PROJECT PROPOSAL

Project Members [revised member group]]

Bin Xin Web site development, Java programming, user interface design, experience in online media and publishing, humanities background.

Rosa Ren Database design, basic Java knowledge, web design experience, Visual Basic programming, project management, writing skills and engineering background.

Monica Fernandes Web design experience, publishing and business background, information architecture, usability, knowledge of Brazilian culture and languages, project management and overall coordination.

Hong Cai Database design, basic Java knowledge, knowledge of Asian culture and journalism, physics and legal background.

Project Statement

In this project we will work on part of the final masters project by Monica and Yisong Chen (Jason). The main project is a information-centric website, focused on nightlife information of San Francisco, more specifically bars/clubs and their events. The target audience falls into two categories: consumers and players (bars owners, promoters, and DJs etc). Some initial market and user needs research has been conducted and a prototype website has already been developed. For this course, the team will focus on personalization and customization of information related to consumer needs, after further study of frequent nightlife consumers.

Characteristics of Primary Users and Their Goals

The frequent nightlife consumers, those who visit a venue at least twice a week, and who are above 18 years old, are primary users of this system. According to a initial market research (e-pub final project report), they can be further categorized by their motivations, such as (1) "entertainment seekers", (2) "regulars", (3) "drop-in customers" and (4) "meet-to-go customers". Their main goals are to have fun, enjoyment and relaxation. Some specific goals for those categories would be: (1) stimulation, chance of pace; (2) social interaction, companionship; (3) be close to somewhere else; (3) match: come as single, leave in pairs…

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How You will Find Participants

The ideal participants would be those nightlife consumers based in San Francisco. They may live, work or study in San Francisco, and they would be of various age groups, members of all sexes, and come from a variety of racial and cultural backgrounds. Given the time constraints and limited resources, we will rely on our personal network of friends, fellow students, and other acquaintances to have those most representative of our ideal users participate in the studies.

Initial Suggested Improvements

From our initial evaluations, we identified some problem areas that can be improved to make the site customization more useful and appealing to users. There are three main customization features that are currently provided by the site prototype:

• Personalization of users' favorite venues, which can be selected when they visit a venue page, and are presented at the home page level (MySFnight), and/or extended to a personal page;
• Personalization of users' favorite event topics, which are chosen at the end of the registration process, and are presented at the home page level (MySFnight) with the option to receive an e-newsletter;
• A select-and-send-list of event and bar information, which is chosen by the event/bar profile pages, and does not require user registration.

Our approach in this project would be:

• Review if the registration process is too complicated for users.
• Determine if existing customization features are adequate and appealing to target users and identify new features that better meet their needs.
• Refine and further develop the overall information architecture and user interface related to the customization process.