Thanks Bill I am thinking of reaching out to Trip Advisor after version 1.5, but focusing on high schools initially.
Trolls are a big concern. I have a lot ideas on dealing with that, including taking advantage of the self-correcting nature of social media. I am going to add in a rating system for reports and enable users to exclude poorly rated reports from appearing on their maps. I also want to have a class of users called documentarians, and enable users to see only reports from them. Documentarians will earn half the sponsorship income from their reports, so that will hopefully lead to a bunch of high- quality postings. I also have some ideas for a report review system. All of that will be a start. If the trolling gets too be too much, I could resort to requiring that postings be reviewed before being being posted to certain categories. I have some ideas on how to use trolls as an asset, but that is not fully thought out yet. Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 7, 2017, at 6:24 PM, William Prothero via use-livecode > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Jonathon: > There are two learning processes going on. One is for the person testing the > software, the second is for you, learning what kinds of interface approaches > hang up new users. As you learn, by observing users, you will gain approaches > that minimize future user problems, and you will find that you will be able > to code in a way that avoids them. > > If it were me, I would start small with the evaluation, and do it first by > informal observation, encouraging the user to think out loud as he/she uses > the app. You will get a feel for obstacles pretty quickly. You may run out of > test users quickly if you use many of them at once, so put as much common > sense as you can into changes that you make between new testers. If this is > unsuccessful, then you will have to expend more of your resources on testing. > > Another good thing is to download and try other apps, checking to see how > their UI is set up. For example, almost every web delivered login page is the > same or similar. Why? Because they work. When numerous apps take a similar > approach, learn from them. > > Good luck. Please post what you learn from your testing. > > Another piece of advice (worth what it costs you??). Your application is > actually huge. Think Facebook and the other biggies. Maintaining it, should > it be successful, will be HUGE! Think trollers, spammers, whackos, etc, etc. > I had a site where I allowed anybody to create an account (but I had to > approve the account to activate it), and got loads of trial logins from > spammers and bots. Finally, I just disabled new accounts. I wonder if you > might want to consider narrowing the scope of your app, perhaps to a specific > education segment. Or, maybe a particular travel segment or for a specific > tour company. This would let you get your app out there and identify early > issues. A tour company might find a custom branded app that supports their > tour company to be appealing. > > Good luck, > > Best, > Bill P. > > >> On Jul 7, 2017, at 3:01 PM, Jonathan Lynch via use-livecode >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> It does help, Scott - sounds like I should segment the testing process with >> a cycle, running through the test, observe, discuss, note cycle for each >> group of functionalities. Not unlike PM methodology. >> >> Because I am looking to perfect and grow a single app over many years, I >> should be able to reliably group the functional areas for testing. >> >> Thanks! >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >>> On Jul 7, 2017, at 5:56 PM, [email protected] wrote: >>> >>> It sounds like a little bit of direct, intensive observation is worth a lot >>> of testing a a distance. >>> >>> Thanks Jeff >>> >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>>> On Jul 7, 2017, at 5:31 PM, Jeff Reynolds via use-livecode >>>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> Jonathan, >>>> >>>> I second bill's approach of watching folks use the app. Years of >>>> educational software creation taught me this. I would always make friends >>>> with a local teacher that was into tech and they usually were happy to get >>>> a period to try something on the kids if it only took one period to do in >>>> the lab and was something they thought good first. Things were so self >>>> evident on what just worked and what crashed and burned. I really found >>>> that the designs that were forced (usually by marketing) always crashed >>>> and burned, but the just good ideas that came out of what was it we were >>>> really trying to do somehow avoided most all the little design eddies that >>>> folks would get a little hung up by. But watching you could quickly see >>>> those eddies w.o having to do hard core testing. Sadly this is hard to do >>>> for free in a school anymore but hiring some kids or adults will do. >>>> >>>> It's funny as I've found the same thing with exhibit design. I would >>>> always spend a few hours just watching folks after we finished an exhibit. >>>> I found it really invaluable to find the little issues and the big ones >>>> and you could see so easily what folks were getting and what they were >>>> not, what they were looking and and not looking at and how they felt about >>>> the exhibit in the whole. Many of these exhibits got very expensive >>>> summative evaluations and I found that my just watching observations were >>>> right in line with heavy testing and many times a bit more complete and >>>> useful for potentially fixing things and learning for the future. >>>> >>>> Cheers >>>> >>>> Jeff >>>> >>>>> On Jul 7, 2017, at 1:53 PM, [email protected] wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Jonathon, >>>>> I feel your pain. In my case, I was initiated by my students and very >>>>> quickly learned how to ask the questions a newbie would ask. I also paid >>>>> small amounts to graduate students to get their feedback. >>>>> >>>>> One of my very effective testers is my grandson, my wife, any of my >>>>> colleagues who might be enticed to use the app. Looking over the shoulder >>>>> while these folks use the app can be very illuminating. >>>>> >>>>> In summary: >>>>> 1. Ask friends and relatives first. >>>>> 2. Perhaps there would be volunteers from the live ode users group. >>>>> 3. Hire high school students who might have a tech interest. Look over >>>>> their shoulders as they use the app and dialog to themselves. Actually >>>>> watching users is invaluable. >>>>> >>>>> Good luck, >>>>> Bill P >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> use-livecode mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your >>>> subscription preferences: >>>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode >> >> _______________________________________________ >> use-livecode mailing list >> [email protected] >> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription >> preferences: >> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > > > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > [email protected] > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
