Case Study: Help me!

User Interface design:


Navigation:
The navigation bar is quite confusing. "New project" is a big red button, "Overview", and "Recommendations" are hyper links, while "Badges", "Profile", "Stats", "Invite" are tabs. I think to avoid confusion, all of them should be in the same format. I prefer the slanted tabs because they make the app look cooler. Also, the tabs could change color or something to indicate which page the user is on.


Home page (also the New Project page):
I think it's good to show users the 'New Project' page when they visit the app. But having the posting options below the input bar is quite misleading. Users may not be able to understand what the options are for, are they global settings or only applicable to the current posting. Also the first things users may want to see when visiting the app are the progress of their past projects and calls for help from other users. So I suggest that the posting options should only be shown after they click on "call for help!". The rest of the home page should be dedicated to showing other useful information.

Statistics page:
This page should be called "Leaderboard" instead. The nicknames shown next to the users' profile pics in this page are quite confusing. At first I thought "Mr. Good Samaritan", "The Great Guru"... are real Facebook names. Perhaps the real names could be put next to the profile pics instead to avoid such confusion.

Question/Project page:
This is the individual page of a need posted by a user. I think it's quite nicely done. It shows all the related information and functionality. The only thing I don't like about this page is the red buttons. They seem to draw all my attention while the thing I really need to see when visiting this page is the user's need.

Functionality and User Experience:
First, I want to comment a little bit about the idea. From what I understand, the developers were trying to create a combination of Yahoo Answers and Facebook News Feed. But for me, if I want to get help from my friends, I'll just post a big status message and tag some of the friends I know who might be able to help. If I want to get help from a bigger community, I'll just use Yahoo Answer or even Google. The problem with this app is that users don't have much incentive to use. The game mechanics can't help much. "Not everything can be gamified", said Prof Ben. If users don't have the incentive to use the app at the first place, there's no point for them to use it to gain levels and badges.

Next, the statistic page is quite "out of place". I don't think users care about who's the best helper. It would be more relevant to show statistics related to the user himself or his friends. Or if the developers want to show the leaderboard, I think they should include some options like "Ask the champion" to engage users.


Users will continue using the app if they receive useful answers for their questions. If not, they'll forget about the app after a while. Therefore, a mechanism to help users get fast and useful answers would be a good way to make the app more engaging. I would suggest some features like sending mass messages to all helpers about a user's need, or match the user with some potential helpers who have knowledge about what the user's asking.


Overall I think the biggest problem with "Get Help!" is getting a large number of users. After all, the app is all about crowdsourcing, and crowdsourcing without a crowd cannot work.