A Facebook Mobile App Feature Concept
Have you ever wanted to find out what the waiting time is before you go to a restaurant or find out if there are tickets available for a movie before you go to the theater?
There have been many instances when I wish I knew what the waiting time in a restaurant was or find out how the line for rides in an amusement park is before I went there.
And what if the mobile app you used the most was able to tell you this in just a few taps?
Check-in to the place you are going to!
Yes! I came up with a solution where you can check-in to the place you are going to and choose from options such as waiting time, utilities, things to see and things to do. And you can get responses from people who have checked in to that place at that instant.
The wireframe explaining you the feature.
With this feature, you can check-in to the place you are going to and choose what you want to find out about that place and then choose a specific question that you want to ask and post it.
You might say there is a feature ‘Traveling to’ in Facebook but note that the feature is just for letting people know you are traveling to that place and doesn’t have any productivity value.
So, once you choose what you want to find, it posts a preformed questionnaire for you and lets your friends or public choose from the list of options and you get a view of the answers. It acts like a poll. This way you don’t have to type questions and scroll through all the comments to come to a verdict. With just a few taps, you will have your answer.
Get the feed directly from the people who have checked-in to that place!
There is also a feature where you can choose an option to display this on the wall of people who have checked in to that place and get answers directly from them. This is a great way to get true information.
The waiting time feature helps you find out the waiting time if there are an availability of seats if there is a line and so forth.
The utility feature helps you find out if there are gas stations, grocery stores, diaper changing stations, restrooms, and similar places in that area. This will post a yes or no question for you and the users can just choose the option and you will get your answer.
The things to do and things to see is pretty self-explanatory as to what they do.
Post a yes or no question and get answers without having to type out your question and scrolling through comments to get answers.
Check out the Prototype!
Click anywhere on the screen and blue boxes will appear. Click on the blue boxes to explore the feature.
I am not a Product designer at Facebook. I am a Design graduate student with a dream of being a Product designer in Facebook one day. This feature is just an idea.
Please recommend this post if think you would like to have this feature in your Facebook app and probably My Idol Julie Zhou will see this post and implement it. Thank You!
*Update* Analyzing critiques.
‘Is it going to bother people who don’t want to be bothered with posts from strangers?’
If you take a closer look at my design, there is an option to display this to people who have checked in to that place. This can be an option not just in the ‘going to the place’ check-in but also ‘in the place’ check-in. This way, if people who have checked-in don’t want to share their whereabouts to strangers, they have the option not to. This is just one of my solution to this problem.
‘Doesn’t this feature exist as a separate app?’
Well, yes it does. But I have definitely not heard about it until I came up with this idea. And I am sure the people I discussed the idea with also did not know about it. And Facebook being a product used by over 3 to 4 billion people and also having the option of check-in, I think can try to implement this feature to help people organize their trips easier and better.
