This post is for everyone out there who rushed CS3216 over the weekend.
This is a TED talk on how Slowing Down is important for people - i.e. US.
I caught this by watching Neil Gaiman's twitter.. ^_^ Gaiman's one of my favorite comic writers btw, it feels great to know what he's watching thru twitter (thanks HT for intro-ing twitter to me!)
You can start at 11.40 mins - he starts talking about HOMEWORK BAN there. ^_^
I totally agree with what he says of university undergrads here: "the lack spark, they don't have a dream". ^_^ Which is what this module is all set to change, right?
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Get Help Assignment
Rough guidelines (which I'm not following exactly)
1. Usability vs Aesthetics (Is the interface attractive? Is it functional?)
2. Number of options / freedom given to user when posting a need.
3. Cycle of interaction & incentives (Are the elements of the app engaging?)
4. Other problems you think the team might have faced
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My own guidelines:
General comments on User Interface Design:
I like the simple interface, though I think it can still be improved on. I've done up a rough sample of how I think the home page can be improved in terms of interface design:
(click to view full size ^_^)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General comments on Functionality:
I thought improving the layout was the entire solution to the problem, but when I tried to imagine using the application, I came across some problems, even with the improved layout design above.
Analysis of vital aspects of the application:
Since I feel that user experience design and functionality are very closely tied together, discussing what makes the application work would help in discussing functionality design.
What makes this application work:
1. It helps to broadcast your need to other people who might be able to help you
2. It lets you know who needs help so you can help them
3. It encourages you to help others with a badge reward system and a statistics section.
Resulting reflections on functionality:
Since these 3 points are the most important fuctions of the application, I would suggest a radical re-working of the homepage to incorporate all 3 functions, something like this.
(click to view full size ^_^)
The homepage should feature prominently the three main "appealing" aspects of the application, in order to encourage ease of use.
Other Links:
Since I have incorporated the overview page into the homepage, the other links on homepage should be:
1 - Leaderboard (Statistics)
2. - Projects
3 - Invite
SHUCKS. I just remembered, the user should get some feedback on the home page too, if someone agrees to help him. How come the proposal didn't state that at all!?
That feed should be on the homepage too, something like this:
Wei Man needs help with Adobe Premiere!
"Yilynn has offered to help you with Adobe Premiere!" [contact her] [thank her]
"Matthew has offered to help you with Adobe Premiere!" [contact him] [thank him]
This should be above the "Help Your Friends" section.
The Projects page could have a record of all the help the user has asked for and all the help that the user has received.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
I feel that the application is useful and innovative way to get help, and will be very much improved by better user interface.. ^_^
1. Usability vs Aesthetics (Is the interface attractive? Is it functional?)
2. Number of options / freedom given to user when posting a need.
3. Cycle of interaction & incentives (Are the elements of the app engaging?)
4. Other problems you think the team might have faced
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My own guidelines:
- General comments on User Interface Design
- General comments on Functionality
- Analysis of vital aspects of the application
- Resulting reflections on functionality
- Other links
- Conclusion
General comments on User Interface Design:
I like the simple interface, though I think it can still be improved on. I've done up a rough sample of how I think the home page can be improved in terms of interface design:
(click to view full size ^_^)
- I really disliked the slanted navigation bar at the top because it is hard to read, so I think putting them all horizontal will be more pleasing to the eye.
- Having the Application title prominently on the home page will also help people to know what application they are at. Aligning the title with the icons also leads the eye gently towards the navigation bar icons so people will take notice of them.
- Having a unified color scheme might be a good idea to unify design on the home page.
- Make it clear to users the sequence of how to get help, by putting Step 1 prominently.
- Some rudimentary instructions should be given on the page, so I've suggested it to be placed in the grey box under the type box so that it is not glaring but prominent enough.
- Use the catchphrase "Get Help" consistently, even on the button, so people get used to the name and can remember your application.
- Other options should be clearly labeled, so people know what kind of category of decisions they are making.
- Different options should be clearly demarcated from each other so as to give a neater feel to the layout.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General comments on Functionality:
I thought improving the layout was the entire solution to the problem, but when I tried to imagine using the application, I came across some problems, even with the improved layout design above.
- The "Get Help" button should be below after all the options, because the current design gives no clear sequence of selection. Users might be confused and click "Get Help" first, then choose the options.
- After looking through the rest of the pages are about, I just realized that I totally missed out the Overview button on the homepage, as well as the new project and recommendation buttons. Those buttons are VITAL to the application, and definitely should be more prominent.
Analysis of vital aspects of the application:
Since I feel that user experience design and functionality are very closely tied together, discussing what makes the application work would help in discussing functionality design.
What makes this application work:
1. It helps to broadcast your need to other people who might be able to help you
2. It lets you know who needs help so you can help them
3. It encourages you to help others with a badge reward system and a statistics section.
Resulting reflections on functionality:
Since these 3 points are the most important fuctions of the application, I would suggest a radical re-working of the homepage to incorporate all 3 functions, something like this.
(click to view full size ^_^)
The homepage should feature prominently the three main "appealing" aspects of the application, in order to encourage ease of use.
- Get help is the most prominent, as users need it most frequently.
- I have minimized the "other options" into a button, when clicked, it will open up a drop down menu, allow users to select choices, then click Get Help. (I'm hoping the sequence of events is more logical using a drop down menue. ^_^)
- I would suggest putting up the friend feed on the homepage (in an iframe), so users can see at once who needs help. The three options, recommend, help, and wish, are to be prominent on every call for help.
- Lastly, the number of badges received should feature on the homepage also, to motive users to help others.
Other Links:
Since I have incorporated the overview page into the homepage, the other links on homepage should be:
1 - Leaderboard (Statistics)
2. - Projects
3 - Invite
SHUCKS. I just remembered, the user should get some feedback on the home page too, if someone agrees to help him. How come the proposal didn't state that at all!?
That feed should be on the homepage too, something like this:
Wei Man needs help with Adobe Premiere!
"Yilynn has offered to help you with Adobe Premiere!" [contact her] [thank her]
"Matthew has offered to help you with Adobe Premiere!" [contact him] [thank him]
This should be above the "Help Your Friends" section.
The Projects page could have a record of all the help the user has asked for and all the help that the user has received.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
I feel that the application is useful and innovative way to get help, and will be very much improved by better user interface.. ^_^
Facebook pitching sessions 1 & 2
I didn't feel like I pitched well for the National Library Board Application that Sharon and I are interested in making. On hindsight, it should have been better, I should have organized it more and emphasized more on the main point:
Which is to provide a platform which improves the way people share information with their friends.
The library application is not meant to encourage people to go to the library, it is to let people know how the library can help them. It also encourages social interaction between friends through sharing of library resources (recommandations, etc).
After talking to Mr Wan, I realized that the library is trying to re-brand itself as an information hub rather than a physical repository of books. This is a very exciting move, and as a result the library has churned out a huge amount of blogs. videos, and events, all geared towards providing relevant and timely information to the public in different ways.
I feel these efforts must be better publicized and facebook might just be the solution for it. By connecting people through the books they read and have read, the Library Application helps people learn from each other and increase their knowledge of their interests.
Through the app, we're making it easier for someone to discuss his interest with his friends, and to find out at an instant what relevant events are being held by the library. This applies both to the academic researcher and the leisure reader. Anyone who reads books or even online journals from the library will be able to use this application well.
I was quite sad to leave early on Friday though, I would have loved to hear what the other pitches were. >_< Thanks Prof Ben for being considerate and trying to chase me off to go to the musical! ^_^ Its very much appreciated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pitching session on Monday was interesting - the one that stood out most, I felt, was Lut Games. I really like their concept, I believe it will be a cool game to play when it is complete. *Ahem* Its is, like Mafia Society, targeted at guys but using the same core appeal factors as Pet Society. I like the game alot. Zombies make everything cool. ^_^
As for APB, I've known of the campaign for quite some time already, but wonder if the rate of binge drinking has actually dropped due to the campaign. Or has the consumption of APB beer gone up due to the publicity? hmmm really curious as to whether the campaign is effective up till now.
For Jujups, I think that it is a very interesting concept - making it easy for non-designers to design nice clothes/mugs/cards for their loved ones. I've to mention though, that I feel Shapeways (http://www.shapeways.com/) allows customers to better customize the 3D aspect of the finished product. Not very sure what Jujups was pitching though - its business?
Which is to provide a platform which improves the way people share information with their friends.
The library application is not meant to encourage people to go to the library, it is to let people know how the library can help them. It also encourages social interaction between friends through sharing of library resources (recommandations, etc).
After talking to Mr Wan, I realized that the library is trying to re-brand itself as an information hub rather than a physical repository of books. This is a very exciting move, and as a result the library has churned out a huge amount of blogs. videos, and events, all geared towards providing relevant and timely information to the public in different ways.
I feel these efforts must be better publicized and facebook might just be the solution for it. By connecting people through the books they read and have read, the Library Application helps people learn from each other and increase their knowledge of their interests.
Through the app, we're making it easier for someone to discuss his interest with his friends, and to find out at an instant what relevant events are being held by the library. This applies both to the academic researcher and the leisure reader. Anyone who reads books or even online journals from the library will be able to use this application well.
I was quite sad to leave early on Friday though, I would have loved to hear what the other pitches were. >_< Thanks Prof Ben for being considerate and trying to chase me off to go to the musical! ^_^ Its very much appreciated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pitching session on Monday was interesting - the one that stood out most, I felt, was Lut Games. I really like their concept, I believe it will be a cool game to play when it is complete. *Ahem* Its is, like Mafia Society, targeted at guys but using the same core appeal factors as Pet Society. I like the game alot. Zombies make everything cool. ^_^
As for APB, I've known of the campaign for quite some time already, but wonder if the rate of binge drinking has actually dropped due to the campaign. Or has the consumption of APB beer gone up due to the publicity? hmmm really curious as to whether the campaign is effective up till now.
For Jujups, I think that it is a very interesting concept - making it easy for non-designers to design nice clothes/mugs/cards for their loved ones. I've to mention though, that I feel Shapeways (http://www.shapeways.com/) allows customers to better customize the 3D aspect of the finished product. Not very sure what Jujups was pitching though - its business?
Monday, February 9, 2009
Response to Yuming's blog post
I'm having trouble posting comments on blogspot blogs - on firefox the word verification doesn't load up, and now on IE the word verification shows up as a red x. Hence, i'll post my reply to Yuming's post on the Monday pitching session here:
Lut's game idea is really cool, and they did mention that they want to model it on Pet Society in the pdf sypnosis Ben sent out earlier. I like the idea, very interesting.. it really encourages user interaction, though Hong Ting and I were wondering....
if you die as a person you become a zombie...but if you die as a zombie.....?? Wouldn't zombies outnumber people eventually?
As for NLB...
"The idea of a personal librarian seems to be cool. One possible feature would be to recommend books based on what I have read so far. However, the presenter didn’t sound too passionate in selling the whole NLB-on-facebook idea. In the end, it wasn’t really convincing and that NLB is just simply exploring."
I spoke to Mr Wan during the break, you are right, they are just exploring the concept.. Still, I think the both ideas that were presented during the pitching session, while interesting, aren't leveraging enough on the social networking advantage of facebook.
Stay tuned! I'll be pitching my NLB idea/solution on Friday! ^_^
- Wei Man
Lut's game idea is really cool, and they did mention that they want to model it on Pet Society in the pdf sypnosis Ben sent out earlier. I like the idea, very interesting.. it really encourages user interaction, though Hong Ting and I were wondering....
if you die as a person you become a zombie...but if you die as a zombie.....?? Wouldn't zombies outnumber people eventually?
As for NLB...
"The idea of a personal librarian seems to be cool. One possible feature would be to recommend books based on what I have read so far. However, the presenter didn’t sound too passionate in selling the whole NLB-on-facebook idea. In the end, it wasn’t really convincing and that NLB is just simply exploring."
I spoke to Mr Wan during the break, you are right, they are just exploring the concept.. Still, I think the both ideas that were presented during the pitching session, while interesting, aren't leveraging enough on the social networking advantage of facebook.
Stay tuned! I'll be pitching my NLB idea/solution on Friday! ^_^
- Wei Man
Graffiti's replay feature
I've been testing the Graffiti app for the "interactive" comic potential that the Graffiti team mentioned during the presentation, and I just realized something interesting.
I challenged Abel to a graffiti war shortly after the presentation, and his reply to me was a graffiti animation instead of just a comic. He actually made use of Graffiti's replay feature to make an animation instead of a static comic panel!
I only realized it when I accidentally clicked on the replay feature, and saw the "story" being replayed before my eyes. I was stunned.
This animation potential for Graffiti has never yet been explored, and I believe it can help a lot in encouraging interactivity between friends. Now instead of a piece of art, you can send a short film to your friend! Very exciting!
However, I think the application creators need to be aware of that and encourage that before it can catch on to be the next big thing. ^_^
I challenged Abel to a graffiti war shortly after the presentation, and his reply to me was a graffiti animation instead of just a comic. He actually made use of Graffiti's replay feature to make an animation instead of a static comic panel!
I only realized it when I accidentally clicked on the replay feature, and saw the "story" being replayed before my eyes. I was stunned.
This animation potential for Graffiti has never yet been explored, and I believe it can help a lot in encouraging interactivity between friends. Now instead of a piece of art, you can send a short film to your friend! Very exciting!
However, I think the application creators need to be aware of that and encourage that before it can catch on to be the next big thing. ^_^
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Here Lies Love - User Interface Design
I just checked out the website for my hall's musical production, Here Lies Love. I found the user experience design very, very nice.. and surprisingly intuitive. Do check it out if you have time! I would love to have made this website! >_<
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Advertistments
My friend just posted this on Facebook so I thought I'll share this with everyone... Inspired by Hui Hui's post on interesting marketing campaigns!
Oh, and I can put up the Macdonald's advert here too! ^_^ (check out my comment on her blog to see what I was talking about... ^_^)
Penguin Advertistments
This is a reply to Sharon's blog post on READ Singapore.
I saw these 2 advertistments for Penguin Classics in the latest issue of Navigator (available free at the ZoCard stands). I immediately took a copy back because I loved the advert so much!
If you can't recognize the people there, its Einstein (1st pic) and Shakespeare (2nd pic) on the left... Not sure if you can read the tag line on the book, but it says "There's no better company than a book."
Yes.
To have the opportunity to engage the greatest thinkers of the centuries in their prime, to laugh with them, cry with them, to feel their thoughts as if they were mine, to understand through their minds.. That is the reason I read.
Of course I tend to yell at them once in a while..like this afternoon, going through some Andrew Marvell poetry, I was muttering - "you sweet-talker you" (..he really is. All his poetry are about trying to praise women enough so they'll go to bed with him.) and by the way, I cannot stand Salman Rushdie, I will end up shouting at the book - "what the hell are you talking about?! This is ridiculous! Come on, stop trying to pretend you know what you're writing about. etc etc.." And also, Edgar Allen Poe's quite the drunkard and the jerk..I was reading some of his letters...can't help but say "My god..you're an utter jerk..."
....
AHem. okay. Back to the point. Yes, literature is very exciting and scandalous. And I don't know why its so hard to get people to read scandalous stuff. Like Donne's The Flea which is trying to persuade this girl to sleep with him. If I have a dirty mind I swear its all Literature's fault.
Okay, I'll put a stop to this rambling, this post is really just about the effectiveness of the two adverts. By reminding readers why they like reading and persuading non-readers that reading allows you to benefit from the great thinkers of their generation, I think its a successful ad.
p.s. This isn't my official post on what I think of Read Singapore and how I think it can be improved..I need some time to think about it.
p.p.s. more on my love of books here if anyone's interested.
i-flapp looking for games to add to their packages
Hi everyone - here's an email from the NUS Games Development Group president regarding a possible business opportunity in making games - check it out:
This email is mainly directed to those involved in GDG projects, but anyone in the GDG yahoogroup is free to read and respond to me.
I have recently been in contact with a company called i-flapp who is a pioneer in Application Mobility Technology.
They basically sell a technology called Apps-D (Application on Demand) which allows you to carry your preferred applications and software on the same flash drive as your data files. You can then connect your portable device to any PC and instantly be able to access your stored personal applications and data. You can refer to their website (http://www.i-flapp.com/products/index.aspx ) to know more about them.
Currently, they are looking to add games to their packages, starting with any types of casual games for now. I am discussing the possibility of having GDG games featured in the company's packages as I believe it would be a good opportunity for you to gain visibility for your games.
Now I would like to ask all of you involved in the projects whether you would be interested in this opportunity for the games that you're developing. If you are, then please notify your producer and discuss with your team ASAP (if you are not part of a GDG team but are still interested to send in one of your personal games, pls notify me personally).
Of course, if anything is signed between GDG, your team and i-flapp, the contract needs to be respected, meaning that you will have to finish your game by the given date. Note that there is a possibility of gaining a percentage of the money obtained from the distribution of the i-flapps with your games on them too.
Thanks a lot!
Warm regards,
*Sharon*
NUSGDG President
This email is mainly directed to those involved in GDG projects, but anyone in the GDG yahoogroup is free to read and respond to me.
I have recently been in contact with a company called i-flapp who is a pioneer in Application Mobility Technology.
They basically sell a technology called Apps-D (Application on Demand) which allows you to carry your preferred applications and software on the same flash drive as your data files. You can then connect your portable device to any PC and instantly be able to access your stored personal applications and data. You can refer to their website (http://www.i-flapp.com/
Currently, they are looking to add games to their packages, starting with any types of casual games for now. I am discussing the possibility of having GDG games featured in the company's packages as I believe it would be a good opportunity for you to gain visibility for your games.
Now I would like to ask all of you involved in the projects whether you would be interested in this opportunity for the games that you're developing. If you are, then please notify your producer and discuss with your team ASAP (if you are not part of a GDG team but are still interested to send in one of your personal games, pls notify me personally).
Of course, if anything is signed between GDG, your team and i-flapp, the contract needs to be respected, meaning that you will have to finish your game by the given date. Note that there is a possibility of gaining a percentage of the money obtained from the distribution of the i-flapps with your games on them too.
Thanks a lot!
Warm regards,
*Sharon*
NUSGDG President
Monday, February 2, 2009
Facebook seminar/presentation
Step 1: Pick one of the applications.
Step 2: Summarize important points of the presentation - about 3.
Step 3: Put down your original thoughts
Stuff from Ben's blog - to keep in mind:
1. Thinking about Implementation.
2. Learning to Identify Good Ideas.
3. User Interface Design and Interaction Design is Important.
4. Understanding the Curse of Success (Scalability).
5. It's okay to Steal (Ideas).
Facebook seminar/presentation blogging assignment
Causes
Points mentioned by the team:
1. Team’s suggestions for improving Causes:
a) Removing trivial causes;
b) Authenticating existing causes by attaching to the charity organization;
c) Introducing tax-exemption for large donors.
I feel that these are meaningful improvements but there will be some difficulties in implementing them.
Regarding the first point, who gets to decide if a cause is trivial or not? A appointed moderator will definitely get flamed for removing causes that can be trivial but people can be passionate about. (Like perhaps ht will flame the moderator for removing "ht needs to buy a lexus" cause. ^_^)
What about causes that don’t need donations, like “Stomp out STOMP for good”? Are those deemed trivial because it is heavily localized to a tiny country and is unimportant to the greater context of the world.
My solution to that is to include a few more categories into causes, such as "fun causes", "ridiculous causes", "selfish causes", or "protest causes" so that causes like ht's lexus and STOMP will be properly categorized, and might even boost the app's readership and members. After all, who wouldn't like to surf "selfish causes" or even post up some of their own? ^_^
Regarding authentication – true, it would greatly benefit individuals who are eager to donate to causes because it saves them the time to research on the organization and the authenticity of the request. An authentication process would allow users to trust the app more.
But it will be a lot of hard work to process all the causes, and who will do that? It can't be a random volunteer because a volunteer might just be "corrupted" and even set up some of his own fake causes. It has to be done by someone trustworthy, or at least a company, if only to have someone specific to blame if thing goes wrong. So who pays? It seems a little too idealistic to expect Causes users to pay for such a service, because I feel that the donors on causes are the "spur-of-the-moment" sort of users, who don't think through their decision much, and probably donates really small amounts each time. ^_^
Regarding tax-exemption, it is definitely a worthy suggestion because I feel that facebook donors deserve to get tax breaks as other donors do. However, disregarding the difficulties of implementing tax exemptions across different countries and their laws, I feel that this is not a very important improvement as large donors often do not donate through Facebook. As I mentioned I feel that facebook donors are people who donate little, often, and without thinking, and the resultant tax exemption would be negligible.
2. Team's suggestion to improve user interface and interaction:
a) Use games to attract and keep players/users interested in causes.
b) list top 5 causes of the category
I really like the games idea. An example that sprang to my mind was : http://www.freerice.com/, where the more you play the more rice gets donated to the UN. However, I realized that eventually it is the onus of the organization to come up with the game, not Causes... hmm.. I wonder if there's a market in making games like freerice.com for some causes and getting a cut of the donations for it...heh heh...
For the top 5 causes for each category suggestion, I feel that it'll definitely be a good idea after I surfed causes according to categories. I don't know how Causes rate their requests, but I seem to get pretty obscure and location specific causes right at the top when surfing the categories of causes.
3. Team's point on effectiveness of Causes as donating platform: Donations are very spread out – so while the app is successful, it doesn't make a big difference to the causes themselves
I agree with the team. I feel that while Causes has a large user base, most of the users do not actively support the causes that they join. People join causes because it is like making a statement - oh, I'm against world poverty, I'm against cruelty to animals. But after a while they forget all about it because it isn’t something that they think about everyday, or really wants to make a difference in.
I think the way to make Causes more prominent in the user's lives is really to implement the games idea that the team suggested. Or perhaps apps in Facebook can work together, for example "Cruelty to animals" causes can be linked to Pet's society, and in-game money earned by the player can be donated in the game to causes... or every purchase of an expensive pet trophy leads to a donation?
Other issues I feel are relevant to the application:
THE BAD: There is a duplication of causes, for example searching pets come up with 384 results, all to do with preventing cruelty to animals. There is alot of confusion for users who want to join or donate to causes. That said, it is a problem that facebook itself faces, for example duplication of groups (198 groups on appreciating Virginia Woolf, more or less the same). I doubt this problem is solvable... >_< Other Comments... I think the team spent a lot of effort for this presentation, and it was fun - esp. Prof Zhao Cong!
Geo Challenge: Love the part on the bots. Its always fascinating what people will do just to rise up in the leaderboards...By the way, the existence of bots had never crossed my mind until this module showed me the power of bots and bot-ing... *enlightened*
Graffiti Wall: I was very surprised that such a simple application had sponsorship from so many different companies. Thanks to the team for choosing this app, I had really underestimated the potential of simple applications before this presentation. I really enjoyed Abel’s comic too, it looked so fun to “play”.
Elven Blood: I like Kian Boon description of the business model: Take a successful app you’ve made, and duplicate it 3 more times. And it worked! ^_^
Oh but I think there's this point about ElvenBlood that really struck me when I was playing it - the game art is not made by the developers! The developers basically just asked for good artists to "donate" their art, so Elvenblood can help "feature" the art, so its a win-win situation.
Come to think of it, its fantastically easy to duplicate the other 3 games in this way since all it takes is some changes into the database (elves change to vampires/mafia, etc etc..) and the story right? Because art is the most time-consuming part of making a new app (assuming you've got the programming up already)... Elvenblood developers are cheaters!!!! >_<
Step 2: Summarize important points of the presentation - about 3.
Step 3: Put down your original thoughts
Stuff from Ben's blog - to keep in mind:
1. Thinking about Implementation.
2. Learning to Identify Good Ideas.
3. User Interface Design and Interaction Design is Important.
4. Understanding the Curse of Success (Scalability).
5. It's okay to Steal (Ideas).
Facebook seminar/presentation blogging assignment
Causes
Points mentioned by the team:
1. Team’s suggestions for improving Causes:
a) Removing trivial causes;
b) Authenticating existing causes by attaching to the charity organization;
c) Introducing tax-exemption for large donors.
I feel that these are meaningful improvements but there will be some difficulties in implementing them.
Regarding the first point, who gets to decide if a cause is trivial or not? A appointed moderator will definitely get flamed for removing causes that can be trivial but people can be passionate about. (Like perhaps ht will flame the moderator for removing "ht needs to buy a lexus" cause. ^_^)
What about causes that don’t need donations, like “Stomp out STOMP for good”? Are those deemed trivial because it is heavily localized to a tiny country and is unimportant to the greater context of the world.
My solution to that is to include a few more categories into causes, such as "fun causes", "ridiculous causes", "selfish causes", or "protest causes" so that causes like ht's lexus and STOMP will be properly categorized, and might even boost the app's readership and members. After all, who wouldn't like to surf "selfish causes" or even post up some of their own? ^_^
Regarding authentication – true, it would greatly benefit individuals who are eager to donate to causes because it saves them the time to research on the organization and the authenticity of the request. An authentication process would allow users to trust the app more.
But it will be a lot of hard work to process all the causes, and who will do that? It can't be a random volunteer because a volunteer might just be "corrupted" and even set up some of his own fake causes. It has to be done by someone trustworthy, or at least a company, if only to have someone specific to blame if thing goes wrong. So who pays? It seems a little too idealistic to expect Causes users to pay for such a service, because I feel that the donors on causes are the "spur-of-the-moment" sort of users, who don't think through their decision much, and probably donates really small amounts each time. ^_^
Regarding tax-exemption, it is definitely a worthy suggestion because I feel that facebook donors deserve to get tax breaks as other donors do. However, disregarding the difficulties of implementing tax exemptions across different countries and their laws, I feel that this is not a very important improvement as large donors often do not donate through Facebook. As I mentioned I feel that facebook donors are people who donate little, often, and without thinking, and the resultant tax exemption would be negligible.
2. Team's suggestion to improve user interface and interaction:
a) Use games to attract and keep players/users interested in causes.
b) list top 5 causes of the category
I really like the games idea. An example that sprang to my mind was : http://www.freerice.com/, where the more you play the more rice gets donated to the UN. However, I realized that eventually it is the onus of the organization to come up with the game, not Causes... hmm.. I wonder if there's a market in making games like freerice.com for some causes and getting a cut of the donations for it...heh heh...
For the top 5 causes for each category suggestion, I feel that it'll definitely be a good idea after I surfed causes according to categories. I don't know how Causes rate their requests, but I seem to get pretty obscure and location specific causes right at the top when surfing the categories of causes.
3. Team's point on effectiveness of Causes as donating platform: Donations are very spread out – so while the app is successful, it doesn't make a big difference to the causes themselves
I agree with the team. I feel that while Causes has a large user base, most of the users do not actively support the causes that they join. People join causes because it is like making a statement - oh, I'm against world poverty, I'm against cruelty to animals. But after a while they forget all about it because it isn’t something that they think about everyday, or really wants to make a difference in.
I think the way to make Causes more prominent in the user's lives is really to implement the games idea that the team suggested. Or perhaps apps in Facebook can work together, for example "Cruelty to animals" causes can be linked to Pet's society, and in-game money earned by the player can be donated in the game to causes... or every purchase of an expensive pet trophy leads to a donation?
Other issues I feel are relevant to the application:
THE BAD: There is a duplication of causes, for example searching pets come up with 384 results, all to do with preventing cruelty to animals. There is alot of confusion for users who want to join or donate to causes. That said, it is a problem that facebook itself faces, for example duplication of groups (198 groups on appreciating Virginia Woolf, more or less the same). I doubt this problem is solvable... >_< Other Comments... I think the team spent a lot of effort for this presentation, and it was fun - esp. Prof Zhao Cong!
Geo Challenge: Love the part on the bots. Its always fascinating what people will do just to rise up in the leaderboards...By the way, the existence of bots had never crossed my mind until this module showed me the power of bots and bot-ing... *enlightened*
Graffiti Wall: I was very surprised that such a simple application had sponsorship from so many different companies. Thanks to the team for choosing this app, I had really underestimated the potential of simple applications before this presentation. I really enjoyed Abel’s comic too, it looked so fun to “play”.
Elven Blood: I like Kian Boon description of the business model: Take a successful app you’ve made, and duplicate it 3 more times. And it worked! ^_^
Oh but I think there's this point about ElvenBlood that really struck me when I was playing it - the game art is not made by the developers! The developers basically just asked for good artists to "donate" their art, so Elvenblood can help "feature" the art, so its a win-win situation.
Come to think of it, its fantastically easy to duplicate the other 3 games in this way since all it takes is some changes into the database (elves change to vampires/mafia, etc etc..) and the story right? Because art is the most time-consuming part of making a new app (assuming you've got the programming up already)... Elvenblood developers are cheaters!!!! >_<
Tired - rant rant rant!!!
This isn't my proper blog post for the assignment on today's presentations, because I'm just too tired to think after rushing all those assignments out for the facebook module.
Yesterday was the first time I had free time to myself since school started. Free time, as in I had things to settle and homework to do for other modules, but I had the time to sit down and actually think about those other things to settle.
The past 3 weeks were insane. I think I got rather depressed after awhile, when I had to skip an important friend's gathering I was looking forward to on Thursday night to rush the facebook application project due at midnight. And I know as the only artist my group needed me that night.
I had no weekends - if I wasn't working on the app I was worrying about whether I can conquer CSS in the limited time left. I ate 1 meal a day coz of the improper times I was working on the project. Luckily I still kept my weight.. ^_^
I slept/worked 3 overnights in COM 1 and 1 overnight in the PGP study room along with the rest of my team. The COM 1 sofas on the first floor are my best friends now. We usually leave at 10am the next day, after which we collapsed into bed.
I even came back to SOC on the 2nd day of the new year holiday to work on the app with my team. To my horror, I actually discovered Janus's group already there working on their app. And then Boa's group also. And some other groups also I think. >_<
I remember Janus happily waving a ang bao at me and asking if I wanted to eat the heh bee hiam he brought. *Speechless*
I'm thinking we must all be crazy.
One day I stayed till 9am and then realized that I had classes from 12-6pm that day.I couldn't take it anymore so I decided to go home to sleep for 2 hours before going to school again. At 11am I woke up, looked at my clock, thought of school = COM 1, and decided I'm so sick of school I'd rather just sleep some more. I'd been excited to attend the 12 - 3 seminar for NM4208 but if I go I'll just stone or even worse break down. Couldn't take it anymore..>_<
However, I had to drag myself out of bed at 2.30 for another important project meeting for NM4343 and then guess what... The project meeting was another 4 hours in SOC.
The first time I slept in SOC was for the nation-wide game design competition I helped organized, and I thought it would be the one and only time. Turns out life has surprises in store for me. >_<
I even had to quit my part time job for this module!!!!
ARGH!
THIS IS MADNESS!!!!
So much for module on improving social networking ..its entirely destroying my social life....
******************************************************
Which is why, also, that I've decided to go for this very important musical on 13th Feb instead of going for the Facebook pitching session. I had set the date to go for the musical way back in November 2008, and I'm very much looking forward to it. The head scriptwriter is someone I know very well and I wouldn't miss his work for anything, especially since the musical is running for only one night.
I would dearly love to come to the facebook pitching session to hear everyone's ideas on their final app, but enough is enough. I need to reclaim my life and make some proper decisions...>_<
p.s. Prof Ben, I was really alright when you passed by just now, even though I was covering my eyes.. ^_^ I was going through the presentation in my head and I needed to block the rest of the world out coz I get really stressed out over these things.
That said, I'm pretty surprised at my presentation today, I think its the best presentation I've given so far in my years of NUS presentations... no fumbling, lots of engaging audiences and stuff. Jimmy, Toan, and Yu Ming helped me alot when we were rehearsing! I really owe my presentation to their advice, and they know very well how I was panicking and hesitating during all our 3 run-throughs. I never could perfect my speech, without lots of "umm umm help...what should i say here..."and that was only presenting to 3 guys!
I think probably because I was cold and exhausted and nervous and just couldn't care the heck anymore, that I could give that presentation just now. I swear I had a splitting headache all through the whole thing, I just wanted food and sleep... >_<
Yesterday was the first time I had free time to myself since school started. Free time, as in I had things to settle and homework to do for other modules, but I had the time to sit down and actually think about those other things to settle.
The past 3 weeks were insane. I think I got rather depressed after awhile, when I had to skip an important friend's gathering I was looking forward to on Thursday night to rush the facebook application project due at midnight. And I know as the only artist my group needed me that night.
I had no weekends - if I wasn't working on the app I was worrying about whether I can conquer CSS in the limited time left. I ate 1 meal a day coz of the improper times I was working on the project. Luckily I still kept my weight.. ^_^
I slept/worked 3 overnights in COM 1 and 1 overnight in the PGP study room along with the rest of my team. The COM 1 sofas on the first floor are my best friends now. We usually leave at 10am the next day, after which we collapsed into bed.
I even came back to SOC on the 2nd day of the new year holiday to work on the app with my team. To my horror, I actually discovered Janus's group already there working on their app. And then Boa's group also. And some other groups also I think. >_<
I remember Janus happily waving a ang bao at me and asking if I wanted to eat the heh bee hiam he brought. *Speechless*
I'm thinking we must all be crazy.
One day I stayed till 9am and then realized that I had classes from 12-6pm that day.I couldn't take it anymore so I decided to go home to sleep for 2 hours before going to school again. At 11am I woke up, looked at my clock, thought of school = COM 1, and decided I'm so sick of school I'd rather just sleep some more. I'd been excited to attend the 12 - 3 seminar for NM4208 but if I go I'll just stone or even worse break down. Couldn't take it anymore..>_<
However, I had to drag myself out of bed at 2.30 for another important project meeting for NM4343 and then guess what... The project meeting was another 4 hours in SOC.
The first time I slept in SOC was for the nation-wide game design competition I helped organized, and I thought it would be the one and only time. Turns out life has surprises in store for me. >_<
I even had to quit my part time job for this module!!!!
ARGH!
THIS IS MADNESS!!!!
So much for module on improving social networking ..its entirely destroying my social life....
******************************************************
Which is why, also, that I've decided to go for this very important musical on 13th Feb instead of going for the Facebook pitching session. I had set the date to go for the musical way back in November 2008, and I'm very much looking forward to it. The head scriptwriter is someone I know very well and I wouldn't miss his work for anything, especially since the musical is running for only one night.
I would dearly love to come to the facebook pitching session to hear everyone's ideas on their final app, but enough is enough. I need to reclaim my life and make some proper decisions...>_<
p.s. Prof Ben, I was really alright when you passed by just now, even though I was covering my eyes.. ^_^ I was going through the presentation in my head and I needed to block the rest of the world out coz I get really stressed out over these things.
That said, I'm pretty surprised at my presentation today, I think its the best presentation I've given so far in my years of NUS presentations... no fumbling, lots of engaging audiences and stuff. Jimmy, Toan, and Yu Ming helped me alot when we were rehearsing! I really owe my presentation to their advice, and they know very well how I was panicking and hesitating during all our 3 run-throughs. I never could perfect my speech, without lots of "umm umm help...what should i say here..."and that was only presenting to 3 guys!
I think probably because I was cold and exhausted and nervous and just couldn't care the heck anymore, that I could give that presentation just now. I swear I had a splitting headache all through the whole thing, I just wanted food and sleep... >_<
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)