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Determine the tasks of the problem you've chosen, analyze their characteristics, and answer the general questions about tasks we asked in lecture. Think about other questions you should ask that might be relevant to your particular domain. You should find and analyze at least 3 high-level tasks. If you can't find 3 interesting tasks, then your problem may be too small to serve as a good project, and you should rethink it.
Forming teams
- Why is the task being done? Forming Forming teams is part of Capture the Flag game mechanics. It is necessary before a game can start.
- *Where is the task performed? *It varies. It can happen on location in the game field (like pickup sports games) or it can be arranged before hand. An MIT student that often plays pick up basketball games and ultimate Frisbee often said that he typically goes to games when he knows the other players that are there. Either they go together, or he is invited by another friend. Existing social networking solutions like Facebook and mailing lists are used to announce and organize events.
- *What is the environment like? *Again, it can vary. It could happen outdoors before a game or over a SMS conversation.
- How often is the task performed? Once Once per game. Generally forming teams is very quick relative to the duration of the actual game.
- What can go wrong?
- Users may not know their teammates or have difficulty remembering who is playing and what team they are on
- Some players may not show up or be late
- *Who else is involved in the task? *All of the other players
Sharing location information with team members
- *Why is the task being done? *To enhance the game experience and make it more enjoyable
- *Where is the task performed? *On the game field during the game.
- *What is the environment like? *Outdoors. Initially it will primarily located around MIT’s campus
- *How often is the task performed? *Depends on the team strategy. Although, it can occur very often. Team members often want to keep in sync with each other and know where they are.
- *How is the task learned? *It is generally learned by doing and watching others.
- What can go wrong?
- GPS tracking errors. This is particular true indoors where GPS locations are not nearly as accurate.
- Loss of network connectivity
- Delay and lag in location propagation
- Users accidentally zoom out to the wrong level. Observing a user using map powered applications often spent a lot of time zooming to the correct level. This occurred when they were using iPhone apps like Yelp and Google Maps.
- Users are looking at their map and walk into a car. A user that was interviewed mentioned that she was often scared using Google Maps when following directions in downtown Boston because it disconnected her from the environment.
Setup preferences for location sharing (how long? extensions?)
- Why is the task being done?
- Location information is generally private information that users typically do not want to be broadcast their location at all times.
- Users will want to enable location sharing for the purposes of enhancing the game experience but then have it disable to preserve their privacy.
- *Where is the task performed? *On the playing field before the start of a game.
- *What is the environment like? *it will likely be outside before the start of a game.
- *How often is the task performed? *At most once per game.
- What can go wrong?
- A user may forget to turn off location sharing.
- A game may take longer than expected and the application stops sharing a player’s location in the middle of a tense moment - impacting the outcome of the game.
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