Development of a Mobile Customer Application for Dry Cleaning Services

Abstract: While machines are getting better at simulating human behavior it has become more common with the use of avatars and conversational text in mobile applications. These are used in order to induce a reflectively positive experience for the user, possibly making the user choose that application in favor of another. The balance between developing a too playful application and an uninteresting one is hard to achieve. This master thesis project aimed to do exactly that while developing a customer application for dry cleaning services in the U.S. By using an incremental and iterative agile software development method for a single person project, project goals and deadlines were met. This thesis researched use of personality in modern mobile applications while developing the application for Apple’s iOS using the Swift programming language. After research and development, a usability test was conducted in order to evaluate application design, use of avatar and conversational text as well as navigation and transitions. The avatar was labeled as too disturbing for the users while the conversational text enhanced the user experience. The project resulted in a finished prototype for ordering dry cleaning without the avatar. The use of more refined avatars in applications like this might still be feasible. Users demand a delightful experience from their applications and it is extremely important for developers to listen to this demand. If not, users could be lost to rivals.