User+Needs+for+FBF

Phase #2: User needs: Tasks, scenarios, and references
===Step 1. Generating a list of expected users, and an initial list of tasks. ===

There are many social network websites for people to find exercise partners out there, but there is none for University of Maryland students. We have conducted a survey to investigate users’ needs and expectation toward our website and the target/expected users are University of Maryland students. Below is our initial list of concrete task descriptions:

**Task 1. Enable users to search for partners by interest ** People may want to focus on certain exercises; therefore, we want our users to be able to search for partners who share common interests (e.g. jogging, swimming or lifting). When guests/users want to search for partners, they are required to create their personal profiles and specify the activities they are interested in  so that they will be searchable for others as well.

**Task 2. Enable users to communicate/interact with each other ** Our initial idea is that the main page will be the place to announce news or events either by users or administrators so it’s visible for everyone. In addition, users should not be limited to only interact with their own partners. Users can request to create a page/forum of their common interest of activities to share their goals, tips or progress.

**Task 3. Enable users to access to on campus fitness resources, activities and ** **some other useful information**  We will link our website to the school recreation center page so our users can easily find the information they need from the school gym. They can find program schedules, updates or even weather alert if they are going to participate outdoor activities or sports.

**Task 4. Enable users to plan and exchange exercise schedules ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Since UMD students all have Gmail account now, users can grant permission for their partners to view their Google Calender where they save their schedules. Thus users and their partners can plan and arrange their exercise in advance since they know the time each others are available.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some of our expected users that we’ve interviewed did mention that they would love to have exercise partners. A female student says she wants to exercise on the daily bases but the fact that she’s always exercise alone makes her lazy. Having a partner to exercise with me can motivate me more, says another male student. Additionally, couple of the male students also revealed that it stimulates their competitiveness to exercise with a partner if the partners look better than them. “It just makes me want to workout harder.” says an undergraduate male. Most of the interviewees said they usually exercise with their friends or acquaintances, but it’s not good enough. “Sometimes I want to focus on lifting weights but it’s not necessarily what my friend wants to do. It is distracting and I ended up doing it myself. I wish I can do it with someone that will enjoy it as much as me and so we can both concentrate on one thing together.” They actually like the idea to be able to search for exercise partner. “I want to talk to the person online first and make sure he really share the same passion for jogging as I do before I meet the person.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Step 2. Validating the tasks.
**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 1. Enable users to search for partners by interest ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">According to most of the students we have interviewed, they think it’s fair to create a profile on the website if they need to search for partners. Some students suggested us to have the users specify their age, gender and the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">location they live on their profile. “I prefer doing cardiovascular <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">exercise with a <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">girl instead with a guy.” says an graduate female student. Another undergraduate female student mentioned that it will be better if she and her partner lives not too far from each other since they may go to the gym at night time, so they can walk back to the dorm together due to the safety concern. One male student suggested that users to specify their goals (e.g. lose weight or be able to lift certain weights within a period of time). A male tennis player suggested that users should provide information of their past experience/background. He says “I play for my school when I was in high school and I hope my partner can match up with me on tennis. I would like to know where the person’s level is.”

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 2. Enable users to communicate/interact with each other ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Sometimes school gym will offer some special programs or events that I want to join. It will be nice if I can post the information on the main page and attract other’s attention to go with me.” One of the graduate female students was excited to hear about our idea. An undergraduate male student asked if we can make it the online chatting available just like Gchat or Facebook. We are not so certain if it’s possible for now since it’s kind of an advance task for us.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 3. Enable users to access to on campus fitness resources, activities and some other useful information** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Some female students have told us that they like to go to some of the dance, yoga class or some other programs that school gym provided. They think having a link on the main page will be a good idea. “It will be better if the links can direct us to the specific pages we need.” says a female undergraduate student who sometimes having trouble finding the information she wants.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 4. Enable users to plan and exchange exercise schedules ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most of the people are willing to share their schedules with their partners but one of their concerns is that they don’t want their partner to see everything on their calender. A graduate male student had pointed out that users can create “fitness calender” specifically for their partner to view. “They don’t need to see everything if I don’t want to. I can simply mark available or unavailable blocks on my fitness calender.” The suggestion is very clever and helpful for our design. We just need to tell the users to do so to prevent the hassles.

===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Step 3. Deciding upon key users and a tentative list of requirements. ===

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*x3 absolutely must include this function *x2 should include this function <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> * could include this function

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 1. Enable users to search for partners by interest **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the central function of the project. Users must be able to find an appropriate other user to be their exercise buddy.*** This requires:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There is a database entry associated with each user containing information relevant to the allowed search terms (e.g. age, gender, location, interests)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Users must have opportunity to populate this entry with the information that they choose to provide.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There is a search function that allows users to specify one or many search terms and returns all other users that meet the search criteria.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 2. Enable users to communicate/interact with each other **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a broad task that could be achieved through a number of means. At minimum, users should be able to communicate with individual other users that they have found by searching or browsing other users. Modes of communication could include:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">private, email-like messaging.***
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most users will have need of this.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a message board of topics and threads, with public topics containing posts from users.**
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This would meet some needs of a few types of users, including those looking to post information about fitness activities that they want to interest others in, those looking to organize a group of more than two people, and those with any number of other open-ended communication goals
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">chat/instant messaging*
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Providing for users who would like to use the site as a primary social gathering spot (such that an IM system would be appropriate), while an appealing goal, is not a high priority in connection with the essential service of the site. Implementation may also prove difficult.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 3. Enable users to access to on campus fitness resources, activities and some other useful information **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some users would like to be able to have quick access to links and resources related to fitness activities on campus.**
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Not all users (for instance those who already have a plan of what exercise they like to do) have need for this task. However, it does not conflict with the needs of other users and is straightforward enough, so it probably will be included.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Task 4. Enable users to plan and exchange exercise schedules **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Users wish to be able to share schedules so as to coordinate exercise times with partners.**
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Users would create schedules via a tool, perhaps on their profile
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A user could share a created schedule with another user.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Enabling this task would help most users coordinate with potential new workout partners