If anyone has ever worked close to a NCT Centre, you are probably used to being constantly asked for directions to it. Our offices are based right next door to one very business NCT centre, Deansgrange NCT Centre. In fairness, it’s not the most obvious of locations and until a couple of months ago, the estate didn’t even exist on Google Maps.
However, I couldn’t help but get annoyed when people would stop me on my way to the shop for lunch and ask me for directions when they are parked literally right in front of it. Maybe it’s just my old age, but I ended up resorting to just pointing a finger in the direction of the centre to anyone that started slowing down as I passed their car – I just knew what they were going to ask.
So when at a meeting with a local client who also works from Deansgrange Business Park, discussed the annoyance of this in between discussions of developing apps for her company, she said “wouldn’t it be great if their was an app for directions to NCT centres…”!!
Since we were in the middle of developing other apps for ourselves, just to show that we could in fact develop them, I thought this was a great idea to launch as our first Android App.
So here it is!!
The NCT Centre Finder App is FREE and available on the Android App Market. Just search for “NCT” in the market place and you should be able to find it quite easily.
Currently the app is very simple, it lists NCT Centres by county and A-Z. We’ve built it in such a way that most functions can be run offline without a connection to the Internet. So you can see simple maps and addresses etc. Another simple tool we added was a “Checklist”. The checklist is a simple tool that lists all the items needed in preparation for your NCT test.
We wanted to do so much more with this app, but thought we should let it fly first and see if anyone is interested in using it. Please email us with any suggestions or items you’d like added and we’ll see what we can do!
The App is also available for the iPhone, simply visit www.2bscene.ie/nct on your iPhone Web Browser and it will run from there. You can also add it to your desktop on your iPhone, which will mean you will have a lovely glossy icon on your desktop.
And of course – if you’d like an iPhone or Android app for your business – why not call us and see what we can do for you!
P.S. Those who just want to have a nose, you can visit www.2bscene.ie/nct in Safari Browser to get an idea of what the App does.
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#1 by Pete K at November 9th, 2010
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What about geolocation and tieing that into google maps API so people can get driving instructions from either where they are or a selected starting point?
#2 by Tom Doyle at November 9th, 2010
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Hi Pete
Believe it or not we’re already working on that for version 2. We were having trouble getting it going without any performance issues, so opted to simply add a “Directions” button which you can open in Google Maps (if you have the app installed) and it will pick up your location there. Better still, if you have an android phone, it will open in Google Maps and then allow you to open Google Navigation from there!!! Pretty sweet!
#3 by Murray at September 8th, 2011
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Hey, it’s been almost a year since you launched the NCTapp…just wondering what the response has been. It seems like a great idea and may prevent you from having to give everybody directions. Although, now when people ask you may find yourself saying, “you know, there’s an app for that?”
#4 by Tom Doyle at September 9th, 2011
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The inspiration for creating the app was the fact that we were constantly being asked by people in the business park our offices are in “where’s the nct centre” and we want to say “you know there’s an app for that!”.
But anyway… how has it gone…. hmmmm
From our own perspective, it was great as we learned quite a lot of building apps and the best approach. I guess you could call it our R&D project.
In terms of the success of the app itself – well it’s had 940 downloads the last time I checked and an active user base of about 300.
Not hugely impressive, hence the reason we haven’t put time into updating it. It seems that people just aren’t that interested in it!