Voting service review app. Allows real time polling. Built with MeteorJS, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, Docker & MongoDB
Users of local services would be able to vote on recommending multiple businesses by answering three quesions according to their personal experience. New residents would use the voting scores to make a quick and more informed decision for a business for their needs.
The application utilized real time updates to avoid additional page loads. Resulting in an improved user experience. Showing instant results from the database update from other user interactions is also likely to boost engagement. It reinforces the idea that a visitor should get involved in the interaction too.
While creating the new resident hub website I found that one of the most pivotal parts of the process was during the design phase. Producing a wireframe and then a prototype as blueprints to follow helps to create a better product. Assembling all the requirements and design elements into one entity help to understand the bigger picture of what is happening.
All of the sudden your mind starts to uncover things that you missed. Design errors, usability issues, additional business or user requirements. The great part about it is discovering these BEFORE a lot of energy has been invested in the project.
One of the mistakes in my initial project design was navigating back to the top of the page. This becomes an issue with any long list of items, especially on mobile screens. To remedy this a button that scrolls back to the top was added to the page.
Another feature that needed some rework was in submitting the survey. To maintain authenticity in the survey restrictions on voting would need to be added. Users would be required to be signed in order to leave a vote. The modified design would also include a pop up notification telling users to sign in or create an account to submit their vote. Double voting would also be restricted.
Wireframes and prototypes can also help you gain a better understanding of what works best. You can experiment relatively easily in this process with different ideas. If you find that an idea works well you can have more confidence in the unfolding of the rest of the project.
After playing around with three different layouts I ended up focusing on a SPA split into two main sections that I felt worked well. The first informs the visitor about the site and allows for account sign-up. The second contained the functional aspect of the site.