#problem space

[dianas]

In the second post in our series about roadmaps at FutureLearn Reema talks users, needs and opportunities.

[dianas]

Addressing the Challenges of Product Discovery

Product Discovery is a broad topic related to customer, user, market and product research. It’s about understanding market, customer and…

[feelingpolitical]

Foreshortened conceptions of neoliberalism, that begin in the 1970s and which pay insufficient attention to this long trajectory of ideational evolution, run the risk of underestimating the market/order dialectic which lies at the contradictory heart of the neoliberalization process. For this reason, moreover, processual definitions of neoliberalization are preferable to static and taxonomic renderings of neoliberalism, since the latter tend to rely too heavily on regime-like conceptions, bracketed in time and space. Neoliberalism defies explanation in terms of fixed coordinates. Rather, it denotes a problem space, together with an accompanying ethos of market-complementing regulation. In the most abstract of terms, one can say that neoliberalization refers to a contradictory process of market-like rule, principally negotiated at the boundaries of the state, and occupying the ideological space defined by a (broadly) sympathetic critique of nineteenth-century laissez-faire and deep antipathies to collectivist, planned, and socialized modes of government, especially those associated with Keynesianism and developmentalism.

Jamie Peck, Constructions of Neoliberal Reason, 19-20

[venuesthlm]

The Prototype

The prototype is available at www.dictodesigns.com/venue.

The design

The design is made with inspiration from a “party night” which we think could enhance the user experience greatly. We chose to use a dark base with bright and saturated colors representing the light at a club or a party. The crucial elements like buttons and links were designed so they “pop” from the background and really show that the user can interact with the element or show its importance.

In general, we wanted to make an app which was easy to use and had a nice user flow. With that in mind, we tried to make all the features familiar to the user e.g. keeping a certain design on all similar elements and to not confuse the user. Like the buttons has a slight difference from the sorting buttons and the buttons with great importance has the pink color to it.

One of the main features is “My Preferences” which allows the user to make a filtering of the venues they want to visit. We also wanted it to be called “My preferences” to make the application more personal to the user. This feature’s implementation and design is very crucial and important to make easy, so we put a lot of effort to design the form in “My Preferences”.

The application is based on a list and a related map to it. This means that they has to be very easy to switch between these view and make is as obvious as possible.

  Improved Features After Evaluation

Offline Mode

As mentioned in the in the beginning of the development, when we were still analysing our problem space, one design tension was that we want the data to be accessible at all times, but recognized that most tourist do not have internet access outside of their hotel. Our solution is to download the database and store it locally on the phone when the user downloads the app, and then have it syncing in the background (if the information is outdated) to keep it up to date with new ratings, event info and general changes when the phone is connected to wi-fi. This is how the Chrome web browser implements its updates which allows for a much smoother and seamless user experience as they don’t have to engage in redundant and annoying tasks (updating information manually). If the user uses the app without an internet connection, a small header will be displayed at the top, telling the user how long ago the app last checked for new information.

If the user is in an offline mode, certain features that rely on internet connection will obviously not be available, such as displaying public transport information (when one asks for directions to a certain venue).

User Profile

See our previous evaluation post regarding containership between the concepts of “User Profile” and “My Preferences”. In short, we came up with the solution of having the user be able to save his specified preferences:

and quickly be able to load saved settings:

Integration With Social Media

One way to increase user participation is to connect the app to e.g. Facebook and have them be able to share which venue they are going to/have been to. This will also increase awareness of our app and integrate it more with the platforms that the users are already on. Later on also Twitter and Instagram will be added for an even wider spread through social media.

Events

To see current events (such as concerts, artists, theme nights etc.) could be a nice feature to our product and we wanted to expand on our previous design as it only contained a rudimentary event feature. We begun by making a state-of-the-art analysis, and decided to look at Resident Advisor’s event viewer. They have a very clear design which groups events by the date and one can also browse for future events. However, their implementation uses a big calendar which requires a large screen estate, something we cannot afford on a smartphone. So investigated at how big lists were implemented in other apps, and saw that for instance the Contacts (lists of all contacts on your phone) and Music apps (listing all the music on your phone) groups elements by the alphabet and has an alphabet slider on the side to enable quick access to a certain letter. To make this fit our requirements, we group the events based on their dates. To enable quick access to future events, we have a slider that lists the month numbers. The months are then clearly displayed and acts as separators, which also functions as a grouping feature, making the issue of containership clearer. This is just like how the different letters act as separators in a Contact app.

Scope of My Preferences

One issue that was brought up during our presentation of the design to the class, was how big the scope of “My Preferences” was. I.e. how would it affect the map if we later use “What’s Near Me”? Would it display every venue that’s close to me, or just the venues fitting the criterias in “My Preferences”? The initial reaction from the class was that “My Preferences” should be global, meaning that only venues fitting the filled in criterias would be displayed. We agree with this assessment, but also recognize the fact that the user will probably also want a quick way to see every venue nearby without having to refill “My Preferences”, so we decided to add two options at  the top of the map, one for “All” and one for “My Preferences”.

If you choose one of the options, the other one is unchosen. If “All” is checked, every venue will be displayed. With this design we feel we get the best of both ideas, without removing either one.

[greatcircles]

A jumping off point for ideas.

[deadletterstolivegirls]

ms. z,  When writing these small letters of introduction it is sometimes hard for me to tell if the intended audience is one that will be receptive of what I have to say. I don't wish to bother anyone, ms. z. A few days ago I listened to an episode of RadioLab in which they talked to a woman who would occasionally lose her bearings to the degree that she could no longer recognize even familiar surroundings. Occasionally, I feel this way on the this web site.  In artificial intelligence they call this process of search within an undefined problem space uninformed search. For instance, the roomba has very little knowledge concerning the nature of the space it is cleaning and must, like the crooked arrow you compare yourself to, follow an ever increasing arc until it finds one of the walls that defines the space it is in. Again like the crooked arrow you compare yourself to, its path may not be the most efficient path toward vacuuming the room it is in.  So, ms. z, this letter is a bit like this: spinning on a wobbly arcing axis, trying to find its way, just hoping to determine the breadth of the space it has found itself in. The poorly defined nature of this problem space aside, I feel that you and I have some commonalities. For instance, you mention getting a beer and that sounds pleasant enough to me. Also, we have both occasionally followed a less than optimally efficient path through a poorly defined problem space toward our eventual goals. Another promising indicator, aside from those previously mentioned and your friend Becca’s character reference, is the fact that we have a 0% enemy rating. While I am not entirely certain what this enemy rating means, the enemy probability doesn't sound like a higher percentage promises anything pleasant. This is markedly different from the beer probability mentioned earlier. Finally, we both discuss food quite a bit in our profiles, so we've got that going for us.  As this letter begins fitfully spinning on its poorly designed axis until it finally gives up and falls over, I hope that you have enjoyed receiving it as much as I have enjoyed writing it, and hope that you are having a pleasant day.  Sincerely,  B

[biscuitsforcheese]

"Show and Tell" is an easy way for business users to start participating with confidence

The "Show and Tell" game (Innovation Games, Gamestorming) seems like an excellent way to help everyone learn a bit about each customer participating in the workshop, and also provides an easy way for everyone to contribute with something they know and understand. Further, if different customers from different backgrounds present different artefacts from the same system, and explain why they're important, this helps each person present to understand the wider scope and possibilities of the system and its context.

(Related: Explore stakeholders and actors to expand the problem space)