Affordances
As we mentioned in Domain and Context, the main goal of our website is to empower students at the University of Florida to understand what are communicable diseases and how to prevent them before they are contracted and to know what disease you have once it is already obtained to promote a speedy recovery. First, we talk about what are the affordances of our proposed solution and then we talk about the main components of our product. Finally, we investigate the functionalities and actions we consider to guarantee user needs are addressed.
| Affordances | Description |
|---|---|
| Media Affordances | The information about diseases are showing in text along with the pictures of common early symptoms and most common medication used. Users will have the ability to share their experience through attaching video, audio, or pictures to increase the efficacy of the collaboration. |
| Spatial Affordances | When users switch to map view in the system they are able to zoom in/out of the map to customize the range they want to look into. |
| Temporal Affordance | Accessibility: users can access the application if they have Wifi or cellular data network. Record ability: users can archive specific disease pages in their library to access it offline whenever they want, this affordance will only be available to students that create a profile and login to the system. |
| Navigation Affordances | The menu will be on the side and once they select the page the information would be shown to them in linearly style. While they are browsing a page, the pages or information (including the links) which may be related, will be shown by context suggestion feature. |
| Emphasis Affordances | The appropriate pictures are used along with detailed information to draw the attention of the user. |
| Personalization Affordance | The users can customize their profile to include a username and a profile picture if desired once the user creates a login. Also, users that have signed into the system will be able to customize their profile and are able to enter their health information so that the application can suggest information by considering those parameters. |
| Adaptation Affordances | TThe interface can be altered depending on time of use (e.g. change in colors at night). In addition, the map will be updated based on the user’s location to suggest the nearby centers, hospitals, or doctors. |
| Socialization Affordances | Users are able to share their experience with others in the forum and collaborate. In addition, users can vote whether other recommendations were helpful for them or not and build a trusted network in which others can use. Users will also be given the ability to report comments or posts that are inappropriate for the system. |
The Product
Web-based application for multi-platform use (i.e. Android, iPhone, and Desktop)
Clear application progression of disease background, preventative steps, symptoms, medications, and search/map capabilities
Switch between search and map view of local diseases
Learns from community input of common symptoms to improve search results when only given symptoms and trying to determine the disease
Create profiles to make the system more personalized
Guest users, users that have not logged in, will be able to use the system without personalization options and features (i.e. saved disease search history)
- Users should be able to:
Functionality
The ability to create a user profile
Get alerts about the outbreak communicable diseases in their area
- User must input location by agreeing to share location
Provide the top 3 symptoms which has been marked by users
Provide the timeframe of symptom duration and critical information for each disease
- User must search for a specific disease
Comment on the reviews other users have provided
Community forum for Q&A
Special marker for verified comments
- i.e. The blue marker on Twitter for verified users
Preventative tips will be visible on the home page
Each person has an associated score which increases whenever other people like or vote for his/her comments or posts that are shared with others.
- This allows people to be able to trust the posts and develop credibility
Through user profile, receive push notification either daily, weekly, or monthly.
The system will be able to locally store saved pages for the user to access while offline