Project Abstract

To track their habits, readers use reading apps as a type of self-tracking technology. These applications allow users to track the books they read and some allow users to view analytics or engage with other users. However, readers are dissatisfied with the reading apps currently available and have to manage multiple applications at once, meaning their data can become inconsistent and the apps feel laborious to manage. This is because no app currently available to readers successfully implements all the tools that are commonly used by readers to track their habits. In addition to this, not all of the available apps successfully integrate factors such as social community that support the long-term use of self-tracking technology. This project provides an outline for a new application that solves reader dissatisfaction by combining all the tools readers need into one application whilst researching self-tracking technology and the quantified self-movement to find what makes self-tracking applications successful. Using Android Studio along with the Google Books API for Kotlin and Google Firebase this project was able to design and implement an app that lets users track books they are reading, digitalise their bookshelves, view statistics and reading goals and keep up with friends. This project then evaluates its success and highlights work that could be done in future to expand the application to encompass more self-tracking tools.

Keywords: Mobile Apps, Self-Tracking Technology,

 Conference Details

Session: Poster Session A at Poster Stand 112

Location: Sir Stanley Clarke Auditorium at Tuesday 7th 13:30 – 17:00

Markers: Gary Tam, Deepak Sahoo

Course: BSc Computer Science, 3rd Year

Future Plans: I’m looking for work