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Scenario: Amy's Birthday Bash
Amy would like to make an event for her upcoming 21st birthday bash. She has rented out the VIP lounge at Estate and would like it to be the best birthday ever. As such, she needs many cool MIT students to come, and so she would like to publicize the event as much as possible. Since everyone at MIT has a Beaver Buzz account, she decided that she’d post an event.
Since Amy did not have an account, she first had to create one. When she visited the "join" page, the service checked her MIT certificate (to make sure she is a student) and then asked her to input a user name and a password. Once the sign in process was completed, Amy logs into her account.
She then selects to create a new event. She is prompted for a time and a date for the event. She enters that it will begin at 10:00 PM, and that it will take place 6/12/2011. In addition, she fills out an optional event textbox describing her event as the “Event of the millennium!!! Don't wanna miss out!!! PS Bring presents.” After posting, she checks the "Party" topic and sees that her event has been posted. She also checks the event schedule and verifies that the date and time have been entered correctly. She unfortunately notices that Beta Beta Beta is having a party that day. Scared that her birthday bash will be ruined by a dumb frat party, she clicks on the event to view how popular it is. Thankfully, it only got three likes, and only two people have left comments. Since the event had been made several days ago, she guesses that it won't be anything huge. She post a nasty comment of the likes of "Come to Amy's b-day instead!" , but after a few seconds she realizes it was rude and deletes it. She checks her page again, and already sees 25 likes and 7 comments. After reading the comments, where everyone expressed their interest in attending her party, Amy is satisfied and logs off.
Designs:
Design #1:
This design shows as many article info (author, title, date added, etc) as possible at the cost of not allowing users to preview the articles before having to access their page. The suggested interface shows the most commented events and discussions on the home page. It also allows users to search for events, authors, tags, etc from the "search" bar. Events and Posts can be sorted using a simple drop-down menu. This design focuses on simplicity.
Storyboard - Design 1
Justin Beaver, a Freshmen, is visiting the Beaver Buzz home page for the first time. Justin is excited about the website, since he can learn about what is going on in the MIT community and discuss topics with his peers. He notices that the "What's Hot?!" interface displays the most talked about events and posts. He likes the idea of posting and commenting posts or events and decides to become a member.
Before getting to the Beaver Buzz sign in page, Justin was asked for his MIT certificate (we want to ensure that only MIT affiliated people can access the website). In the sign in page, Justin decides to use "username" as his username and enters a secret password.
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After finishing a PSET, Justin decides to procrastinate by looking into other student's thoughts. He browses the "Posts". After 15 minutes, he goes back to work.
Design #2:
This design trades off how much information you get from each article preview for more articles visible on the screen at once. Discussion posts are sorted by topic and events are sorted by groups/hosts.
Storyboard - Design 2
Terry uses BeaverBuzz to check out recent articles and events for the week. He clicks on the Recent tab to see the hot new discussions. He already has specified which topics he is interested in, through the user settings. He can easily see multiple articles that have been tagged in his favorite topics. He scrolls right within the sports articles/discussions to see older posts which he missed the day before. Terry clicks on a discussion to read the comments on it.
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