For our mobile app module, we have to.. well.. create a mobile app. This could be on literally anything we wanted as long as we kept it fairly simple. Much like the amazing creation that is Hotglue, the program we used is browser based. This however is actually enjoyable to use! It's called AppFurnace and is run by a group of people based in Bristol. AppFurnace comes with two types of account you can use. You have the basic account which is free and fairly limited on what you can do, and you have the pro account which you have to pay for unless you are a student at a school, college, university etc. The pro version also lets you publish your app on an app store for an extra cost.

The layout of AppFurnace is pretty simple and straightforward, with an area to manage pages, add in elements from buttons to text and browse different menus for location services and custom code. The point of AppFurnace is to give people an easy-to-use service that they can create their apps on with either little or no need for coding. Whether it be that you're a complete rookie at making apps or you are just looking for something that doesn't involve 100% coding.

I decided to do my app based on venues located in Bristol. It's main purpose is to tell people who is playing at various places around Bristol. You can browse through artists, follow them, browse genres, browse venues and find out when you're favourite band are playing at Thekla. It's similar to an existing website called Reverbnation that does sort of the same thing. The difference being that my app would actually work properly.

For this app, I only used one piece of code which is to utilize the back button built into Android phones. I did this because I would be testing on an Android so I wanted to get that feature working. The only downside of this is that the app is not very user-friendly on iOS devices due to there not being an actual back button built into the app. Sorry guys..

I took advantage of AppFurnace's handy location service tool which let me put location markers on the map for the different venues I was showcasing. It also let me build in a pop-up so that when the user came into the close vicinity of one of the venues, it would tell them who is playing and when.

If I were able to create this with more knowledge and more money then I would create a part of the app that allowed small bands and venues to create a page for themselves and showcase their own music or who was playing and when. This was going to be my original idea but due to lack of knowledge, I was unable to do so. I'm passionate about local music scene's as it fuels creativity and culture into a town or city. It also gives young children the opportunity to pursue music as a hobby with their friends. I definitely see this as being a future project of mine.

If you want to try the app out then you can download the AppFurnace app free on your smartphone and enter the following URL to try it out: http://the.appfurnace.com/test/R69wz/

Fair warning, test it on an Android device if possible. Sorry iOS users!