Research - Formulating the Idea

After the research phase, you should have the following

• an idea that you can describe in shorter than 5 sentences (1 sentence is the best; the longer it is, the harder other people or your potential customers can understand)
• a list of reference sites
• a list of common features
• (and/or) a list of unique features you come up of

Let's remind ourselves the 5 phases of the system we use in this blog to create a web project.

1. research
2. feature development
3. application visualization
4. marketing
5. monetization

In your research phase, you should have at least some sort of ideas on each of the above. 

Before you dive into the next phase, it is vital to do a mental check on rather your idea would have a clear flaw. Here is a simple checklist (No need to be in detail; Writing out one to two sentences to describe each of the following is more than enough):

• what your site is about
• why people will use it
• how you can market it out
• how you can monetize on your idea (Main focus should be at how to make the site user-friendly)

To verify if your idea is viable, you can also design a smaller project for a proof-of-concept (POC).  

Here are some sample ideas (a short description of the idea and some user scenarios):

Example 1 - "eBay" For urban gardening

Platform for urban farmers to trade the vegetables/flowers they plant.

Users can

• exchange goods among each other
• buy or sell goods
• request others to plant certain vegetables
• show case their plants/garden using photos and vegetables
• hire others to take care of their garden

Categories include

• vegetables for eating
• flowers/plants for events/viewing

Example 2 - YouTube Celebrities Instant (YTC)

To watch and share videos from top YouTube stars.

Visitors can do three things:

• watch videos
• suggest a celebrity
• vote on the celebrity and optionally add a reason of why he/she likes the celebrity

Example 3 - Are You a Professional BS-er?

Post a story and label it as real or fake (users cannot see the answer)

People vote on whether they believe it or not

After a week, the answer will be sent via email to the users who voted