It’s fun to analyze this case study, because all of the developers are my friends, and I worked closely with 1 of them when they were doing this app. I was going to ask them for help using an application named “Get Help!” on facebook. Unfortunately, the application is no longer exist :(, it used to be a very good place to looking for help. On second thought, I think I would be inappropriate to criticize my friends’ app in public (like this). Therefore, I decided to do a case study on the “Get Help!” app instead :P.
So this is the homepage when you access the app. I think the team want to make the request process quick and easy, so the homepage has the form to request for help. The interface in very attractive, nice icons, colors. However, there’re too many info lying around on the page. User may wonder “is that field require?”, “am I missing anything?”, “what to click next?”. At least that’s what going on in my mind. There are too many buttons to click, as a first time user I would get confuse.
Suggestion? Have a workflow for users to follow. Most of the users don’t have the “sense” like you do. I also think the team gave users too much freedom when requesting a new help. This goes back to the workflow I suggest above. I think in any UI design, a “standard” workflow has to be set and somehow force user to go that way. Otherwise we can’t control the interaction efficiently.
This is what users get when they help other users. I thought “what the heck? Who needs a badge?”. The badge is nice, yeah, but it’s not something I’d like to receive when I help other people. Say I like a girl, I definitely want something like a virtual hug/hand holding or whatever (up to your imagine haha). My point is that the badge is not attractive enough. It’s too general. The team could include more awards for user to pick rather than just badges. Also the badge does not show whom I helped, it just mean you’ve helped 10 people. For personal reason I think people want to show what did they do to whom.
Another problem is that users don’t really have needs when they add the app, so they can’t really do anything with it. This could lead them to remove the app right after they add it. Also there could be lack of “guru” to do some basic helps before you expect the users to contribute back. If possible, the developers could set up a volunteer team at first, then as soon as the community thing starts to work, they can retire :-P.
“Also there could be lack of “guru” to do some basic helps before you expect the users to contribute back. If possible, the developers could set up a volunteer team at first”
this is the cold-start problem :D