Tag: pass-it-on

Blacksburg, VA, May 1st, 2015: In the past weeks the team at Pass It On! Inc have been working constantly  to improve the site. The site now has basic functionality for almost all features and is also fully mobile accessible! The team as always is looking for feedback on the site, so feel free to report any feedback at: http://goo.gl/forms/5vqxOhLQEs

This week the team presented Pass It On! at the Virginia Tech Undergraduate Research in Computer Science (VTURCS) Spring Research Symposium. Feedback was wonderful and the team had a great time at the event. At the end of the event the team placed exceptionally well during the results taking home:
●      2nd Place for the Marston Award
●      2nd Place for the People’s Choice Award
●      3rd Place for the Capstone Award
Huge thanks to everyone who came out to support them!

“VTURCS was a great event and was a good chance to explain Pass It On! to people who likely weren’t familiar with the project! I think that the feedback we got was overwhelmingly great which really shows how committed we’ve been to this project” said Matthew Chittum, a frontend developer for Pass It On!.

“Our project was so different from everyone else at VTURCS I was worried how well we would be received. I was both confused and excited when I heard our names called not once, or even twice but three times. It is an amazing feeling to know that our hard work was appreciated and recognized”  from Minahm Kim, developer for Pass It On! Reported.

“It was neat to go out to VTURCS and see all of the other projects and our peer’s work from this semester.  I was really proud of our team and the work that we have done this semester!” Joshua White

Currently the team is finishing up the evaluation for Pass It On! and are considering their future options. The team plans to consider developing Pass It On! through the summer to work with their sponsor Dr. Horning to perform a more thorough evaluation with his Graduate students and to possibly try to do a regional test on Virginia Tech’s campus! Be on the look out for future news from Pass It On!

Blacksburg, VA, April 17, 2015: The team is proud to announce they have a high-­fidelity prototype up and running! They have been hard at work for the past week putting it together but it is now running albeit with some bugs. This is to be expected, but regardless the team is happy to be able to show off their vision for the site and are constantly working to make revisions. If you’re interested in viewing the current site go to: http://cs4784.cs.vt.edu/passiton/. Please report any bugs or feedback at the following link: http://goo.gl/forms/BGCJaueqln

“I’m really glad to be able to publicly demo our work so far. Actually having the site running really makes me feel a sense of accomplishment and I’m looking forward to hearing feedback from everyone” said Matthew Chittum.

Currently the team is making constant improvements to the site as quickly as possible in order for users to have the best experience possible. The team wants to improve the site as much as possible before beginning their evaluation next week. The team plans to improve the site based on initial feedback at least through the middle of next week before beginning their evaluation.

The team has plans to begin their evaluation next week to ensure they have time to reach out to as many evaluators as possible. They have plans to work with Dr. Horning, their sponsor, and his graduate students to provide the base evaluation. The team also has plans to recruit local participants using social media and is considering using crowdsourcing also if they cannot recruit enough participants.

The team was able to accomplish many of their goals despite the hard time frame pushed on them. However, these functionalities need to be further polished and developed. This coming week the main focus of the team will be form validation with warning modals, implementation of the review system, implementation of the scheduling system, implementing a search system, as well as the user management system. The system will continue to undergo revisions as we come closer to a final product.

Blacksburg, VA, April 10, 2015: In the past week the team has continued development on Pass It On!, having plans to have a functioning high-fidelity prototype working by the end of next week. The team has also been working to come up with an evaluation plan for the following weeks so they can continue to make revisions to the system.

Since last week the team has made some major modifications to the interface for the system for what they believe will be a much more enjoyable user experience. Most of the changes have been in the form of a modified menu which they believe will help the site flow better. Changes to some of the page layouts and option menus have been made to make the site more accessible. All of the pages necessary for the site to function have been implemented and currently the team is making refinements to these pages and working on linking them to the servers.

The team has also worked to come up with a solid evaluation plan for the week after getting the high-fidelity prototype working. The main focus of the evaluation will be user interactivity and how the team can improve the site from a user’s standpoint. As a final goal we hope to have a working service capable of account creation, the posting of services, and creating a secure environment for transactions. For our evaluation, we will work with our sponsor and one of his graduate classes to analyze and breakdown our product and its effects on a community.

“I’ve been focused hard and working with Minahm to finish the front end work. I feel like we’ve come up with a solid plan and I’m looking forward to share it with everyone once we have it completed” – Matthew Chittum

“I’ve been learning a lot recently about designing the database for the back end of a web site, but I’ve also been making a lot of progress! The tables are all done for the database and now I’m going to start hooking it up to the front end!” – Joshua White

“Although we had many challenges this week, we were able to get a lot accomplished. We were able to establish the structure of our backend as well as beginning implementation. This week will be very important as our goals will include setting up a login system and finalizing the website design.” -Minahm Kim

Blacksburg, VA, April 3, 2015: This week Pass It On! has made large strides towards finalizing development. The team agreed on definite rolls for backend and frontend work, with work moving at a very fast pace. With definite roles being assigned and tasks being assigned, the team is confident in having a great product in the future.

“I’m solely working on the front­end aspects of the site, which I really enjoy since I find interface design to be fun and rewarding. I’m looking forward to gaining feedback of my work once we have the site functioning” ­ Matthew Chittum

“I’m starting to work on the back­end of the site this week. It’s really exciting for me because this is the first time I’ve gotten to work with the back end of a site!” ­Joshua White

Since last week, the team has brainstormed and came up with changes to the UI of the site. Some of these changes were created by members of the team while other changes were from suggestions from the presentation last week. The team plans to develop with the User primarily in mind, planning to perform more usability testing in the upcoming month once the site is in a functional state.

“Feedback from our testers and peers has been extremely valuable in helping us make design decisions.” ­Alex Ciccone

As decisions are made on design, the usability of the website is becoming concrete. These decisions also allow for the team to begin organization of our backend and linking it to the front end.

This coming week with the implementation of the back end, the team hopes to have the connection established to allow for user account creation and login. During this development the team will keep security in mind to provide users with a sense of comfort and confidence. The team is working hard to bring this project to fruition as quick as possible while keeping high quality in mind. Follow the team as they make progress to a final product.

“We are making good progress, planning out our back end, and making decisions on usability and design. The team is gaining momentum as we make leaps in development to a final product.” ­Minahm Kim

Blacksburg, VA, March 27, 2015: This week the team at Pass It On! Inc was excited to share its work at a public demo. During the demo, the team gained valuable feedback concerning some of its features and came up with some great ideas for how to handle the implementation. The team felt the presentation was a great success and was glad to be able to demonstrate its progress so far.

“I was really excited to share our progress with everyone this week. Feedback seemed positive with us receiving quite a bit of constructive feedback. I’m looking forward to having a much more robust product to show to everyone soon.” ­ Matthew Chittum

“Our Go­NoGo presentation went well this week and it was good to get feedback from our class as well. I’ve also started learning how to do the back end coding for the website this week!” ­ Joshua White

This week the team met with their sponsor, Dr. Horning, and discussed definite plans for the semester. The team discussed a few design decisions and worked out some of the mechanics about the service. Another topic of discussion was the basic goals for the semester.

“We met with our sponsor this week to discuss our current progress. Dr. Horning was impressed with our progress thus far and is excited to see what else is in store. As we finish up settling some of the overall design aspects, our team will start development on the backend, organizing and setting up databases as well as connecting the front and back end together. I believe we are on track to reaching basic service by the end of the semester” ­ Minahm Kim

In the coming weeks, development will continue with plans to have a high­ fidelity prototype finished by late April. After this prototype, the team will conduct usability testing with possibly a closed­beta version of the site launching to selected users. If you’re interested in participating in this, keep an eye out for more announcements in the coming weeks.

“The Pass It On! group has made good progress on developing the front of their prototype. They’ve given a lot of thought to how they will visualize profiles, what content to include, and how to establish the credibility of people using the site. The next step will be to focus on developing the back­end database and work towards a functional prototype.” ­ Dr. Michael Horning

Blacksburg, VA, March 20, 2015: The team at Pass It On! Inc have been hard at work for the past week developing prototypes for an upcoming demo. The team believes they have came up with a solid design that everyone will be excited to see. With the user experience in mind, the team plans to move forward into evaluation and to begin full development soon.

“It is exciting to see a product take form as we begin prototyping. The research we did and other steps we took are finally coalescing into a product and it is only a matter of time before we go live and make a difference” ­ Minahm Kim

For prototyping, the team wanted to evaluate a wide range of possibilities from phone application development to website development and possibly even to smart­watch usability. Though the team felt some of the ideas fell short in the end, they wanted to evaluate as many options as possible to ensure the best experience for the user. With this in mind the team has decided to move forward developing Pass It On! solely as a website with the idea being to integrate both mobile and desktop environments for the widest possible usability scenarios.

“Prototyping is fun because it lets the whole team be truly creative. During our brainstorming process we’re able to come up with ideas that we hadn’t originally considered. I’m looking forward to showing off our prototype soon!” ­ Matthew Chittum

“Designing the mockups was great fun, I’ve done mock ups for a website before but I’ve never gotten to do one for a Smartwatch!” ­ Joshua White

In the upcoming weeks, the team plans to expand their prototype even further to encompass as many features as possible for a full evaluation. A full evaluation will involve a presentation of the team’s best design ideas to peers in the industry and the sponsor. This will be a great opportunity for the team to hear feedback about good or bad ideas. Beyond that, the team is also currently finalizing plans to fully implement the site, with plans to release an initial version in late May. If you are interested in participating in prototype evaluation, email Alex!

“I look forward to our presentation next week as we finally be able to unveil some ideas, and we will also be getting some valuable feedback from our peers and mentors.” ­ Alex Ciccone

Blacksburg, VA, March 6, 2015: Through the past week the members of Pass It On! Inc have been conducting interviews to gather user feedback to help improve their product. With five diverse interviews having been conducted, the group feels that it has gathered information to help design Pass It On!

For interviewing each member of Pass It On! was asked to find an ideal candidate, someone who they thought fit the system best, and to ask them to perform tasks from some sites the team discovered during the Competitive Analysis. When performing these tasks the interviewees were asked feedback questions related to their experience using all of these sites.

Results were primarily focused on user experience. Some of the most common complaints were that the layouts of two of the sites they used were very poor and detracted from the experience. Another common feedback was that one of the sites was limited in location and if you were out of their service area then the site was unusable. Analyzing these results and feedback will help the team sort their ideas and will help to improve the design of Pass It On!

Starting soon the team plans to move onto prototyping, keeping in mind the feedback they have gathered over the past week. The team is excited to be able to move some of their ideas for the site from paper into actual mockups. If you or anyone you know are interested in providing feedback in the coming weeks of these prototypes, email Alex!

Some Quotes from the team:

“The contextual inquiry went well this week, I’m really excited to start on the prototypes next week!” -Joshua White

“I’m very excited to begin work on prototyping. I have some great ideas and I think it will be fun to finally visualize our system. The feedback from the contextual inquiry will be very helpful when coming up with our designs.” -Matthew Chittum

Blacksburg, VA, February 27, 2015: The members of Pass It On! Inc have been diligently busy for the past week working hard to bring Pass It On! together. One of the main developments for the past week has been that Pass It On! has gained a Sponsor!

Dr. Horning will be joining Pass It On! Inc in a leadership role, providing consulting and oversight to the group. Dr. Horning is a professor within the Communications Department at Virginia Tech. His main focus of study is the social and psychological effects of communications. Already, he has provided valuable sources as we move into contextual analysis and eventually prototyping. The group looks forward to working with Dr. Horning and is excited for what they can produce together with him.

“Dr. Horning is an experienced professional who can provide us invaluable information to us especially in terms of design and building out the community that will make Pass it On! a successful application” ­ Minahm Kim

“I’m excited to hear that Dr. Horning has joined the team as a sponsor. I’m sure he will be a valuable asset to have as we move forward with the project.” ­ Matthew Chittum

“After working on the planning document I’m very excited about getting started on designing the website. I’m also very excited about our sponsor Dr. Horning!” ­ Joshua White

“Pass It On! Inc has really gained some momentum after picking up Dr. Horning as a sponsor, I am eager to begin our contextual inquiry.” ­ Alex CIccone

Past this, the group has been working hard to come up with a solid implementation plan for the upcoming months. Plans to conduct a contextual inquiry have been finalized and will be executed next week, allowing Pass It On! to gain valuable related user information. A survey to gather user interest and feedback is planned to be sent out next week. Also, plans to perform in­person interviews are being finalized currently (if you are interested in the project and would like to be a part of the contextual inquiry, email Alex!).

Blacksburg ,Va, February 20th, 2015 ­

This past week was an exciting one. Despite the snow, our team worked hard, conducting due diligence as we analyzed our competition and began research on our market. We have found that we have the opportunity to fill a unique niche, a time bank system that unlike existing systems, will not be limited to a specific region, but available to any location where people are willing to participate. There are other systems similar to what we want to do but they are plagued by a few things, including but not limited to restricted effective area, unorganized leadership, subject to taxes, etc.

Here are some interesting facts about time banking that you may not have known.

● Time banking provides a sense of comradery to a community.
● The United States government cannot tax time.
● Alternative currency provides a sense of security that conventional currency does not.
● Brings a sense of equality to all people diminishing the wealth gap that can be prominent in communities.

As we finish our due diligence and research so that we can develop the most appropriate service possible, we will take our beginning steps to design and structure, in turn bringing us one step closer to the release of Pass It On!

In the coming weeks we plan on having our primary design set up, and then conducting usability testing to assure that our design is intuitive and appropriate. If you are interested in participating as a usability tester, please send an e­mail to our contact, Alex Ciccone, whose e­mail is listed at the top of this release.

We will soon have a mailing list to receive updates, as well as a facebook page.

“The idea is called time banking, and it is based on the simple notion that time is equal for all people. In this system, services can be exchanged based on how long it takes to complete them, rather than on a market value determined by supply and demand. Raking the local massage therapist’s leaves for one hour can be traded for a 60­minute Swedish massage, in other words.”

USA News

Time Banks provide New Way to Spend an Hour

BLACKSBURG, VA, February 13th, 2015 -­ Pass It On! of Blacksburg, VA is an online marketplace that uses an unconventional form of currency, favors. It will provide a digital platform where users can confidently help others and be sure that their time was not wasted. A small fledgling company, it is driven forward by the energy and creativity by its young development team. All members of the development team are confident young individuals with experience in user experience and software development.

Pass It On! Group is comprised of a small team of four: Minahm Kim, CEO and project manager. Alex Ciccone, marketing coordinator and software engineer. Matthew Chittum, Lead UI developer. and Joshua White, lead UX designer.

The mission of Pass It On! is to provide a friendly and safe environment where people can showcase their abilities and be able to help their neighbors with an assurance that their efforts do not go unnoticed and unrecognized. We hope to bring back a sense of comradery among communities.

Our team is in the process of market research and competitive analysis to determine the viability of our product, as well as how to establish our position into the market. This is an important step to producing a successful product as it allows us to see what it will take to establish ourselves within the market. In the upcoming weeks we will continue to develop our concept and begin selecting our framework and software to begin prototyping.

If you would like to keep up to date with our progress or have any questions please send an e­mail to Alex Ciccone at acicconne@vt.edu.

“This is a revolutionary idea that has never been explored before. It’s a project that I’m very excited to be a part of and I am looking forward to sharing our work with everyone.” ­-Matthew Chittum

“The Pass It On! system will change the way we interact with and give back to with our community by encouraging people to help others. The world needs a system like Pass It On!” ­-Alex Ciccone

“I am excited to be working with this team to bring a fantastic idea into reality. It is a unique idea that can really change how things work once it gains traction. Keep an eye out for us!” ­-Minahm Kim