Our process for refining StreetSmart included speaking with our client, talking to TAs, and listening to user suggestions during the Design Studio. Some of the main critiques that our client had was making our app simplistic and easy to use, and not getting carried away with unnecessary features. For example, one of the features we were thinking to add to the app was a "calendar" button which would take you to a screen that displayed all the days and would have certain events on each day depending on what you appended. We thought this might be useful when it came to users making reservations for a place and keeping up-to-date and organized for all the different tasks that user was planning to do. However, our client disagreed by saying that many people already use calendar apps such as the one provided by Apple or Google. Therefore, they would not really be using this feature on the app. Instead, this feature would just be an apparition that users would rarely use. 

It wasn't only the client who suggested the removal of the calendar feature. During our Design Studio, when asking the students if there were any features that seemed unnecessary or feature that they wouldn't use, a few of them replied by mentioning the calendar. Their argument as to why was similar to our client's: "I already have a calendar app."

Another suggestion that we got from students during the Design Studio was in regard to the journal section. Quite a few students stated how they would like to be able to post their journal entries for other people to see - a "share" feature. When talking more to the students as to why they would like this feature, some remarked how it ties it in with more of a social media app, thus bringing more user engagement and attention to the app, as social media apps have become quite popular in this day of age, due to the ability for people to share their thoughts and allow for their voices to be heard. 

After hearing this suggestion and liking the sound of it, we decided to bring it up to our client as he seems to have a good grasp on the main user classes who will be using StreetSmart, and what it is these people would like. He also liked the idea of it, however, he had some suggestions when it came to implementing this functionality. One of his main points was privacy,  such that there was a way of protecting users' information so that not everyone could see their posts. We resolved this issue by first agreeing to have an option as to whether or not the user would like to post their journal entry. In addition, there would also be a privacy setting where the user would choose whether or not he wanted to post publicly (for everyone to see) or privately (only for friends to see). Ultimately, our team was extremely happy with this refinement to our app, as it was something that we could see being attractive to our users. 

The above photos are screenshots of our prototype which show how the user shares his/her post. Once they click the share button, they have the discretion to choose which platform they would like to share that post to: IMessage, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Email. We chose to make the share button similar to other share buttons, ultimately displaying an arrow because it establishes consistency as a UX guideline, making it more intuitive for the user to use. 

The above photos are screenshots of the prototype, showing how the user would change his/her privacy settings so that only their friends on the app can see the journal entries which are shared. 

Another refinement to our design was the inclusion of the "wishlist" feature. This acted slightly as a substitute for the calendar feature which we deleted. However, the feature can be accredited for its benefits as a stand-alone idea. The reason I mention it as being a substitute for the calendar feature is that the calendar allowed users to keep track of events they were planning to attend by appending the event to a certain day. Although this "wishlist" feature does not allow for a user to append an event to a certain day, it does allow for the user to keep track of the event by adding it to a separate section on the app called "wishlist," which can also be thought of as a "favorites" page, if that is more familiar to you.  By allowing for all these events to be stored in one location, it provides a level of efficiency to the user whereby they can keep track of places they want to go, without having to rely on their memory. 

This "wishlist" page was liked by all people to who we explained the idea. Our clients, TAs, and other students in the class, all thought that it was a useful feature that users would like and that they could see themselves using. A suggestion that our client made for implementing this feature, was to use consistency by providing a sensory affordance that would allow the user to easily figure out how to use this feature, and know the result of what it was going to do. To ensure consistency, we chose to have the 'wishlist' feature to be represented as a star button, such that each place that was displayed on the app would have a star in the top left corner. When the star was clicked, that specific place would be added to the 'wishlist.' This outcome could be assumed by the user thanks to a natural mapping, such that once the star button was pressed, it would change its color from white to yellow.