New Android App: DecideForMe 1.0

Introducing my new android app: DecideForMe. It’s designed to support decision-making when alternatives are being compared.

The app is based around the idea of a Decision as an entity that can be saved, edited, and reported on. A decision (‘which car?’) has choices (‘Ford’, ‘Opel’, ‘Nissan’) , and criteria (‘price’, ‘looks’, ‘top speed’). Criteria are assigned a rating system (eg ‘good/better/best’, ‘green/amber/red’) which allows each choice to build up a score relative to its competitors.

In the app, Choices and Criteria can be rated in a grid screen, which is a simple, visual representation of the decision.

Once rated, the decision can also be converted to a text report format, and this report can also be emailed using any mail client installed on the phone.

My initial goal was simply to get the app to market, so right now, it’s very much version 1.0! Hopefully it has some potential to build on though. Future development could include any or all of the following:

1. Decision templates: when clicking on the new button, a screen presents some choices which have pre-loaded criteria, for example a ‘laptop comparison’ template could pre-load ‘Price’, ‘Processor’, ‘Ram’, and their relevant rating systems. The user then just inputs the choices.
2. Pre-populating competitors with URLs linking to stores where the stuff can be bought.
3. Send and receive decisions: this would be a step towards collaboration, or shared decisions.
4. Weighted criteria: some criteria are more important than others (and this is often a personal thing, depending on the decision).

Right now, I’m keen to find Android phone owners who could download the app, give it a test drive, and let me know how they get on. You can find the app in the market, just search for ‘DecideForMe’, it’s signed by me, Paddy C, or here are the details