The Project

PinIT allows the parents to set up virtual geographic fences around a specific area. The app would then pair with one of PinIT's proprietary GPS watches that the child could wear. If the child wandered away from the virtual perimeter, the app would alert the parents.

The Challenge

Many geo-fencing applications available in the market are not using the same child safety-monitoring feature as PinIT. These apps are only meant for reminding users of something once they arrive or leave a specific location.

Although the app was highly accurate and reliable in most situations, the PinIT geo-fencing app was not that user-friendly to be effortlessly used by parents and even grandparents. The team of PinIT came to us as they had the hardware and Global Positioning System (GPS) service, and they were missing a functional user interface. The primary goal was simplicity, as the last thing a parent needs is confusion when trying to locate their child in a park.

The Solution

PinIT had the necessary requirements and ideas for the app, but designing the mobile API was left to us.

To obtain a complete understanding of PinIT’s goals and objectives bi-weekly meetings were set up, sometimes lasting hours on end, to have a firm understanding of the app’s purpose and PinIT’s requirements.

The development of this app started from the ground-up without any previous code or digital assets.

To accomplish this simplicity, only the most important buttons are chosen to show to users on the launch screen and made use of colors such as green and red which users are already accustomed to. The following points illustrate the features incorporated in the app:

The watch icon in the top left corner displays either green, which indicates that the watch is being worn, or red, indicating that the watch has been taken off.
The battery level is displayed in the top right corner.
Users can call the watch
Users can quickly set a geo-fence for the watch device right from the mobile app.
A ‘location history’ option informs the recent locations the watch has been.
An ‘Anchor Points’ option on the watch allows the wearer to call three different phone numbers that have been programmed directly into the app.

The Results

PinIT has moved forward to provide a safety-net for concerned parents by using a GPS watch that can make calls and sends information to an AWS server every two minutes.

We have improved the app’s API significantly to make the user interface smooth and easy to understand for even the least technologically savvy people.

It is now a fully-functional and highly-accurate geo-fencing app that parents around the world are using to monitor their child’s location.