Q-and-A With Entertainment App MyVu’s James Penedo • Nonahood News

A new entertainment app called MyVu is launching here in Orlando this month. MyVu is an app that allows users to link with friends and like-minded people on cinema features to share insight that will assist them in choosing their next sit-down experience. This well help tailor the entertainment experience for users across the city and make TV and movie watching more enjoyable for all parties

Nonahood News spoke with MyVu’s James Penedo for more information on the app, why Lake Nona plays such an important role in the app’s development, and the future of MyVu.

NHN: How does the MyVu app work?

JP: The MyVu app is going to be a social media platform where friends, families and like-minded cinema viewers get to share their thoughts, opinions and reviews on a social platform that can be viewed by anyone who follows or visits their profile. Users will have the ability to create their own profile that will be tailored to their liking of movies and TV shows that a friend might want to get insight on before making a commitment to watch a show. Rather than look up reviews posted by individuals who we’re not accustomed to taking advice from or even know what feature genres they’re actually interested in, we’re now allowing people to hear from their inner circle who they typically would ask advice from in person during casual conversation. This is one from many features we’re looking to provide our consumers.

NHN: How was the app designed/created?

JP: The vision of the app originated from two executive team members, Olivia De Alba and Jamori Montgomery, both of whom watch movies daily and stumbled upon a conversation on what movie should be decided on watching next. Though both of them have entirely different interests in what they like to watch, they wanted to find an easier way to make a decision. This gave them the idea to create a platform and, given their skill set in graphic design learned at the University of Central Florida, they were able to put together, page-by-page, what the app was going to look like as we outsource the development of the program, which is slated to release later this month.

NHN: What does the app feature for users?

JP: Here are some of the features we intend to release in the first iteration:

Personal User Profiles – Shows what they’ve watched, what reviews they’ve left from most recent post to oldest, the number of followers and who they’re following.
Feature Review – Everyone gets to be a critic by giving a film a one- to five-star rating and also the option to give their input in a limited number of characters. Once posted, their review will be spread across social followings to be seen and possibly applauded (liked) by others.
Features Screen – Movie or TV show homepage allowing the user to view a summary/description of the movie and ratings/reviews by season coming from multiple areas such as your personalized community (the people you follow), MyVu‘s rating (all app users ratings averaged), and IMDB rating.

NHN: How much is the app built on user interaction?

JP: One of our main goals when designing the platform to present to the developers was to create a user interface that was easy to use and navigate throughout. At the bottom of the screen at all times, there will be a navigation dial that will help you switch from page-to-page when reviewing other posts, searching for a feature that you’re expressing interest in, or going back to your own personal profile. The app also has a clean, slick look that makes it easy to transition from one screen to the next and [a] seamless, easy-to-use platform for all users.

NHN: How is the app related to the Lake Nona area?

JP: Orlando is well known for its strong start community, especially in the tech industry, and with the exponential growth that Lake Nona has been experiencing these last few years, we wanted to include the area with the launch of our app. The support that this city gives young startup companies is tremendous and would only be a great stepping stone to assist us in shooting right out of the gates when we launch.

NHN: What can we expect from the app in coming years?

JP: Once we unleash the app to the public, we’re going to start collecting data on what the user wants to experience from this type of platform. We have started to cultivate the second iteration that will include numerous new features to make our platform reach its end goal of becoming the common person’s one-stop-shop for everything movies and TV shows. We don’t want to spoil anything right now but hope to launch the next portion in early 2019.

NHN: Why should people use the app and what makes it better than competitors?

JP: A lot of the current reviewing marketplace is saturated with professional writers [who] make a living off of giving their input on multiple pieces. As we respect everyone’s opinion on each feature, a critic who has a strong interest toward horror films might not be the most trustworthy person. The few people we do trust are those we feel comfortable to express our point of views to without feeling judged are friends and families. They are the ones we cling on to when asking for recommendations to ensure we have the best quality and time spent. MyVu does just that by connecting the users together, even if they don’t know each other and just so happen to agree on a film.

NHN: Anything else you’d like to add?

JP: The app will be available on both the Apple Store and Google Play. We hope that the value this app will bring cinephiles such as ourselves would do the same for many others where they can minimize the amount of time wasted and money spent viewing a movie or TV show that isn’t catered to their audience.