[Developing an app] Guinea Pig Journal! (not the final name)

Teddybear22

Teddybear22

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Hi everyone!

As some of you may know, I’m currently in my last year of a Computer Programming course and in order to graduate we are required to do a project. In this case, an app. And I have in mind to develope something related to guinea pigs for Android!

The general idea is some kind of journal where you keep the weekly health checks noted down.
As the main feature being that it compares the weights so if they lose a noticeable amount the app will enter in a “daily weight” mode.
The idea is in the really early stages so I don’t have a final full image of what features it will contain and that (and because I think it’s quite nice to document it here) is the reason why I created this thread, to see what you would think it would be nice to have in an app of that kind.
I will take note of everything you say but I can’t promise to include it because maybe it’s too difficult for me at the moment or I run out of time…

The current list of features that I have in mind to implement (again, maybe some of these don’t end up as part of the app because of this or that, or maybe I'll add more as I document myself) is as follows:

- A guinea pig list (with all the guinea pigs you have). This list would contain a picture, name, gender & last weight. Once you click on it it opens the profile of said guinea pig.
- You will be able to add, edit or delete (in the case you created a profile twice for example) guinea pigs.
- Daily observations of each guinea pig (eating, behaviour, movement, pee & other stains, poop).
- Weekly observations of each guinea pig (weight, teeth, eyes, ears, skin, poop, nails).
- Daily weight mode.
- Basic care section.
- Rainbow Bridge section.
- Nearby vets depending on location (here I would like, if possible, to take the list from the forum? As I know those are trusted vets).
- Heat waves according to location?

The app in any case pretends to replace a vet, in fact what I intend is to show a message of some kind telling the user to go see one if something in the checkup is off.

I do have in mind to add a link to this forum in the Basic Care Section as I will use loads of info from here to make this app something that is as trustworthy as it can be.

I will keep this thread updated with any progress/new ideas/etc that I make. But it will be a long process…

Thank you everyone for taking the time on reading me! x

ps. I posted it on Guinea Pig Chat because in the end it is related to piggies but if you think it should be in another section, please be free to move it to where it belongs and excuse my slip-up!
 
Claire W said:
Coming from somebody who uses her phone for everything, I think that this is a great idea :) I particularly like the idea of being able to record the weights of your guinea pigs :)
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I use my phone for this forum. At the moment i have copied this forum to thumbnail for fast access
 
Thank you for your messages, I really appreciate it! :hug:

And just to make it clear, the "basic care section" in the app will be quite basic because giving information in depth is not the purpose of the app, that's the purpose of this forum and it accomplishes it really well :nod:
 
Maybe it doesn't have to just be for guinea pigs. It could also be for rabbits, hamsters, ferrets, chinchillas, rats, gerbils (and other small rodents). Love the idea though.
 
Thank you both of you!

Sappyshelly said:
Maybe it doesn't have to just be for guinea pigs. It could also be for rabbits, hamsters, ferrets, chinchillas, rats, gerbils (and other small rodents). Love the idea though.
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Well, the thing is that I want the app to be as accurate as possible with the "hey this is wrong, you should take your piggie to the vet" thingy, and different species have different things to look at when something is wrong with them so in order to make it right for those species I should document myself on them aswell and I don't really have the time to do that. I love guinea pigs so I am willing to invest my time in documenting myself about them but I don't think it's viable to extend it to other animals.
Thank you so much anyway for giving the idea I really appreciate your feedback! :D
 
Teddybear22 said:
Thank you both of you!



Well, the thing is that I want the app to be as accurate as possible with the "hey this is wrong, you should take your piggie to the vet" thingy, and different species have different things to look at when something is wrong with them so in order to make it right for those species I should document myself on them aswell and I don't really have the time to do that. I love guinea pigs so I am willing to invest my time in documenting myself about them but I don't think it's viable to extend it to other animals.
Thank you so much anyway for giving the idea I really appreciate your feedback! :D
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I understand :) good luck making the app.
 
Merab's Slave said:
How do you do that?
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Merab's Slave said:
As one who has only just given up the slate and chalk I think your idea sounds great for tech minded people.
Good luck.
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I have only just given up the slate and chalk too Heather. I asked google how to do it! And as usual google came up trumps. I asked google "how do you copy a website into a thumbnail on an Android phone" and followed the easy to follow instructions (need to be cos I am a bear of little brain when it comes to all things techie!) and now I have a thumbnail of the guinea pig forum on my phone. Honestly if I can do it anybody can!
 
I tried - I failed!
Probably because all the instructions were for Microsoft and I have an iPhone
 
Soooo yesterday I got the last mark I needed to know and I'M GRADUATING. This means that in few days I'll begin an internship as developer AND that the development of this app will just start!
(I needed to pass all the subjects in order to start the project)

All of these was also the reason of why I've been specially away from here as the last months have been quite tough!
 
Teddybear22 said:
Soooo yesterday I got the last mark I needed to know and I'M GRADUATING. This means that in few days I'll begin an internship as developer AND that the development of this app will just start!
(I needed to pass all the subjects in order to start the project)

All of these was also the reason of why I've been specially away from here as the last months have been quite tough!
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Oh well done you - huge congratulations on your efforts in coming so far :D:clap::clap::clap:
 
Well done on graduating. I missed this thread first time round on account of getting married two days before and jetting off on honeymoon.

I use similar apps for health purposes at the moment and the only thing I can think off is maybe a button select on the weigh in as to whether it's before or after food in the daily feeding cycle as that can account for some weight difference.

Vets - you are setting yourself up for continual ongoing maintenance of an app here as vets move and practices change. I would think you would be better having tips on finding a vet and maybe a list of questions users could ask their local vets practice in order to find one they are happy with.

Overall you need to be extremely careful if lifting information from any other apps or web pages due to copyright laws. You will always need to seek permission from the owner of the page before using their information and will also need to show credit to them in the app.
 
Swissgreys said:
Oh well done you - huge congratulations on your efforts in coming so far :D:clap::clap::clap:
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Thank you so much! :luv:
Betsy said:
Well done! Graduating is something to be celebrated.
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Thank you, it surely is! I almost thought I wouldn't make it lol :hug:

Lady Kelly said:
Well done on graduating. I missed this thread first time round on account of getting married two days before and jetting off on honeymoon.

I use similar apps for health purposes at the moment and the only thing I can think off is maybe a button select on the weigh in as to whether it's before or after food in the daily feeding cycle as that can account for some weight difference.

Vets - you are setting yourself up for continual ongoing maintenance of an app here as vets move and practices change. I would think you would be better having tips on finding a vet and maybe a list of questions users could ask their local vets practice in order to find one they are happy with.

Overall you need to be extremely careful if lifting information from any other apps or web pages due to copyright laws. You will always need to seek permission from the owner of the page before using their information and will also need to show credit to them in the app.
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Thank you so much for the feedback, I really really appreciate it! And congrats on your wedding, I really hope your honeymoon was amazing :hug:

I did think about showing some kind of alert to make sure (or at least try) that the person is weighing the piggy at the same time all the weeks, but I didn't think of that, so I'm taking note of it!

Also taking note about the tips to find a good vet, I think that's a brilliant idea, so I'm definitely including that. I might keep aswell the vets listing? As I think I won't mind keeping an eye on it every now and then. My idea was to speak with @sport_billy, the people from Guinea Lynx and some rescues from Spain to get an accurate list for the UK, US and Spain.

About listing information from other websites & things like that, I wasn't going to take it as it is, more like inform myself and from there put little bits on the app. I don't plan on making a huge section, because that's what the forum is for, it's more like basic tips such as "you need a cage this big for this number of piggies". Anyways I was also planning on contacting the people I mentioned above about this matter, because even if I'm not going to copy the information as it is, I will do my research on both websites; for example to know the amount of weightloss that is considered an alert sign. And I would of course include credits.

And I think I didn't say anything about it, but of course the app would be completely free.

Again, this app is not going to diagnose anything, it will only say "hey, you need to see a vet, because this is not normal". And more than anything is to keep track of the weight and general health condition of the piggy.
 
I was looking for something like this the other day. I wanted something which would show me a graph of their weights. I was going to use a human app, but they are only designed to track one set of weights (plus they don't go as far down as grams lol). I shall look forward to seeing what you produce.
 
@Roclibrarian I'm really happy to hear that!
It will take time though, so even if I don't update here, don't think I dropped it because I won't. I have to submit it by the end of May/beginning of June so...
 
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