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- Information security: Mark keeps most of his personal information private on Facebook and shared parallel concerns about who would be able to see his summer travel plans. He says that “I would only want my friends to be able to see them” but wouldn’t mind if that group were defined as his Facebook friends. In that light, he stressed some form of Facebook integration that would allow access to users’ Facebook friends list.
Task Analysis
#1. Registration and Joining a Group
Goal: Create a profile on TravelTech and automatically join the MIT network.
Preconditions: User must be logged in via Kerberos or MIT certificate.
Subtasks:
- Enter user information such as summer destination, contact information.
- Upload profile picture.
Constraints: MIT affiliates without certificates must have a valid MIT email addresses and log-in information.
Frequency of Use: Once to create, but allow for periodic updates.
Exceptions:
- User can upload an image that is too large.
- User can input wrong contact information or incorrect format (i.e. malformed email address).
2. Creating a Travel Group
Goal: Specify or search for a group of people with similar travel destinations and times. Messaging Your Group
Preconditions: User must be logged in via MIT certificates and have inputted his/her own travel information and times.
Subtasks:
- Search and filter people by living groups, interests, major, in addition to their traveling destination and time.
- Identify individuals with similar traveling plans via a map of the world.
- Star friends.
Constraints: None.
Frequency of Use: Every time that the wants to plan a new trip, one to four times a year.
Exceptions:
- User can filter incorrectly on a map due to inadequate zooming features.
- User may create a group and want to change aspects of it later.
3. Messaging a Travel Group
Goal: Send a short message, limited to 140 characters, to a group of users in a Travel Group.
Preconditions: User must be logged in via MIT certificates and have an existing Travel Group.
Subtasks:
- Create and edit a plain text message.
- Optionally select subgroup of the Travel Group to contact.
- Submit and send text.
Constraints: None.
Frequency of Use: Up to multiple times per day.
Exceptions:
- User can try to send a message longer than 140 characters.
- User may send it to the wrong recipients.
43. Inputting Summer Plans
Goal: User enters his/her general summer plans into the web interface, which will allow other users in the group to view these plans.
Preconditions: The user must have created an account and logged in. Before completing this task, the user needs to know his/her summer plans. This task should only need to be performed once or a few times (if the user's summer plans change) for one particular season, so efficiency is not of utmost importance (but still a concern to be kept in mind).
Subtasks: Click the "my profile" button, click the "edit profile" button, enter changes, click the "save changes" button
Exceptions: The user could mistakenly enter incorrect information, so he/she should be able to easily change or undo these actions. Another exception could arise from a lost network connection.
45. Advertising / Bulletin
Goal: On the bulletin page, users can advertise within the group for specific needs (i.e., "Roommate wanted"). This could also be a place where users make day-to-day plans with other group members.
_Preconditions:_The user must have created an account and logged in. He/she would also need to know specific details regarding what he/she is advertising or looking for. This task could be performed often (even multiple times in one session) and by many users, so efficiency and easy learnability are essential.
Subtasks: Click the "bulletin" button from any page; posting to bulletin: click the "add posting" button, edit information regarding the posting (i.e., description of item being advertised), click the "post to bulletin" button; viewing previous postings: scroll up and down page to see all postings, click on an individual posting title to see specific details
Exceptions: As with many other operations, the user could enter incorrect information, so an undo/edit operation would be necessary. Another point of confusion could arise when a user posts an advertisement on the bulletin that is claimed by another user soon thereafter, but if the advertisement is not taken down, then other users may still think that the item is available.
56. Profile to Publish Information
Goal: The goal is for the user to submit or change their personal information displayed on his/her profile and maintained in the database.
Preconditions: The user be logged in with an MIT certificate.
Subtasks: Click the "my profile" button, click the "edit my profile" button, change any of the fields by clicking the field and using the keyboard (name, age, year, major, phone number, address, summer plans), click the "save changes" button.
Exceptions: If the user enters the wrong information, the user can click the “edit my profile” button again and redo the process.
67. Viewing the Map
Goal: The goal is for the user to be able to view an interactive map that displays locations of other students
Preconditions: The user must be logged in with an MIT certificate.
Subtasks: Click the "view map" button from any page, click and drag the mouse / scroll wheel to move the map and zoom, respectively. Different users travel plans will be displayed on the map.
Exceptions: If no other users have inputted travel plans, the user may think that the feature is broken.
78. Searching for Schedule Overlap
Goal: The goal is for the user to be able to find who has overlap with his/her schedule and where/when that overlap is
Preconditions: The user must be logged in with an MIT certificate and have previously inputted summer plans.
Subtasks: Click the “view schedules” button and a new page will open with each location in the user’s travel plan represented with an expandable tab. The user can click to open each location in the trip and see other students planning to be in that same location at the same time.