Case Study

UI/UX
Regarding UI design, I do agree with the point that we need to keep the focus of the users at key areas. Every page designed has its own purpose. It's important to make it clear to the users rather than get them confused. However, very often when we are designing the page, we have so many great features in mind, which we want the users to know and use, that we put all of them into the page and end up with a very complicated UI. The page may looks nice but there are just too many fancy things that distract the users from things that they really care about. Therefore, it's crucial to keep in mind what are the most important things the page should have when designing it. The additional stuff may be fun or helpful, but it's better to just not have them if they would become distractions.

Take our first assignment (Eureka) as an example, the possible improvements to UI/UX are:

1. Allow users to invite their friends to answer when posting questions. This can probably create more interactions.
2. Introduce more gamification elements

 The UI of our app is quite simple and each page is good at what it is. I think we can just do a simple page to page conversion to convert it to a mobile app.

Team Dynamics

1. Lanh said, “It would be really bad if we have a great idea but are unable to execute it success- fully”. What are your views? Which is more important - the idea or the execution? Why?
   In my opinions, the execution is more important. The reason is simple - without a good execution,  no matter how great the idea is, it will never become a good product.
   
   
2. What have you learnt about Facebook so far? 
    How to make a Facebook app.
   
   
3. Comment on the ideas for Another Life and Fan Gang. 
   The idea of Another Life is good. However the features they planned are too simple and may not be able to attract many users.
   The idea of Fan Gang is interesting but it is not something that people will spend much time on.
   
   
4. Should the team have changed their idea for the Final Project mid-way or stuck to their original idea? Why, or why not? 
   They probably should. It does no good to stick to something you don't think it will work.
   
   
5. List the major problems (obvious and non-obvious ones) in faced by the team? How could they have done differently and better? 
   1. time constraint
   Because of the frequent changes of project ideas, they didn't have enough time to work on their project. It's better if they can do more preparations at the beginning to avoid this kind of situations.
   2. dragging meetings
   Unproductive meetings are just waste of time. There should be at least one person in the team who can make decisions.
   
   
6. What did the team do right/well? 
   They carefully planned the project before they started implementing. (though it's said too much time are spent on that) 
   
   
7. What would you do if you were Jeremy on the evening of 24th April (and the deadline for the final project submission was the next day)? 
   I would ask for external help to get at least the most basic features working.
   
   
8. How would you handle a situation where one of your team members is unable to deliver on the work he/she promised because of personal problems? 
   It's not their fault to have personal problems so there is no good to blame them for the late delivery. There won't be any big problem if there is someone keeping a close eye on the progress. As long as problems are detected early, there are ways to handle them.
   
   
9. What, in your opinion, are the key learning points from this case study? 
   It's important to know your teammates well, including their skills, life styles, etc.