CS 491: Homework 0 – NFL Fantasy Football App
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App Name: NFL.com Fantasy Football 2011
Developer: NFL Enterprises LLC
Developers Website: www.nfl.com
Platform: iOS
Current Rating on Marketplace: 2.5/5
Why pick this app?
This is my first year playing fantasy football. I figured the best way to keep up to date on how my team was doing is through the official NFL fantasy football app for the iPhone. The main functionality I expect from this app include the ability to check how my team is doing, to change which players I am playing on my team and which players I am benching, and the ability to check to see how the rest of leagues games are going.
How do new users learn to use the app?
When you boot up the app for the first time you start by logging in with your NFL username and password. From there you choose which of your teams you want to manage. After selecting your team the first screen you see is the “Main Screen”. The functionality of the mobile app is similar to the functionality of the NFL site. Everything is incredibly intuitive to a person familiar with the different fantasy football game mechanics. After tapping on all the various buttons once I knew everything I needed to know about how to use the app.
Main Screen
How do you use the app?
The most prominent UI element on the main screen is your teams score and the score of your opponent, which 9 out of 10 times will be the reason you are using the app. The six buttons at the bottom provide various statistical information and news updates about the various players. I have no desire to look up any of this information on a mobile device with such a small screen. If you tap on the “MY TEAM” button you are brought to the “My Team Screen”. On this screen you can check on the scores of your individual players. You can also switch which of them you are playing or benching for the week by tapping and dragging them between the active player section and the bench section.
My Team Screen
If instead of tapping on “MY TEAM” on the “Main screen” you had tapped “LEAGUE HOME” you would have been brought to the “League Home Screen”. This screen is used to check on how the rest of the league is doing in their match ups. This is perfect for figuring out which other players will be your biggest threat for the rest of the season.
League Home Screen
How’s the feedback from other users?
The feedback for this apps falls into 3 categories.
- “Works great and I like the simple but full featured interface.” 5/5
- “App is broke!!! All I get is a white screen! Please Fix!” 1/5
- “App is the exact same as NFL mobile site. Downloading was a waste of time.” 2/5
Can you break the app?
Like many of the reviewers I was a victim of the “White Screen of Death” bug. From the various reviews and comments left for this app it sounds like this issue occurs when the NFL fantasy servers are down, either for maintenance or because of a crash. My error was most likely the result of a crash because it occur 5 minutes before kick off of the first NFL games on Sunday, a time when most users would be logging in to do last minute changes to their team.
How do they make money?
Beer and Madden 2011 Ads
Pros
- Easy to use
- Tons of features
- Scores updates rapidly
Cons
- Slow loading time between screens
- Just a shell for the official web site
- App doesn’t work when servers are down