This summer, Adobe challenged developers to create an AIR application using a “pure AS3 project or the Flex framework”, and publish it on the Android marketplace, the App Store and BlackBerry AppWorld. The winner would be flown to LA to attend Adobe MAX in October.
The winner has now been announced, with koCheck, by Alexander Renner along with Maximilian Maier, Matthias Mischka and Corbinian Kling, taking the prize. The educational app that aims to “sensitize the user for his environment and his handling of daily goods” was described by juror Mark Doherty, Flash platform evangelist at Adobe Systems, as a ”beautifully designed and optimised info-game”. Platform evangelist Serge Jespers added: “Any application that makes the user more aware about the environment is a winner in my book.”
Renner told .net that the final version of koCheck was almost ready as the Adobe Mobile Challenge was announced, and perfect for his team’s needs: “We’d already coded the whole project with Flash for the iPad and there were only minor changes to do to get a working version for the Android and BlackBerry platforms,” he said.
The original idea was based on a lecture at Ulm University, with the aim being to develop an iPad e-learning app. “We wanted to create a new kind of e-learning experience, by not only using the standard features provided by modern tablets; we wanted to give the user a ‘haptical’ feeling by creating interaction with the topic itself,” explained Renner. “We came up with the idea of sustainability and especially paper.”
With paper being used by countless people daily, the team decided it was a material everyone should know more about; part of the app's aim was to explain what paper is capable of and promote the fact it’s possible to save lots of paper by reusing it or by having better knowledge on when to use certain types of paper. “koCheck is building bridges between the user and the material, by simply asking the user to grab it, feel it and look at it from another perspective. If every user has one or two ‘aha’ moments while using the app, koCheck has achieved its goal,” said Renner.
As for the prize, Renner told us he had to check and recheck the email address, just to be sure it wasn’t a hoax, and he was then shocked, proud and very happy. He is looking forward to the “amazing opportunity to be at one of the biggest conventions in one of the most beautiful cities in the world” and also “the trends and technical knowledge I will bring back home”.
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