Personas

Katie
18 yo
freshman
Baker West
Pre-Business, but looking to change
Meal Plan: semester block o - block 450
Moderate flexibility for students who vary between 2-3 daily meals and some snacks.

Born in Cleveland, OH.
Only knows a few people on her floor and two other classmates from high school.She attended the Involvement Fair because she wants to get to know more people but felt intimidated when it seemed like everyone was already friends at these meetings.

She wants to know more about studying abroad, Psychology, International studies, Business, and the Personalized Study Program. Shes spoken a couple advisors, but they just gave her the general description, which Katie had already read, and pushed her out the door. She'd like to have a better understanding of these majors and narrow down her options at least by the end of the year to stay on a 4-year track.

Katie comes back to her dorm frustrated that even after these meetings with advisors, she still feels lost in what she wants to do. She logs onto Meal Trade to post this:

<2 blocks> Looking for anyone with a good understanding or is involved with either the Psychology/IS/Fisher/Personalized Study program and their student orgs. Anything is more helpful than the advisors I've seen!

A couple days later, Katie gets an email that she's had a response from Ali. Katie can see from her profile that Ali is a 3rd year in Fisher, part of the American Marketing Association's student chapter, but she's also involved in MUNDO and a couple other orgs on campus. Maybe she can be helpful in starting off her search. Katie messages Ali back to set a time for lunch.

Ali
20 yo
junior
Woodruff and Indianola
Marketing; MUNDO, AMA, TEDx at OSU
Works at Brennans between classes and on weekends to pay for food and utilities

Born in Gahanna, OH
Ali heard about a website, Meal Trade, from a friend's facebook post. Being involved in student orgs, she was always meeting freshmen who would swipe her food when they had the chance. She loved that she could get food and also meet new people. Making her profile was pretty easy and then she searched under the business tag. She came across a couple and figured why not just send a notification to all of them. It couldn't hurt. She knew a thing or two about Fisher and for the rest, she knew people she could direct them to, and she'd get a free meal if they messaged back. A couple hours after she sent the notification, Ali got a message from Katie about when to get lunch.

Affinity Diagram

 Our original affinity diagram

The affinity diagram after our classmates' input

OSU date affinity diagram we gave our input to

OKcupid Analysis

Visibility of system status

• At the home screen, new potential matches are displayed
• If there is a message from a user, it is displayed in a different color to highlight the change
• There is a section to let you know who you recently visited, to remind the user of past actions
• On the home screen is a synopsis of recent activities of users
• The system sends emails to the user if someone rated them highly
• The system sends emails to the user if someone messaged them
• Notifications pop up on whatever page the user is on if someone is currently "checking them out"
• There is a companion mobile site that can push notifications to the phone
• As more personal questions are answered, the match percentage of each person is automatically updated
• Customizable search options automatically refresh searches based on specifications
• You can see if a user is online at that moment
• if the user regularly responds to messages or not

Match between system and the real world

• The premium option is called "A-List" which refers to the A-List celebrities, fluffing the users' sense of self-importance
• Potential matches are under a category of "You might like" which makes it seem more familiar
• In order to improve the matching algorithm, common questions are asked and the user is prodded into answering questions with promises of better matches and the ability to see others' answers
• Under messages, the message history is called "IM History" which reflects on the users' supposed past usage of Instant Messaging Services such as AIM.
• When there are error messages, a cute icon of a sad robot pops up
• The star rating system is used in the Quickmatch feature so a user can rate another user
• "Who Likes You" is used to see other users who have rated the user favorably
• On the profile page, instead of profession/occupation, the category is called "What I'm doing with my life"
• On the profile page, instead of physical appearance, the category is called "The first things people usually notice about me"
• On the profile page, instead of a category such as interests, there is one called "I spend a lot of time thinking about"

User control and freedom

• when editing profile, there is a clear "cancel" option
• for the profile pictures, there are clear options to delete any photo at anytime
• for the profile pictures, there is a clear option to drag the pictures in a different order
• when rating people, it shows you who you just rated in case you want to go back and re-rate the person
• There is an exit button for the small add to become an A-List member
• in the messages portion, you can see all past messages that have been sent
• The logout button is displayed in the header of every part of the website
• the browser back button works seamlessly
• A help option is at the footer of every page
• There is a box displaying who the user recently visited so that they can be found again quickly if desired

Consistency and standards

• Messages is the place to view messages and on someone's profile there is a consistent option to "send a message"
• The percentages for Match, Friend, and Enemy remain consistent no matter what screen they are viewed on
• Inconsistency: "Improve Matches" directs the user to the Questions tab
• A viewer that actively visits a profile will spur both a notification and an additional entry in the recently visited portion of the website
• If the user marks that they only want to see a person of a specific orientation, they will only be matched with users of that orientation
• If a user marks on their profile that they only want to be seen  by users of a specific orientation classification, then they will only be seen by those users in searches
• Inconsistency: the 'online for chat' icon is different from the messages icon which is slightly confusing.
• The number of unread messages in the messages portion will also appear as a numerical icon in the sidebar
• Whenever a change has been made to user settings or profile options, there is a notification bar that appears informing the user that the update has been successful
• clicking the okCupid logo will take you to the home screen
• inconsistency: when searching by interest, a lot of the time users will have the interest as their username, and the interest will not be searched, just the username

Error prevention

• There is a "hide from" list that prevents the user from being seen by users they really don't want to be seen by
• Problem: if you make an edit but don't click save and then hit the browser back button, it doesn't prompt the user to save changes
• Problem: if you make an edit, don't click save, and then navigate to a different portion of the site, there isn't a prompt to save changes.
• Problem: If a search is too specific, it just leads you to an error message instead of suggesting how to make it a better search
• Problem: if you already messaged a person, it still shows them in the "You might like" section.
• Problem: even if you already rated a person unfavorably, it still shows them in the "Matches" results
• Problem: it shows the searches by "Special Blend" but doesn't tell you what that means. Shouldn't it be by match percentage and location? Needs to be clearer.
• Problem: there aren't a lot of options to go into a type of incognito mode where other people can't see that you're visiting their page

Recognition rather than recall

• On every page, there are clear icons to get to the messages option
• On every page, there are clear icons to get to the matches option
• On every page, there are clear icons to get to the visitors option
• On every page, there are clear icons to get to the quickmatch option
• On every page, there is the user's profile picture which makes it easy to get to the profile option
• If the user rated another user, then the rating of that user is displayed whenever you see the rated user. This is effective so you don't have to recall what you said about a user
• There is an option to look at answers to past questions that have been answered 
• There are specific search categories in the questions section so that a user can filter questions by importance to them 
• At any time, the user can view what they said on their own profile
• When viewing other people's profiles, the user can compare what they said in their answers to questions to what the other user answered right on top of each other so the user doesn't have to remember what they answered.

Flexibility and efficiency of use

• There are direct links to the messages portion in emails that are sent to a user so the user doesn't have to log in and then navigate to the messages section everytime they receive a new message
• The navigation is fairly simplistic and consistently displayed on every page
• The home page is accessible through the company logo
• Overall, the navigational menu is simplistic in that it only contains 3 relevant tabs
• 
  

Aesthetic and minimalist design

• There are advertisements
• There is an hardly used "Promote me" button on every page under the profile picture
• There are icons to get the OKCupid app on the webversion even though it can auto-detect that I am not using a mobile device at this moment.
• Overall, the navigational menu is simplistic in that it only contains 3 relevant tabs
• The logo isn't overly complicated
• The colors in the website reflect the company logo/brand and don't deviate much
• Since the users are the focus, the background is simplistic and is just one color
• The brighter color is used throughout the site to highlight things that interest the user such as a new message
• The cursor uses a standard switch to indicate clickable links
• flat design

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

• Anytime there is an error, a cute icon of a robot shows up
• The error is read as a message from the robot
• The error message does not contain any error codes, just plain English
• the 404 doesn't make the user feel like they messed up. It says "It's not you, It's us."
• The 404 also attempts to redirect the user back to the correct page
• There is a help link at the footer of every page

Help and documentation

• The help topics are clearly listed
• There is an "other" option to provide feedback if no help can be found
• Problem: the help topics aren't searchable
• The feedback page took a while to load
• They have an option on the feedback to attach a screenshot which is good

MarketOSU evaluation

Market OSU

Usability was difficult as registering for the site came up with errors in how to sign in. Their facebook site was easy to sift through to see what was being offered, but did not seem to be updated frequently. Their website was informative of extra side events and helpful video tips, but it did not interact directly with MarketOSU concept except for the occasional self-promotion. I would have liked to see more interaction on the site between buyers and sellers. However, their site was well marked and informative of what they could offer, how they came to be, as well as their policies.

1. Visibility of system status

It is difficult to log onto their website. We sent an email explaining this setback to the company and they still have not responded or fixed the problem.

 

2. Match between system and the real world

This site is specifically for OSU students, so they have abbreviated class names and talk about locations in and around campus as regular students would. They have an FAQ, Contact, and About page which are all concepts familiar to the user.

 

3. User control and freedom

They are clear on when what you are doing is a mistake but unclear on how to correct it.

 

4. Consistency and standards

Actions and words stay consistent, however their logo and fonts change between their site and their blog.

 

5. Error prevention

Error signs are present, however how to remedy the error is not made obvious.

 

6. Recognition rather than recall

Book covers are made visible. Their Watch List feature also allows helps in immediate viewing of what users are looking for. When clicking for their blog, it should re-open in a separate tab instead of replace the original site so user does not have to sort back through old pages. 

 

7. Flexibility and efficiency of use

The Watch List allows users to tailor their experience on MarketOSU by choosing what books and tickets they are following, instead of sifting through all the posts. 

 

8. Aesthetic and minimalist design

No excess in design on their website. Text hierarchy enhances readability. Blog design is not consistent with their original website and colors do not match. Still, the blog design is minimal with a focus on the information.

 

9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Error message to log in does not diagnose the actual problem. The hints to help recover from these errors do not depict the problem at hand.

 

10. Help and documentation

FAQ page is visible and it delineates steps on how to use their Watch List. 

Re-evaluate Charter

Thursday 01.16.14
1. Business goals:

• develop a loyal user base
• maintain a quality product
• listen to suggestions and improve product as necessary

How to facilitate business:

• promote/advertise within Ohio State
• reach out to advisors to have them promote it as a good mentorship program
• maintain credibility and control over product

2. Website Goals:

• Produce successful matches
• Maintain speed
• Have great interface and easy navigation

3. User Tasks

• create profile
• establish needs
• be matched with a user that matches needs
• be guided as to how to transfer meeting to real life

cost: free (revenue can be generated through advertisements and local business promotions) OR users can chip in money from their buckIDs to the website to pay for the site if valuable premium features arise ( <= $5)

4. Differentiators

• unlike dating sites, our site will provide a means of facilitating academic/ professional connections
• unlike professional connections sites like linkedIn, the user has the ability to meet people that they don't already know
• unlike matching sites, our site will be limited to users within the school, creating relative safety and credibility 

5. Audience/ Behavior

• students attending OSU 
• students with meal plans and students with valuable experience without meal plans
• the meal-plan user would approach our site in order to meet other students with similar interests or potential interests in order to gain knowledge and first-hand experience about the subject.
• the non-meal-plan user would approach our site in order to potentially gain free food.

/////////////NOTES ON DISCUSSION IN CLASS ABOUT SITE SPECIFICS////////////////////////////////////
1. services, cost, users
Users:
log in with OSU username

Services:
custom profile with specified categories of interest
-matching algorithm
-OKCupid screening questions?
-personal messages to inbox to set up time
-search to find people of who can give you info you are looking for?
OR
-post to general wall and have people check in?
-post to general wall and have it be searchable

Profile:
major, current year, clubs, academic activities, optional GPA, classes taken, languages spoken

Date my school evaluation

Usability Analysis

Overall the website is well designed both Aesthetically and functionally. First of all, their interface makes me feel clean and reliable. In addition, all the features are well organized and clearly instructed. And this is also what we want to achieved in our website. As a social website, I like the way they make their detail personal profile very detail, however, we might not need that much information for us. What I do not like about this website is their charging policy, you need to pay for doing anything, and they do not even offer free trial. This may stop many potential users to start using this website.

Visibility of system status

The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

• ·      The website require school email when register and use it as a basic way to informed the users about what is going on.
• ·      Once you register successfully, you will get a email notification
• ·      When the user is online, the page will have pop-up windows on the right corner when someone visits his/her profile.
• ·      The web page will have a pop-up window on the left corner if someone sends an online chat to you.
• ·      The website will let the users know immediately through email either someone visit profiles or send messages.
• ·      The user can personalize the setting for email notification.
• ·      All the latest activity of people will update instantly on the page.
• ·      The website list the latest visitors upon homepage

Match between system and the real world

The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

•  ·   The website is highly user oriented without any confusing term used when either in registration or usage.
• ·      Online web chat directly allow one user talk with another user directly
• ·      Personalized and visualized setting for classification of personal interest help to make friend searching similar to real-word.
• ·      Personal image is highlighted as a first impression for other users, which is quite similar to real world.
• ·      The icons used on the web page like camera, eye, envelop are almost common sense to everyone, which are very daily and easy to understand.
• ·      Different kinds of information are showed in an order of importance, which is logical.
• ·      Great focus is put on privacy, the user can deicide how much they want themselves to be exposed to the public, thus can be easily accepted by everyone.
• ·      As the same way in real world, you can prevent someone from disturbing your by put them in the block, which can be set easily with the top bar. This is quite necessary for a social website since personal preference is the key part of such web platforms.
• ·      The top function bar lists the main factors of a social network in an order, which is the same in the real world namely the people, activity and yourself.
• ·      As in the traditional conventions and logic, you are reasonably accessible to those who you are acquaint or around you.
• ·      On other users’ homepage, their basic and primary information is listed clearly and precisely.

User control and freedom

Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

• ·      You can save a person with a single operation by clicking on the star. And you can cancel this operation by easily clicking it once again.
• ·      The slip switch buttons are designed to let the user to change settings easily. 
• ·      User can block their account at any time, and come back at any time with information unblocked simultaneously as well.
• ·      There is no undo button or confirmation for profile edit
• ·      Re-edition of answered question in profile is available with a 24hours time limit, which is very inconvenient. If the user chose an embraced answer by mistake they will have to let it be there for 24 hour.
• ·      Once you pay the money, you cannot refund it. There is no free trail.
• ·      Once you have viewed someone’s homepage you cannot remove the activity and it will list on that person’s homepage.
• ·      Once you have sent a message to someone, you cannot cancel it.
• ·      There is always an emergency exit if you have been linked to some sub-webpage of this website.
• ·      You can go back to your own homepage whenever you want by clicking on your personal image icon on the top right, which is quite convenient.

Consistency and standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

• ·      The website use strict and clear term to standardize the actions.
• ·      The classification of each function is done well. For example the block function list all the possible setting you can do with to prevent unnecessary disturb or mal-operation.
• ·      The three filter tags of activities eliminate the situation that the users may keep reading the same thing but can not find what they are really interested in.
• ·      The filter of the “browse” function is well organized. The options are mutually exclusive which will prevent confusion and misunderstanding.
• ·      The “stats” function list the hotness ranking of the user with different tables and charts, so the users do not need to read
• ·      You can see people visit you on your homepage but you need pay to see who they are which is very confused.
• ·      The “check-them- out” list is not precisely defined. The user cannot set up the criteria for this list.
• ·      IM HISTORY lists all the online chat messages you received.
• ·       The in-box clearly lists the text messages you received
• ·      The sent-box clearly list messages you sent to others, separate those from what you received.

Error prevention

Even better than good error messages is a careful design, which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

• ·      One school email address can be used to register only once in case of unexpected situation.
• ·      You cannot send a message to anyone else only if you have logged on.
• ·      Before you pay for the charge, the website let you to confirm it.
• ·      You will log out once you click the button without any confirmation.
• ·      You can save a person with a single click of a star icon without any notification, which might be a mal-operation.
• ·      You will send a message to the public without any confirmation message.
• ·      When editing the personal file, it will not ask you to confirm your action. It will just be saved automatically.
• ·      When you answer questions, your answer will be recorded automatically and unable to change with a very long time limit.
• ·      You can block your account without getting any confirm message, which might ends up be a mal-operation.
• ·      You can send an image by mistake without any confirm information.

Recognition rather than recall

Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

• ·      There is always a help link in the bottom of the website which is convenient.
• ·      There are always prompt when you click on a complex feature of the website.
• ·      All the text messages you received are recorded in the in-box.
• ·      All the text messages you sent are recorded in the sent-box.
• ·      All the people you viewed are listed in the view list.
• ·      All the people viewed you are both listed in the homepage and the view list.
• ·      The IM history records all the online chat messages.
• ·      All the people you saved are listed in the save page.
• ·      All the people you saved are listed in the save page.
• ·      When you pay the charge, there are clear instructions to each choice.
• 
  

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

• ·      The user can choose what gender they are interested in and what can of relationship they are looking for when they register, which make their experience way more efficient.
• ·      Allow both generally browse and specific search
• ·      The “around you” tag allows the first time user get start easily.
• ·      The “saved” tag help experienced user find the people they feel interested in efficiently.
• ·      Offers different payment choice, the first time user can chose to buy a month to get start and the experience users can buy the whole year for discount.
• ·      The user can either use the blur search or use the filter for advanced search
• ·       The user have the flexibly to only provide some basic personal information to get start
• ·      Novice users can just use the general settings while the expert users can tailor the privacy settings according to their own preference.
• ·      New users can use the basic profile as the basic introduction to themselves and meanwhile the experienced users can keep updating their profile via adding descriptions or answer related questions of different field

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Dialogues should not contain information, which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

• ·      The overall design is very pure and simple
• ·      The website looks very clean with the white background.
• Using grey and blue as dominate color help people build a connection with words such as reliable, clean, etc.
• ·      The tags are all short and easy to understand
• ·      Some important features are highlighted with different colors.
• ·      Only small amount of color is using, which are eye catching enough but not overwhelming
• ·      Filter bars are hided to keep a clean looking
• ·      Some simple icon is used like camera, message, eye, etc. to make the information visually stronger and easier to be found.
• ·      Only a profile picture and basic information are listed on the “browse” page for every one to keep the page very organized
• ·      Though a whole lot of messages are posted at the same time, they are not displayed in a very crowd way. The space leave for each message make it comfortable to read.
• ·      Different fonts are used wisely to provide different kind of information, which help eliminate further word description.
• 
  

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

• ·      When registration as a student, if an invalid school webmail address is provided, it will give plain language to inform you rather than an error webpage.
• ·      When you register with the same webmail address again, it will inform you that there is already an account rather than a code error notification such as the data is already recorded in the database system.
• ·      If you do not receive the confirmation email when registration, you have an alternative choice to give a feedback to the system.
• ·      When you log on, if you enter user name or password wrong, it will point it out for you rather than an error notification page.
• ·      When download app for mobile device, if you have downloaded a wrong edition, the system will notice you about it.
• ·      When paying the charge, if you input the wrong information, it will inform you in details.
• ·      There exists a bug that if I log on the Facebook of my friend’s account the website will share it in his or her Facebook without any confirmation process.
• ·      When registration, if you forget to enter some basic information, the system will inform you what parts you missed.
• ·      If some parts cannot be seen, the system will provide guide for the reason of it. For example, you need to pay for it.
• ·      If you logged out but with some pages still there, when you clicked them again, you are required to log in again rather than sending an error page.
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Help and documentation

Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

• ·      When you first use the website, more details and instruction will be given than regular log in afterward.
• ·      A quick link to the help document is provided in the bottom of the homepage.
• ·      Some prompt will be provided to instruct the users what to do
• ·      The introduction and prompt are displayed in different characters and colors, which are more easily to be recognized.
• ·      For some blank to input by users, there will be some default message with different characters and color to let you know what it is.
• ·      There are some settings that cannot be used for certain reasons without any prompt.
• ·      When you want to change some basic information such as name or birth data which can be changed once per year, the system will inform you to reconsider you decision.
• ·      When you change the answers to the questions provided by the website, it will inform you about the time limit of changing your answer.
• ·      A help list will be at the left bottom to show whether the people you have saved is online. You check it for help at any time when you want to find whether someone is online.
• ·      If you have not finished some basic information, there will be a short cut and a help prompt on the front page to guide you to finish it.

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