Some thinking about GetHelp!

I like the idea of GetHelp. It is the idea I am always thinking of realizing through the Internet. Asking for or offering help through the internet is an effective way to spread information and share knowledge. It takes the advantage of the wisdom of crowds and lets people get information accurately instead of searching extensively. However, I can hardly find a way to realize this idea perfectly. How to offer a platform that is convenient enough for people to use? How to attract the first loyalty customers and let them bring in their friends? What kind of help should the platform focus on at first? etc. These are all the questions I am thinking about.

Coincidentlly, GetHelp is a simplified and preliminary version of my idea. It's a good try, but I think it's too simple and has no focus which makes the app impractical. It's hard for me to imagine what kind of people will ask for what kind of help in this app.

When we are asking for some help, the most important thing is to state the request clearly. If the request is vague, helpers will be hard to figure out what kind of help is needed, let alone offering accurate help. "I need help with ..." is simple but too open. Users can add anything behind it but hardly state it clearly. For example , if I say "I need hep with chocolate.", what do I mean? Do I want to know where to buy chocolate, do I want to know how to make chocolate, or do I just want my friends offer me some chocolate? Even through some of my friends may offer help, probably their help is useless and waste their time as well. The description below the request helps little. Most of the time, developers cannot reckon on the users knowing what they want and stating their wants clearly. Users are always confused about what they want and their wants are changing all the time. In addition, granted that users know what they want, they may not state it clearly. Just recall that you ask a question in lecture you think you have state very clearly, lecturer still cannot get the point and let you explain again and again. It's because for a question, there exists many conditions to let it set up. Requesters always unconsciously assume that listeners know some of the conditions. When they are describing, they may omit these conditions.

I think the biggest problem of this app is , after all, having no focus. It's important to have a focus. Focus on making the app's focus perfect is the best way to attract users. Nowadays, only the perfect app can be really successful.

Here I don't mean that GetHelp is without a single redeeming future. The interface of it is really simple. Users themselves may figure out it's helpful for some specific requests like selling or buying second hand books ("I need help with CS3216 textbook") and make it established by usage for this app. In this way, this app may be hot. But for this kind of app, I don't agree to let the users discover the usability by themselves. It feels like throwing the dice to decide the destiny of the app. The better way is to guide the users and let them feel that they need this app =]