Monday, March 31, 2008
Lifestyle.Check Elevator Speech
I have created a proposal for the development of a new software application. It is a productivity tool that offers decision support to the re-occurring question we ask ourselves "What should I wear?". This is a consequential decision virtually everyone must make everyday that affects how we are perceived by others, and most importantly how we perceive ourselves. To make the right decision we have to think about about what we are doing, what the weather conditions are, what we have to wear, and how we can put it together. All theses possibilities can often become innumerable and overwhelming. Lifestyle Check (LC) is a digital lifestyle management system that offers an innovative solution to this decision-making process. You can create a virtual wardrobe complete with photos and detailed product descriptions simply by taking a photo of the tag of what you just bought, and Lifestyle Check will do the rest. The application will produce personalized Lifestyle Reports advising you on what to wear when, based on your calendar, local weather, what you have, what looks good together, your preferences, and related trends.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Reference of Lifestyle.Check
All of the references used to create Lifestyle.Check are published in notebook format
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http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dvgs4f9_1811hfwnv8dm
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http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dvgs4f9_1811hfwnv8dm
What is Lifestyle.Check?
The Lifestyle.Check application captures, analyzes, correlates, and displays relevant information about your products in a meaningful way, though an ascetically pleasing intuitive user interface seamlessly integrated into the iLife application suite.
Exploring Other Possibilties in Luxury Lifestyle
“Lifestyle Check is designed to create a remarkable user experience worthy of luxury lifestyle products.” With that potential sound byte in mind, I would like to address the options the commercial use of Lifestyle.Check. In my opinion, retail sales associates would love this product. For example, imagine you are going to Saks to buy a new outfit to wear to your birthday celebration dinner. As you begin to interact with a sales associate, pointing you in different directions and walking around the store for hours trying to pick out good combinations, or relying on mannequins and displays for cues on what works, they instead bring you to a virtual brainstorm area. You could literally just sit on a nice chair, drink espresso, and use LC on a big screen to sort through the stores inventory for you, and pick out the best possible combinations according to your preferences and what works.
Next we can take the use of LC two steps above retail, to the design stage of the business. LC could be used as a super tool to maintain a brand's vision and focus by streamlining the collection design process. Every time an individual designer completes a piece, he or she could add it to the master collection virtually in LC. This would allow many other people involved with the business, such as directors and investors, as well as the head designers, to look at all of the possibilities in an organized and meaningfull way, helping them make a better decision.
Next we can take the use of LC two steps above retail, to the design stage of the business. LC could be used as a super tool to maintain a brand's vision and focus by streamlining the collection design process. Every time an individual designer completes a piece, he or she could add it to the master collection virtually in LC. This would allow many other people involved with the business, such as directors and investors, as well as the head designers, to look at all of the possibilities in an organized and meaningfull way, helping them make a better decision.
Interview with the Author
The following is a transcription of an interview of the creator of Lifestyle.Check, Michael Salafia, by Northeastern University class mate Christine Cardoso on March 22, 2008, about the Lifestyle.Check Application Development Proposal.
With such a vast array of possibilities, why did you choose to focus on lifestyle management?
Two reasons: personal interest and industry experience. I really like looking and feeling my best as much as possible, because... if you can, then why not? I have a strong personal interest in clothes, fashion, design, art, architecture, photography, and arts and humanities in general. My previous industry experience gave me insider knowledge on how the systems that my system would be interacting with work. I have worked as a sales associate for Armani, and I have produced and managed fashion shows through out Boston's upscale venues.
What are some of your personal strengths that create a competitive advantage for you as an independent software developer in such a bearish entrepreneurial environment?
I'm an ambitious 21 year old driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit. In some ways I am still naive and imaginative, and this becomes a strength against my competition when it lets me think outside the box. I have a vision of a better world, in which we use technology to our maximum advantage. This isn't revolutionary; its just concentrated functional evolution that does not require significant change. I envision our world having different kinds of problems, like today how we think of "rich people problems" vs "poor people problems", I see the world having only "rich people problems" but then new sets of problems occurring as more people move up to that level. The problems and stress would be relatively not as bad as our current state. To say that in my lifetime I envision the possibility of a world that does not have "problems" as our society would consider them today at this point would be more like fantasizing than forecasting.
With such a vast array of possibilities, why did you choose to focus on lifestyle management?
Two reasons: personal interest and industry experience. I really like looking and feeling my best as much as possible, because... if you can, then why not? I have a strong personal interest in clothes, fashion, design, art, architecture, photography, and arts and humanities in general. My previous industry experience gave me insider knowledge on how the systems that my system would be interacting with work. I have worked as a sales associate for Armani, and I have produced and managed fashion shows through out Boston's upscale venues.
What are some of your personal strengths that create a competitive advantage for you as an independent software developer in such a bearish entrepreneurial environment?
I'm an ambitious 21 year old driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit. In some ways I am still naive and imaginative, and this becomes a strength against my competition when it lets me think outside the box. I have a vision of a better world, in which we use technology to our maximum advantage. This isn't revolutionary; its just concentrated functional evolution that does not require significant change. I envision our world having different kinds of problems, like today how we think of "rich people problems" vs "poor people problems", I see the world having only "rich people problems" but then new sets of problems occurring as more people move up to that level. The problems and stress would be relatively not as bad as our current state. To say that in my lifetime I envision the possibility of a world that does not have "problems" as our society would consider them today at this point would be more like fantasizing than forecasting.
Technology Affects Society
This application is beneficial for the overall society because unlike some productivity tools, this one teaches you how to make better decisions, rather than depending on the tool to make the decision for you. Using productivity tools to help teach people how to be more productive rather than just facilitating a process resulting in making them more productive is a very interesting concept. In theory, if the tool taught the user how to complete the task without the tool, then the tool is only temporary. However, for the nature of a computer application, and more specifically, a productivity tool, the user can normally derive some utility from the tool regardless of how advanced they become.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Original Idea for Lifestyle.Check
Originally, the idea was to be able to enter your new purchase as an item in your database remotely from your iPhone at the point of sale. Then utilize the iPhone's advanced touch screen technology to interact with your purchase with in a remarkable user interface. If the application was also web-based, then the user could access it from anywhere with an internet connection and capatable browser.
I imagine waking up in the morning to my iPhone alarm playing my favorite song that I just downloaded as ring tone status from iTunes. I tap snooze, stand up, and click on Lifestyle.Check. It opens displaying todays Lifestyle Report. It's amazing, everything I need to know is there for me on one page on my little iPhone screen. My days itinerary, the weather, 3 options of the perfect outfits for my day, and the 3 news headlines that are most relevant to me.
Eventually an application like this could be integrated with all of your consumer products.
So another possible next step out be to regulate cosmetic cycles for women. Match makeups, rotate cleanser and shampoo cycles, and schedule uses of personal products.
The application could be integrated with online grocery ordering systems. Some people who live in cities order their groceries online to be delivered. What if there was an application that kept track of the groceries that you ordered, and generated possible dishes that could be prepared with the ingredients that you have? So for breakfast, and lists all of the possible breakfast foods you could make, like a restaurants menu, based on your preferences, then when you click the item, it shows you the recipe. If you are in a rush you can sort your choices by estimated time required to prepare the food.
Now, how should you get to work today? If you live in the suburbs and drive a car there is probably only one option, but if you live in the city, have a zip car account, a subway pass, and are a valued customer of the local taxi service, you have many option. What if there was an application that could calculate all of the estimated times it would take to get some where. So for my case, the report would show the possible T routes, with the estimated time to walk to the T, time to wait for the T, time to ride the T, and total travel time, for each the Orange line and the Green line. Next, it would calculate local traffic and estimate how long and how much it would cost to take a cab, and do the same for renting a Zip car. Then, it could be taken a step further by calculating interstate travel. For example, it could check the best possible way for me to get to NYC from my apartment in Boston. Should I walk to the Silver line, ride to Logan and fly Jet Blue? Should I take the Green Line to the Red Line to South Station to Amtrack... or should I take the Chinatown bus? Or should I just take a taxi to the Hilton and catch the Limo Liner? Next ad all of the internet travel sites/search engines and you could even do international travel complete with hotels and rental cars. There are many possibilities, and many variables to consider, but with the right information, there is a best possible decision that can be made.
I imagine waking up in the morning to my iPhone alarm playing my favorite song that I just downloaded as ring tone status from iTunes. I tap snooze, stand up, and click on Lifestyle.Check. It opens displaying todays Lifestyle Report. It's amazing, everything I need to know is there for me on one page on my little iPhone screen. My days itinerary, the weather, 3 options of the perfect outfits for my day, and the 3 news headlines that are most relevant to me.
Eventually an application like this could be integrated with all of your consumer products.
So another possible next step out be to regulate cosmetic cycles for women. Match makeups, rotate cleanser and shampoo cycles, and schedule uses of personal products.
The application could be integrated with online grocery ordering systems. Some people who live in cities order their groceries online to be delivered. What if there was an application that kept track of the groceries that you ordered, and generated possible dishes that could be prepared with the ingredients that you have? So for breakfast, and lists all of the possible breakfast foods you could make, like a restaurants menu, based on your preferences, then when you click the item, it shows you the recipe. If you are in a rush you can sort your choices by estimated time required to prepare the food.
Now, how should you get to work today? If you live in the suburbs and drive a car there is probably only one option, but if you live in the city, have a zip car account, a subway pass, and are a valued customer of the local taxi service, you have many option. What if there was an application that could calculate all of the estimated times it would take to get some where. So for my case, the report would show the possible T routes, with the estimated time to walk to the T, time to wait for the T, time to ride the T, and total travel time, for each the Orange line and the Green line. Next, it would calculate local traffic and estimate how long and how much it would cost to take a cab, and do the same for renting a Zip car. Then, it could be taken a step further by calculating interstate travel. For example, it could check the best possible way for me to get to NYC from my apartment in Boston. Should I walk to the Silver line, ride to Logan and fly Jet Blue? Should I take the Green Line to the Red Line to South Station to Amtrack... or should I take the Chinatown bus? Or should I just take a taxi to the Hilton and catch the Limo Liner? Next ad all of the internet travel sites/search engines and you could even do international travel complete with hotels and rental cars. There are many possibilities, and many variables to consider, but with the right information, there is a best possible decision that can be made.
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