According the results we’ve got from the simple questions in the survey which is based on our initial plan and initial mockups. In order to get a accurate and valuable result, we put the survey questions on the internet. Benefitting that our team members are from different countries, we are able to collect opinions from different culture in a world range. We sent survey questions to people randomly rather than send them to our friends or peers to guarantee that our survey covers a unbiased scope, which is also collected anonymously to avoid privacy offence. We closed survey collecting after one week in order to avoid confusing while analysing survey results. At the day we closed the survey collecting, we had got 74 participates in our survey. The statistical results of Yes/No questions are shown in the chart below.
The results indicate that there is a strong need among people who want to exchange their skills to others, which shows the application we are going to develop is practicable. Data from surveyed people also remind us that similar products now exist, thus it is important to in comparison our app and existing apps to dig out what advantages we can take from existing services and integrate our app with innovative ideas no one has come up yet. The feedback on innovation and prototype is not bad from surveyed people, which is a good start. But as we can see many issues can be proposed based on the prototype, which are detailed in written questions.
Another pie chart from the survey are age distribution about people who are interested in our app and filled our survey, which indicates that our mainly target people will be who are no more than 35 years old.
From the question “What do you particularly like about this idea?”, features that fancy people are listed below:
- No charge fee for starting or polishing a skill.
- The matching is geolocation-based, proficiency-based and reviews as a reference
- innovative and productive way to learn things meanwhile social
- gather up people with similar interests and share experiences
The feedback in question “What additional services would you like to see in this kind of app?” is the key part, from which we can draw some really useful ideas and advices.
- Login: multiple approach to register or login should be supported
frequently used social networks should be integrated: Facebook, Google +, Linked in etc. University account(Linked with timetable to arrange time) customer account - Tools: useful tools should also be embedded.
Chat tool enable users to chat with matched people to negotiate a appropriate time to meet Calendar to set up a meeting and set notification to remind users - Match(App matches people for you): in which more options should be added to satisfy individual needs; Discovery(Users find appropriate people by their own): in which filters should be added to help users narrow down people they need.
Skills(Users are allowed to pick skills they interested in from a dropdown list to show previews in the map, different skills are allocated with different color) Gender Age range Distance range Skill level range Reviews(positive feedback percentage) Account type Time schedule(Uni account only) - Profile:
Basic age gender location skills & level interests & priority reviews(overall review and detailed reviews) Optional self-introduction in video or audio show skills by video or audio - Social: There should be a record for people who have interactions, but for the reason that our app will be integrated with various social accounts and stuff like Facebook have done way better than us so it is no need to develop it in our app.
- Arrange a meeting:
Timetable-based set up meetings like events on Facebook. Group flexible expand one-to-one teaching to one-to-many(more productive) Alternatives video teaching: it takes many aspects into consideration, for example, in group study, one can still catch up with class via video record without drag down all members’ progress. Other situations like time crash, weather condition, distance or disable are possible. - Privacy: filters also should be added to avoid disturbing.
Hide/Unhide Location totally invisible(i.e. go for a holiday) partly invisible(i.e. users want to himself to be visible restrict in a specific radius) Block/Unblock users are allowed to block users who have a bad experience during skill exchange or disturbing. Profile(Public/Restricted) options should be provided to let users choose whether to show their to other people(i.e. people can make it visible to those who have skills they need and interests they can offer, in other words, their profile can only be seen via automatic match rather than manually discovery. - Alternatives when no appropriate match:
Online links redirect users to online tutorials about skills users want. Professional advertisements In cooperate with local training institutions to guide users in the meantime get commercial benefits. - Others:
Game mechanics add more fun with achievement rewards Match people with same interests easy to fulfill, just set same content both in skill and interest will do Premium account For users who want to charge people by teaching, which is another way to make our app profitable.
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