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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.
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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 have done 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 well 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.
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Now Aly is done and she returns to the homepage home page of RideShare. When another user is interested in sharing a ride with her, she'll be notified through her email.
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- Having all the main features on a single webpage greatly increases visibility. Users do not have to navigate around to find the things they need. It also increases efficiency by decreasing loading time because the user only loads a section of the page every time they perform a new function.
- Asking the user to provide MIT certificate when they enter the website let lets the website identify them immediately. For instance, when the user opens the site, the page can notify the user immediately if someone is interested in sharing a ride with them.
- The "Recent Activities" section increases the learnability of the website and helps users advertise their ride posting, as has been explained in the Story Board section.
- The auto-completion feature increases efficiency and prevents typing errors.
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