Michael Altebrando (alte640@umd.edu)Kevin Doran (kevinmdoran@gmail.com)

Stephanie Nacios (steph.nacios@gmail.com) Tania Thawley (tmthawley@yahoo.com)

12/09/08

Terpslist – UMD’s Online Classifieds

The Problem - SustainabilitySustainability basically means that resources

of any type are used in a way that those resources can be replenished at an equal or greater rate than they are being consumed.

College campuses have much room for improvement in the ways of sustainability. With many students packed in a very small area, waste and consumption are both very high.

College students in particular are notorious for being very wasteful but short on funds.

Current ApproachesSites like craigslist, Facebook

Marketplace, Freecycle, and Swaptree all provide outlets for their users to sell or barter goods and in ways promote sustainability by doing so.

These sites however have very broad emphases which limit certain user bases from partaking in the sites’ services.

The Idea - TerpslistThe idea behind Terpslist is to give both

students and faculty of the University of Maryland an outlet to reduce wastefulness in a financially efficient way.

We aimed to limit the locale of the user base and provide the security and assurance that the University’s in place authentication can provide.

Both students and faculty will be able to use the site to exchange goods and information to promote sustainability while also focusing on doing it for the least amount of money possible.

The ResolutionFrom a sustainability perspective, Terpslist

aims to reduce the at times massive amounts of waste on college campuses through reusing as much of it as possible.

By providing an outlet for students and faculty to sell items, large amounts of would-be waste are reused.

If saving money on goods wasn’t enough for users, Terpslist also provides “green tips” which suggest ways of being more sustainable in day to day life which very often saves money.

Login Screen

Home Page

Browse Listings Page

Preview Listing Page

Contact User Page

Successful Contact

Search Listings Page

Preview Listing Page

Submit Listing Page

Submission Error Page

Feedback Page

Thank You Page

Help Overview Page

Submit Listing Help

Search Help Page

Feedback Help Page

Contact User Help

Navigation Help

Usability Test Method

Tested 9 subjects with pre-test, tasks and post-test.Almost even number of men/women

Watched subjects while they completed the tasks and made observations on what was difficult or frustrating for them.

Task List1. Login using your university ID and password.

2. You no longer need or want the brown chair from your room. Since the chair is in good condition, you would like to sell it for $20. Post the item, making sure to include an item description, price and alternate email address (use test@test.com for this task).

3. Now that you have made room by getting rid of your chair, it is time to search for a new couch. Choose to search the site by keyword. Browse all of the couches available and choose the green one that is offered for free. Contact the user who posted the item and let them know you are interested in their couch.

4. Next you would like to browse the site for any items that you may need but can't think of specifically. Browse until you locate an add for a used coffee maker that interests you (the first coffee maker located is fine for this task). Contact the user who posted the and let them know you are interested.

5. While on Terpslist you think of a new feature you think would be a nice addition to the website. Send your new idea to the Terpslist website using the Feedback form

6. Now that you have taken care of your shopping needs, it is time to logout.

Breakdowns of Averages by Individual Question

1 and 3 lowest - (1) Able to complete tasks with ease

(3) Easily able to search for and find specific item

Questions by Gender

No significant difference

Usability Test ResultsFixes Importance DifficultyAdd more instructions on the site 3 2Allow hitting “enter” key to loguser in

5 3

Eliminate date searching 5 5Allow user to access full resultswith more ease

5 2

Allow for search by category 2 5Make logout text stand out more 1 1Allow scrolling within resultstable

1 5

Fix tabbing order in forms 5 1Catch error traces 5 1Fix bugs with switching from tabto tab

5 3

Fix contact user bug 5 4

Final PresentationIn the end we chose the design that most

closely resembled the University of Maryland website.

To keep the emphasis of our site on sustainability, we feature the rotating “Green Tips” section at the bottom of our website

Remaining workAdd “Browse by Category” featureExpand the functionality for contacting a

posterSmall cosmetic changesAnother round of usability testing

Taking it LiveRegister and host a domain

Possibly through UMDImprove securityImplement a non-volatile databaseExpand functionality to handle concurrent /

parallel requests

Future Work PossibilitiesTerpslist could be adapted for other

campusesAdditional functionality

Possibly incorporate ads for other green events / services

Advice for Future Developers:Know your target audienceTest before you deployAdhere to the Eight Golden Rules

AcknowledgementsDr. Ben Shneiderman, for his interest and

expert guidanceNir Peer, for his flash instructionOur Class, for all their wonderful feedbackOur Friends, for their willingness to be test

subjects

Question & AnswerWe would now like to take a few minutes to

answer questions