Guest post: We made an app for busy mums!

I’ve had a lot of exciting opportunities through my blog in the last year or so, and one of the most exciting, that came pretty much out of the blue, was the opportunity to be involved with Three UK and their On the Go Mums campaign. This was a great summer campaign that started with mummy bloggers and other mums getting together to learn more about how to use their smartphones and all the apps available to save themselves time.

It was a fab day at the Three offices in London, with a wide range of fascinating speakers, including Denise van Outen. It was good to catch up with a few blogging buddies too.

We then had local events where each of the five lead bloggers gathered a team about themselves to discuss app development. The drive was to come up with something busy mums could use to save time, and hopefully have some fun along the way. It was a really fun day with some lovely food, and Smallest had a great time too. I had five friends with me, some I was meeting in real life for the first time, and we talked about what sort of things we use our smartphones for and what we spent all our time doing. Then we looked at apps we like and finally we split into two teams to try to design an app we’d like to see developed.

The two apps the groups came up with couldn’t have been more different, and each team was utterly convinced that their idea was the best. In the end we had to come down to a tie breaker situation with external help from the app expert from Three!

We filmed a quick ad for our chosen app, and then it was all under wraps until the competition kicked off.

And what a competition it turned out to be – all five of the blogging teams supported their app to the hilt and it went right down to the wire with the voting on Facebook. Family Quest, our app, just edged it, but it was a close run thing, with votes drummed up via Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and even in real life! My team were stunning, all right behind me all the way and we’re looking forward to a fantastic night out to celebrate if we can ever sort out a date we can all make!

Then it was over to Three and their team for the actual development. I was kept informed throughout – it was fabulous seeing our rough idea, sketched out on a board, take shape first through a written specification, then as a storyboard, and then arrive in beta form on a loan iPhone! A few updates later and the app is ready to go, with links to both BritMums and my blog in it.

It’s been a really interesting experience throughout. It’s the first time I’d been involved in a big campaign with other bloggers, and great to be supported by such a strong team, particularly Johanna at Three who is really lovely. It was fun to be involved in the tech side of it all, and I’ve loved the gadgets I’ve got to play with throughout – my HTC Sensation courtesy of Three is pretty much always at my side, and the mifi I was given as well is an absolute life saver when we’re away on holiday.

I’m really looking forward to hearing what other people think of the app as they start to get their hands on it, via the Three Facebook page. Hope they love it as much as I do.