Group Members:

Paul Woods, David Thomas

Problem Statement

The problem:  

Many students at MIT would like to throw small parties to meet new, random people.  However, mailing lists do not provide adequate filtering and Facebook is most useful for small parties with people who are already friends and large parties.

The solution:  

A website for hosting small parties and finding parties to attend.

Tasks

Task 1

What is the task being done?

• Hosting a party

Preconditions

• Having a profile
• Having means to host
• Deciding at what time and location to host

How often is the task performed:

• Whenever the user wants to host a party (varies greatly by user)

Task 2

What is the task being done?

• Viewing upcoming parties

Preconditions

• Having a profile

How often is the task performed:

• Users go to the website and view a list

Task 3

What is the task being done?

• Requesting to attend parties

Preconditions

• Having a profile

How often is the task performed

• Whenever user wants to visit a party (~once or twice a week for core users)

Task 4

What is the task being done?

• Approving requests

Preconditions

• Having a profile
• Hosting a party
• Attendees having requested to attend party user is hosting
• Attendees meeting hosts’ own requirements

How often is the task performed:

• Every time another user makes a request to attend a party being hosted by the user

Task 5

What is the task being done?

• Providing feedback about other users.

Preconditions

• Having a profile
• Having attended or hosted a party with the same user

How often is the task performed

• After attending parties

User Analysis

Eric Reuland (2010 MIT Graduate):

• Suggests having subgroups and categories. Claims for instance that a hipster wouldn’t feel comfortable at a yot party etc.
• Suggests listing party theme, type of people that would be there, etc.
• Suggests not listing the actual address but instead having request system so that the host can decline guest requests.

From Eric we got the idea of the request system and allowing the host to decline guests. Eric also opened our eyes to the different priorities party goers have and how we can group them to match people with parties that are most inline with their interests.

Caine Jette (2010 MIT Graduate):

• Not sure if he would use, depends on critical mass and who else is attending.
• Not sure how people will hear and know about it. Wants to see a working example.
•  

Caine really emphasized having critical mass. This will definitely be important as we move forward and consider launch strategies. It helped us to shift our initial user base from 22-30 year olds to college students.

Sam Markson (MIT Senior):

• Knows two recent grads who are trying lots of online venues (facebook, cupid, match, etc) to meet new people and are not satisfied with current options
• Thinks this would be great for small East Campus parties, just to bring in some interesting new people
• Is pretty excited about the idea and wants us to keep him updated as we move forward

Sam was really passionate and encouraging about our idea. He showed us that our solution might be more suited for certain smaller communities, like East Campus.

Focus group consisting of 6 undergates:

• Liked the idea of meeting new people and having the potential to attend new events, they got really enthusiastic about it
• Liked the idea of subgroups to get a sense of the party
• Thought having themed events in public location could be a fun application
• Didn’t like ranking system, thought it would deter lowly ranked users
• Females said they would only attend new venues with friends, for this reason suggested having a plus one option in the request

This larger group meeting emphasized the commonly felt desire to interact with new people. Everyone in the group agreed that interacting with new people is more thrilling even if it occasionally is a let down. This group was strongly opposed to the ranking system. Moving forward we will definitely have to stay open minded and be willing to rid of it all together.