UMD+Notes+Prototype

Prototype
For our high-fidelity prototype, we implemented the key features needed to test a user’s typical route through our system, which are:


 * 1) Login Page
 * 2) Search for keywords that will filter through class names, note titles, and tags specified by submitters.
 * 3) Display a list of search results in a clear and coherent fashion
 * 4) Filter and sort search results
 * 5) View a dedicated page for each set of notes
 * 6) Upload notes
 * 7) Download notes
 * 8) Note rating system

To implement the front-end of our prototype, we used the App Sketcher program to generate the basic structure and positioning of elements within our website (such as the search bars, text fields, and buttons). In addition, we added our own HTML, CSS, and javascript where needed to integrate our own custom UMD Notes designs (such as logos).

The middle and back end of our system consists of PHP scripting and a MySQL database. We found that the provided tuple data store could have been useful, but our system required a database or dedicated file system in which we could store images of uploaded notes. For our prototype, we chose to use a free web hosting service by 000webhost.com that provides us adequate space (1.5GB), bandwidth (100GB/month), and developer tools (PHP interpreter and MySQL database).

For the final design, a major functionality that we need to implement is for more user interaction with the notes (currently, users upload, download, and rate notes). Users should be able to comment on notes and registered users should have the ability to edit and annotate uploaded notes.

Link to Protype