made it to the top ten submissions across the nation.
The next step was to make a presentation in front of a jury consisting of industry experts and top government officials. Based on innovation, uniqueness, technical ability and user friendliness of the designs; we made it to the top five teams.
Phase 3
For the final phase of the contest, we were mentored by Google designers and engineers. The complete app had to be developed in a span of eight weeks which was very challenging considering it was to be used in a country with over a billion people. Thus, scalability and accessibility were the two biggest concerns which were addressed in a separate session at the Hyderabad Office of Google.
Under the guidance of our new mentors, we used Volley to batch and optimize network requests and Glide to implement caching to tackle low internet speeds and frequent disconnections. The application developed also used Soundcloud APIs to implement the Prime Minister’s Address to the Nation, Twitter APIs to create a Social Feed and the PMO APIs for fetching latest images and news.
Experience
This experience made me realize the importance of implementing accessibility features because if not present, a large section of the potential users is cut off. Working with engineers from Google and getting the opportunity to develop an app that is being used by the nation was an unforgettable experience.