User:Ali.wuf

Tier Diagram
(DIAGRAM) Behind every website, there are three levels working simultaneously in order to make sure the website is running properly and efficiently.

What are the Tiers? Presentation, Processing, and Data

What happens on each level of the tiers? First there is the Presentation: tier, which presents you all of the information on the site you visiting. This is an important tier because it is the users first impression of the site. Next is the Processing tier. This is where it starts getting complicated. The processing tier is located on the server of the website and its job is to pull from data, the HTML (computer code), and send the information to the browser, which is where the information is received. Lastly, there is the Data tier. The data tier is where all of the information is stored.

Major Functions
A function can be defined as a purpose, a user interface, a user procedure, an algorithm, and something that has an impact on data. It tells you what a system does, (a system is a set of connected things forming a complex whole), more specifically, what the website is used for. Functions are important because they tell you what the system does beyond the websites presentation. For example, in Facebook it will upload your content, it will make connections, it will allow you to communicate.

On Flixster there are multiple functions, however, the signup, the profile, searching movies, and playing games are the most important ones. Without the sign-up option, you would not be able to experience all the interactive aspects of the website. As for the profile, this is crucial because that's how the website is able to personalize, by suggesting games, movies, and other things you may enjoy. Searching movies is the main function of Flixster, it is a place where you can see which movies are out, which movies have high ratings, what movies are currently in theaters, and not to mention a place where you can read reliable reviews. Lastly, searching and playing games is another main purpose of this website in that you can play games that interact with the website.

An Algorithm is also referred to as the logic of the program, and is the process that is used to get the result the program is trying to achieve. ''For example, Google has an algorithm for ranking the results of a query. It specifies all the steps in the process of ranking. In this case the algorithm is a top secret of Google and is a big part of their competitive advantage.'' - Bob Boiko (Senior Lecturer at the University of Washington) The User Interface contains controls, menu's, text boxes, hyperlinks and other screen elements that allow you to communicate with Web server or program.

Feature 1: Sign Up

In order to use the free exclusive services provided by Flixster, user must go through a function called sign-up. It requires your first name, last name, email, password, gender, date of birth, agreement on terms and policies. By signing-up, Flixster gathers and organizes the information on users in their database. With these user information, the website could provide the most optimized services to people. For example, the user will not be able to watch certain movies that has age-restriction if he/she is underage. Flixster also suggests movies and other people that the user may know, based on the personal information gathered. Also, with the personal data gathered through sign-up, Flixster sends out advertisements, weekly-updates and notices to the users. Unlike other movie-review websites, Flixster features a SNS (Social network service) to their members so the users could share movie reviews, socialize and communicate with their friends online.

Feature 2: Profile

Profile functions let people have their own status conclusion, this page shows data like basic personal information, friends relationship, favorite movie collections and user's rating. The User Interface of Flixster is structured by various models. each one shows the outline of the specific information on it. Flixster contains six different attributes on the profile page, they are personal information, my collection my want to see list, my ratings, my friends, my activity. Besides that, there would be certain algorithm behind the Flixster profile system. When people store their information in to the database or activate certain actions, Flixster mining those changed information from database, structure them in a certain way by SQL query and then display them on the screen. According to the Information structure definition, Information type as a general broad concept that can have many attributes under it, Flixster's Profile matches the definition, every pages that user created can be seen as a personal on the Flixster community. So the Flixster profile should belongs to type.

Feature 3: Searching Movies on Flixster

The search box enables you to type in any movie and it will return several results. This feature is very convenient and easy to use. The User Interface contains a search box for typing in your movies, and also introduces the new UI. The new UI contains advertisements, reviews and ratings on movies that are currently in theaters. It also categorizes the movies into different genres forming links that take you to another page, describing the movie you clicked on. The Algorithm in this function is when you type in a movie and it gets sent to the data base and returns results to your interface, based on your search. On the website Flixster, they have a handy feature that allows you to search movies by genre or by the movies title. All you have to do is type in the title of the movie, or an actor that is in the movie and it will bring you to a page of links that was related to your search.

Feature 4: Playing/Searching Games on Flixster

Flixster is an interactive site where you can chat about movies, games and other things with your friends. So it makes sense they also allow play interactive games. All you have to do is go to the main page of Flixster and you will see a tab labeled "Games," click on it, and then you have hundreds of games to search and play with. They have anything from intense battle war games to fun personality quizzes. The game page of Flixster is quite similar to the Movies page, in that it has advertisements, the way it's designed, and it has a search box. However, in seated of it listing all different movies, it lists all the different quizzes and games you can participate in. The advertisements sited are on the the top of the site and on the right side, each from the same company to making sure it doesn't go unnoticed. Its design is very efficient for what it is trying to accomplish, which is a clean cut, organized, simple site. You arrive at the page and know immediately where to go to accomplish your goal. You can see the "Quizzes Shared with Me," "Most Taken Quizzes," and "Top Rated Quizzes," and choose accordingly to what quizzes you wish to take. What we don't see however, is the way our searches go from the site, to the database, and back to the interface within seconds. Much like searching movies, this algorithm is incredibly fast, as it should be, because thousands of people are on Flixster at one time searching all different kinds of movies. The most important part of the search algorithm is that it returns the results you want, and they find those results based on your search. What your results come back as, are described as info types, in this case, the actual games and quizzes are the types.

Info Model
In the idea of introducing information, there are several key concepts that one needs to grasp in order to understand the main idea of Flixster. There is information, and under information, there are several qualities the site finds important. Information consists of types, attributes, values, and items. Types are the kind of information that a system cares to create, store, and display. For example, Flixster cares about ads, movies, critics, and the user. Attributes are for example in Flixster, the title of the movie, the genre, the actors and the director. Values are the specific answers to the attribute. For example Movie (Attribute) Harry Potter (Value) Actors (Attribute) Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint (Values) Item is all the values of the ID. It's basically everything that is in the information.

Diagram of All Types
Although Flixster has many different information types throughout their website, the most important ones are the Sign up, profile, searching movies and games. As previously mentioned, types are the kinds of information that a system cares to create, store and display. Interestingly enough, all of the types relate back to one another. When you sign up for the site, you fill in your information, such as your name, gender, email, and date of birth. You then click you agree to the terms and conditions of the site and you then officially become a member of Flixster. Your next logically step is to create a profile. Your profile allows you to customize, personalize, and communicate with your other friends that are also members. Without the sign up option, you would not be allowed to create a personal profile. On your profile, you can list anything from what movies you're interested in, what are your favorite movies, to what games you like to play. You can also become a critic of a movie and participate in helping other decided on whether to see the movie or not. This will then make it easier for the site to decide which movies are for you to search. viewing your profile, people can see all of your favorite movies, games, and what you have critiqued. Users will also see your gaming history, and similar to movies, they will be able to decipher which games are worthy of your time. All of these types work together to accomplish one goal: and excellent user experience. The Profile is the main element of the website, it holds every type together, and permits users to do anything from searching movies, to search games, to becoming a critic. All you have to do is sign up.

Diagram of Each Type
SCREENSHOT OF 1 ITEMS OF THE TYPE IN THE SYSTEMS WITH CALL OUTS TO THE ATTRIBUTES

Organizational Structures
One may ask, how is information organized on a website? Well, there are actually four different concepts that explain how information is organized on the site. Hierarchy, index, links, and sequences. A Hierarchy consists of sub-catergories, which is when you click on a drop box in a website and a list of words drop down to click on. A good example of a hierarchy is a tree, because there are levels and different branches, that consist of leaves, going on and on; but in the end it is all information rooted together. An Index is an alphabetical or numerical list, or where the term is used in a book or online. Links are associations which bring the user to another page online. For example, on Wikipedia, the blue words are links that lead you to a separate page. A Sequence is like beads on a string, where this one after another, after another. There is a beginning, middle, and end, but it is not like an index because it is not in alphabetical or numerical order. It simply consists of what comes first, what comes second, and what follows.

Hierarchy

On the home page of Flixter, there are multiple tabs with drop-down options with various links that will take you to another page relating to the topic of the drop down arrow you selected. If you mouse over the "FUN & GAMES" tab, you will see multiple options such as, "Fun Quizzes, "Cool Games", and so on. When you click on the link, it takes you to another page with more information. Again, this is very similar to the way Movies are organized. Once you arrive at the page based on quizzes, for example, you will see it is organized into a hierarchal structure. It breaks everything gown in to parts and organizes every quiz down to the simplest degree. It starts at the very top with "User Quizzes," making sure to included every quiz available. Then, on the next level, it lists, "Quizzes Shared with Me." Under this option, they only show which quizzes you have shared with your friends, or quizzes your friends have shared with you. The next option in the hierarchy is, "Most Taken Quizzes" where you can click on either from Today, This Week, This Month, or All Time. The site breaks down your past history of quizzes, so the only quizzes available in this section are quizzes you have previously participated in. And lastly, the site has, "Top Rated Quizzes." This is similar to the last level because it lists links from Today, This Week, This Month, and All Time. Here it shows games you have personally graded as your favorites, this allows you to click on the best quiz right away, instead of having to search through all of the games you don't like. This is an incredibly functional way of organizing all the different quizzes on the site. Even though the User Interface is boring and not really engaging, what it comes down to is, can I find what I want easily? And the answer is yes. I can see exactly where my favorite quizzes are, I can see the quizzes I share with my friends, and the quizzes I most often take, all on one page. I don't have to jump through hoops to get to one quiz, all I have to do is go to the main page. This is site is especially helpful for people who have never been on the site because it is easy to navigate and understand, which is something that will draw people in and make them come back. In the end, that's all the site wants, is for people to keep come back and seeing their website.

Sequence

Flixster’s sign-up function fits into the sequence category. Once the users submit their personal information (First name, last name, E-mail, password and password confirmation, gender, date of birth, agreement to the policy and terms for Flixster, and an optional checkbox for the email send-out services) which is not necessarily in alphabetical or numerical order, the website organizes the users in a unique pattern on the website. Based on the personal user data (mostly age, email and date of birth), Flixster suggests other users that the user may know under the “People you may know” section. Here, the people are shown in a certain sequence. There is a beginning, middle, and an end to the list, showing the information not in an alphabetical order. If it were listed alphabetically, then that would mean this feature would be an index. Just like on Facebook, the more friends the user has, the higher the suggested friend amount is located on the “People you may know” list. Once the information is received to the Flixster server through the sign-up function, the processing tier organizes and rearranges the information into the unique Flixster system, then stores them in data tier.

Index

When we log into Flixster, we can see the whole picture of what the website offers. This feature uses an information organizational structure called an index. An Index is a list or an outline that can help you find something in the tons of information the website has. The user's profile belongs to index organizational system, because it provides the outline of the person, it shows the conclusion analysis of this person, and shows what the user has done on the website. This function of the profile explicitly fits the attributes that an index has. Specifically, Flixster placed a few boxes as different tiers. For example, the first box visible is the "My Status" box, it shows your name, photo, collections and so on. Then we can see the "My Collection", my "Want to See" list under the status. They allow you to see the movie previews that you're interested in. As you scroll down the index, we will find, "My Rating" box. It lists the movies and your rating that you've previously done. On the right side of the profile, it's an SNS component, which will allow you to share the movies with your friends or start activities with people who have the same interests as you.

Links

On the bottom of the webpage, there are several links that appear. There are three categories that you can choose from: Get Flixter, choose settings and about. Under Get Flixster, it lists the different phones that you can get it on. For example, if you click on ipod, or iphone it will lead you to a page that shows a description about what it would look like on you're phone and the different features that it comes with. The screen shot from the website says that it is Flixter with Rotten Tomatoes added as a bonus. On the left side of the page, there is another link that takes you to the itunes store, where you can download it and sync it to your mobile device. On Settings, you can learn about the privacy policy, help and terms of policy. The Privacy Policy link explains why the website collects your profile information and what it does with it. There are several pages with this, because they want to make sure you know there site is safe, and your information will not be released. Lastly, under the About link, you can learn all about Flixster and the features the website has. When you click on the link, it explains that they are the leading destination for movie enthusiasts. You can also learn about the team, job, contact and ultra violet under the About link as well.