GR1 - User and Task Analysis

User Analysis

We have identified 4 types of users that would be interested in using our product

User 1 - A Student in Need

• Needs help with a Pset
• Has trouble with a specific problem or part of problem
• Is confused about some instructions
• Is lonely

Persona: Thomas is a sophmore in 6.006, he's been working on his pset all day and is stuck on the last problem, unable to make his code meet the speed requirement. He doesn't know anyone else in the class and Piazza isn't helping. He knows there must be some other students around still working on the pset but he doesnt know how to contact them. Tom wants a way to connect to other students stuck like himself and finish his pset.

User 2 - Person Providing Assistance

• Wants to provide a tip or piece of helpful advice for fellow travelers
• Is looking to provide tutoring services to those in need
• Teachers or TA's looking to clarify homework
• Is bored

Persona: Dexter is a junior in 6.003, after spending four hours working on problem number three, he finally has a moment of clarity. Using his new found inspiration he's able to finish the problem. Upset at the Professor for making such a confusing problem, he wants to find a way to help others working on this pset so they don't waste as much time as he did.

User 3 - Student Looking for Group

• Has a group project on the horizon and no one to group with
• Wants a reliable study group for a certain class
• Doesn't want to do another Pset alone

Persona: Ash is a 6-3 senior and just decided that he wants to do 6.470, a web programming competition, but he needs to find a group.  All of his friends are either gone for IAP or not interested in coding or web design.  Ash really feels like he has a great idea for the competition, but with no great way to find a group he won't really be able to compete since he feels like the project is too difficult for one person to be able to accomplish over IAP.

User 4 - Groups Looking for more People

• Need to find additional students for a group project
• Want to find people with fresh ideas for an assignment
• Want more people for a study group

Persona: Jack & Jill are in one of the reading room cubicles in the student center struggling with a 6.046 pset.  This is the 2nd pset that they have worked on together and though they were able to struggle through the first and eek out a decent grade, they know that a third or fourth person in their group would not only make tooling slightly easier and more enjoyable, but it would also probably improve their grade.

Task Analysis

Tasks users can perform are as follows

Task 1: Registration

Goal: Create profile to interact with the Web App

• Sub-task: Fill in basic personal info
• Sub-task: Fill in other profile info
• Sub-task: Choose privacy settings (possibly necessary)

Task 2: Making a post

Goal: Make a post relaying the your wants and needs

• Sub-task: Categorize postings by type
• Sub-task: Edit post for mistakes/changes to needs
• Sub-task: Delete post 

Task 3: Searching and Filtering

Goal: Quickly find postings of interest

• Sub-task: search by keywords or classes
• Sub-task: add favorite classes or problems to user profile
• Sub-task: hide posts you wish to not see

Task 4: Moderation

Goal: Make sure the App is not breaching academic integrity policies

• Sub-task: allow users to flag posts
• Sub-task: designate moderators
• Sub-task: allowing users to vote on how helpful a post is