Scenarios:
We have three main types of tasks that are possible in the site. The first is to post new news items. These can be events, articles, or simple discussions. The second is to navigate available news items. This can be done by clicking on the desired topic, such as art, music, computers, etc, and scrolling through the available items. Finally, we want the users to be able to discuss the items. Thus, the user needs to be able to enter the comments section of an item and read other users' comments and post her own.
The following are three possible scenarios for our tasks.
1) 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 on Beaver Buzz.
She logs into her account, which she has made previously. 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.” After posting, she goes to check the event schedule and sees that it has been added. Satisfied, Amy logs off.
Designs:
Design #1:
Beaver Buzz home page. If the user visiting the page is new, he can sign in by clicking on the sign in button. Old users can input their user names and passwords in the supplied boxes. The homepage also has a search bar which allows users to search for topics, user posts, etc. The main feature of the homepage is the "What's Hot?!" section which is a scroll bar interface which displays the most commented Events and Posts.
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Below is the page to create a new post or event
Design #3:
This design was meant to be slightly more consistent with other article-sharing websites on the web, such as Digg.com and Reddit.com. In particular, we treat discussions, articles, and events very similarly. However, we did want to make the interface simpler. Thus, there is only two types of actual pages. The first is the “View Topic” mode, which contains links to articles, events, and discussions. These are ordered by most-recently posted. The only exception is the “What’s Hot” topic, which is ordered by how many people have liked the topic. Users may navigate through topics, view the posts, and like/dislike the posts. The other type of page is the “Discussion” mode. Every Article, Event, and Discussion has this mode, and it is where users may discuss the current post. A user may either post a new comment, reply to another comment, or delete one of their old comments.
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