EPA Indoor airPLUS App
Mobile Gov Experiences are agency stories about creating anytime, anywhere, any device government services and info. This entry is a story shared by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Indoor airPLUS app provides home builders and verifier partners in the field easy access to the tools and resources of EPA’s Indoor airPLUS program, which is designed to help builders meet the growing consumer preference for homes with improved indoor air quality and energy efficiency. The Beta version is currently available for program partners to test in the field. An official version is scheduled for release in March 2012.
Why We Did It
We (the EPA) were asked by the home building industry to develop an app they could easily use onsite to gather data and complete and email the Verification Cheklist that qualifies a house for the Indoor airPlus quality label. This eliminates the hassle of completing a paper checklist that can be lost and is not easily replicated.
What We Did
EPA, using the cross platform development tool, Appcelerator Titanium, developed an app for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry platforms that includes
- construction specifications,
- videos and podcasts on the Indoor airPlus program,
- a verification checklist which can be completed and emailed
The application is an improvement over the paper-based checklist because it allows home builders to copy the common information from one form to another and to save the information electronically rather than only having the sheet of paper.
How It Worked
EPA launched a beta version of the app in early October 2011 and is gathering feedback from users during this testing phase.
What We Learned
A data entry application like Indoor airPlus that is not graphics intensive and does not require device menu manipulations lent itself well to the cross platform development approach that EPA took to reduce development costs and time. A proper mobile product development process allows for thorough investigation of mobile options.
