UMDEventsFinal_Report

Patrick Asare Mustapha Monkainfon 12/3/2011  This is the final report for the website UMDEvents by Mustapha Monk and Patrick Asare. The work done by the members of this group is listed below.
 * __ Mustapha Monkainfon __**
 * User needs documentation.
 * Low-Fi prototypes 3 and 4.
 * Participated in the usability study.
 * Created the help page for UMDEvents.
 * Did the CSS for UMDEvents.
 * __ Patrick Asare __**
 * Proposal.
 * Low-Fi prototype 1 and 2.
 * Basalmiq mockups.
 * Hi-Fi prototypes.
 * Participated in usability study.
 * Designed the home page and view events page of UMDEvents.

The University of Maryland is plagued by a major problem. There are a multitude of events going on at the University of Maryland at any given time. The information about these events are usually relayed to students through various channels. However we feel that this system is not interactive enough nor is it comprehensive enough, and it is definitely not current with the current treads in technology. Information about different types of events is located in different places and it is quite difficult for new students to the University to know where to get all this information. Also a lot of the information for these events is found on bulletin boards or flyers passed out by individuals. This way of sharing information is dated and does not fit this digital world that we live in. However we have proposed a solution to this problem. We believe there is a simpler, more efficient way to post and find events that is why for our project we will create an event planning/posting system. This system will be similar to an online bulletin board where users can input their information. This information consists of but is not limited to their name, location, time and date of the event. They can also include a detailed description of the event. The users will be able to make an account in order to quickly post future events, and to allow them to RSVP for other events. The interface will consist of a map which will have event specific markers indicating the events location. Once clicked these markers will open an info window that provides the user with more information about the event. Below the map will be a list of all of the events posted to the map for quick reference. Above the map will be a filter button for certain types of events and to the right of the map will be a search bar and the box for registering new events. We will also allow users to register and log in to our site. This feature allows for quick posting of events for constant users, and also protects the user’s events from deletion.

Our target users for this site will be University of Maryland clubs/activities, and students, also campus organizations such as SEE and The University Career Center. We feel that it is time to update the old system of information delivery and that the majority of students possess smartphones, laptops, and tablets. We plan to create this website using Javascript, HTML, and CSS. The design and layout of our website are very specific. Our intention was to make it simple for users to post events and to know about events. We did not want our users to have to go through a bunch of sites and links to post or learn about events. We accomplished these goals by firstly centering everything around the main landing page. We included a map to easily allow users to quickly identify distances and location of events, in order to facilitate recognition of remembrance. The box below the map contains the same information that is located on the markers of the map, and is also color coordinated to match the map. The different colors refer to the different types of events and once again this was done to make locating events easier on the user. On the right side of the map and the information box the post event box is located. We placed this here so that users who want to can come, post events and leave. We wanted posting events to be as easy and painless as possible. No jumping through hoops before one can post on our site. This is the start page that the user is greeted with. Based on information that we received from our usability study users could not easily identify the purpose of this site. So we added this dialog window to inform the user of the site and its affiliation.

The box highlighted in red is the post event box, in accordance with our proposal and our vision of allowing people to post and find events as easily as possible. This box is located directly on the front page.

This is the registration page for new users. We wanted to make the process as simple as possible, but also to not detract from the main purpose of this site. That is why we decided to use a pop up format for this process as well as the login process. An added perk of registering is that users are able to state their organization and it is automatically added to any event that they post. The same description for the registration process applies to the login process.

The main bonus of registering is that your events will be protected from deletion. In our system anybody is allowed to delete events posted anonymously. However if a user is registered, logged in, and posts an event then they are the only ones who can delete their event.

Although not fully implemented our intention with the view event button was to provide an abundant amount of detail about the event, the venue, and the organization hosting the event. We would display photos of the venue and event, as well as the link to the hosts personalized page. Currently the view event button shows more detail about the events but that is it.



In order to simplify the process of finding events we also included various filters at the top of our page. These filters, the map markers, and the information in the box below the map are color coordinated.

This is the help page associated with UMDEvents. Here we provide information on how to post an event, how to use the map, how to delete and event, and the meaning of the various colors. To our surprise during our usuability study nobody ustilized the help page. Even those that did not know how to delete events.

After the Initial prototype of our site we conducted usability studies to make sure that we were properly addressing the needs of our target audience, and as such the people that we got to help us with our study were/are University of Maryland students. Our study consisted of eight participants. Four of the participants are females, while four of them are males. Also four of our participants were recent grads, while the other four are current students. Through this study we gained valuable information about our website. The top issues of concern were:

In order to deal with the problem we tried many solutions. Settled on alerting the user as soon as they arrive on our site that it is UMDEvents. We do this with a pop up notification.
 * People did not know the intended purpose of the site upon first visit.

We simplified this process greatly by removing a lot of the mandatory things that were required by users in order to register. We also dealt with the bugs that were affecting the users experience with these features.
 * The registration and log in process was difficult and cumbersome.

Although some found it useless. Others found it useful, and we being individuals who have difficulties with directions and distances felt that the benefits outweighed the downsides.
 * Some participants found the map to be useless and taking up space.

In a future implementation of the site we allow types to be dynamically added by registered users.
 * There should be a larger variety of types in the types filter.

This is a good idea and given time we would like to implement this feature. However it was not in our current scope of the project.
 * We should have an automatic scrolling effect on the information box below the map.

As you can see with the automatic scrolling and the dynamic adding of types; there were a few features that we were not able to implement. The view events page is also an example of this. We would like to implement the organization homepage feature; where each organization gets their own specialized home page. In conjuncture with this we would also like to implement the search organization box located above the map. We would also like to implement an rsvp feature for events, so that the organizer has a good estimate of how many people are attending. We would also like to implement the get directions feature.