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.
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Personas that Exemplify the Above
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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."
Infinite Closet
Problem Statement
For young girls going to parties, finding a dress is often a problem. Even when they find one, they can't wear it for more than two or three times because people notice that she is repeating the same dress and dresses become less interesting when others have already seen her wear it. A solution right now is to keep buying new party clothes which comes up at a huge expense. Also you keep on accumulating dresses that you are not going to wear again - all of which are in perfectly good condition.
To solve this problem, we are creating a website which caters to young girls looking for party dresses. The idea is to create a massive online closet where girls can post dresses they don't want so that other girls looking for party dresses can just browse through the collection and pick a dress they like. And when they are done wearing the dress at the party they can just repost it back to the website. This way they can have a completely new dress every time they go to the party without the need to spend a lot of money.
User Analysis
From our interviews, we have identified the following types of personas who are interested in our product:
Alisha the avid party-goer:
Alisha likes partying and she frequently goes out to clubs and campus parties. She says a good dress is essential for all parties. She has a closet with a handful of party dresses, but on any given Friday night, she struggles to find clothes to wear to the party , because she has 's already worn the dresses in her closet most of her dresses at least two times. Also there are twice. It wouldn't be so much of a problem, she says, if there weren't pictures of her wearing those dresses on facebook and Facebook; she doesn't want people her friends to notice that she is repeating 's repeatedly wearing the same dresses. She says it would be nice to have a supply of new party dress for every Friday. Alisha would be using our product almost every week and she might also spend hours on the website browsing for clothesdresses for each weekend she goes partying.
Alisha would use this application often, and spend a fair amount of time browsing dresses.
Elle the occasional party-goerpartier:
Elle has very little free-time because she is , enrolled in a rigorous academic program, has fairly little time to herself, but she likes to go enjoys occasionally going out to party every few weeks to meet new people and to have fun. She often buys clothes new dresses for these parties social gatherings, but does not wear them more than once. The party dresses just stay ; as such, she has a growing collection of barely-worn dresses collecting dirt in her closet collecting dirt. She says feels it would be nice to be able to rent out a party dress just for a day, so that way she wouldndoesn't have a growing pile of party clothes she doesn't really need. Elle would be using our product to deal with the clutter of old dresses.
Elle would use this application only once in a while, when she decides to go out to a partypartying. She doesn't want would prefer to not have to spend a lot of time searching for dresses.Our user groups are going to be young girls looking for party outfit, age approximately 18-25. They are quite familiar with the internetbrowsing dresses.
Task Analysis
Gain membershipRegister
Goal: To get membership to the infiniteCloset
Pre-condition: Should have a dress in a good working condition that they are willing to donate
Subtasks:
- Upload picture of the dress
- Fill out the registration form
- Send out the dress to infiniteCloset
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.
ResultPost-condition: The user now has an account in on the infiniteClosetDress Exchange.
Browse the closet
Goal: To view available dresses in the closet
Buy a dress
Goal: To buy a dress from the infiniteCloset
Pre-condition: Should be a registered member
Subtasks:
- The user browses through the dresses available in the closet.
- The user picks a dress and places the order
Post-condition: The chosen dress is sent out for shipment
Resell a dress
Goal: Return the dress that they bought from infiniteCloset
Pre-condition: The dress is intact and as good as it was before
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.Post-condition: The dress is shipped back to infiniteCloset and the user gets their point back