Analysis of NFL Results Predictor as a Smartphone Application

Analysis of NFL (National Football League) Results Predictor as a Smartphone Application: The New Mobile Application for Readability and Pseudoscience Versus Real Science.

The aim of this memo is to analyze NFL results predictor for what can be termed as readability and scientific validity. Also its much focused on how it could make the two more effective therefore recommendations will be given, not forgetting the impact of the same to my major.

Journal

The NFL results predictor application is a peer-evaluated subscription journal that was first published in 2015, by Springer International Publishing Switzerland. The application can be easily installed to any smart mobile that is iPhone, windows phone and android mobiles.

Authors

Petr Kakrda, Ondrej Berger and Ondrej Krejcar are the authors of NFL result prediction application. Petr Kakrda studied at the university of Hradec Kralove as well as Ondrej Berger and Ondrej kakrda in the faculty of informatics and management.

Article

The result prediction application is an application based of both scientific data base and the chronological events of previous games. It is a simple application that only requires simple knowledge to install and use. You do not need to have some scientific or engineering skills to use it making it user friendly. The article though really based on guessing has some back from experts who use their experience and knowledge of the game to give more promising results. The application is aimed at giving more accurate results forecasts for the betting companies and individuals. The information provided in this application is an evaluation of all the factors that may lead to a successful prediction. NFL results prediction application is highly effective due to its cheap subscription and availability of smart mobiles. The scientific methodology behind this application is that data from other matches and factors that could influence the victory of a team are considered. The authors have used simple language at the introduction for easy understanding and have gone further to collecting statistics. Statistics is one of the scientific methodologies to prove their thesis. The thesis here being “use of NFL result prediction application more conveniently for accurate and more reliable match forecasts basing the results from several sources.

Characteristics of technical writing

The terms characteristics of writing are used to describe a list of practices that are modified to help the reader grasp the concept without struggling. The NFL result prediction application has an easy authentic well outlined characteristics. The article has been well thought off making the facts and ideas come out vividly. My study reveals that the article has quite a readable design, simple vocabulary and also a combination of diagrams to help illustrate the information in a better way. All this make an excellent technical writing article, addressing a specific audience.

This article is no exception to a good easy to read piece. From the PDF document, the article has been written with well-arranged columns giving it a nice look. The paragraphs are double placed side to side with clear headers and footers. The sentences and paragraphs are short and precise to break the monotony of long lengthy texts. For the inserts NFL results predictor has been implied with colored diagrams to clearly illustrate the information. Visual representation of information has been correctly applied to NFL result prediction application. In that case, for me to understand how the application would look on the mobile screen the article provided some pic factors in colored form. This method sheds some light of how the application would look like running on the screen (Yang & Davide p.470)

Appearance scales

This simply means the measures of excellence as for the article. This are ways by which an article is analyzed to visualize its strength as an excellent piece of writing. From my findings this journal did good and passed the measures of brilliant criteria, particularly its professional appearance. The beginning has an abstract that professionally welcomes the reader to what he/she should expect in the article. It clearly states the main area of interest and goes ahead to usher in the introduction part. The introduction determines a small history on American football and the importance of forecasting the match results. It also tends to address problems and recommend possible solutions to the same. Use of colored pictures is exemplary. Also the use tis pictures to show and illustrate match fixtures is of great importance. The NFL result prediction application does not restrict itself to American football only, it goes on to forecast other games for example basketball, hockey, European football and tennis. Unlike other prediction applications NFL result prediction app gives the user a lot of confidence by use of realistic data and avoiding doubtful questions.

Accessibility of the journal is much more interesting. It has well laid out headings and subheadings making it very easy for the ready to go straight to their area of interest. For example results forecasting, experts, success and probability, other existing applications etc. the authors have made sure of it that every heading or sub-heading is comprehensive and gives as much detail as possible. This makes the article more educative. The article although describes the history, importance and functionality of the application very well, there is a need for more real examples that should be discussed and explained at length. To sum up on the readability of the article, it is clear that the piece is an excellent source of information based on the introduction, page layouts, type of language used and resourceful examples and diagrams. However, the marsh up of ideas in different headings felt more of repetition and hindered the smooth flow of information.

Scientific validation

The main objective of the application is to provide users with good match forecasts and be a reliable source through gathering of information from different sources. In order to validate this thesis, other applications face a number of problems. To begin with is how to build the algorithm for calculating how accurate the sources of forecasting will be. The probability calculation of which team will win the match from the limited sources is difficult. Another possible hindrance is the use of transfer of data through the servers’ websites to the mobile applications (Turban et al.,p.420) This problems are more compromising for other existing prediction applications. In our case study the one common problem that faces NFL result predictor application is the accuracy of the forecast. Given that the application is based on a lot of former team’s performance the sources cannot be reliable. The reason behind this is that the way a team performed a few months ago is due to change considering the changes that they might have made. For example a team might decide to change the defense players or quarterbacks depending on their opponents.

NFL result predictor application has gone a notch higher to validate their forecasting scientifically. The application involves the use of statistical data collected and interpreted scientifically. This data can be collected from experts who in most cases are former players or coaches (Palao & Hernández p.568). Others are just television commentators who tend to know a lot about a particular game. A wise choosing of the success of sources is important. Sources have their success rates calculated into percentages. The national football league results predicting application will always use the sources with the highest forecast success rates to calculate the probability of a winning team. The application in addition to this, has a scientific structure which proves that it’s valid. The structure which is developed for the android platform has a forecast for all the NFL games. The estimations of the results by all the sources are put together by the application for a more accurate prediction. The scientific structure will enable the user to make their predictions depending on different sources available. From this conclusion I found the article to be scientifically valid and relating to my major.

Implementation of the application is also based on a scientific background. It works with data to calculate the following: the ratio of each expert according to their categories: calculate the success rate for each group: measure the probability and bids for every winner: after the implementation of the application in the mobile it shows its description. This happens automatically as it had been encrypted scientifically. It will show you all the teams set to play for a whole week, their logos and probabilities to win each match.

In conclusion, it is evident that forecasting the NFL games is not an easy task as well as eliminating the problems involved. In this article though, it is evident that by using the NFL results predictor as a mobile application it is possible to come up with more accurate predictions. This is because the application uses scientific data analysis methods and structures. The article also has been very relevant in relation to my major. The concept of data analysis and probability is not new and through this article I got understand it better.

References

Palao, J. M., and E. Hernández-Hernández. ""Game statistical system and criteria used by Spanish volleyball coaches."" International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport 14.2 (2014): 564-573.

Turban, Efraim, et al. ""Marketing and Advertising in E-Commerce."" Electronic Commerce. Springer International Publishing, 2015. 403-456.

Yang, Tao, and Davide Bolchini. ""Branded Interactions: Predicting perceived product traits and user image from interface consistency and visual guidance."" Interacting with Computers 26.5 (2013): 465-487.