SmallWorld
Research Synthesis Design Solution

Design

01 Scenario

Wednesday afternoon, Sharron's office

Sharron receives an email titled, "It's a Small World! Julia Murphy wants to share a photo with you." Julia is a childhood friend of Sharron's from Detroit, so Sharron opens the email and sees a cute picture of Julia and her 4 year old son Tom at a children's museum. � Sharron's been looking for things to do with Ellie, and it's been awhile since she spoke with Julia. Sharron decides to call her that night to say hello and ask her advice. That night, Sharron and Julia are catching up and Julia mentions the SmallWorld application she used to send the photo to Sharron. Julie says it's been great for finding places to take Tom, and it's also an easy way to send pictures and videos. Julia also mentions that it's good for finding out about local events and even meeting other parents, though she hasn't used it for that. Sharron is new to Pittsburgh though, and still looking for more friends, so this intrigues her. She decides to check it out.

The application launch screens explain SmallWorld's privacy policies. It promises never to publish her location information, and states that Sharron can limit with whom she shares any photos or recordings she makes. It then asks for some basic details.

Sharron enters her Zip code and is presented with a list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. She chooses Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill, Regent Square and Shadyside as places from which she would like to meet other parents and take Ellie to.

Next, the application asks Sharron if she would like to browse groups created by people in the neighborhoods she has chosen. She's not sure how much she'll use the application yet, so she decides to skip it for now.

Lastly, it asks if she wants to connect with her FaceBook or Twitter account. Sharron doesn't have a Twitter account. She does have FaceBook, though she doesn't use it often. Still, she sees the value being able to easily share photos through the application and decides to enter her information.

Sharron hasn't decided how useful this application will be, and decides to explore a bit. She clicks on events to see what kind of things people have posted in her neighborhoods. The entry "Story-time at the Squirrel Hill Library" sounds nice and is happening tomorrow morning, so she clicks on it. She sees that it's meant for four to six year olds, so that won't work , but Sharron decides this application could come in handy down the road.

The entry "Story-time at the Squirrel Hill Library" sounds nice and is happening tomorrow morning, so she clicks on it. She sees that it's meant for four to six year olds, so that won't work , but Sharron decides this application could come in handy down the road.

BID 2010 . Human-Computer Interaction Institute . Carnegie Mellon University