vikasvadlapatla

Thanks a lot! I moved the presentation to the top of the page. Also, I'm definitely going to change the name! :)

Clickable link!

http://www.vikasvadlapatla.com/farsquare

In the process of coming up with a wacky name, I came up with "farsquare". (Because it tells you how far your friend's are etc..) But I didn't mean it in a bad way or anything against foursquare.!!

When I eventually build this application, I will definitely change the name!

Thanks for the feedback!

I'll definitely check it out. Thanks!

I just found out about turntable.fm It does some like the same concept. I guess they beat me to the punch. Do you have any inside contact info for the folks at turntable/stickybits? ;) I tried contacting them on twitter but couldn't find their email addresses

Thanks for the feedback Peter! I do understand that these are a lot of features to begin with and a lot of people have mentioned this to me. I am currently working on streamlining the feature list.

Since the product will function on user generated music playlists, keeping the user motivated to come back and use the product is of extreme importance. And I do believe that one of the main motives for users these days (I call them User 2.0) is game mechanics. My objective with using game mechanics is not only to make the user "happy", but to keep them motivated/addicted

Hi Peter, this question came about in my second round of user interviews.. I asked users about the applications they used on a day-day basis. 9 of the 12 users mentioned Foursquare in this list.

I asked them a follow-up question to judge what made them use foursquare on a daily basis. To my surprise, all users mentioned acquiring more badges as one of their main motives. Some also mentioned the Leaderboard.

This prompted me to further ask the users whether badges and leaderboards would motivate them to use an online radio. Although most of the responses I got were quantitative, I did get a lot of qualitative feedback as well. One of the users also added that he would love to be rated by fellow users (instead of the computer). This encouraged me to ask them about the upvotes, etc..

How would you recommend me asking the users about new features?

Thanks! :)

Huh! Interesting.. pretty much what I was thinking about. Unfortunately, I could not sign up . but I would love to take a look at their product

I had three types of music rooms in mind: location-based, genre-based, and friend/follower-based.

with respect to playing tracks by the most popular users, i think you've brought about an interesting point. I am currently working on a model where, at the end of every music "round", the most popular user is decided based on upvotes scheme and he/she gets to pick an additional song for the next round.. also allowing him to unlock badges and gain more credits! So far in my user interviews, people have liked this scheme and one of the user's mentioned that a sense of "competition" enhance the playlist and the listening experience.

The third point you made is particularly intriguing and something I hadn't thought about until now..But I am sure users would want to join the room just as listeners. In that case, either the control would automatically move to the next person in queue or it would switch to a computer generated playlist based on the previously played songs.

I definitely didn't mean it in a pejorative way. I guess my question was, even though the whole concept of Lean Start-ups has gathered pace, why aren't UX folks recruited? Because essentially, both are working towards the same goal - Customer Centric iterative development.

I definitely don't think the role of a UX Researcher is a "non-essential specialization", but it is being overlooked.

This blog post emphasizes my point even more (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/02/24/designing-appropr...)

I think the concept of online portfolios have been around for quite a while now. These are what I call Resume 2.0's http://mashable.com/2011/01/17/tips-video-resumes/

I don't disagree with you at all. You make a valid argument.

But I guess the point I was trying to make was: As an end user, if I don't have to log onto a website through my browser, I don't consider myself to be ON the web. Instead I'm using a much lightweight service which gives me the same information. I am sure more and more people will resort to apps and widgets to access information online. This will result in a reduction in "website" traffic.

If I'm not mistaken, the controversial Wired article tried to say that users are switching to mobile technology(read apps) because its much sleeker, convenient and less time consuming.

After the Twitter for Mac app, I don't see myself opening my browser and logging onto twitter.com. To me, it seems like an added step to access my twitter feed

I second that thought. Also, I would highly recommend watching the Ideo Shopping Cart video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUazVjvsMHs. It'll help you understand the design process

Somewhat coincidently, I just wrote a blog about UX and UI resources. Check it out at http://vikasvadlapatla.posterous.com/learn-usability-in-2-we...