iConnect

Project Description

The iConnect application allows users to interact with Facebook in novel ways on the iPhone, unlike the current Facebook application, which is clunky, has limited functionality, and very different from the web interface. To solve these problems the iConnect was designed to perform our user's needed tasks and presented the complex relational data in the form of link diagram.

(Basic Layout)

(Viewing Connections)

Our application brings the ability to create and manage hierarchies of clusters of a user's friends. The users can then interact with these clusters by sending emails to them and using them to filter status and event updates. The graph also displays the results of queries as to whether different clusters have members who are friends with each other. It manages large amounts of data through the hierarchy system. Sub-graphs can be collapsed into their parent nodes to hide details not needed.

    Our users have many friends on Facebook from many different segments of their lives and use Facebook to help manage these disparate areas of their lives. Facebook's "groups" and "friend lists" collections offer a partial solution to managing and interacting with these complex relationships. Yet varying from daily users to the sporadic ones the iConnect was designed to be quick to learn and effective to use.

Display

(Sub-Clusters Collapsed)

(Sub-Clusters Expanded)

(News-Feed)

Benefits and Drawbacks

    Besides creating an application that has the potential to be released to iPhone users. Creating iConnect to implement the use of link-graphs was inspiring from just being able to glimpse at their power, but at the same time very limiting. One must keep in mind the key issue when it comes to link-graphs which is how much information can actually be displayed on a single screen. Being that our application was on the iPhone our group had to settle for the fact that, in this stage, our application would fail when faced with too many nodes, or friends. Even with this fact it is still a succes as well as an isnpiring concept idea that our team would advocate to future devlepers.