Publication Date

Fall 2020

Document Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Xin Chen, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Soon-Ok Park, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Alex Liu

Comments

Better Reviews is a real-time web resource that allows registered individuals to create, edit and submit testimonials about products, organizations, and services they have connected with in their local community.

Better Reviews provides individuals (reviewers) with a location to share their story about the experience they have had with a business, product(s) or service provider. These reviews allow other users and visitors to the site to make better informed decisions about upcoming purchases and service contracts.

Better Reviews allows registered users to provide text descriptions of their experience, in addition to providing a simple visual ranking system (for example one-to-five stars) which quickly indicates a proposed value for the product or service which is being described. Registered users may also upload pictures to accompany their review.

The audience for both text and visual reviews is intended to be other registered members of this community, who will also need to create a profile (i.e., register) before they are permitted to access or create reviews through this portal. Users will have a user interface which allows them to search for reviews by keyword, and sort reviews by category, type, or location.

Service providers, including business owners and other agents of a businesses or organization who are reviewed on Eight Reviews will be able to read and respond to reviews by becoming a registered user, and logging into the system. A ‘Featured Review’ (i.e., advertising placement) is able to be included with Better Reviews which will allow a business to enjoy additional visibility at the top of a category or business geographic search result.

An imbedded communications system is included in Better Reviews which provides registered users with the ability to subscribe to and review comments to business sites, and provides an interface that administrative users can use to reach out to users and businesses with information pertaining site rules or marketing opportunities.

Administrative users who maintain the site are also provided with privileges to update, upgrade, create and delete business profiles and user reviews which do not meet site quality or appropriateness guidelines. These admin users are the theoretical business owners of Better Reviews, and for the purpose of this project are the Team Members listed above as working on the project.

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