9 - Chase Buckner

    When it comes to help systems I think that some can be helpful while others cannot. In my experience, rarely have I used the built in help panels and information areas in softwares like Microsoft office or Adobe. I have never found them helpful even when I have tried to use them. On the other hand though, I have found online help extremely helpful. Whenever I get stuck within a certain software, the first thing I usually do is google the problem for an idea. I have also used resources like lynda.com which is an online tutorial service that teaches you how to use software. I used it to learn the basics of the Wordpress website and it did a good job at teaching. I do not think that they are good substitutes for good design but I feel like some compromises have to be made since there is no such thing as the perfect design. In the case that the design were better and more obvious, there would definitely be less of a need for these help systems. If there was a perfect design, no, you would not need these help systems, but as we have learned this semester, there is no perfect design.
    For developing personas in project #5 there are a couple of categories of people on whom to focus. One persona would be the current fans of the selected superhero because you want to create a gadget that will not go against the notions that these fans already have in their head. This is important because you want to keep the current fan base to have something to build upon when you attract new fans. The other persona that would be beneficial to develop would be potential kids who will want their parents to buy the toys of the superhero. This is so because you want to develop a a gadget that is marketable to kids so that they want to own it. If it is done right, this will be a cash cow when it comes out.