After our second group meeting, there is a common belief amongst the group members that we are heading to the right direction. Having started from a brainstorm session where ideas on features were still in an abstract form, finally it seems like we have managed to target our creativity towards a more concrete level, augmenting our understanding on issues that may come down the road and getting a feeling of what BlackBox* is all about. Talking on behalf of the group, our mentor has been an invaluable asset, keeping the thought process on track and providing us with helpful advice and resources.

Since the Easter break is not far away, we decided to set specific milestones until the project deadline, in order to stay focused on our research and tackle every issue on time. By breaking up tasks into smaller parts, each member of our group was assigned with research on a specific area, starting from the analysis of existing tools that can help us to identify different approaches and possible weaknessess.

Setting project milestones

Since we all feel like 3speech could go beyond the scale of a module project, user experience is considered one the most important aspects of our work. Working together, we defined a layout that will enhance the look and feel of our social network. The picture below presents what we came up for today. Of course, this is an iterative process but it feels good to be able to visualise core components of the network such as navigation and easy access of personalised topics of interest for users.

User Interface(UI) Visualisation

Finally, the next steps we need to take include gathering of relevant sources of information, creating a mock up of the UI and addressing implementation issues.

Moving forward, there is a high level of enthusiasm and a solid belief in this project.