DGIF Hunt Fish VA Mobile Application

Business Case

Before the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) introduced their award winning mobile application in 2011, over 70 percent of the world's population had a mobile phone. That was over 5 billion mobile subscribers, and in places like the U.S., it was 9 in 10 people. In 2011, Nielsen reported that 38 percent of U.S. mobile phone owners had a smartphone. Apple had sold over 80 million iPhones worldwide and over five million iPads since their introduction in 2010. Over 300,000 mobile applications had been developed in the previous three years with downloads numbering 10.9 billion, according to MobiThinking.

These ever-growing numbers were clear indicators of society's eagerness to adopt new technologies in order to simplify every aspect of their lives and DGIF recognized the value of mobile application technology as a direct line of communication to sportsmen and sportswomen.

Solution

The creation of a DGIF Hunt Fish VA mobile application and mobilized licensing was the next step in the evolution of the Department’s services.

Convenience and efficiency are two of the most fundamental objectives that end users expect mobile applications and websites to achieve. From its inception, electronic hunting and fishing licensing in the Commonwealth has served as a benchmark for innovation for outdoor regulatory agencies throughout the nation. Accommodating the latest generation of mobile technology users, DGIF is continuing its leadership position in innovation and finding new and better ways to reach and grow their current constituency and future generations.

Hunt Fish VA can be used on Apple iPods, iPhones, iPads and is available for free from the iTunes App Store or for Android.

Tools

• iOS4 Apple SDK platform
• Universal application written within the XCode environment using Objective C
• It includes a suite of geo-location based client-side tools and leverages mobile-optimized sections of the DGIF website to provide its functionality.

Results

• Winner of Commonwealth of Virginia’s Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) award
• Winner of a 2014 W3 silver award for creative excellence
• To date the Hunt Fish VA mobile application has been downloaded over 50,000 times
• The percentage of licenses sold via a mobile device in 2012 more than quadrupled
• User comments include: 
  • “Great app!  Good work Va DGIF! This is a handy app. that serves as a great reference guide for the rules regs of Virginia. The "what's near me" is great.”
  • “Out of this world!  Great app, love the trophies section!”
  • “Home Run! (Hats) off to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries - it's nice to see my tax dollars being used efficiently. This is a great app and a no-brainer to download if you hunt and/or fish in Virginia.”