My Pick : 3 Innovative Apps that Intrigued Me

Innovation does not mean solving the hardest of problems in the most complex manner. There is beauty in simplicity, especially when simple yet effective solutions emerge to address common problems. Here are 3 such mobile apps (some may be relatively less known) that have intrigued me by addressing common problems with simplicity & an innovative approach.

1.    Fitternity (www.fitternity.com)

Problem: Those that are fitness conscious would appreciate the fact that gym memberships lock you down to a single gym once you buy membership. And the annual membership fee is without regarding to how frequently you actually use the gym. For those who are frequent travelers or want to use a gym to compliment their primary sporting passion (like running, cycling, badminton or cricket) with strength training, this could actually turn out to be an expensive proposition due to infrequent usage. Annual membership fees also locks one down to a single gym and doesn’t allow a person to try different workouts at various gyms, yoga studios etc. as per interest.

What Intrigued Me : Fitternity solves this problem by simply allowing access to multiple gyms all over India on a pay per use basis for a reasonable fee. It does this by tying up with gyms, yoga studios, multi-gyms etc. and allowing the Fitternity subscriber to book a session at any gym of their choice online via an APP. This makes it quite convenient for users to try out various options and use these facilities on an as needed basis without having to shell out a large annual membership fee to a single facility. Since it has tie ups with facilities all over India, one could choose to join a refreshing workout session in a nearby gym or yoga studio while on travel.

 2.    RUSSH (www.russh.in)

Problem: Thanks to ongoing digitalization efforts in India, almost every other person on street owns a debit card and credit cards usage is on the rise as well. Additionally, many city slickers own more than one debit and/or credit cards from different banks. While subscribing for these cards, someone on the phone or an agent parrots a large list of features that are available on these cards, and that’s it! Once we have the card with us, it becomes impossible to keep track of all the offers and features of our cards. We are all aware that banks are coming up with tons of lucrative offers on their cards every day, be it dining, lifestyle, electronics or travel. We are also vaguely aware that some cards offer free airport lounges, insurance, fuel discounts, movie tickets etc. But the reality is that the relevant offers are promptly forgotten and are never used when required! Advertisements through tons of SMSes, emails and newspapers don’t serve the purpose.

What Intrigued Me : The App RUSSH solves this problem simply, by allowing anyone to browse and access all relevant offers at their fingertips, whenever needed, wherever needed. It also allows me to refer to the complete list of card features anytime, anywhere for all my cards in a simple standard format. And this it does very efficiently and simply with an intent to make it usable for anyone from the savvy user to the user who would otherwise miss out on these offers. Innovation in RUSSH is two fold:

a.    The way this app has aggregated information for all card vendors in one place and presents all this information in a simple location based interface to allow me to check out the most relevant offers around me. I have not seen such detailed information presented in such an user friendly manner in any other app.

b.    It has culled out all card features from all banks and added this to the app in a very simple manner. It lets me find my cards and add this to a list so that I can look up all the features of my card (like insurance, fuel discounts, lounge access, movie tickets etc.) whenever and wherever I need. This it does without requiring me to divulge my credit card details!

RUSSH claims a lot of upcoming features that would surely be very useful to everyone because of its user friendliness and somewhere it strikes the innovation cord in me.

3.    Fresh to Home (https://www.freshtohome.com/)

Problem: With our lives getting faster and faster, its hard to find time to find out vendors and locations that sell good quality non vegetarian food and then spend the time in endless traffic to procure some for our dining table! With growing non vegetarian lovers in Indian cities, there is a need to deliver fresh good quality non vegetarian food at door steps while maintaining the cold chain. A simple problem, isn’t it.

What Intrigued Me : Fresh to Home addresses this simple day to day problem. The app is simple, intuitive, supports features like pre-ordering of various types of non vegetarian food delivered on a selected time slot. The app lists these items in local language in addition to English, making it easier to understand. Beyond that they deliver good quality non vegetarian food which is free from preservatives etc making it a healthier option.

One could argue that there is no big technical innovation in this and it is more of a logistics play with a good user friendly front end. This is true to a larger extent but what intrigues me is that Fresh to Home successfully solves a common problem for non vegetarian food lovers and is sure to get more and more popular.

Bottom Line: As engineers, we need to appreciate the fact that solving simple but common problems in an effective fashion is as powerful and innovation (if not more) as solving complex problems that change mankind. Both fall in the realm of innovation.

Note: My blogs are my personal views and not that of my employer.