User Analysis
Barring the administrators of our website (who will likely not be using the GUI we design per se, but database software or other necessary admin tools), and based on our interviews of college women who would be interested in our service, we've come up with the following description of our main user class, as well as two personas to provide examples of different patterns of usage.
Our main user group:
- is college-aged, and with education equivalent to at least high school,
- tends to be fashion-aware and self-conscious about styles of dress, and is willing to spend a fair amount of time browsing different styles of clothing,
- has a working knowledge of the internet as well as social networking,
- will most likely use our application in the privacy of their own homes, or with select friends.
Personas that Exemplify the Above
Alisha the socialite:
Alisha enjoys parties, and frequently goes to clubs, frat parties, and on-campus parties on the weekends. She believes "a good dress is essential for every party." She has a closet with a handful of party dresses, but on any given Friday night, she struggles to find clothes to wear, because she's already worn most of her dresses at least twice. It wouldn't be so much of a problem, she says, if there weren't pictures of her wearing those dresses on Facebook; she doesn't want her friends to notice that she's repeatedly wearing the same dresses. She says it would be nice to have a supply of new party dresses for each weekend she goes partying.
Alisha would use this application often, and spend a fair amount of time browsing dresses.
Elle the occasional partier:
Elle, enrolled in a rigorous academic program, has fairly little time to herself, but she enjoys occasionally going out to meet new people and to have fun. She often buys new dresses for these social gatherings, but does not wear them more than once; as such, she has a growing collection of barely-worn dresses collecting dirt in her closet. She feels it would be nice to be able to rent out a party dress just for a day, so that she doesn't have to deal with the clutter of old dresses.
Elle would use this application only once in a while, when she decides to go out partying. She would prefer to not have to spend a lot of time browsing dresses.
Task Analysis
Register
Goal: The user wants to gain access to dresses made available on the Dress Exchange.
Preconditions: The user has some way of verifying his or her monetary identity (credit card or paypal), to prevent abuses from creating multiple accounts on the site.
Subtasks:
- The user enters her relevant identifying information.
- The user creates a personalized user account.
Result: The user now has an account on the Dress Exchange.
Browse
Goal: To view available dresses in the Exchange, including searching by style, color, size, and so on.
Preconditions: The user should have a basic idea of the sort of dress she is interested in.
Subtasks:
- The user views available dresses on the site.
- The user sorts available dresses by some characteristic.
- The user filters dresses based on a desired category, such as "green" or "knee-high".
Result: The user is able to view a specific subset of dresses that match her requirements.
"Sell"
Goal: The user wishes to exchange an old dress for points to be spent in the Exchange; this old dress may be one previously purchased from the Exchange.
Preconditions: The user has a dress which is nearly new and not visibly worn.
Subtasks:
- The user indicates to the Exchange that she wishes to send in a dress for points.
- The user postmarks the dress to send to the Exchange.
Result: The user receives points for "trading in" her old dress; said points can then be used in the Exchange to purchase other dresses.
"Purchase"
Goal: The user wishes to obtain a desired dress from the Exchange.
Preconditions: The user must be a registered member, and have the necessary amount of "points/credits" required to "purchase" the dress.
Subtasks:
- The user selects the dress she wishes to purchase.
- The user pays for the dress with the site's equivalent of currency.
Result: The user will soon receive the chosen dress in the mail.