Proposal.md

Project Proposal - Suzuki Swifts

Daiki Suzuki (44188078)

Lars Mellick (43911279)

Jack Beioley (43038907)

Rohnil Ganjoo (43554667)

Vinnie Stagnitti (44395009)

Project Idea:

‘Debate Me’ is a social and mobile application which allows users to pick from a range of different topics, and debate other users who also have an interest in those areas. There are a range of topics such as current events in politics, sports and even local issues. Debate Me provides students a unique platform for communicating their thoughts and opinions on topics they are interested in, and potentially creating friendships and relationships outside of the app based on this shared interest. Succeed Socially states students can feel "thrown for a loop" by the size of their new university community. Debate Me provides a platform where the students can be randomly paired with another student and directly communicate with fellow students attending the same university. This breaks down the barrier between students within the university. Why debating? According to Quatar Debate, academic research shows that debating can improve confidence and social skills, helping people to present themselves better socially.

Making friends in college and university can be a daunting task for a lot of students, and this is the problem that Debate Me aims to address. This social difficulty is mainly due to a lack in confidence and/or comfort levels transitioning from an enclosed environment in high school to a university where you are not forced to interact with others. Debate Me aims to break down the barriers between students, and engage them in a conversation of shared interest. A study conducted by the University of Sydney suggests that one of the best ways of getting social at university is to "get involved in what interests you". Using Debate Me to help build confidence and social skills can benefit people at university, work or in general as they grow friendships and form relationships.

How does the app work? The user creates a profile using their university login, in order to enforce security and prevent fake profiles being generated. The user will be required to verify their account through their university email. From the user research that was conducted (discussed later in the report), it was suggested that the app should feature two modes; Discussion and Debate. The discussion mode is for the casual user, looking for friendly easy conversation and building relationships and debating mode will be more for the enthusiasts looking to challenge themselves. The debate mode will help in building confidence and communication skills, helping students communicate clearly and form friendships with others. After creating a profile, a scrolling list of categories will appear such as sports and politics, within which there will be a range of recent events occurring in those categories. To broaden the topics that a present, the user will be able to suggest topics and send feedback to us the developers. When two users have selected the same topics, they will be randomly matched together and taken to a separate chat. Here they can discuss or debate the topic or choose to meet at a chosen location within the university (for safety reasons) and have a face to face conversation when they feel more comfortable.

Aims:

• Engage university students and staff in debate about topics and issues of interest

• Help users form new relationships based on shared interests in the debate topics

• Create a network of regular debaters at various universities

Project Challenges:

The project faces some difficult challenges, however, a plan has been formed on how to address them. One of the major challenges is how to deal with bullies and trolls using our app, negatively affecting the experience of the legitimate community of users. To deal with this issue features will be implemented which allow moderators to identify such people and enforce bans. This can be done through a reporting system, where a user can report another user if they feel like they have breached the code of conduct.

As this app is targeting university students, to make sure fake profiles aren't being created and in order to maintain security while identifying bullies and harassers, each user will be instructed to verify their account through their university email address. A verification link will be sent to their email where they can activate their account and use the app. This would be an effective way of filtering troll accounts and users looking to bully and harass others, as they will not want to be identified through their university email and potentially reported to the university.

The original model for the app had a curated selection of debate topics, chosen by the app moderators, and updated regularly. This is still an important way to keep the app fresh and interesting. However, a potential user asked about what would happen if a topic they would like to debate was not on the app. To remedy this, there will be a ‘suggest a topic’ feature, where new debates will be added based on user demand. This realisation revealed the importance of user research in the formation of the app’s conceptual model.

User Research:

Analysis:

The results of questionnaires show that as a concept, the app is attractive and in demand for the target users. The majority of the users mentioned that this app would help them in engaging conversations, improving intellectual and debating skills, as well as increasing interactions around campus. Furthermore, the students showed enthusiasm towards the rating system as it would allow for friendly competition and give incentive to use the app consistently. The most significant observation was the positive attitude around the creative way Debate Me would engage students in their university community. These results are a positive step toward solidifying the app concept.

One of the most fundamental issues found from the questionnaire is that some of the users stated that creating a new community of friends through debating would be difficult, possibly causing conflicts between students. In order to rectify this, the idea of having two separate modes for the app was devised; a debate mode and a discussion mode. These two modes will allow for ‘the best of both worlds’, so to speak, with a classic debate mode for enthusiasts, and a more casual discussion group for the more social. The separation of the modes allows the app to broaden its user base. Discussion mode will allow users to have more relaxed conversations with each other, whether that is face to face or at a chosen spot at the university. Whereas Debate mode adds a more competitive element, where users can strengthen their communications skills and gain confidence to approach others in person to form friendships.

Users:

The audience for the Debate Me app is predominantly university students, but may include some university staff. Typical users from this audience are defined through the following personas that span a large spectrum of user types.

Team:

Members and Roles:

• Rohnil Ganjoo (DECO3500)

  • Team leader, User testing, Stand-up agenda creation, Speaker in stand-ups

• Lars Mellick (DECO3500)

  • File management, Low-fidelity prototyping, Promotional material content, Speaker in stand-ups, Head of report writing

• Daiki Suzuki (DECO3500)

  • Team logistics, Conducting user surveys, User testing

• Jack Beioley (DECO3500)

  • App interface design, Promotional material visual design

• Vinnie Stagnitti (DECO3500)

  • High-fidelity prototyping, Testing data compilation

Communication:

• Team meetings will be held weekly within a UQ library group room. Weekly communication will ensure that the team is synchronised, and allow for discussion on important topics.

• The main communication channel within the group is Facebook Messenger, as every team member has access, and checks this service frequently. Therefore it can be relied upon for consistent, reliable communication amongst the team. Team members should check this chat at least once a day.

• All files for the team will be stored in Google Drive. This allows for collaboration with documents such as reports. If required, the team will also use Github for file collaboration.

• Files will be named according to their contents, with no spaces in between words. Eg. Team Proposal.pdf

Decision making:

When making an important decision, the team will try to reach consensus by discussing during the workshop, or through the Facebook group chat, which was created at the beginning of the project. Every member’s opinion will be treated equally, no matter what roles they are taking in the project. Each member should try to show respect for one another and not dominate the other team members in discussion.

Performance:

Tasks will be delegated based on individual’s strengths to reduce poor group performance. If a team member is struggling to complete a task and requires help, they should alert the team as soon as possible to allow the team time to help. If a team member is not contributing to the project to a satisfactory level, the steps in the conflict resolution section will be taken.

Conflict resolution:

If conflicts arise within the group, the first course of action will be to have a discussion about the issue in a team meeting. Within a formal, face to face environment, the conflict may be able to be resolved amicably. If the issue is not resolved, a tutor from the course can be requested to help to solve the issue. This will help to facilitate the conflict resolution in more serious cases.

Plan:

Research (completed by September 4):

• An initial questionnaire has been deployed (with results shown earlier in this report). This helped in understanding the user audience by asking questions that clarify how and why someone would use this app.

• Although already started for this proposal, further research into the areas of debating, university transitioning, and similar online services, will be conducted. This will strengthen the evidence behind the benefits of the Debate Me concept.

Requirements (completed by September 12 - Milestone 1):

• Initial user interviews will be the main way of gathering requirements, aimed at the main target audience of university students. Questions such as, "What difficulties do you find engaging with university students?", will be asked. The individual’s opinion on the concept of Debate Me will also be requested, asking the student to discuss their interest in using the service and their problems with the conceptual model. This will be through a range of Likert scale questions.

• The interviewing will help to solidify the idea of the app, and help prioritise the importance of various features and aspects of the app. Multiple interviewees will triangulate the qualitative and quantitative data to form a consensus.

Design (mostly completed by October 3 - Milestone 2):

• Interface design will be conducted to determine how the app will look, feel, and run. Aesthetics are very important for the usability of the app, and so the interface will be confirmed within the team and verified with outside sources.

• A low-fidelity paper prototype will be developed for user testing. The prototype will show the key aspects of the app and how they interact with each other.

Testing (completed by October 18 - Milestone 3):

• The low-fidelity prototype will be tested using the Wizard of Oz method. Various users will be asked to complete a range of tasks within the Debate Me app, and the paper prototype will be changed according to the user’s actions. Issues with the application will be dealt with and the design will be tweaked according to what is observed in the user testing.

• The Marvel prototyping software will be utilised to create a high fidelity prototype of Debate Me. This will take into account any feedback from the low fidelity prototyping, ensuring the design has been optimised for users.

• The high fidelity prototype will be tested in a similar manner to the low-fidelity test, however at the end of this test, the user will be interviewed, with a range of quantitative and qualitative questions about the app functionality and design. The design can then be tweaked and optimised before submission.

Tags:

#CSCW, #conversation, #emotion, #social, #privacy

Keywords: community, debating