Milestone 6 - Hi-fi Prototype
Phase 1: Groundwork
Before we set out to design the hi-fi prototype of our system, we looked over our lo-fi prototype and scenarios, and had more interviews about our system.
A point that became clear was that there were several points of failure, most of which were the result of overreliance on the store employees.
Since stores' participation was essential, we had to be able to introduce strong incentives that could encourage stores to actively participate in spite of their time and skill constraints.
Considering these constraints to be insurmountable within the context of this project,
we decided to focus more on social networks (the willingness of individuals to share information about things) rather than heavily relying on stores' participation.
Taking stores out of the picture gave rise to a new issue: since the stores aren't involved, we needed to find a way to incentivize treasure hunting. The original idea was that stores would give treasure hunters discounts based on points they would earn by finding things on the request list. We could no longer do this, so we developed a "points-based economy." Every new member is given a certain number of points to start with. When a user makes a request, points are consumed; when a user finds something for someone else, points are earned. If a user depletes their point balance, they will not be able to make a request until they find something. We believe this "cycle" of our point system can encourage finding and sharing with others in the network as well as trying to assimilate requesters into the thrifting culture.
Another key point we found was that pictures of found items are almost essential, especially if we want to get someone to actually go and buy what someone else found. Since we decided to not to rely on stores, the treasure hunters have to be the ones to take and upload the pictures, preferably with a device they always carry with them and has network access: their mobile phone. We assume that most people in the developed world will probably have at least some smart-phone capabilities in just a few years. Our prototype is developed for the iPhone, but it should not be limited to just one mobile platform.
Phase 2: Sketches on a chalk board
As a next step after groundwork, we tried to sketch our ideas out on a board to get the basic pictures of our interfaces. We tried to focus not only on the functionality but also on the look and feel of our interface to enhance the atmoshpere of our social network.
Phase 3: Digital mockups
We created digital mockups of our interfaces using Axure for our web-based application and OmniGraffle for our mobile application. We divided our team into two groups for each application.
Phase 4: Functionality testing
After creating digital mockups, we embedded each functionality into our mockups and tested. At this stage, we tried to make sure every functionality works as intended.
Phase 5: Treasure Hunter Hi-fi Prototype
After testing, we finalized our Treasure Hunter prototype.
