iCompuGlobalHyperMegaNetster

1. iCompuGlobalHyperMegaNetster

2. Our Mission • Our mission was to create a Social Life Organizer, based upon the concept of the Facebook, which utilizes a web based calendar and other widgets to organize ones personal and social life. • This new application will become the central hub for ones everyday life and will allow a person to easily coordinate their lives with their friends.

3. What we knew… • Facebook is widely used on campus. (Fred Stutzman research) • Everywhere we go on campus, we see people continuously logging onto Facebook • We want to utilize its popularity and strengths such that it will be a more useful web application

4. What we did… • We surveyed a group of random people within our demographic (College students, late teens to early twenties] and asked them the following questions: • How often do you use Facebook? • What do you do most often on Facebook? • What feature of Facebook do you use the least? • Do you like the layout/design of Facebook? • If no, what do you dislike? • Would you like to be able to customize the layout of your Facebook profile? • How did you learn about Facebook? • Your "friends" list consists mostly of... • How often do you the My Events function on Facebook? • Have you met new people through Facebook? • Has Facebook caused you to become more active in the student community? • Has Facebook caused you to become more active socially? • Casually observed Facebook usage around campus computer labs

5. What we learned… • Most people use Facebook more than once a week, with many people using it daily • People use the Events feature the least • People liked the layout/design • Most people use the My Events feature about once a month • Majority of people said that Facebook did not help them meet new people, nor become more active socially or in the student community • It is evident from the almost universal frequency with which it is used that the service has some significant impact on the users' way of life. • It's clear from the information we collected that the service has a direct impact on relations between pre-existing friends • It seems that in some ways, many of our participants have become dependent upon the service for at least some of their social interactions

6. Our Redesign • Existing calendars are either closed to one or a few devices that must be synched and, excepting Google Calendar, are closed to a finite group of people (UNC’s calendar service, Exchange servers, etc.) • Facebook poorly implemented their “event” feature, but there’s potential there • We decided to run with our initial “social organizer” idea and design a calendar for use with the Facebook service

7. Redesign cont. • Our new, more refined goal was to create a simple calendar that would leverage the existing strength of Facebook’s extensive “friend” networking along with its near ubiquity among college students • Important features that we include: • A decent calendar for personal organization • The ability to check the availability of a large group of people by entering a list of names • An intuitive invitation system • Clean integration into the existing Facebook interface • Messaging among event attendees before and after the event (including text and photos)

8. Privacy issues • Because the calendar is a component of Facebook, one of its most important features is the ability for others to view your calendar • This obviously might be a privacy concern • The calendar should have privacy levels for each entry, such that control over who can see what is given to the calendar’s owner • Some events will be visible to everyone, while others will just be a block of time marked as “busy”

9. Meet Lindsay • Created persona of Lindsay, an eager college freshmen who has many acquaintances • She’s an out of state political science major who has a desire to turn those hollow Facebook “friendships” into actual ones • Scenario – Pizza Party • Lindsay wants to have a pizza party in her dorm, but no one responds to her initial Facebook event invitation (because of the feature’s lack of popularity and the limited availability of those she invited) • Lindsay makes use of the new calendar feature and is able to check the availability of all the people she invites • Many accept the invite because their calendar is much more visible to them and they are available at the time the party is scheduled for • Lindsay is able to convey new information about the party the night before because she is able to mass message all the attendees. Storyboard animation

10. Social Application: Match.com • Online dating service • Plugin on Match.com • Imports dates into Facebook Calender

11. Lindsay on Match.com • Reputation for standing people up • Checks out Match • Better able to keep apointments

12. Enabling Game Play • New Persona – Jason • UNC Sophomore from Charlotte • Pre-med major who still wants the “college experience” • Likes to stay in touch with high school friends in Charlotte • Brainstorming ideas • Ability to create profiles matching MMOG – Rejected • Users can load the default Windows/MAC games provided in the OS – Rejected • Games would be linked with Yahoo! Games – Rejected • The Facebook application will provide a set of games to play • Poker, Hearts, Spades, Chess, and Checkers • All online and multiplayer • Invitations sent via the calendar feature to organize game times

13. Enabling Game Play • Scenario Description • Jason enjoys online poker with friends from school and elsewhere • Currently uses other services but often encounters headaches getting games organized • All his friends use Facebook and the calendar feature • Schedules an online poker event Friday night at 9:30 • Game played within the web browser • Storyboard Flash animation

14. Enabling Game Play • Write Up • New media brings gaming interaction to computer mediated communication channels • Internet allows for all people all over the world to participate at any time • Facebook enables this coordination based on which friends are available • Site designed to strengthen friendships rather than just maintain them • Facebook provides a centralized and organized meeting place that is easier than other interfaces • Possible weakness: bandwidth issues that may slow down the Facebook application

15. Conclusion • Final thoughts. • Questions?