...
Search for a ride share
Post a new RideShare listing for her desired time and destination
Invite friends to see her RideShare post
Designs
Design 1
Design 2
The main feature of this design is that it consists of only one page. When a user clicks the buttons to navigate through the website, different sections of the page will pop up and disappear, but the user never leaves the home page of the website.
Storyboard
Aly opens the RideShare website. The website will ask her to provide an MIT ceritificate immediately because the site is only open to the MIT community.
After Aly provides her certificate, all of the basic functionalities of the website are shown on the home page. If Aly wants to find a ride, she can fill in the form on the left side ("FInd a Ride") and click the "FIND" button; if she wants to post a new ride listing, she can fill in the form on the right side ("Post a Ride") and click the "POST" button. The two forms are basically identical. She has to enter the origin (From: ), destination (To: ) and the date and time. In order to specify a location, she can either type in a complete address or choose from popular destinations from the drop down list. On the right side of each field, Aly can specify a range, such as ±1 mile for location or ±30 minutes for time, so that everything within that range will be considered a match.
Other features of the home page include buttons to check the previous posts ("Posts"), to edit the user profile ("Profile"), and to log out ("Log Out") in the top right corner. The page also provides an "Invite Friends" button to encourage users to increase the functionality of the website by inviting their friends. At the bottom of the page, the user can see the recent ride postings of other users ("Recent Activities"). There are two main benefits of this section: (1) it helps users advertise their ride postings, and (2) it helps new users learn to use this website by seeing what other users can do with it.
Aly decides to find a ride. She fills in the form and press the "FIND" button, and the webpage displays the search results at the top of the page (see below). The results are sorted by how much they match the query. The user can click any of the results and the section will expand, showing more details (such as the type of transportation, the expected cost, and the option to contact the person who made the posting). Below the search results are the other parts of the page.
Aly can't find a ride posting that she wants, so she decides to make her own posting. The "Post a Ride" form below the search results have been auto-completed by the website based on her search query, so now she only needs to press the "POST" button.
After she presses the button, the form will pop up to occupy the whole screen. Now she can add more details to her posting. She can specify the mode of transportation (taxi, zipcar, or something else), the capacity of the car, the expected total cost, etc. She can also specify if she wants to get notifications regarding the posting through email. When she finishes, she presses the "POST" button again.
The pop up disappears, and she returns to the home page. Now the page displays the summary of the posting she just made, and gives her the option to edit it with the "Edit Post" button. The page also suggests her to invite her friends to share the ride with her ("Invite Friends" button), to update her profile so that other users can read about her ("Update Profile" button).
Following the suggestion, Aly presses the "Invite Friends" button. The "Invite friends" window pops up and now Aly can type in the email addresses of the people she wants to invite. She can invite both the people who have and have not used RideShare, and invitations will be sent through email. The window also shows the summary of her ride posting and gives her the option to modify the content of the invitation email. When she's done, she presses the "INVITE" button.
Now Aly is done and she returns to the homepage of RideShare. When another user is interested in sharing a ride with her, she'll be notified through her email.
Analysis
Design 3
Storyboard
...