Get Help

So, the blog post today is on the application Get Help. So what IS Get Help? It's an interesting use of Facebook's inter-connectivity: using it to ask for help from those on your friends list. While the idea is a really good one, there are some inconsistencies with the design that may detract users from its main purpose.

Initial / Main Page

First of, the initial page one sees on launching the application. The profile tab is highlighted, when this is clearly not the profile. It may seem minor, but a consistent design is often key to reducing the learning curve of a new application.

Also, beginning the request with "I need help with" could actually hinder the users somewhat. Not every request can be phrased as an "I need help with ..." statement, leaving the user puzzled as to how to phrase the request.

On the available alternative channels for posting a request, I'm a little puzzled as to how an SMS option would work. Who would the application be sending SMS-es to? Would it be somewhat a breach of privacy if the application were to start SMS-ing a group of the user's friends?

I feel that the choices of who to send the request to could be greatly improved. More specifically, I believe there is a need to allow users to prevent certain users from sending their requests, even if said request has been forwarded from the original sender. Imagine, for example, a request for help to build a gift for a close friend. Most probably, the user would not want this request to be seen by the intended recipient of the gift, as it would spoil the surprise.

Overview Page

Now, onto the Overview Page. I don't exactly think a Project being likened to a Fire is a very healthy comparison... Also, perhaps adding Overview and Recommendations to the group of tabs might be a better idea, for it can be a little hard to find these two links otherwise.

Project Page

The Project Page. How do you get here? Perhaps the flow of the site would be more apparent were I actually using it... And as a somewhat sidenote, "Wish her luck!" seems somewhat redundant as such well-wishes could be offered in the comments section, and with more detail at that. The 4 tabs being covered by the Project details also affects the design negatively.

Statistics Page

Finally, the Statistics Page. I disagree somewhat with the assignment of rankings and rewards to an otherwise altruistic application. Such rewards detract from the purpose of helping, which is simply to help, without expectation of any gains. Instead of encouraging people to help, such rewards actually change the motivation of helping, and soon the users would be helping simply for these rewards.

So, while I feel the idea was a really good one, I think the implementation could do with quite a few improvements~ That being said, they have already changed their design, and I'll be checking it out soon to see whether any of my suggestions have already been implemented ^^

Pitching Session

Okay, first up, an admission: I went to the pitching session already knowing what I was going to do for the final project~ I'm not sure how many people / groups had a similar frame of mind, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one, which leads me to think that the pitching session could have come sooner, before most people would have made plans for the final.

Certain presentations stuck with me for various reasons. The introduction to the World Cities Summit was informative, but presented in such a strange manner it left me wondering why he was present at the pitching session. For the better part of his presentation, I was trying to figure out if he was attempting to convince us to build a SimCity adaptation for Facebook, or just... Being helpful and telling us all about this swell event. Turned out to be the former, which I feel should have been the focus of the presentation from the beginning instead. If it had, we'd probably have a clearer picture of his ideas and the direction in which such a project would head, whereas the speaker mainly concentrated on the event, leaving the marketing of the application idea till the very end. Perhaps the speaker did not even come with such an idea in mind, for he certainly gave that impression to me.

Project Nimbus came with two shirts proclaiming Data and Services respectively, which is, essentially, their product: Data as a service. Instead of innovators spending time "chasing or recreating content, screen scrapping sites, and Google-ing for random data sets", Project Nimbus aims to provide such content to them, leaving them free to, well, innovate~ Although I'm not in need of such a service now, I can see how other projects (and perhaps mine in the future) could conceivably benefit from it.

The Red Sports presenter, Leslie, was obviously passionate about his goal, to promote Singapore's youth sports scene. He had an idea and followed it through, and now his site provides regular sports updates from schools in Singapore. Together with a team of writers, the site resembles one of a newspaper. As I'm hardly a sports-centric person, what I took away was not the product they have managed to create, but the energy and passion of this person that has led him through many years to reach this point, which I find admirable.

Perhaps the presentation that left me the biggest impression was the only one by an undergraduate. I had already seen Module-Review.com before, having been referred to it by a coursemate. What I couldn't have guessed was the fact that it was created and is still being maintained singlehandedly by an undergraduate like us - Jace. I think the idea is a very solid one, as many students do wish to find out more about the module from students who took it in the past, before signing up for the same. Perhaps the database could be extended further to collate feedback about lecturers, especially if a lecturer is teaching a module for the first time and thus has no applicable comments from the previous batches. However, future maintenance may be a problem, since a site that is visited generally two periods a year would not gather a lot of advertising revenue. Jace will have to find some other way to support this site.

Well, that's generally what impacted me during the pitching session. My laptop has this sudden aversion to loading blogger for some strange reason, so I'll be back as soon as I find a PC, to embark on dissecting yet another Facebook application.

Friends for... sale?

Just yesterday, during the Facebook Application Seminar, I was introduced to a Facebook app I'd never seen: "Friends For Sale!" I'll have to confess that my initial impression of it was approximately 10% intrigue and 90% what the heck is this for? So in deference to that 10%, I listened on~

Buy people and make them your pets! You can make your pets poke, send gifts, or just show off for you. Make money as a shrewd pet investor or as a hot commodity! Friends for Sale is the bees knees!

Okay let's start with giving credit~ As the group pointed out, the name is probably the most succinct summary I've ever seen of a Facebook application. This app apparently lets you buy and sell your friends as pets, declare your wish to do so, and give gifts to them. While I feel the titular purpose of this app a little disturbing, there seems to be a sizable portion of Facebook users ready to disagree with me, so perhaps this meets some niche desire that I fail to fully empathize with ^^

The group then touched on the Seven Deadly Sins and Maslow's hierachy of needs. Where does Friends For Sale fit into? Probably Greed / Envy / Pride on the Sins, and Self-Esteem and Achievement on Maslow's list. While it might be pushing the definition to call playing such a Facebook game a sin, perhaps some people really do feel a greater sense of self-worth when they are deemed (or deem themselves) to have some form of superiority over others, especially if who they lord over are popular in their own right.

On a more technical note, I feel that the simplicity of the application worked well for them. With a lot of their features leveraging on Facebook's own capabilities, scalability would have been less of an issue during development. Also, starting the user off with some capabilities and value is a good idea, one that our app may have overlooked on our first iteration, as it ensures that the user can explore the game upon registration.

Having said all that, I still do not see the point of this application. What is there to entice me back regularly? Also, while I've not played much of other Facebook games either, I believe applications that offer an alternative life in some way (be it fishing, farming, or some other activity) would be more appealing than buying friends. How many friends are you going to buy to boost your ego anyway? And I would personally be really disturbed if someone "bought" me, even if it's only in a virtual world. Like, get away you control freak.

Alright then~ Time to go back and market penguins~ When you cannot fly, better make sure you're helluva good swimmer.