Project Concept Document

1. Expressit
Concept Document
Design Studio 1 (DECO7180)
Arturo Ibañez - 43318757
Ashleigh Tyrrell - 43644791
Bianca Pretorius - 43378359
Galo A. Vargas - 43333200
Jorge Dominguez - 43654754
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2. Table of Contents
1.1. Concept Exploration
1.1.1. Background
1.1.2. Refined concept
1.1.3. Main refinements
1.1.4. Refined purpose
1.1.5. Feedback implementation
1.1.6. How Expressit works
1.1.7. How Expressit brings Trove content to life
1.2. Features and functionality
1.2.1. Features
i. Image collection
ii. Text editing
iii. Image editing
1.2.2. Functionality
1.2.3. Technical development
1.3. Audience
1.3.1. Primary target user
1.3.2 Secondary target user
1.4. Visual support
1.4.1. Original artwork reference
1.4.2. Design color palette inspiration
1.4.2. Initial logo design ideas
1.4.3 Design mock­up sketches
1.4.4. Wireframes
1.5. Background survey
1.5.1. Literature review
1.5.2. Existing work research summary
2.1. Roles and Responsibilities
2.1.1 Managerial Roles
2.1.2 Team Dynamics
2.2. Project Plan Timeline
2.3. Detailed Project Plan
2.3.1. Deadlines and deliverables
2.3.2. Proposed work allocation
2.4. Potential Issues and Proposed Resolution
Bibliography
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3. 1. CONCEPT
1.1. Concept Exploration
1.1.1. Background
Expressit is a refinement of the original design and product concept for pix.ly (cf.
Image 1). Pix.ly was conceptualised to be an image and text editing mobile application
that enabled users to choose an image and add text to the selected image.
Image 1. pix.ly logo
While the design and functionality for Expressit will be similar to that of pix.ly (cf. 1.4.1.
Original artwork reference), the original pix.ly concept required a more clearly defined
purpose, a better use case definition and a simpler user experience.
1.1.2. Refined concept
Expressit is a web-based image and text editor application that enables users to
express how they are feeling and share it with their digital communities.
What it is:
- A content creation tool.
- A web-based, mobile-first designed application.
What it is not:
- A social platform.
- A native mobile application.
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4. 1.1.3. Main refinements
i. User journey
● Previously - the user landed and was asked to select what action they wanted
to take.
● Now - the user lands and is asked straight away what images they would like to
view based on how they are feeling.
Why? Smoother user experience, easier image browsing and quicker for the user to
turn their feelings into share-ready content.
ii. Image categorisation
● Previously - users could browse all Trove images via the application and would
search by their inputted keywords or non mood relevant categories i.e.
landscape, abstract, animals etc.
● Now - user browses images categorised according to their mood and what they
would like to express.
Why? Easier browsing functionality and more relevant image content served to users.
iii. Features
● Previously - user adds text and edits color and size.
● Now - user has additional text editing features such as mood-relevant font
options and easier text-repositioning.
Why? Create uniquely designed, recognisable output and bring user’s words to life.
iv. Platform
● Previously - native mobile application.
● Now - mobile web application with a mobile-first design focus.
Why? Easier implementation for the purposes of this project.
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5. 1.1.4. Refined purpose
Expressit is an expression tool. Expressit gives users’ thoughts a uniquely designed
visualisation for them to share online via their digital social streams.
1.1.5. Feedback implementation
The following key feedback points were provided during the concept presentation
workshop on Wednesday 3rd September 2014:
1. Be careful of too many unnecessary, features that make the user journey
cumbersome and lengthy.
2. Focus on the user’s expression rather than typography.
3. Remember to clearly showcase that the content is from Trove.
Our main refinements based on the feedback points above are:
1. Quick, relevant image selection and text addition will be prioritised over
additional features. Extra ‘nice-to-have’ features will not obstruct or confuse
the user journey and will be implemented in such a way so as to allow the user
to easily skip over them.
2. Typographic fonts are no longer a focus and instead mood-relevant fonts that
emphasise the user’s expression will be used. Auto-presets based on selected
mood categories will be used for users who wish to move to completion
quickly (not prioritised in BETA release version).
3. The landing page will be clearly ‘powered by Trove’ and all images that are
created will be imprinted with a watermark Trove logo so that it is identifiable
on social streams. Lastly, Expressit will push a message to the user after they
have finished completing their creation that tells them that their image was
provided by Trove. They can also choose to click through to the Trove website
to find out more.
Based on the feedback, guiding principles have been identified to better focus our
purpose and design:
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6. Image 2. Expressit guiding principles
These identified principles have been implemented in refining the remainder of this
document.
1.1.6. How Expressit works
1. The user has something to express.
2. Expressit provides them with background images according to their
stated mood.
3. They add their words to the image that best expresses how they feel.
4. Expressit provides simple, quick tools for them to choose how they
want their creation to look.
5. Et voilà - they share their finished expression with their online
communities.
1.1.7. How Expressit brings Trove content to life
● All images featured on the application will be queried and curated from the
Trove database.
● The application will be explicitly powered by Trove and the Trove logo will
feature on the landing screen below the Expressit logo.
● Finished creations will be watermarked with the Trove logo.
● Should the user choose to share their finished creation to the Expressit gallery,
they will be sent an email informing them of the origins of their image and a link
to explore more Trove content.
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7. 1.2. Features and functionality
1.2.1. Features
i. Image collection
● The user choose from 100s of high-quality images from Expressit’s collection
sourced from Trove’s database. (*See 1.2.2. Technical Functionality below for detail on
how this works.)
● The user can browse relevant images simply and quickly using our mood
categorised image galleries.
Why? The user might not know exactly which image they want, but they can always
figure out how they feel.
ii. Text editing
● The user has options to easily resize, rotate and adjust the opacity of their text.
● The user can select mood-relevant fonts and choose their preferred text color.
● The user can also opt to use uniquely designed auto-preset font styles (based
on their mood selection) if they are in a rush to get sharing.
●
Why? The user’s words matter so they should be able to make them stand out.
iii. Image editing
● The user can add simple filter options to give their creation a professional
touch.
Why? Design isn’t just for designers - anyone should be able to create something
unique.
1.2.2. Functionality
Expressit will provide the following functionality:
● Browse image collections.
● Browse user uploaded creations.
● Select and edit images.
● Add text to an image and edit text.
● Delete unfinished creations.
● Save unfinished creations with a login option.
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8. ● Share finished creations via social channels.
● Share finished creations to Expressit.
**Please see section 2.3.1.ii. for a breakdown of which features and functionality will
be prioritised for the beta version release of our application.
1.2.3. Technical development
Expressit is a web-based application and thus standard web technologies (HTML, CSS
and javascript) will be used to develop it. Expressit will have the functionality to show
new users what they can do using the application, a basic mysql database and PHP
backend will be developed to store and retrieve previous user creations.
Although tools such as PhoneGap allow the reuse of code to develop mobile
applications, these applications are not built with native code and have many
disadvantages, such as slow performance and memory leak. Thus the decision to
develop Expressit as a web-based application was made in order to develop only once
for both mobile and desktop browsers, as well as to make implementation easier and
to minimise time-to-completion.
i. Image curation
Expressit uses Trove’s API as the primary source for its image collection. As the
application aims to provide high quality, aesthetic images, a general search that
returns all content will not be ideal. A refined query of keywords will be sent to the API
in order to retrieve the most relevant results and present them to the user as a
hand-picked, pre-defined selection for them to use. Mood categories will be created
by combining various search terms within Trove that best represent the mood.
The below image examples show search results for various keyword searches in Trove
and the difference in using the mood keyword e.g. “happy”, versus using mood-related
keywords e.g. “sunflower” and “smile”.
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9. i. search term = “happy” ii. search term = “smile” ii. search term = “sunflower”
Image 3. Trove image results for different, mood-related search terms
ii. Text editing
To allow the user to overlay text on images within the application, Expressit will use
javascript extensively for the front-end user interface. A selection of beautiful and
expressive open-source typographic fonts will be picked from various sources such as
Google Fonts and Font Squirrel.
iii. Image editing
During the research process, some open source javascript libraries were contemplated
to be used in the development process. VintageJS developed by Robert Fleischmann
is a javascript library that allows the application of retro-vintage type effects to
images, and it has an extended documentation on how to use it.
1.3. Audience
1.3.1. Primary target user
i. Demographic profile
Our target audience is users aged 15-34 as this is currently the most socially active
audience online in Australia. Our target uses social media often and is constantly
connected to others. Our target’s primary browser experience is mobile.
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10. ii. Typical psychographic profile
Our typical primary target user would likely have the following psychographic
characteristics:
● Often shares content online.
● Uses social content to express who they are and connect to others.
● Prefers to share visual content.
● Enjoys being the first to tell friends about the latest apps.
● Has an ‘instant gratification’ mindset and prefers fast, fluid user experiences.
● Has low app loyalty and will easily switch to the ‘next best thing’ if functionality
is better and/or app is more popular than current.
iii. Primary target user personas and use cases
Image 4. User persona - Nicole
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11. ● When would Nicole use Expressit?
- She wants to add a beautiful, inspirational quote to her Facebook page that
will get lots of likes.
● How will Nicole most likely use Expressit?
- She will select the ‘inspiration’ mood.
- She will browse the inspiration category images and select one which best
suits her mood.
- She will select a filter as she wants her image to gain lots of likes and be
aesthetically pleasing.
- She will add her inspirational quote and spend time playing around with the
text editing features, making sure that she feels her online communities will
like the result.
- She will share the image to Facebook page and upload it to Expressit because
she is happy to let as many people see her creation as possible.
Image 5. User persona - Harvey
● When would Harvey use Expressit?
- He just thought of a good pun and wants to send it to his close friends.
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12. ● How will Harvey most likely use Expressit?
- He will jump straight to the feeling ‘random’ category and choose a quirky
picture.
- He will type in his joke and possibly change the font and ignore the rest of the
image editing functionality as he is always quick with a response.
- He will share the picture directly to friends.
1.3.2 Secondary target user
Given the simplicity of our application, the high penetration of social content sharing
in Australia and the fact that Expressit is a web-based (mobile-first) application,
Expressit can be used by anyone who would like to create social content to share
digitally.
Thus, our secondary audience extends to anyone who:
● has the intention to express themselves and/or connect to others via a digital
medium,
● has access to the internet, and;
● is somewhat proficient in using web-based applications.
i. Secondary target user persona and use case
Image 6. User persona - Dee
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13. ● When would Dee use Expressit?
- Her daughter’s birthday is tomorrow and she wants to share a cute picture on
Facebook.
● How will Dee most likely use Expressit?
- She will choose a category like happy and scroll through the pictures until she
finds one she likes.
- She will type her message and spend some time going through all the editing
options until she is happy that the end result is the best for her public message.
- She will share the picture on her daughter’s Facebook wall or save it to her
phone to send the next day.
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14. 1.4. Visual support
1.4.1. Original artwork reference
Image 9. pix.ly original design
1.4.2. Design color palette inspiration
The following design palette options are under consideration for the new design
artwork for Expressit. Given the expressive nature of the site, vibrant palettes have
been chosen to convey the application’s brand personality as well as to appeal to our
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15. youthful target. Competitor applications and sites were also considered in selecting
the palettes and as such distinctive palettes have been selected in contrast to the
design of what already exists.
All palettes sourced from: www.dtelepathy.com
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16. 1.4.2. Initial logo design ideas
Below are some initial and unfinalised logo designs for Expressit based on our original
concept of conveying the use of the app as an expression tool. The logos will be
finalised by the end of week 7.
Image 8. Logo options
1.4.3 Design mock-up sketches
The following hand sketches show early design mock-ups for Expressit.
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17. Image 9. Mock up hand sketches of Expressit
1.4.4. Wireframes
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18. 18

19. 1.5. Background survey
1.5.1. Literature review
i. The current digital and social media landscape in Australia
Current global internet penetration is sitting at around 35%, with 26% of the global
population active on social media sites (Wearesocial.org, 2014). Futher more,
Wearesocial.org (2014) reports that global mobile device penetration is sitting at
around 93% and with increasing internet access taken into account, this indicates that
mobile is increasingly the primary online access point and browsing experience for the
global population.
In Australia, 99% of the population have access to the internet with 98% accessing
the internet at least once a week (Sensis, 2014). There is a growing trend towards
social media usage with 66% of Australians using social networks at least once a
week. As is to be expected, the highest and most frequent use of social media
networks is by the 14-29 age group.
Facebook and Instagram remain the most popular social media sites in Australia
across ages groups, with ephemeral social networks such as Snapchat seeing high
growth in the teenage age bracket (Sensis, 2014). Social media networks such as
these are focused on content sharing to connect which means that there is a greater
need for users to be able to self-create or source and curate content to share with
their networks.
Social mobile applications such as Instagram and Snapchat allows users to create and
deliver visual content in-app, whereas the increase in the availability of content
creation apps allow users to create content out-of-app and share that content via their
social streams as they see fit. In contrast, messaging applications such as Whatsapp
and WeChat allow for basic content creation in-app but users prefer to create or
curate content outside of the app and share it directly on their messaging stream.
Visual content allows for quick, impactful message communication and retains the top
spot as the most shared content type (47%) on social media in 2014 (Morrison, 2014).
Alongside visual content, 26% of social media users like to share their opinions with
another 26% choosing to update their communities on what they are doing or how
they are feeling (Morrison, 2014). Mobile applications such as Snapchat capitalise on
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20. these content sharing preferences and trends by combining visual content with
opinions and personal updates in one simple communication.
While native applications continue their upward trend in popularity and usage,
web-based applications are still popular development choices due to their low cost
and easier implementation. Desktop browser use in Australia has been on the decline
in recent years, especially amongst lower age groups, and as mobile internet use
increases, there is an increased need for developers and designers to build websites
and web-based applications with a mobile first or responsive mindset (Wang, 2014).
ii. Justification for application development
Taking the literature review into account, we can see that there is a clear need and use
case for Expressit both in Australia and globally. The key justifications for the need for
our application are:
● GIven the proliferation of social platforms and messaging applications and the
popularity of content sharing, there is a need for simple, efficient, quality
content creation tools.
● Visual content remains king and the use of images in Expressit will amplify the
value we can provide to our users based on their requirements.
● The use of a mobile-focused design and simple user journey will heighten the
utility we can provide to our users given their preferred browser experience.
1.5.2. Existing work research summary
i. Concept inspiration
Application Purpose Pros Cons Key take-outs
Send mail from
your smartphone.
Converts mobile
voice, data and
pictures to digital
and paper post
letters.
Effective channel
to deliver
meaningful
communication in
a novel way.
Background
image doesn’t
have to relate to
image.
Takes too long to
create and send
message.
User output
quality varies.
Allow user to
make their
communication
meaningful.
Send your friends
a message using
Cleverly uses
hashtags to
message
Does not use
categorization of
images, user is
Allow for users to
browse and share
previously
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21. a funny animated
GIF.
pre-created
animated GIFs
expressing
moods instead of
text, it also allows
users to search a
vast catalog.
presented a grid
with the most
popular GIFs
used.
created
user-generated
content.
Instagram for text.
Post clean images
allowing beautiful
typography to
communicate
what you want.
Beautifully
designed,
professional
quality output.
Minimalist
application
design.
Too much focus
on the image
editing takes
away from the
message/content
.
Use text editing
to further
enhance the
communication of
users’
expressions.
Snapchat is an
ephemeral social
platform using
short video and
images to
communicate with
friends.
Simple, no frills
design.
Ability to create
and share user
generated
content quickly.
Low quality
content output.
Allow users to
get their message
share-ready as
quickly as
possible.
ii. Design and feature inspiration
Application Purpose Pros Cons Key take-out
Social platform
allowing users to
upload and share
video and
images.
Simple, clean
design and
effective use of
visual
communication
prioritised over
text.
Moving through
the social
platform layers
adds
unnecessary
length to the
image edit and
upload process.
Provide simple
filters to allows
user to add
professional
design touches to
images.
Video and collage
maker using
content from
users own social
streams.
Users can easily
pull content from
their own social
streams to add to
their creation.
Simple, intuitive
text editing
experience.
User can feel
overwhelmed by
image editing
options.
Remember less
is more when it
comes to editing
options and user
journey.
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22. Professional
image editing
application and
photography
publishing
platform.
Extensive
selection of
professional
image editing
tools. Very high
quality output.
User journey is
slow and it takes
a lot of steps to
reach your final
output. Requires
a level of photo
editing
proficiency.
Enable anyone to
create high quality
output,
regardless of
their design
skills.
Add beautiful
typography,
artwork and
effects to your
photos.
Simple, effective
typographic text
editing that adds
a professional
‘designed’ feel
and brings words
to life.
User flow isn’t
smooth and it can
be frustrating to
navigate back and
forth and try to
skip steps.
Provide font
editing tools to
enable users to
emphasise their
meaning.
iii. Functionality inspiration
Application Purpose Pros Cons Key take-out
Open source Java
library for
applying vintage
effects to images.
Pre-defined
effects can be
applied to
images. Edited
images can be
saved for later
use/sharing.
Limited effects
available but can
be extended with
some effort. Can
only be used for
web-based
applications.
Use open source
javascript library
to save time in
implementing
image edition
features.
Digital music
platform
providing access
to millions of
songs.
Specifically, we
looked at the
playlist
categorisation
according to user
mood.
User self-selects
mood tag when
uploading a
playlist so the tag
is based on user
opinion rather
than accuracy.
Deliver relevant
content by
categorising
according to user
mood.
iv. Key take-outs in summary
1. Allow user to make their communication meaningful using a unique format.
2. Allow for users to browse and share previously created user-generated content.
3. Use text editing features to enhance the users’ expression.
4. Allow users to get their message share-ready as quickly as possible.
5. Provide simple filters to add professional design touches to images.
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23. 6. Less is more when it comes to editing options and user journey.
7. Enable anyone to create high quality output with little design proficiency.
8. Provide distinctive, relevant fonts to emphasise the message’s meaning.
9. Use open source javascript library to save time in implementing image editing
features.
10. Deliver relevant content by categorising according to user mood.
2. Project Plan
2.1. Roles and Responsibilities
2.1.1 Managerial Roles
Lead Project Manager
Bianca Pretorius
● Coordinate project milestones and deadlines.
● Track schedule.
● Evaluate and approve data.
● Compile and proofread reports.
● Submit documentation on Blackboard.
Lead Product
Galo A. Vargas
● Collaborate closely with both the Design Team and Engineering team. Will be
the bridge between designing and coding.
● Ensure product as a whole works as defined.
Lead Engineering
Arturo Ibañez
● Manage the execution of the project, from design to reality.
● Approve the best technical approach for the project and the reasons behind the
decision making.
● Provide team members with sufficient information, such as learning resources,
research needs and workload distribution when assisting in technical tasks so
they can have a better understanding where the development should be
focused.
● Review all the code implemented for the expected functionality of the project.
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24. Lead Design
Ashleigh Tyrrell
● Design the application according to the specs agreed upon with the Product
team.
● Provide design direction as and when needed with clear reasons for decisions.
● Produce mockups, wireframes, user flow interactions definitions and high-end
visual design for a “beta version”.
● Work closely with Product and Engineering teams to ensure that the design
meets both the product and user requirements.
● Research existing design trends and ensure that the application interface is in
line with the latest design innovation and with user expectations.
Lead Prototyping
Jorge Dominguez
● Develop initial prototypes for user testing.
● Develop screen flows.
● Facilitate product testing.
● Suggest iterative changes to adapt to the users’ needs based on overall
feedback.
2.1.2 Team Dynamics
i. Decision Making
In terms of decision making we will use team consensus and voting. If there is a tie on
the vote, the conflict resolution approach may be helpful in identifying the next step.
ii. Meetings
Every Wednesday 9am-12pm
iii. Communication
● Whatsapp to organise meetings
● Google Drive for collaborating documents and storing visual support
● Dropbox for sharing prototypes, design mockups and code
iv. Conflict Resolution
If conflict arises, we will follow the guidelines presented in the groupwork guidelines
presented in the resources in ‘Teamwork in Action’ and address issues as they arise.
Step 1: Admit that conflict is happening and that it needs to be resolved.
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25. Identify and approach the conflict from both views by stating the conflict from
each perspective.
Step 2: Understand the conflict.
The team should undertake a resolution activity, while maintaining respectful,
calm and professional behavior:
● Write down the different approaches and to list the advantages and
disadvantages associated with each of these.
○ Refer to the approaches by numbering them to separate the idea
from the person who originated it.
○ The whole team, including the disagreeing party should be
involved in listing advantages and disadvantages.
● Each of the disagreeing parties should be given a chance to discuss any
compromises or negotiable points in an effort to reach resolution.
Step 3: Look for common ground.
If resolution is still not reached, have each team member examine and verbally
summarise each of the approaches to confirm that they understand each of the
approaches.
● The team should look for similarities in the approaches and state and list
these down.
● The team should now redefine the problem to be solved and generate
alternative approaches based on the similarities.
● Each of these alternatives should be assigned a new number and the
whole team should take part in listing the advantages and disadvantages
of each.
Step 4: Reach an agreement.
The whole team should:
● Compare the advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches
● Choose the approach in which the advantages outweigh the
disadvantages.
● Agree that the conflict is now over and move on.
If no agreement is reached after this process, the team will refer to a mentor or
lecturer for mediation.
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26. v. Communication
● Whatsapp to organise meetings and communicate on urgent matters which
require a quick turnaround on response.
● Emails to communicate in detail on selected tasks as well as provide review not
supported by Google Drive.
● Google Drive for collaborating on documents, reviewing and storing visual
support and other files.
● Dropbox for sharing prototypes, design mockups, code and any larger files.
2.2. Project Plan Timeline
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27. 2.3. Detailed Project Plan
2.3.1. Deadlines and deliverables
i. Deadlines
The Project Timeline in section 2.2 is based on the assessment deadlines and on
completion of the phases the project has been divided into. All deadlines fall in the
week highlighted in the timeline. Course deadlines are as follows:
● Paper Prototyping (Week 7)
● Progress Demonstration (Week 9)
○ Presentation
○ Prototype or partial implementation
○ Supporting materials
● User Testing (Week 10)
● Final Delivery and Report (Week 13)
○ Presentation
○ Documentation
ii. Deliverables
The deliverables for the project will be a BETA version of the complete Expressit app.
The BETA will work as an MVP (minimum viable product) containing the necessary
functionality to complete our app’s primary action (message creation). Users will be
provided with:
● At least 6 mood categories.
● At least 20 images per mood category.
● Text addition functionality.
● Basic text editing features such as changing font and colour, and resizing text.
● At least 3 image filters.
● The ability to share their creation to social streams.
● The ability to upload their creation to Expressit.
● The ability to link out to Trove to find out more about Trove.
Developments part of our overall vision for Product v.1.0 (that won’t be included in our
MVP):
● More mood categories and more images per category.
● More text editing functionality such as rotation, shadow and transparency.
● More font selection options that are relevant to each mood category.
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28. ● Frames or overlays to add more dynamic editing for those who wish to have
more options.
● More image filters.
● Easier browsing with images sorted by popularity with other users.
● The ability to like other users’ creations.
● The ability to upload finished content with a username and therefore log-in.
2.3.2. Proposed work allocation
i. Preferred involvement
Each team member was asked to fill out which areas they would most like to work in
to ensure (a) that each member feels that they are satisfied with what they are
working on, (b) to ensure that the workload is well divided and (c) to allow each team
members opportunity to up-skill in different areas.
Table 1. Preferred Roles and Responsibilities
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29. ii. Task Allocation and Deliverables
See the 2.3. Project Plan for Task due dates and time frames. Throughout the project,
documentation will be kept and collaborated to ensure that Phase 3 runs smoothly
and no documentation is missing.
The tasks identified have been assigned to a team member, but the tasks that fall
within a specific category will be the responsibility of the defined managerial roles and
must be approved by the managing party.
Task Responsibility Due
PHASE 1: Analysis, Design, Prototyping,
Planning
Logos and inspiration - create and explain aspects. Arturo 05/09
Concept document Ash 05/09
Team charter and project plan Bianca 05/09
Background - Literature review on the scope of the design
space.
Ash 05/09
User Personas - explore primary and secondary users and
present personas to represent users of Expressit.
Bianca, Jorge 05/09
Design mockups - Have an overview of the screens and
icons to be included in the app.
Ash 10/09
Paper Prototyping - design and print out paper prototyping
screens to conduct user testing walkthroughs in the Week 7
practical.
Jorge 10/09
Wireframing - based on the user journey refined after the
paper prototyping, complete wireframes for visual support.
Galo 11/09
User Experience Mapping - using the wireframes as a
reference, map the user journey in a task flow diagram.
Ash 12/09
Visual Support - compile and collaborate all visual support
thus far in a design portfolio.
Ash, Galo 15/09
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30. Categorisation & search terms - identify moods based on
the personas and search terms that will return relevant
pictures to match the moods.
Bianca 12/09
Engineering Specifications - based on the design portfolio, a
breakdown of the necessary technical approaches will be
outlines in a Specification Document. The document will
consider the coding languages and platforms and the work
required by each team member. Supporting documentation
or resources will be included if team members need
additional help in the area they work on.
Arturo, Team 18/09
PHASE 2: Development, Testing, Review and
Implementation
Interface Design:
- Layout and imaging; this will include creating and collecting
any logos, headings, images or fonts needed in the design
and ensuring they match the design and colour palette.
Ash 25/09
- CSS; using the imaging provided, the CSS and layout will
be built alongside the coding.
Galo, Team 20/10
Development: 20/10
- JSON, PHP; the search terms and retrieving images from
Trove must be completed and tested before adding the
functionality into the app.
Jorge, Team
- Html; coding and development will be an iterative process
and will need to be tested and reviewed weekly.
Bianca, Ash, Team
- Javascript; interactive features and selecting images, as
well as over-laying filters will be coded in javascript and will
be tested and reviewed iteratively.
Arturo, Team
Design and Tech Reviews - completed weekly, the reviews
will ensure that the Design and Development are aligned
and that the product scope is adhered to.
Galo, Ash
Progress Demonstration: 24/09
- Overview of Design specs; a recap of design portfolio. Ash
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31. - Partial code demo; features and functionality in place. Arturo
- Review & report on collab; report on progress in aligning
the development of the app with the design specs.
Galo
- Testing; report on testing thus far as well as plans for
iterative testing and user testing.
Jorge
- Team; feedback on teamwork, collaboration, progress and
adherence to timeline.
Bianca
Feedback and Implementation - weekly reports in team
meetings to describe progress, problems and collaborate
on tasks and shared responsibilities.
Ash
Testing: 20/10
- Plan; develop an overview for testing on all levels and
isolating features to test.
Jorge
- User-specs; align testing and user goals and provide
guidelines for user testing feedback
Bianca
- Test code; test features and functionality. Galo
- Interface specs; align testing and user mapping goals to
ensure the mapping journey works as defined.
Ash
- External user testing; run interaction tests with users to
see if app works as expected and how users respond.
Arturo
Additional Features: 20/10
- Social network sharing capability Team
- Rotate text Team
- Sorting images by popularity Team
- Login Team
PHASE 3: Presentation
Final Delivery Presentation Team 27/10
Final Report Team 27/10
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32. 2.4. Potential Issues and Proposed Resolution
● One of the potential issues (and threats) to our project, could be getting out of
scope easily, which could lead to development delay and design re-thinking. To
avoid doing this, every team member will agree on the scope defined in our last
iteration of the functional prototype so everybody will be on the same page
about what will be delivered.
● Another potential issue that could affect our product implementation, could be
the over-estimation of the amount of time and so-called “non-contemplated”
tasks in the development phase. To mitigate this problem, we are polishing the
scope of our BETA,defining the tasks to be done at the maximum level so we
can establish realistic time frames for each task (with their respective variable
time ) and also assigning the resources required for completing each task.
● The data from Trove is another identified issue, since we are working with data
from a third-party which we do not control, and that could affect the overall
user-experience in terms of users getting quality image content. We will
resolve this by experimenting with image categorisation according to mood and
also hope to add an additional feature which prioritises popular images first so
that the most valuable/quality content is seen first. We will also include a way
to inform users where the content comes from and provide a link to Trove.
● Different technologies and frameworks have different restrictions and
limitations which may impede our progress later on or limit our functionality we
will. We will ensure that we choose the right technology and/or framework to
develop our solution by paying specific attention to our required outcomes,
especially for our BETA version.
● Change management could be a problem for a project with limited time for
development, since each change will extend our project pipeline. We will adopt
agile programming and work on an iterative basis rather than cascade, to avoid
extensions. To do that, we will be working with “user stories” instead of
“specifications”.
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33. Bibliography
Morrison, K. 2014. ‘What, How and Why people share on social media’, Social Times,
23 July 2013, viewed 2 September 2014
<http://socialtimes.com/why-people-share-social-media-infographic_b200541>.
Sensis. 2014. Yellow Social Media Report 2014, Sensis, May 2014, viewed 2 September
2014
<http://about.sensis.com.au/IgnitionSuite/uploads/docs/Yellow-Social-Media-Report
-2014.pdf>.
Wang, Y. 2014, ‘Australian mobile statistics: Why a responsive website is now a
business necessary’, Yump, 14 April, viewed 3 September 2014
<https://yump.com.au/blog/2014-australian-mobile-statistics-why-a-responsive-webs
ite-is-now-a-business-necessity/>.
3rdSense. 2014. ‘Australian Digital Statistics 2014’, 3rdSense, 9 January, viewed 3
September 2014
<http://3rdsense.com/blog/09012014-1121/australian-digital-statistics-2014>.
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