I have a new app! We called it “Run 4 Fun”.
In short it is a community effort and a result of our yearly neighbourhood competition “barn mot föräldrar” or “kids against parents”. Every year we organize some sort of social event where people from the block come together, socialize, have fun and have some sort of competition. As alternative for the traditional “fem-kamp” in Sweden we held last year a running game. Two teams (“kids” and “parents”) run around the block and the tea with most lapses wins. The first year the kids won from the parents due to more participants. The second year the parents were going to out-smart the kids by changing some rules:
- every participant sets a personal target / time for a run around the block
- every recorded lapse time is compared with the target time and points are rewarded for the time difference.
- rewards are progressive in such a way that the less time difference rewards with higher points that much time difference
The challenge is then to make a good estimation for your target time and to run “constant” lapses that match the target time.
First impressions from this set-up:
- The kids were too enthusiastic in setting their targets, so the first couple of rounds they ran well, but when getting tired their times increased leading to less points.
- Parents delivered more steady pace and lasted a bit longer recording constant times.
Due to this setup, the parents were finally able even with a smaller team to score a higher total score! Of course this had to be celebrated!
For this year we sat a couple of couple of evenings together to automate the recording and calculation which resulted in the “Run 4 Fun” app.
Here follows a short step through:
Everything starts with registering an event. Just provide some basic details for the event:
We provided some basic metrics for rewarding lapses but if you want you can alter them yourself and for each event:
Next step would be to register runners (or participants if you want to use the app for other type of events). We went around the block and informed about the upcoming neighbourhood event and asked if people were interested to hang around and socialize:
The next step would be to open up the event for sign-ups.
Next step is to sign up runners for this event. This can already be done when opening the registration:
Just select a runner from the dialog:
And enter the target time for the runner:
Just work on the list of registered participants:
If you look at a registration you will notice a button to send the URL of the page to the runner. This page the runner will need to record the lapse times:
When all interested people have been signed up you can close the registration:
When the event starts click the start button:
This will allow the runners to start recording their lapses:
While running the app records the start and end time for each lapse. The runner has to record the lapses. We had a big table where runners could place their phones during running. Make sure nobody is cheating via wearables, old fashioned watches or family members telling what time it is:
At each stop the score for the lapse is calculated and stored:
As you can see in the overview: lapses that are closer to your target time are rewarded more than lapses that has a shorter times. You can run a bit shorter or a bit longer than the target time and still get rewarded so if you run a bit slower you do not run for nothing. If you would have an exact match the app also rewards you with an additional bonus score (set in the Event)
You stop the event via the “Stop the event” button.
From that point the runners can no longer start new recordings of lapse times or end their current lapse recording. If a runner would try a dialog will inform about this:
When an event has ended the scoreboard becomes available from the Event page:
The scoreboard will give an sorted overview of the total score for the runners:
That is it! Of course you could use the app for different purposes (record how fast each administrator can install an update for a Domino server and has it up and running again?)
So your question is: where can I get it? My intention is to place it on the Domino appstore from HCL but I have some difficulties with credentials (login). My goal is to have it available there before the upcoming “Let’s Connect – Nordics” event next week in Stockholm. Perhaps we can have a run there 