Too stressed?

Angels

My feeling is kinda fluctuating recently. All project deadlines are coming and coincidentally all my tutees are taking O levels. I have to really take care of each glass ball. 

We are really a weirdo(suicidal) group which consists of only three people with no front-end coders. 

When times are bad, angels will appear. I have to thank Colin, Su Yuen, Prof Ben's concern for our project. You are really nice! Thanks for your recommendations and introduction of Hui Hui:) She is really inspiring. On the other hand, I really appreciate Ruifeng, Kianzhong and Jin Guan team's offer for help after knowing we are short of people and expertise. We cannot be so greedy to take in everyone to help us. So far we are under angel's guidance from Chris and Murali. Uncle Jim and Hieu are awesome people to work with too. Thanks all angels!! My bed is summoning me...

More is coming up. We are one step closer:)

Note* 14th Oct 2012 Blog Entry

Team Dynamics

1. Lanh said, “It would be really bad if we have a great idea but are unable to execute it successfully”. What are your views? Which is more important - the idea or the execution? Why?

In long term, the most important thing is the people themselves, as great people will definitely have great idea and also good products. Even though there is no resources, in long term base, there are always ways to outsource or attract the right people on board.

In short term, actually idea and people are equally, more exactly whether the people have technical ability to execute the idea well and whether the idea is brilliant and needed. 

2. What have you learnt about Facebook so far?

This is basically a broad question, "learnt" in terms of what aspect? The product of their team? 

What I have learnt about Facebook is that the founder Zuckerberg has a Chinese wife to help him to open China market. This shows that  he is a long-term oriented person. ( Haha kidding)

Besides what Jeremy mentioned in lecturer, execution matters, idea also important. 

People  always compare Friendster and Facebook. Actually you compare the design base, you will realize that Facebook loss out in design of layout compared to Friendster. What makes Facebook win? The most important unique selling point is that Facebook is more function based, which focused on the NEED of connectivity of everyone, which is more like "consumer product" in the IT world. 

So far my understanding for Facebook is not very deep, what I knew about them is that they are very people oriented, which means they really put a lot of focus on people. And they ways to stretch their people to get good ideas and then work on it. That is why in long term they will still manage Facebook well, the only change may be their business model and products.

3. Comment on the ideas for Another Life and Fan Gang.

Personally speaking i feel Another Life is just another Sims. What is the value add for the player? Why do people want to use Another Life? Since the answers to these questions are not clearly explained in the assignment, then i assume this is a game app. If this is a game app, the artistic design is very important. It is like a brainless woman, who must have outstanding appearance to appeal to men.

Fan Gang seems more useful compared to Another Life in terms of socializing. But the value add is very minimal as it will just be another Friendster. We always need to question why users will use Fan Gang over its competitors? The unique selling point is not strong enough to attract or keep users.

4. Should the team have changed their idea for the Final Project mid-way or stuck to their original idea? Why, or why not?

Since the team has invested so much effort in Another Life, I think they should continue with another way but may be a simpler version and focus on providing value add for the user. For example, focus on virtual banking, virtual dating, virtual coding, virtual entrepreneurship which give users a platform to improve their life skills through this virtual experience. 

However there is no right or wrong, it all depends on why do they want to do the project.

5. List the major problems (obvious and non-obvious ones) in faced by the team? How could they have done differently and better?

Problems faced by the team:

- They do not have enough manpower and capability to execute their Another Life

- Lan dropped out half way

- Struggle with switching 

- Work allocation

- Missed deadlines( poor management)

It will be better if:

- discuss with Lanh until Lanh feels WANT to continue

- talk to capable coders before hand which i hope i have done for my carpool

- find outsource if really no choice

- do a simpler version of Another Life

6. What did the team do right/well?

The leftovers persisted to survive until last!

7. What would you do if you were Jeremy on the evening of 24th April (and the deadline for the final project submission was the next day)?

-Buy tissue and cry

-Then submit the undone work and explain to professor

8. How would you handle a situation where one of your team members is unable to deliver on the work he/she promised because of personal problems?

- Find out the reason why he is not able to deliver on what he promised. He may have his reasons. 

- If it is very personal problem, then must see whether we can help him/her. 

- As a team, I will always encourage support for team members as long as there is a way we can help. So that we all can progress happily.

9. What, in your opinion, are the key learning points from this case study?

- CS3216 has improved its grouping strategy which allows more dynamic formation of groups

- Students shall not overload or do other challenging modules when you choose to take CS3216

- Students always need to consult a similar senior for advice in how to excel in this module

- CS3216 still have a lot of reports to write though it has been 5 years

One hour late submission. T.T 

Get Help

Firstly I have to claim that I never see the answer for this assignment in the IVLE , so my answer may not be so perfect. Let's start.

• Attractiveness of interaction

Aesthetics is very subjective. I have to admit that it is not appealing to me. There are too many colors in the home page and they are not in the same theme, such as light blue, dark blue, brown, yellow, light yellow and bright red. The developers may have problem in choosing a certain color theme they want to use. If the color should be chosen in order to make it more appealing to users and look comfortable within Facebook page.

The buttons are very big, that is very convenient for users to click. But the red color of the buttons actually does not fit into the Facebook frame and they are too catchy until users lost focus. ( refer to screen shot 2). They shall choose blue button is they only focus on function and want to make it look better within Facebook frame.

Space wise, as a user, it appears too crowded and lost focus, especially in home page. There are too many information flood out at one time, which do not give user instruction what he/she shall do. That may scare off many potential users.

• Number of options given to user when posting a need

There are 5 blanks in this page plus 6 check boxes in the home page, that gives user too much freedom. Once user see so many options, they will feel reluctant to call for help as they even need to get help to know how to use this application before they can call for any help.

Developers can try to cut down these blanks into one text box to allow a quick post or categorize the problems by providing tags.

• Cycle of interaction & incentives

This apps basically aims to get help for users through posting problems. User who is seeking for help is able to see the incentive immediately, as they know this application allows more people to know their problem and hence get a higher chance of receiving help. However, it is hard to for helpers to see incentive to help out even though users are friends on Facebook. Helpers want to feel good about themselves when they do good things. The virtual badge itself does not fulfill this need of the helpers only if it is awarded by the president of Singapore. Hence it  is not enough to motivate users to help others or it doesn't make much difference. What Su Yuen showed us on Tuesday is an awesome way to solve this problem, which is using using virtual hugs and kisses to make users feel good. I am sure if they are given more time, the icons can be made cuter and more appealing. 

Alternative way can be "certification", the helper will get a digital certificate with his photo and what he did after helping out, and this photo must be posted on the helper's Facebook wall. This will add value to the helper's reputation and most importantly can make the helper feel good. This can associate with Singapore Kindness Move to promote kind community as well.

• Other problems

It is easy to observe that the developers are really very thoughtful, they provide all the detailed function, such as "refer a friend", statistics, and etc. Some are needed like " refer a friend", while some may only wanted but not very necessary. So they may need to trim their application to make it clean and simple to use. Less, the better. 

Another important challenge developers may face would be creating strong differentiating factor as user can simply post their problem on Facebook page.  Hence this application must be very simple to use. Easy to say, hard to execute. This is something we all need to explore and focus on.