I finally put together a page with links to all main elements of the project. It’s at www.keyzz.com with links to the prototype, this blog, the development timeline and to my personal online portfolio.
Project main page
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Project development interactive timeline
An interactive timeline showcasing the project’s milestones is now live at timeline.keyzz.com. Check it out!
The timeline was created using TimelineJS, a open source framework to create interactive timelines that can pull media from different sources. It is also available as a WordPress plugin.
Final thesis book
The final thesis book for the project is ready and being printed at Blurb.
1st draft of Keyzz presentation’s intro video
Here’s the first draft for the intro video created to showcase Keyzz main attractions during the final review presentation.
1st draft of user testing results video
1st draft of use case scenarios video
Photo Upload Functionality with HTML5
I implemented the upload interface for when users are listing a property. I decided to use a plugin that takes advantage of HTML5’s new File Reader API, the also new Drag & Drop API, and AJAX (with the addition of binary data transfer).
The open source jQuery plugin is called FileDrop v0.1.0 and was created by Weixi Yen and can be found under MIT license at a Github repository.
Visual Design Progress
The dashboard and property details overall structure and visual design is complete.
Here’s the evolution of the design of those pages from wireframe to final design.
Edit property rates page on 8th version of the wireframe prototype created with Axure
Detail of edit property rates page on 10th version of the wireframe prototype created with Axure
Edit property rates page final design
Dashboard page on 8th version of the wireframe prototype created with Axure
Dashboard page on 10th version of the wireframe prototype created with Axure
Dashboard — Final Design
Dashboard with exclusive hosting turned on — Final design
Interactive Walkthrough Prototype Plan
I finished the planing for the interactive prototype that I will present on the Final Review on May 17th.
It consists of an interactive walkthrough with 4 scenarios and 16 individual tasks. It is divided in two sections for the different target users: guests and hosts.
The users will be taken through the prototype with popup guiding messages made with jQuery. All the user have to do is follow the instructions that pop up.
Click on the image to see the infographic (plan) in large format.
An independent competitive analysis
Matthew Niederberger published a quick usability comparison test in his blog ActualInsights* called Remote User Testing: Airbnb vs Wimdu.
He did a remote test using UserTesting.com with 5 users and the goal of the test was have first time users analyse and compare their first impressions on both web applications.
The results are interesting and Matthew’s experience in the travel industry helped him produce very smart insights. It was well worth reading the whole article. I got some good ideas and insights for the project.
I have been meaning to use UserTesting.com for a while and thought I would finally be able to use it on this version of the prototype (version 10), but after reading this article and watching how UT works I had the impression that it would not really work on a prototype. I seems like a remote testing service more suited for live websites. At least that was my overall impression.