PowerApps for Family and Home - A Recap

I was recently fortunate enough to run a webinar, sponsored by Microsoft, with Audrie Gordon - after a bit of prep work we decided it would be fun to run a session titled "PowerApps for Family and Home".

To give some perspective Audrie is my PowerApps sensei and through EDX in 2017 gave me my introduction to this amazing platform, and I've never looked back.

We kicked off by going immediately off script and looked at a Flow that I created to remind my mum when to take her tablets via a daily text using the Twilio connector. In my case I was conscious of just how easy it is to learn to ignore notifications, in particular if they are received regularly, so the Flow was upgraded to include one of 150 daily proverbs. Clearly, in a business context getting timely reminders can be extremely useful and, given that we've all been desensitized to the volume of mails we received text is a superior form of communication. You can jump to the youtube link here.

What made it more fun was that my Mum was on the chat and the attendees were able to engage in a bit of banter early on.

We then took a look at a very simple app used to house passwords, based on the 3 screen mobile app that can be produced in a single click from sharepoint. It's actually my most useful, most used app. Clearly it wouldn't make a lot of sense to use an app such as this in a business context, but at home it's a perfectly valid application. Youtube Link

We then moved onto possibly my favourite app of all time. It started out as a history app and then morphed into a family or school day out app with some mapping baked in. Users get to describe their day out in pictures and words, laying out their experience on a bespoke map. Down below you can see an the app describing my trip around the Den Bl? Planet National Aquarium in Copenhagen, Denmark. SeeYoutube link.

From my perspective the thing that really makes this app fly is the flow that converts images uploaded via Onedrive and then onto a Sharepoint document library and adding a thumbnail via cognitive services. Cool or what! We pick this up on youtube here

We then moved onto an app that I put together quite a long time ago. It's called the 'Art Project' and users get to take photos of the progression of a piece of artwork. It's not a perfect solution from a user experience perspective, but the idea is very much a valid one, and I could easily see organisations using the technique for developing simple user guides. Youtube starts around here for this app. If you're feeling keen there's actually a series of 14 or so videos that you go through on Youtube here in order to construct the App.

We then moved onto a rather daft hide and seek app that I prepared some time ago and recently turned into a 'winter' edition where you have to find my dog Kylo. Users can download the app here and the video starts here. Personally, I'd like users to download thea app and make it their own as demonstrated during the webinar.

To finish we looked at a pretty simple but reasonably effective app that I put together to enable me too create a platform for a poem that I put together a few years ago. Users get to read the poem and if they are feeling keen they can add their own or even their child's own rendition of the poem. The webinar starts here and you can download the app here.

Phew - we were all done and we'd covered a lot of ground. Sadly there wasn't a place for Power BI in this episode, but the reality of this platform is that you start with you user story and grow out from there.

I hope that the learning from the session is that PowerApps can be fun, easy and useful, and it can be just as relevant to home and education as it is to the workplace. 2019 is going to be an amazing year for the Power Platform and I cannot wait to see the creations that people across the world come up with.

A final note - EVERYBODY is welcome in the PowerApps community, young, old, rich, poor whatever their gender and whatever their ethnicity, there is no app too small and no user story should ever get left behind. Together, we can do this thing!