User Analysis
Identify the characteristics of your user population. If you have multiple user classes, describe each one.
While the application is intended to be used by a more general population, logistically speaking it will initially be targeted towards MIT students as they are an accessible user population. They are smart phone-wielding students who coordinate their social activities almost entirely via technology.
A more detailed breakdown of our user population is show below.
- Age: 18-25
- Language: English (speaking and reading)
- Gender: N/A
- Education: N/A (although, typically college students)
- Computer / Technical capabilities: Fluent with new technologies. Heavy users of social media. Early technology adopters.
- Physical capabilities: Physically healthy and active.
- Motivations: Have fun with friends. Stay active.
- Work environment: Typically college students at MIT
- Domain requirements: Availability of a consistent network connection
Interview Results
The first person that was interviewed plays Ultimate Frisbee at MIT. He indicated that getting people together for games and forming teams on the field were not very problematic. Low tech solutions like sending announcements over a mailing list or just picking 2 captains to choose teams worked well in practice. Additionally, common problems like imbalanced teams were again often easily fixed informally if one side was consistently performing better.
The second person that was interviewed expressed his frustration with existing "location-aware" tools. He mentioned that he has high hopes for Apple's "Find My Friends" app but felt that it did not meet his expectations. The application was very strict in preserving your privacy to the point that no one really used it. It is difficult to add friends since it requires multiple steps of authentication and approval, it is difficult to quickly use since the application requires your Apple password whenever it starts, and you can always choose to hide your location from your "followers" (but still see their locations) thus removing any social incentive to provide information about yourself.
The third person we interviewed
Task Analysis
Determine the tasks of the problem you've chosen, analyze their characteristics, and answer the general questions about tasks we asked in lecture. Think about other questions you should ask that might be relevant to your particular domain. You should find and analyze at least 3 high-level tasks. If you can't find 3 interesting tasks, then your problem may be too small to serve as a good project, and you should rethink it.
Forming teams
- Why is the task being done? Forming teams is part of Capture the Flag game mechanics. It is necessary before a game can start.
- Where is the task performed? It varies. It can happen on location in the game field (like pickup sports games) or it can be arranged before hand. An MIT student that often plays pick up basketball games and ultimate Frisbee often said that he typically goes to games when he knows the other players that are there. Either they go together, or he is invited by another friend. Existing social networking solutions like Facebook and mailing lists are used to announce and organize events.
- What is the environment like? Again, it can vary. It could happen outdoors before a game or over a SMS conversation.
- How often is the task performed? Once per game. Generally forming teams is very quick relative to the duration of the actual game.
- What can go wrong?
- Users may not know their teammates or have difficulty remembering who is playing and what team they are on
- Some players may not show up or be late
- Who else is involved in the task? All of the other players
Sharing location information with team members
- Why is the task being done? To enhance the game experience and make it more enjoyable
- Where is the task performed? On the game field during the game.
- What is the environment like? Outdoors. Initially it will primarily located around MIT’s campus
- How often is the task performed? Depends on the team strategy. Although, it can occur very often. Team members often want to keep in sync with each other and know where they are.
- How is the task learned? It is generally learned by doing and watching others.
- What can go wrong?
- GPS tracking errors. This is particular true indoors where GPS locations are not nearly as accurate.
- Loss of network connectivity
- Delay and lag in location propagation
- Users accidentally zoom out to the wrong level. Observing a user using map powered applications often spent a lot of time zooming to the correct level. This occurred when they were using iPhone apps like Yelp and Google Maps.
- Users are looking at their map and walk into a car. A user that was interviewed mentioned that she was often scared using Google Maps when following directions in downtown Boston because it disconnected her from the environment.
Setup preferences for location sharing (how long? extensions?)
- Why is the task being done?
- Location information is generally private information that users typically do not want to be broadcast their location at all times.
- Users will want to enable location sharing for the purposes of enhancing the game experience but then have it disable to preserve their privacy.
- Where is the task performed? On the playing field before the start of a game.
- What is the environment like? It will likely be outside before the start of a game.
- How often is the task performed? At most once per game.
- What can go wrong?
- A user may forget to turn off location sharing.
- A game may take longer than expected and the application stops sharing a player’s location in the middle of a tense moment - impacting the outcome of the game.
Share status with the rest of your team
- Why is the task being done? To update the team with the player’s status. An MIT student player mentioned that playing in big fields has its disadvantages of not knowing exactly when any of your team members is in trouble or when the flag has actually been found. The strategy of the game can change drastically with these status updates and can accelerate the game.
- What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? It depends on the status, if the player’s status is:
- Tagged: Needs to have been captured by the opposing team
- Captured flag: Needs to have captured the opponents flag
- Scouting: Need to be looking for the opponent’s flag
- Defending: Need to be protecting the team’s own flag
- Where is the task performed? In the field
- How often is the task performed? Whenever the player changes status, notifications should immediately be sent to the rest of the team.
- What are its time or resource constraints? Should be done immediately after the player’s status, during the game, changes.
- How is the task learned? Learned by trying it, or seeing others do it.
- What can go wrong?
- Slow internet connection can cause delays in sending these notifications.
- Players can send wrong status notifications by mistake (user needs to confirm status changes before any update)
- Who else is involved in the task?
- All players in a team
Notify player of a team member’s status updates
- Why is the task being done? Knowing other team players’ statuses can optimize the player’s next steps.
- What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? Nothing has to be done by the user, the user get notifications from team members.
- Where is the task performed? In the field during the game.
- How often is the task performed? Teams get notifications as soon as players change their status.
- What are its time or resource constraints? Notifications should be received immediately after a player changes their status.
- How is the task learned? The notifications pop-up while having the game application open during the game. Hence, the task does not need to be learned.
- What can go wrong?
- Slow network connectivity can cause delays in receiving notifications.
- Players can get wrong status notifications from others by mistake.
- Who else is involved in the task? All team players
Notify players of nearby opponents
- Why is the task being done?
- For protection purposes: to prevent players from being tagged by opponents or tagging opponents. An MIT student who is a frequent player of Capture the Flag mentioned that sometimes you play in large groups and open spaces and you end up forgetting the people you're playing against, so team players end up reminding each other of who their opponents are.
- What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? The player needs to be within a fixed distance or less from any of the opponents
- Where is the task performed? In the field, during the game.
- How often is the task performed? Whenever the player gets close to a new opponent
- What are its time or resource constraints? Immediately when an opponents reaches a certain distance from the player
- How is the task learned? The notifications pop-up while having the game application open during the game. Hence, the task does not need to be learned.
- What can go wrong?
- Slow network connectivity can delay these notifications
- GPS tracking error
- Who else is involved in the task? Both teams are involved