Project Chocolate Factory

Overview

The Concept Series tool allows users to view and explore ideas, mockups and prototypes (collectively concepts), discuss them (through suggestions, questions and comments; collectively comments), rate them and submit their own concepts.

All content is directly accessible without registration. A user only needs to register to submit a concept, post a comment or rate an entry. User registration is easy and painless - a user only needs to enter a username, password and email address. [OPTIONAL: Alternatively OpenID]

The homepage displays a dynamic view of the latest, highest ranked and most active concepts. It also displays a tag cloud (generated out of the submitted concepts) and a stream of recent activity (coming from the Concept Series tool itself - new submissions & comments - as well as through content tagged #mozconcept on services like Twitter, flickr, vimeo and the blogosphere). The homepage further provides a featured randomly selected concept and a general call to action to participate plus links to further information.

A user can choose to be taken directly to an individual entry (detail page) by clicking on the individual entry's name or to a list view (e.g. by clicking on a tag within the tag cloud or by selecting a link such as "Show all"). In the list view a user can sort the entries by different criteria (submission date, activity, rating) and can click through to the detail page of an individual entry.

Each detail page has a graphical indicator clearly stating if the concept is an idea, mockup or prototype (or was uplifted into a project). Further details include title, short summary (256 chars max), submission date, username and depending on the type (idea/mockup/prototype) and if the full submission is hosted within the Concept Series tool or on a 3rd party site (e.g. the personal blog of the person submitting the idea) the following information:

Hosted within the Concept Series tool:
- Description - Why? (long)
- Description - How? (long)
- Images/Video (only Mockup and Prototype)
- Link to external content (only Mockup and Prototype)
Hosted on 3rd party site:
- Link to external content

Further information displayed on the detail page is a tag cloud for this entry (which allows users to explore similar entries), a call to action to move the concept through the process (e.g. on an idea detail page the call to action would be "create a mockup for this idea"), comments and the number of people who "liked" the concept.

The detail page allows a user to comment on the concept. To comment a user selects one of three options (suggestion, question and comment), then types his comment into a textbox. A user can comment on a comment (the follow-up comment is indented) - but only down to one level (original comment - comment on original comment). When a user enters a comment the person who submitted the concept receives a notification email with the username and comment left. A user can "star" a concept by selecting the "I like this!" button. Every user is limited to 3 votes per day and can't vote on his own submissions.

Submissions can be linked, e.g. when a user posts a mockup to an idea. This connection is graphically displayed through the graphical indicator (idea/mockup/prototype). A user can subscribe to all information through a variety of RSS feeds (new concepts, all comments, only comments for a single concept).

To submit a concept a user simply fills out a single page form. Depending on the concept state (idea/mockup/prototype) and if the user hosts the content on a 3rd party site (e.g. his personal blog) or wants to make the full submission within the Concept Series tool, he will be presented with a different set of required fields.

Functionality

User Management

Create Account [data: username; email; password; accept licensing terms (all submissions are under CC-BY license)] / [If possible using multiple existing account systems (a la http://stackoverflow.com/users/login)]
Login/Logout
Forgot password
Change password/username/email
Email address verification (confirmation link email)
Show my concepts
Show concepts I commented on

Submit a Concept

[concepts can be submitted either as entries on our site (case #1 - default) or as a link to an external page (case #2)]

Status [selector: idea - mockup - prototype]
Title [short - 120 chars (?)]
Short description [short - 256 chars]

Case #1

Explanation - Why? [long]
Explanation - How? [long]
Images/Videos/Links [optional]

Case #2

URL [link to source]

Comment on a Concept

Type [selector: suggestion - question - comment]
Comment [long]

Vote on a Concept

"I like it" button [limited to 3 votes per person per day]

Explore Concepts

Different views [hot/highest rated (in last 30 days) - most viewed (in last 30 days) - newest]
Tag Cloud - auto-generated out of title and description (3-5 tags per entry)
Comments can be filtered by type on the "View Concept" page (e.g. show only suggestions)
If user is logged in and views one of his submissions: Edit submission