Blacksburg, VA., Feb 20, 2015 – “It’s all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you’re properly trained.” – Queen Elizabeth. Before athletes perform on game day, they spend a lot of time in preparation and training. Before students take a test, they spend a good amount of time studying, and in essence, training. Before we take on this big project, we’ll spend time in research and in preparation.
This week, we conducted a literary review and analysis. We searched for articles that would provide possible research and information towards our system of “photo clouds”. “We are trying to get a grasp of current social media trends to determine if there is a desire for the system like the one we are designing,” said Matt. Through analysis, we recognized a need for a powerful back end system. Security and stability will be the key focus for the back end.
In addition, we conducted a competitive analysis by creating a competitor matrix. Our group pursued applications with similar goals as our goals. We picked Xim, Carousel, Flickr, Sharypic, Cluster, Picasa, Phanfare, SmugMug, Shutterfly, Facebook, Eversnap, and Instagram. Also, we brainstormed possible dimensions based on some of the goals. The matrix was created and formed an analysis for each application. One thing we learned was that some of the applications that we initially liked had big cons.
The Photo Clouds Team is a team of three senior level computer science students at Virginia Tech: Matthew Bock, Romico Macatula, and Tyler Haines. All three of them have extensive skill sets in computer science after their years of study. With several semesters of experience in the field of human-computer interaction at their disposal, the team is dedicated to creating the best experience possible for their users through rigorous testing and design iteration.
