Posted: February 21st, 2010 | Author: liesje | Filed under: ITP, Second Year, thesis | Tags: thesis | No Comments »
Last week, Heather (my thesis adviser) had us switch thesis presentations with another person in the class. Tim Haynes did a great job presenting my thesis idea–far better than I would have done. Sitting back and listening to his version of my presentation gave me the opportunity to think about my proposal’s shortcomings. I’d like to address a few of the questions and thoughts that came up during the feedback session.
Q. Is this just a social network or will it actually help me find a job?
A. Neither. First, this is not a job hunting site. I don’t think the world needs another version of monster.com, indeed.com, jobs.com etc, etc. I want to keep it as separate from the actual job search process as possible. It’s not used to apply for jobs–it’s used to track progress and make applying for jobs more enjoyable. That said, I’m hesitant to call the project a social network. I think that term has a lot of baggage (expected type of interactions, privacy, “profiles,” and a link to a real identity). Moreover, this is not linkedin. Whatever “networking” a user does on the site will be entirely unrelated to the networking that goes on in order to secure a job. I’m not sure what term I’ll choose in the end (or even how social network-ey the final product will be), but I’m leaning toward “social application”–something that employs social interactions to achieve a particular effect. More to come on this later.
Q. What about privacy? How public is this data? I don’t want people to know I’m unemployed/have been looking for a job for months.
A. This goes back to the no networking for the sake of job hunting concept. I don’t want actual identities to be revealed anywhere on the site. This is a safe space–you can be confident that your gripes about unemployment and the job hunt will not be heard by potential employers. As I begin to develop the design and tone of the site, it will be important to find ways to make the user feel secure.
Ideas (from group feedback):
- reward more than just job hunt-related activities
- volunteering
- classes/skills
- museum visits
- getting out of the house
- adventurous activities
- turn the process on its head
- pity points for bombing interviews
- reward lack of achievement
Thoughts (also from group feedback):
- personality is key
- should rewards be tangible?
- a site like this will (ideally) have a high churn rate
- art piece v. utility
Posted: February 20th, 2010 | Author: liesje | Filed under: Second Year, thesis | Tags: thesis | No Comments »
Download (PDF, 79.89KB)
General Purpose:
Job seeking, especially in these economic conditions, takes a huge emotional toll. Cover letters are sent off, never to be replied to. Interviews are attended, often without follow-up. On top of all that, it’s embarrassing to talk about struggling to find a job when your friends are all happily going to work every day. The internet is filled with dull and overly practical how-to guides, job search sites, and networking tips, but there is little that makes the process of finding a job more tolerable.
My Goal: To create an online space for people who are currently looking for jobs that aims to…
-reduce stress/fear of failure
-encourage goal setting through game-like mechanisms
-provide a space for mutual support
-make looking for a job a little more enjoyable
-allow people to feel more in control (even though their success is totally arbitrary/in another person’s hands)
The site is NOT:
-a place to find a job
-a place to network to find a job
-a place to look for tips on how to find a job
Tone:
- silly/snarky
- positive, but not sugar-coated
- empowering
Inspiration:
GypsySoul22: “Well, thanks to a few things, I am unemployed (again). I find myself trying not to sink into the pit of despondency again (last time it took me 6 months to get a job).
What tips or tricks or motivation tools do you use to keep sane and upbeat when out of work/looking for a job? I think it would be helpful to share them and help each other keep positive even when STRESSED by looking for employment.
I walk my dog–A LOT!! Especially in the morning when she needs to have a nice walk and I need to focus on my day. I also try to visualize positive things–like the RIGHT job. I try to remember all the BAD points of my last job so I don’t ‘regret’ leaving. I try NOT to argue with my spouse who is home ALL day because he works nights. ”
Research:
LaidOffCamp
OurGoods
Online communities
Foursquare, Newsvine, and other incentive-based systems
Interviews with (unemployed/job-seeking/previously job-seeking) friends
Potential ways to Interact:
- set goals for the week (i.e. “I will apply to 5 jobs this week” or “I will spend 4 hours this week looking for jobs online”) and see how you measure up. applying to jobs is a numbers game–the more you apply for, the more likely it is that you will hear back.
- update your status (and earn points/badges/something) each time you check something off your to-do list.
- earn points for applying to jobs, double them if you land an interview (or some other rewards incentive)
- bitch to other people about how obnoxious the job market is (but not in a depressed way.)
…TBD.
Look for a formal proposal write-up and schedule by 2/22!
Posted: February 1st, 2010 | Author: liesje | Filed under: thesis | Tags: beeme, thesis | No Comments »
I’ve been thinking a lot about thesis ideas lately. Chances are, my thesis is going to be related to the devleopment of BeeMe (www.beeme.biz), a mobile-based customer loyalty card and referral program for small businesses. Recently, I’ve been trying to come up with a reasonably stand-alone part of the development that I am interested in researching/implementing over the course of the semester. The following is a description of the problem I’m currently looking into addressing. (Note: There is still a chance that I won’t do anything related to this at all. It also depends on what the rest of the BeeMe team is doing for their thesis. We’re meeting to discuss that, hopefully for the final time, tonight. If I don’t do this, I will develop something related to urban gardening…more details to come if that happens).
_____BACKGROUND INFO__________________
BeeMe:
Small businesses need help. They drive the economy, bring diversity, and encourage innovation, but they’re vulnerable and can’t compete with the big guys. Their number one need is new customers, but traditional marketing and advertising are too expensive. Ads, flyers, and coupons? Ineffective and costly. Online ads? They lack content and credibility.
BeeMe is a next generation loyalty punchcard for the mobile platform that gives small businesses a louder voice in the marketplace.
For businesses:
Loyalty. Keep customers coming back with tailored incentives and rewards. Business owners have specifically asked us for a way to reach and reward their most loyal customers. BeeMe’s Star Program, does just turns the most valuable clients into “insiders”, offering them access to exclusive sales, discounts and promotions.
Word of Mouth. Let your customers do the taling. Amp up word of mouth marketing by encouraging customers to share your store. BeeMe generates word of mouth by giving customers a persistent record of stores that they can share with their friends.
Analytics. Get the advantage of big company rewards programs at a fraction of the price, and observe customer behaviors and trends through detailed analytics. BeeMe’s clients can be confident that their marketing dollars aren’t going to waste.
For Customers:
Shop. Find new stores, keep track of favorites, and browse your punch cards by name, location, and type of business. No more clutter in your wallet!
Share. Share your favorite stores with your friends and get punches when they become customers.
Save. Get “punches” for purchases and referrals, then fill up your card to qualify for special discounts and promotions. Become a Star Member at your favorite stores and get inside info on secret sales.
_____THESIS PROPOSAL____________________
I think that the motivation to use BeeMe’s punchcard is obvious (save $$), but the part that needs work relates to how to motivate users to share a store’s information with their friends.
I’m not sure that the “sharing” element of BeeMe is structured correctly. In its current iteration, shoppers are able to send (“beem”) a punchcard of a store to a friend’s BeeMe account. (see http://beeme.biz/video.html for a sample interaction) I think this looks like it works well in the video, but I have a feeling that in practice it will work less smoothly than that. There are 6 problems I have with the current structure:
1. Customers are only able to issue a card to any given friend once.
2. Any person can only be “beamed” a card by one person. After that, they already have the card.
3. A customer is rewarded for having been sent to a store by a friend, but not for going to a store by his/her own initiative.
5. There is financial incentive for referring a friend to the store. This may or may not make referrals less meaningful. Does it feel like you are cheapening your referral? Does it feel like you are earning money off your friends?
6. There are other social store-going behaviors that can (and maybe should) be rewarded. Some examples are:
-going with a group of friends
-weekly trips to the same store
I intend to improve, test, and design the interaction for, and potentially implement the BeeMe’s referral system.
I want to explore different options and evaluate them using user testing.
First step: Brainstorming and research (2 weeks, done 1/15)
Brainstorming questions:
1. How can I get people to use something like this without financial incentive? Experiment: Design a friend-based recommendation system with no financial rewards. Focus instead on social capital, game-like systems, etc.
Research:
overt recommendations: yelp, friendtofriend.com, twitter (sometimes)
ambient recommendations: delicious, friendtofriend.com, twitter (sometimes)
implicit recommendations: foursquare, twitter (sometimes)
• Is there a way to make the actual implantation more enjoyable to use?
Research:
bump
handshake
• Should it be possible to “beem” cards to people who you are not talking to in person?
• Is there another understandable rewards system that enables other social behaviors to be rewarded?
Research
- current rewards systems
- friends sales for employees of a store
Next steps:
- user feedback
- refinement
- interim prototype test
- refinement
- final prototype
–>if there is time: final prototype test
Final deliverable:
A social rewards system implemented on a mobile platform that encourages users to share loyalty punchcards with their friends.
