#assignment 8b

Reputation and image are key to Slipstream’s success. Specifically, users need to believe that the developers are putting the users first as they design and develop the product, that they can be trusted with the user’s information, and that the user is in control of their experience (e.g. what they share and to whom they share it). Essentially Slipstream needs to be a social network with an Amazon-like reputation for customer obsession.

To this end, I identified revenue streams that make the user the customer. The typical advertising based revenue stream is scorned in favor of micro-transactions, a la freemium games. This will help ensure that the business focuses on the users’ needs, and not those of advertisers. Consequently the key metrics for success focus on growing the user base and reaching an Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) target within one year.

I received the following critique on the original mockup:

The navigation menu is too cluttered.

The navigation menu should contain a list of my recently or frequently viewed streams. All of my posts, whether to my stream, a public stream, or a closed stream, should appear in my home stream.

I should be able to include a note/explanation when requesting an invitation to a closed stream.

Based on this I made the following changes:

Moved the People, Steams, and Tags submenus to the settings menu.

Added a “Recent” section listing your 5 most recently accessed streams to the Navigation menu.

Added the user’s new post in the closed stream to their home stream.

Two points are worth noting. First, while overall the amount of content in the navigation menu did not change, it is now thematically more consistent - it is a quick shortcut to streams the user is likely to want to view. Second, I opted not to implement the invite request note feature, as it seems to me an advanced option that could be available on a closed stream, i.e. a stream admin might require notes or applications from requesters, but I don’t see it as a primary use case. As this mockup is focusing on MVP use cases, I left that out.