Facebook Application: Research and Application

Our initial discussions about possible applications, for Facebook social website, showed that both members of our team had no understanding of what was the purpose for an application on Facebook. So we decided to research differing applications and read the links provided by the lecturer.

We were particularly interested in what an application could be capable of delivering; what the users found interesting and which did they dislike; could they be useful or just for fun.

Through, carefully reading of the set links and the development material on offer through Facebook we decided on certain rules that we’d use while thinking up an idea.

These provided the backbone to our ‘many’ brainstorming sessions:

• Reduce or rid the application of all or any complexity.
• Facebook is about social gatherings of friends and the application should try or use this factor in its design and purpose.
• An application that plays on current trends, fashions or fads that probably would be short lived was ‘not’ a bad idea.
• Visual appearance is a vital element in making the application appealing and reputable. The integration of the application is the foundation to being successful in this area.
• The biggest hurdle was finding a way to ensure the user viewed our application as a quality product. Apparently, how the well it responded to commands in terms of waiting times is a major factor.

This was also a significant obstacle, we had no money for hosting with a company that could guarantee good throughput, yet to ensure quality we couldn’t keep the user waiting. Therefore, this led to the understanding that any application we would decide upon would need very little throughput to carry out its main purpose.

After researching the ‘what and why’ of Facebook application we started to brainstorm about possible ideas. We probably undertook a number of these sessions, before we started to come up with some very interesting and unique creations. Then an interesting but almost predictable phase came about during this brainstorming period. But not how to put these wonderful ideas into practice! No it was “if we went ahead with them who would own them!” So we decided to put them to one side and save them for a future time, when our thoughts and ideas belong to ourselves.

So we began again and decided on creating a poll about the demise of George Bush, to see if people truly thought he was all bad and would he be missed. This possibility satisfied the previous hosting problem, while providing a platform whereby everyday Facebook users could express themselves on one of the most significant events of 2009.