Panel 1 Report: Alan Borning & Laura Barboza

ONE BUS AWAY

During the Alan Borning lecture, Borning was talking about the One Bus Away project and their biggest struggle was to how to keep knowing the bus schedule. Two ways were given to the issue: using GPA, or using crowd sourcing. Apparently, each of them will have advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, I believed people will more rely on using GPA. Some people could think that using a crowd sourcing is more accurate but actually it isn’t. By using crowd sourcing, I could know additional information such as two same buses were close to each other or the bus was having a traffic jam. However, the informations that have been provided might be far behind and somebody might lie. Using GPA, it show the current situation. It is more reliable since it only showed the fact. In addition, the part that most stood out was using a paper prototyping and getting feedback because we also had an opportunity to do a paper prototyping in sprint. During the project(One Bus Away), the OBA groups tried several techniques such as survey, user persona, and paper prototyping. When they finished the paper prototype, they went to the bus station and showed people who were waiting for bus. They could gather the data by having feedbacks. Therefore, they were available to establish the One Bus Away more efficient and effective.

NORDSTROM

“The Early Access” was the Nordstrom’s technique to advertise their anniversary sale, encourage customers to understand precisely and to buy more. Before early access, customers were confused with using the website to know the sale information or to navigate. However, early access showed the Nordstrom’s product more clearly. How do they approach? They tried to do a usability testing to find a way to emphasize the sale. They changed the color, font and used different word. Those method definitely showed the differences. Combining and manipulating changes, it clarified the sale information.

Reflection

With those experiences, I found a way to develop my sprint. When I was doing a paper prototyping, I only aimed to complete the app following the goal(the method to check the water). I didn’t think of user group. However, I need to set me as a user group and target my app to be more clear by changing color or font or word for the development. For example, since color “Red” is a negative concept to our mind I will put red color on cancel button. Contrast to color “Red”, color “Green” is a positive concept to our mind so I will put green color on ok button. Therefore, the user group can clarify which button they are clicking. Additionally, I will get a feedback after they try my app and base on their comments, I will improve my sprint.