MobileSaver

Tags: banking, bottle.py, IDA, jquerymobile, saving, webapp

Our idea: MobileSaver is a mobile web portal for the management of an Individual Development Account.

An Individual Development Account (IDA) is a matched savings account that enables families with limited financial resources to save and build assets. IDAs encourage savings by matching participant deposits, which then are invested into specific assets. IDAs are about more then receiving match money. They are about building skills that will help individuals and their families move up the ladder of self-sufficiency. These skills are obtained through the completion of training focused on attaining and managing assets.

Though many IDA fund managers (the non-profit organizations that administer IDA programs) have found that the instant feedback on account status that can be provided through a website greatly encourages people to complete an IDA program, the vast majority of their participants to not have access to tradition computer or internet resources, instead connecting through mobile devices.  The primary third party IDA web portal, Outcome Tracker, does not offer any sort of mobile friendly site, nor do they plan on doing so in the near future. Outcome Tracker also does not provide any sort of API.

MobileSaver presents one solution to this problem by creating a type of filtering proxy (or scraper/visualization combination) that reformats the data in a mobile device friendly way. The same combination of simple tools used to implement MobileSaver (python, bottle.py, and jquerymobile) could also easily be used to solve other similar mobile formatting issues.

There is a strong interest in immediate deployment of this application for all forty two organizations that the major Oregon IDA fund manager (CASA) works with. Sustainability will be through CASA and other organizations that will host branded versions of MobileSaver for their own participants. MobileSaver was first concieved of as an idea during a discussion about challenges to the successful completion of IDA programs. A basic design mockup was done prior to the Portland code camp. At the code camp, the UI design was greatly improved, the python code and templates were written, and by the end of the day it existed as a working, usable, application.

MobileSaver is currently a fully working web application, with complete support for iOS, Android, and similar devices. It falls back to basic HTML on more limited mobile browsers, and while not as nice looking is still fully functional. In the future, we’d like to add device capability detection, and specially format the output for some older devices, such as classic Nokia or Motorola browser equipped cell phones. In addition, deposit reminders and notifications; and a communications portal to ask questions of the program manager are in the works.

Presentation (Including demo video): https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddp5twq5_76hpp9pwg3

Demo Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_16m3jr2pc

Our team:
Loki (Nick Jacobsen), Developer/Artist/Designer