T1 Summary

[jessieli24]

T1 Summary

Summary

• Most feedback came verbally, but we also collected 8 survey responses
• Users were most attracted to our short-form style of content delivery
• Most felt that our app adequately addressed short attention spans, a relevant issue, but about one-third still thought our solution was insufficient
• Area that needed the most improvement was aesthetics, followed by additional functionality

Observations

• Estimate 15+ email signups, but not all real
• Most users immediately thought of TikTok
• Some confused about the swiping scheme in Watch; several users were unsure how to transition from one video to the next. Most tried to swiping up and were surprised to see the Deep Dive appear instead. Will probably need to provide a short training module after onboarding.
• Slight delay in loading videos
• Some tried tilting phone horizontally for a better view of the (landscape) video
• App crashed for some users while swiping in Watch mode
• Mostly stayed on Watch and Explore, few navigated to Shared With Me and Account on their own

Analysis

• 75% thought short-form content was the most interesting/useful feature of our app, followed by automated clipping (50%). User relationships was one of the least-selected options, capturing only 25% of votes. Specific aspects they liked include:
  • Ability to select different types of content
  • Sharing feature
  • Being able to see where in the overall video the clip is
  • Preference-aligned recommendations
  • How our app incorporates pre-existing patterns in social media
• Users perceived the goal of our app being:
  • Provide a more educational, but still entertaining alternative to TikTok
  • Make content digestible and interesting
  • Make them feel productive while scrolling
  • Make learning more convenient by introducing users to new topics that align with their interests, so they don’t have to search for what to learn next.
• While the majority (62.5%) believed that our app addressed the problem of shortening attention spans, 37.5% believed that our app could be doing more.
• Nearly 75% identified aesthetics as the top area of improvement, followed by additional features, selected by 57%. Some additional features users suggested include:
  • Topic indicator in Watch
  • Better differentiation between like/dislike
  • Occasionally asking users why the disliked a video

Notes To Future Us

• Expand functionality and content base
• Refine clipping algorithm and recommendation generator
• Smooth transitions between videos (load asynchronously)
• Provide more visual feedback/indicators of the user’s current state (what topic they’re on, whether they liked or disliked a video)

Teamwork

• Good overall, teams were mostly synchronized

What has been working well?

• Sharing and updating documentation so other team members can stay on the same page
• Feedback from someone on a different sub-team
• All-team collaborative working sessions
• Requiring reviews on PRs

What has not?

• Procrastination
• Not scheduling group meetings ahead of time, so people often have conflicts that prevent them from joining

Steps

• Communicate more regularly – group members should update each other throughout the week and voice concerns when they come up, instead of waiting for our weekly sprint meetings
• Offer help if other team members are behind

[timofei7]

Good points! Communication and scheduling regularly are super helpful.

First things first for this term, get a fully working deployed version for testing with. Then I think getting good clip generation happening will be important. How can you help folks get at the content they want to learn from faster. I wonder if integrating some prompt engineering to get support for more of a learning narrative. You feed your clips into it and ask it to guide the user through them, like give people a goal for each short. "Here is a clip to help you understand concept X which will help you to do Y".

Overall, I think there have been some stumbles along the way last term, but things seem clearer now so hopefully the project will start coming together quickly in the next couple of weeks!