A countdown timer ticks down the anxious seconds to the start of football’s most anticipated tournament, and eager fans await the moment it is replaced with match scores. A radial menu above the timer provides portals to a wealth of information, from schedules to team line-ups and performance reports, player statistics and much more. All this information can be had on the screen of your Android phone with the app Kickoff 2014.
Developed by Cabot Technology Solutions, the app is designed as a one-stop destination for all information concerning the 2014 football World Cup. It serves as a useful companion for seasoned followers of the sport and for those who have just started watching it. One particularly useful addition to help the latter category is the inclusion of a history section, which contains glance-able information about each edition of the tournament since its inception, giving newbies a fair idea of successful teams and long standing rivalries.
The app was a passion project for the team that developed it, says Sibin E.A, one of the software engineers at Cabot. “We wanted to create a different but easy-to-use app that would keep users engaged as the tournament develops, so we have added sections that allow users to predict the winners of the Golden Boot, Golden Glove, finalists and the winner. This information can be shared on social media as well. Most of the content is available offline as well.” The app features a points table, links to news and even descriptions of the venues for the matches.
In the little over two weeks since its launch, the app is already getting rave reviews on the Google Play store, and the predictions section is seeing some activity (Argentina and Brazil are closely matched in the winners poll, while Cristiano Ronaldo leads Neymar and Lionel Messi as the favourites for the Golden Boot). The squad information shows the final line-ups and each player’s position and statistics. A tap on individual ties in the schedule shows details of each teams form and head to head stats, with the option of adding the match to the phone’s calendar. The radial theme continues in the results section, with each team’s colourrepresented on a dartboard-like layout, allowing for the team colours to progress into the heart of the circle and giving a quick overview of each team’s progression.
“The main goal was to provide users with easily accessible information, hence the circular menu and the countdown, which will be replaced by the scores of ongoing matches once the tournament gets underway,” explains designer Lucky Laxadhish. The team have also created a Facebook page and a twitter handle to keep the engagement going.
Kickoff 2014 is available for download on Google Play Store and supports devices running Android 4.0 and upwards. Follow them >on Facebook and >on Twitter .
