CIRCA:FeatureList

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This is a list of features and feature groups in the application. The purpose in listing these is to provide a way for Dr. Rockwell to rank them in order of importance with some context.

Note: PMT is Project/Milestone/Task

Contents

1-2-3 signup/splash page

Sketch: GWRIT-MS3-3 pg 1
Provides brief description of the game, simple account sign up instructions, and existing account login.
Concerns
Improvements

  • include a tutorial video

Tree Navigation

Sketch: most pages
Provides a visual indication of project scope, user location, and navigation.
Concerns

  • it doesn't scale beyond 20 or so items. With good organization, this can be minimized.

Improvements

  • drag and drop PMT ordering
  • integrated progress bar to show what PMT states are at all levels
  • simple indicator for task completion

Main PMT interface

Sketch: most pages
Provides access to important PMT information and functions: title, description, tags, main content, words/pages written and done/delete/export/save.
Concerns

  • repetition of done/delete/export/save seems like a good idea but causes space problems

Improvements

  • Timer and multimedia additions for PEARL v2
  • through font style and colour, visually indicate which boxes are editable

Estimate productivity

Sketch: shown expanded GWRIT-MS3-3 pg 4
Provides opportunity for user to estimate the work involved in the given PMT.
Concerns

  • it makes the most sense if this panel is contextual, but it could become confusing. Repeating the PMT level within the panel might help or other visual technique
  • progress bar was originally located inside this panel and is now repeated above the main PMT panel. It needs to be in both places, but again some visual distinction might be required.

Improvements

  • include a column for actual hours worked and actual pages/words finished that works similarly to the progress bar (automatically calculated unless the user changes it
  • there are too many little boxes to fill out in this interface. Visualizing this productivity (in the vein of the progress bar) would be a vast improvement

Profile menu

Sketch: most pages
Provides access to profile information: login/out, username logged in, and a link to manage the profile.

Writing tips

Sketch: most pages
Provides random writing tips. Example tips will be included in the prototype.
Concerns

  • requires significant development to create useful writing tips

Improvements

  • drawn from external sources
  • users add their own with a voting system so the good ones rise to the top

Writing stats

Sketch: most pages
Provides very basic textual record of writing and PMT progress.
Concerns

  • text-based is simple, but research shows that visual improvement is more powerful for increasing game-based drive

Improvements

  • graphical expression of same stats
  • controls to allow user to select which stats to show
  • automatically feature most impressive stat

Tag search

Sketch: GWRIT-MS3-3 pg 12
Provide results for searched tags so that users can quickly navigate to certain PMTs.
Concerns
Improvements

  • multi-tag search
  • multi-PMT edit, based on selected tags

Help

Sketch: Examples shown on many pages near the words/pages infomation at the bottom of the main PMT edit area
Simple pink ? icons with tooltip help to explain parts of the interface.
Concerns

  • these are appropriate for simple, 10 word or less, information. They should not be used very often or with more dense information. Every ? could indicate a place to improve the interface

Improvements

  • The first one has been placed beside the words/pages area to say 250 words/page. Where else should these be?

Competition

Sketch: MS3-Sketch-5.pdf pg 1-5
Provide basic competition interface with add/remove competitor and comparison of competitor statistics.
Concerns

  • My stats is not great. Perhaps "my log"
  • "Add competitor" tab is more a control than a navigation so it might be better as a button. The trouble is a) where does that button go and b) where do you go when you press that button. Currently, the context is sensible and predictable to the user. Perhaps a combined approach like browsers do with the + beside the tabs for new tabs. Though when there are no competitors yet, the + will be ambiguous

Improvements

  • make information/views more contextual
  • add instant message brag/chat
  • more "live" information about competitor actions/progress

Profile

Sketch: MS3-Sketch-5.pdf pg 6
Provide basic profile functions for changing screen name, email, and password.

Awards/achievements

Sketch: MS3-Sketch-5.pdf pg 6
Provide award display for basic game-driven motivation.
Concerns
Improvements

  • award-specific view for detailed explanation of award, date acquired etc.
  • an impending awards panel (could be a way to provide missions/quests)
  • a link to a list of all awards

Notification

Sketch: MS3-Sketch-Notification.pdf
Provide control over user notification of system events (finished PMT, reminders of work to be finished etc.)
Concerns

  • This has no place in the menu structure at the moment. It will likely go in the profile menu (with profile and logout)
  • I had hoped to get away with email as an archive of events, but we may need an event log somewhere in the interface. Mo features, mo problems.

Improvements

  • separate controls over each class of event (PMT finishes, awards, reminders, etc). The real challenge is the complexity of the interface. It might be simpler to contextualize this control, but you would still need a central place to view all of them.

Tutorial

Sketch: not sketched
Provide basic tutorial Project which walks the user through creating their first project.
Concerns

  • one-off creation is costly and not necessary in this case. In-context tutorial will provide the necessary information but will not require changes to the engine. Further, doing the tutorial while creating the first project will encourage use of the system rather than completing a specialized tutorial that gives knowledge but no useable results.

Improvements

  • timed help messages to direct attention to remaining goals
  • animations to improve clarity

Feedback

Sketch: not sketched
Provide mechanism for users to give feedback on the whole interface. It will likely be a link somewhere in the interface though it's not clear where.
Concerns

  • this presumes some "in the wild" use which will not happen until later versions

Improvements

  • contextual feedback would be great, but it would require designing a feedback icon (like the ?) so it could be added easily to areas that are already visually and informationally complex

Ethics

Sketch: not sketched
Provide basic ethics brief before users complete their signup and email them a copy.
Concerns

  • implementation team has not yet received the text of this, but it should easily editable anyway (for subsequent projects). Either a simple text file or something in the database

Improvements

  • include a brief demographics survey
  • it would be nice to give them a debrief, but the timing of that is tricky. Could possibly do it based on time using the system (1 hour typing or something).

Done popup

Sketch: not sketched
Provide an informational popup with optional "Brag" box for competitors when users click "Done" on a PMT.
Concerns

  • can't provide both bragging and feedback boxes. We'll be lucky if they write anything in there let alone two separate things with two separate tones (one flippant, one serious)

Improvements

  • can be used to notify the user about new awards they've just won
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