Statisticians - Would you consider using a mobile app?

• thePITman

  

  Sometimes as statisticians we come across situations where press boxes get really cramped with little to no room for a stat book let alone one to two bodies; or we have to sit outside in the wind and hold onto our papers; or there is no power outlet for the laptop if you use that for keeping stats. With the ever-increasing presence of mobile devices, I think a handy mobile app would be useful for keeping game night statistics, reducing clutter and limiting the space required by the statistician and his/her partner.
  
  I am in the early stages right now of creating an Android app for keeping football stats. This is not like the other football "stat" apps out there where you can just follow one person and enter his or her stats. This would be to track the entire game, play-by-play, just as we do already either with the Tucker Book (what I use), on a laptop (like Orrville's statisticians do), or other method.
  
  What are your thoughts on a mobile app to do this for you? I don't have all the details yet, but I plan to have reporting capabilities, as well, that will make it easy to call in stats after the game (or enter them into ScoreFeeder), give to coaches at halftime for evaluation, etc. Another feature I would like (down the road) would be to have an Export option which would produce a flat file in MaxPreps' desired format that can be easily uploaded to their site (most likely manually, until I find a way to do it automatically). The possibilities are endless, but I need to start somewhere.
  
  Anyway, what are your thoughts?
• ernest_t_bass

  

  Different sport, but an opposing softball coach last year was using a stat program for an iPad. If I hadn't resigned, I was seriously considering downloading a program for my iPod to keep track of stats for softball.
• thePITman

  

  Good point. I have seen others using iPads and other tablets for other sports, especially basketball. I am our statistician for basketball, too, and we use computer software. I know CVCA uses an iPad (creator of ScoreFeeder is a CVCA guy, and showed me the app they use). I was an asst coach and scorekeeper for varsity baseball, as well, and I just used the book.
  
  But for football, there seems to be a lack of options.
• skiisme753

  The main issue would be the stability of the app. Apps often crash and data loss would be a real concern for a mobile app.
• lets_go_devils

  

  skiisme753;843048 wrote:The main issue would be the stability of the app. Apps often crash and data loss would be a real concern for a mobile app.

  
  This.
  
  Otherwise, it's a great idea, and I'm all for that. Good luck with this.
• thePITman

  

  Whenever the user hits the back button, or a call comes in, or resources run low and the phone either pauses or closes the application to free space, first the operating system automatically runs an "onPause" or "onClose" type of method in the app which allows me/it to do quick processing before it closes.
  
  Even if it doesn't check, every play would be saved to the SQL*lite database after a "Done" button is pressed, so if the phone crashed, you could turn it back on and pick up where you left off with the next play. Now, if you're talking about a phone crashing and being "gone for good", the chances of that of happening on an Android phone are just as good as a laptop, iPad, or other electronic device, so there's no additional threat, IMO.
  
  Up until two days ago I was messing around with features I planned to use to make sure they worked with each other in the same app. Last night I started the actual development of the app, and I will be working hard to see what I can get in the next month!
• skiisme753

  Sounds like you have the crash issue under control. I just remember when the espn iscore baseball app first came out people were complaining with stability and the app forcing closed and they lost their data. Sounds like a neat app. I would be willing to test the app out if you would like once you get a beta version out there. Sounds like you have a good plan with the app. It would be down the road, but being able to broadcast online like the iscore app would be pretty awesome.
• thePITman

  

  I will definitely need people to beta test it once it's ready. Thank you for the offer. I will try to look you up if/once it's ready. Thanks!
• thePITman

  

  I just downloaded MaxPreps' statistician software MaxStatsFB on a co-worker's iPad. I didn't like it AT ALL! The upgraded version, which I did not download, is the only version where you can actually record "plays", or so they tell you. I'm not convinced that it's all they cracked it up to be. I was not at all impressed. In fact, I am MORE encouraged that my app will be valuable for statisticians.
  
  Right now I am basically finished with layout and game flow. This weekend I will start putting in the backend to allow saving/retrieving records to/from the database. This is when it gets hard, but it's also when it gets to be a REAL, usable app! I am excited. If I do not get it done by August 26, you can bet that I will have it working REAL NICE for next season.
• thePITman

  

  Unfortunately, I'm not going to meet my deadline by the end of this week (or what was preferably sooner). I just ran into a few roadblocks and tough coding problems. So, my goal is to have it all ready and working perfectly for next football season. I'd rather release a fully-functioning, well-tested app than to rush a mediocre app with a bug here and there. I'll keep you updated and can't wait until I can share it with those that are interested!