Website With Groups Calendering And Recommendations – Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

Working Title:
TK

Our Goal:
For people to make informed decisions based on the tribal knowledge amongst their trusted group and enabling them to act upon these decisions.

An Intuitive User Experience
This front end needs to be clean and crisp. We need an intuitive, well designed ‘Web 2.0′ interface that is ‘natural’ to use.
o Simple layout.
o Centered orientation.
o Subtle gradients.
o Soft, neutral background colors.
o Plenty of whitespace.
o Nice big text.
o Big buttons.
o Consistency
o Integrated with other key social platforms

Examples of websites we like include:
• www.shopsocial.ly
• Yelp.com
• Mint.com
Technology:
Built on Google Ap Engine
Python

Basic Site Functionality

1) Basic Site Functionality

– Search and Browse (on multiple defined data elements)
o Criteria of search
 Activities
 Recommendations
• Site wide
• Within own groups
 Tags
 Tag Cloud search (?)b
– Create / Edit / Delete Personal Groups
– Rate
o Share rating only (Broadly – With entire site)
o Share rating and comments (Specifically – to trusted group / s)
o Share rating with other social platforms (Twitter / Facebook)
 Integration required which brings people back to the TK
– Rating Approval:
o A system of gaining points for your ratings and thoughtful comments from your friends and the broader community
o Should have layers of status – e.g. Four Square has Mayor, Sheriff, etc. We could use the tribe paradigm for Chief, Founder, Leader, etc. Perhaps allow people some monikers – like American Indians did? “Flys like the wind”, “loves animals”, etc.
o Ratings by key data types:
 Cost
 Quality
 Cleanliness
 Fun
 Safety
 Accessible to Public Transport
– We need to factor in the “proximity” of services. So that services within the specified (5, 10, 20 miles) radius are shown first. Once all of them are shown, then there is a prompt to “widen my search”.
– Need to include maps (which will probably come with base data) and directions and allow the services that we use to be stored in their profile. User shd be able to say “use my current location” to get directions to the activity business.

Considerations:
People should be able to create more than one trusted group of Friends.

2) Admin dashboard for site management
– Create / Edit / Delete groups
– Create / Edit / Delete accounts
– Link / Unlink accounts to groups
– Upload standard sized advertisement / integrated into ad network
– Ad revenue distribution

3) Member login and member area
– User registration
– Create / Edit / Delete User Profile (data, pictures)
– Own pages to share with group:
o Photos
– Calendar (visibility to be set according to permissions i.e family versus friends versus teachers versus the ‘outside’ world)
o Integrate data with other social media platforms i.e updates of what activities you are doing or are about to do can be populated across other platforms
– Fields to integrate with other social media platforms
– Login
– Password reset
– Add PayPal information

4) Static pages such as:

– About Us
– Contact Us
– FAQs
– Support / Help

5) Customer signup
• To include common signup fields (
• Take them to page to bring contacts across from their preferred social media platforms:
o Twitter
o Facebook
o Flickr

Main Links – Visible to all:
• Home (default landing page)
• Browse Links(See browse functionality below)
• Search1 Links (See search functionality below)
• Share with Group (Specify which group / groups)
• Send recommendation to specific Friend (Not whole group)
• About Us
• How It Works (see “How It Works” functionality to be completed in Appendix 1)
• Contact Us
• Support / Help
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service

Sample Footer design:

SAMPLE FUNCTIONALITY BY USER LEVEL
LEVEL 0 – ALL USERS – NO SIGNUP REQUIRED

Functionality (all users, no signup necessary)
1. Browse broad recommendations i.e. those recommendations that are ‘open’
2. Search data activities
3. Browse / search for specific people
4. Unregistered people can see the overall ratings but need to register to see the specific ratings, comments or add a comment, rating
5. Ask to join group – Need to upgrade membership (or register) if accepted to join group
6. Create new group – Need to upgrade membership to create own group

LEVEL 1 – COMMUNICATIONS ONLY / SIGNUP FOR EMAILS

Includes all functionality as general site and

Signup:
1. Signup for communications around specific activities: (formatted HTML or text email options)
a. Required fields =
i. Email / Zip / 2-3 activities – should be very easy / quick to do – single box on top nav of all pages with key fields and “Join” button)
2. Ability to upgrade to “Basic Member”, “UserType1” or “UserType2” by clicking “Upgrade” button and providing additional required fields

Functionality (all users, Automatic subscriptions to email updates / Opt out required)
1. Opt in for email communications
2. Preference can be set based on:
a. Company communications
b. Group Communications
c. Specific activity updates (Daily or weekly digest)

LEVEL 2 – BASIC MEMBERS – (NOT NECESSARILY A USERTYPE1)

Includes all functionality as general site and

Signup:
1. Join as a ‘Basic Member’
a. Required fields =
i. Name,
ii. Email (email = username),
iii. Password (must be repeated)
b. Optional fields =
i. Address,
ii. City,
iii. State,
iv. ZIP,
v. Homepage
vi. Personal Bio,
vii. Comments
viii. Family Page (Permission based access)
ix. Calendar (Permission based Access Tiers: Family / Group / S)
1. Need to integrate with Iphone / Blackberry / Outlook / Facebook/ there is a calendaring standard – will look it up)
2. Ability to upgrade from Basic Member to “UserType1” or “UserType2” by clicking “Upgrade” button and providing additional required fields

Functionality:
1. Opt in for email communications (FORMATTED HTML EMAIL).
2. Offer Twitter type functionality – so that group members can “follow” news that is relevant to them From trusted group
a. Include suggested most popular filters
3. Request to receive notifications whenever:
a. Any new “Recommendation / Rating” in areas of interest is added
b. A new “Recommendation / Rating” is added with certain tag(s)
c. A “Recommendation / Rating” from a member of my group / s

LEVEL 3 – USERTYPE1

Requires signup as a UserType1 and includes all functionality as general site and

Signup:
1. Join “Link” TK as a ‘UserType1′
a. Required fields =
i. Name,
ii. Email (email = username),
iii. Password,
iv. State,
v. Country,
vi. Language,
vii. “Group” to Join (if signing up through Invite),
viii. Bio,
1. Family Interests
2. Age?
3. Favorite Recommendations “Link”s
4. etc.
3. Recommendations:
a. Create recommendations
b. Add rating
c. Add Comments (Default – sharable with group; can ‘open’ to broader site)
d. Add link to website of service
e. Send recommendation to group / or specific friend
f. Send recommendation to other social platform
g. Other can give ‘Kudos’ for good recommendations or recommendations they agree with
i. Creating a weight based on others agreeing with your recommendation
4. Calendar:
a. Create and share calendar (Permission based: Family / Group / Specific friend (one off)
5. Integration upon signup and login
a. Take them to page to bring contacts across from their preferred social media platforms:
i. Twitter
ii. Facebook
iii. Flickr

Leave a Reply