Case Study: Wedding Planning Site

1
Case Study Wedding Planning Site

• By Neha Gupta Goyal

2
Project Background

• Number of mainstream wedding planning websites
• Provide many useful tools for brides and vendors
• Inadequate wedding planning resources for Asian
  Indians.
• Specialized tools required for the Asian Indian
  segment of the market.
• This website, which was developed using Drupal,
  fills that void

3
Pre-Project Analysis

• Thorough market research and competitive analysis
• Different business models were explored
• Interviews with different brides and vendors
• User Personas and Scenario analysis of a typical
  user
• Gap between what is currently being offered by
  main stream websites and what brides and vendors
  were looking for
• Requirements, Wireframes and Mock ups were
  created

4
Project Requirements

• Virtual Wedding Planning Expo
• Social Network for Brides and Vendors
• Provide tools for Brides and Vendors
• Marketplace and Forum
• Step by step tutorials

5
Technology

• Initially thinking to use PHP and MySQL for
  backend
• Would have taken long time for development and
  was not feasible
• Finally zeroed in on Drupal, which is an Open
  Source Content Management System
• Drupal is very flexible in the functionality that
  it provides via the core and contrib modules
  (5000)
• HTML and CSS for front end
• Studied Tutorials to learn Drupal
• Attended various Drupal Events, Camps and
  Conferences

6
Implementation of Drupal for the Project

• Drupal Core
• Contributed Modules
• Custom Functions written in PHP
• Drupal theme used to build upon Light Fantastic
• http//drupal.org/project/lightfantastic

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Features of the Website

• Wedding Planning Tools
• User Profile
• Social Network/ Buddies
• Guestbook
• Photo gallery
• Appointments
• Binder
• Budget
• Calendar
• Checklist
• Marketplace Posts
• Vendor Directory
• Forum
• Invitations

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Features of the Website

• Vendor Tools
• User Profile
• Buddies/ Social Network
• Photo gallery
• Guestbook
• Calendar
• Appointments
• Clients
• Marketplace Posts

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Website Demo
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Core Modules

• Search Enabling basic site content and user
  search
• User Enabling registration of users
• Upload Be able to attach documents to web pages
• PHP Be able to write custom PHP code for modules
• Node Create nodes on the site
• Contact Set up a site wide contact form
• Comment Be able to comment on nodes

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Contributed Modules

• Admin Menu This is a very user friendly tool to
  configure the different modules on the site.
• Auto Assign Role Since I needed the users to
  register as a bride or a vendor, this module came
  in very handy.
• Back Up and Migrate This module is perfect for
  creating site back up and migrate it to other
  domains.
• Calendar Helps build a site calendar
• CCK Helps you manage all the content on the
  site. You can create different Content Types,
  which in essence are categories of content that
  the users can create by entering data in the
  forms. The Content Types can be configured with
  specific fields.
• Content Access Enables privacy of Content Types

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Contributed Modules

• Content Profile Lets you create various fields
  for a user profile. One profile was made for
  brides and vendors. They were differentiated
  programmatically and via permissions.
• Date Helps configure dates for the site. JQuery
  pop up.
• Devel Debugging tool
• Event and RSVP To create site wide invitations
• Faceted Search Allow advanced site search by
  Content Type
• File Field Allow creation of fields for file
  uploads to Content Types
• Formblock Allow a content type form to be
  accessible as a block which can be placed
  anywhere on the site.
• Gmap and Zipcode Google Map Configuration
• Google Analytics Site Statistics

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Contributed Modules

• Guestbook Akin to Facebook Wall
• Image API, Image Cache, Image Field, Thickbox
  Used to create site photogallery and user avatars
• Jquery UI To enable popups for certain modules
• Location Enable collection of valid locative
  information on the site. Zipcode search for
  vendors.
• Node Review Be able to review certain content
  types
• Poormanscron Be able to run cron jobs
• User Relationships Be able to friend other users
• Views and Views Calc A very important module
  which lets you display the data entered through
  content types as a table. This can be displayed
  anywhere on the site.

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Custom Functions

• Submit Handlers
• To redirect a page to itself on hitting submit
• Preview Button was disabled
• Permissions on viewing content
• Control which tabs were visible to buddies and
  non-buddies
• Control which content was available to members
  and non-members
• Example Only buddies of a site member can see
  the said members guestbook and buddies tab.

15
Enhancing the Site Usability

• Screenshots of the website were taken to create
  tutorials.
• Present information in small bits to prevent
  memory overload.
• Usability Test was conducted.
• Potential Create screencast

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Usability Testing

• 10 participants (5 brides, 5 vendors)
• Consent Form, Background Questionnaire, Pre-test
  Questionnaire Initial Impressions
• Task Scenarios and testing of all most of the
  website features.
• Post-test Questionnaire, Debriefing (Likert
  Scale)
• Think out loud principle

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Conclusions

• Overall look and feel greatly appreciated
• Overall functionality very useful, according to
  users
• Some usability flaws, but they can be easily
  fixed
• Most of the users said that the website had all
  the features needed for wedding planning website
• No major red flags
• Next step fix bugs and launch the website
• Drupal was successful in providing all the
  features for the website

18
Thank You!

• twitter _at_launchingfrog
• Website www.launchingfrog.com
• Email contact_at_launchingfrog.com
• LinkedIn http//www.linkedin.com/in/nehagoyal
• I also run a South Asian Blog called Marigold
  Events (www.marigoldevents.com)
• Credit for Custom Code Doug Vann
  (doug_at_dougvann.com)

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Submit Handler Code

• if (form_id 'mybudget_node_form) form'bu
  ttons''submit''submit' sub_handler
• function sub_handler (form, form_state)
  global user form_state'redirect'
  'user/'.user-gtuid.'/mybudget
• function custom_funcs_form_alter(form,
  form_state, form_id) global userif
  (form_id 'mybudget_node_form')
  form'buttons''submit' 'submit'
  sub_handler' unset(form'buttons''previ
  ew')

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Permissions Custom Code

• / Override theme_menu_item
  Make sure that only buddies can see BUDDIES and
  GUESTBOOK tabs /
• function phptemplate_menu_item_link (link)
  global
  user if (arg(1)user-gtuid)
  
  
  return theme_menu_item_link(
  link) if (linkpath
  'user//friends' linkpath
  'user//guestbook') if (!_check_buddy_status
  ()) return " return
  theme_menu_item_link(link)
• function _check_buddy_status()
  global user if (arg(1)
  user-gtuid) return path
  is_numeric(arg(1)) ? arg(1) 'none
  if (path 'none' arg(1)
  user-gtuid) return buddy_statusdb_query('
  select approved from user_relationships where
  ((requester_id \''.user-gtuid.'\' AND
  requestee_id '.path.') OR (requester_id
  '. path.' AND requestee_id \''.user-gtuid.'\')
  and approved "1")') return db_result(buddy_s
  tatus)

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What was measured in the Usability Test?

• Time
• Number of Clicks
• Ease of completing the task
• Satisfaction with the navigation
• Qualitative aspects of the participant and website

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Results Mean Time

• Brides

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Results Mean Time

• Vendors

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Results Success/Failure

• Brides

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Results Success/ Failure

• Vendors

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Mean No. of Clicks

• Brides

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Mean No. of Clicks

• Vendors