Crowdsourcing In the first half of this paper, I will examine the invention and growth of crowdsourcing in the field of interface design. Second, I will describe the impact that crowdsourcing has had on the field of interface design. Third, I will discuss at least 3 benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project. Finally, I will discuss at least 3 challenges of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project. The invention of and growth of crowdsourcing in the field of interface design has grown exponential. Alsever (2007) states that the basic idea of crowdsourcing is to “tap into the collective intelligence of the public at large to complete business-related tasks that a company would normally either perform itself or outsource to a third-party provider”. This means that companies would utilize the benefits of outside sources to help accomplish a certain goal or criteria that the company can capitalize on. Unlike outsourcing, crowdsourcing utilizes the resources that can be found in the United States. Small businesses with tighter budgets utilize crowdsourcing to obtain ideas for their user interface at a fraction of the cost. For example, a start-up company called ‘Health Junky’ wants a logo for their company but they do not want to pay a professional $1,000 for their ideas. Instead, they utilize the crowdsource to obtain a plethora of ideas on their new logo. They pay the winner of the logo design $100 and save 90% by using a crowdsource. Therefore, the invention and growth of crowdsourcing in the field of interface design can be linked to the age of the internet. The impact that crowdsourcing has had on the field of interface design has had a positive and negative effect. Although small businesses and startups may not have the luxury of a large budget to spend on logos and websites, they have the resources of the crowdsource to retrieve a plethora of ideas. According to Gonzales (2010), “It is, in essence, an open (or semi-open) invitation to a “crowd” or community—usually a wide and public one, such as online communities of graphic artists—to solve a problem or create a product, with or without monetary compensation. Most often though, prize money is dangled like a carrot”. In a positive outlook, this gives new players in the game the chance to win contests and get their name out there. In a negative outlook, it gives players that have been in the game unwanted competition. Gonzales (2010) states that crowdsourcing has closed the gap between professional artists and the amateurs, as well as the seasoned designers and the hobbyist. This comes to show that work can be done from the higher level range to the players that do this type of stuff for little or no commission. Although this may sound like that work may go to the cheapest biller, the company may decide to go with the company that has a business model in place to incorporate a feeling of self-preservation. The intimacy between the graphic designer and client often comes at a price that the company would typically pay for. Therefore the impact that crowdsourcing has had on the field of interface design has been both positive and negative. Three (3) benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project are productivity, creativity, and minimizing labor and research expenses. When it comes to crowdsourcing the, the internet is a source that taps into the realm of the World Wide Web. According to Alsever (2007), “Using the internet to solicit feedback from an active and passionate community of customers can reduce the amount of time spent collecting data through formal focus groups or trends research, while also seeding enthusiasm for upcoming products”. This helps increases productivity because hiring a team to collect data and number of subjects takes a great deal of time and money. Alsever (2007) also states that by “involving a cadre of customers in key marketing, branding, and product development processes, managers can reduce both staffing costs and the risks associated with uncertain marketplace demand”. This increases the creativity and minimizes the labor and research expenses that would otherwise be accrued through professional services. By utilizing a broad base crowd, companies can obtain creative ideas that are usually offered at a much lower rate than a professional would charge. Therefore, the three (3) benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project are productivity, creativity, and minimizing labor and research expenses Three (3) challenges of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project are costs involved screening the ideas, how to organize this distributed innovation process, and determining the success of the idea. Generally, when determining the cost and allocation of funds towards an idea, the customer must determine whether to use an open mode or a closed mode method of screening the ideas. This means that the costs to screen the ideas can come in a variety of ranges from cheap to expensive. To organize this distributed innovation process, we must take a look at the number of applicants that can provide the necessary credentials in order to participate in the study. According to Aitamurto, Leiponen, & Tee (2011), “communities are especially useful when an innovation problem is based on cumulative knowledge, i.e. when it continually builds on past advances”. The third challenge of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project is determining the success of the idea. Aitamurto, Leiponen, & Tee (2011) stated that “A large number of participants involved is also a key feature of crowdsourcing. However, as highlighted in the following section, large numbers of ideas are not necessarily beneficial to firms, and might in some cases constitute a major burden”. This is due to the fact the number of participants range from the novice level to the professional grade. Therefore, the three (3) challenges of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project are costs involved screening the ideas, how to organize this distributed innovation process, and determining the success of the idea. As we move forward to the second part of this paper, let us take a look at what we have learned about crowdsourcing. So far, I have examined the invention and growth of crowdsourcing in the field of interface design. Second, I have described the impact that crowdsourcing has had on the field of interface design. Third, I have discussed at least 3 benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project. Finally, I have discussed at least 3 challenges of incorporating crowdsourcing in a design project and will now be going into the second part of this paper. In the second half of this paper, I will propose a solution for generating interest in my design project from an online community. Second, I will suggest a solution for evaluating the skill set and quality of the code submitted by potentially unknown users. Third, I will describe how crowdsourcing may affect the budget and timeline of a design project. Finally, I will assess the crowdsourcing in regard to the legal, societal, and ethical issues it raises and thoroughly suggest methods to alleviate these concerns. In order to generate interest in my design project from an online community, we must reach out to the masses in order to kick start our project. According to Thomases (2012), “Online user forums, particularly for IT and tech support issues, have long served as the go-to place for niche answers; today we also have broad-based question-and-answer platforms like Quora, Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers, to name a few”. These websites help generate interest by providing an area where questions and innovations can be answered. Yahoo Answers, for example, provides users the ability to ask questions that can be answered by the masses. Users can vote on the answer that best suites the question if there are multiple answers to the question. For web design and development, we can visit websites that have the ability to cater to the needs of the owner and provide different design layouts that are easy to navigate through. According to Thomases (2012), “Sites like 99Designs or Crowdspring create an open marketplace where designers can submit designs on a name-your-own-price model; you choose the one you like. The website Threadless has even built its entire business model on crowdsourced T-shirt designs”. These websites provide an open marketplace where designers can obtain ideas on how to create their user interface. Therefore, we must look towards the online community and forums in order to generate interest in a design project. Although we can crowdsource a number of our tasks to the open public, we must also come up a solution for evaluating the skill set and quality of the code submitted by potentially unknown users. Like many individuals, obtaining credible references for jobs that have been accomplished in the past is the key to success. We must look at crowdsourcing as contract jobs where individuals can post their resumes and client feedback on websites like Angie’s List. According to Yamshom (2011), “Angie’s List is a service listing and review site that offers user-based rankings and reviews of service professionals in local areas”. By going to a site that is similar to Angie’s List, companies that are looking to crowdsource can send in their reviews so that communities can share their experience. Although Angie’s List requires a membership fee to obtain reviews from previous customers, users can rest assure that the reviews are thoroughly screened by administrators. Therefore, a solution for evaluating the skill set and quality of the code submitted by potentially unknown users would be a service similar to Angie’s List. Crowdsourcing may affect the budget and timeline of a design project depending on the size and timetable that companies are working with. Therefore, the size and method may affect the budget and timeline of a design project depending on the size and timetable that companies are working with. Reliable crowdsourcing takes time, and as we all know, time is money. According to Livingston (2010), “It takes time to crowdsource effectively. Indeed, although an organization might outsource innovation, it cannot outsource the labor necessary to be successful”. By producing a well thought out plan, crowdsourcing can be a useful tool when the need arises. Livingston (2010) also states that, “In spite of well-stated and published rules, an organization still needs to provide community management resources if it expects to sustain community interest. If there is a lack of structure, you can expect to invest even more time”. By sustaining community interest, companies can use their inputs and determine the best course of action to take. Therefore, choosing the right crowdsource audience and providing community interest can help limit budget overspending and ensure design plans follow the timeline. Legal concerns arise when intellectual property, such as copyrights and patents, are accidently breached because a person may have unknowingly breached the legal document. According to Lieberstein, Tucker, & Yankovsky (2012) dealing with copyright, patent, or trademark law, this risk continuum generally applies throughout intellectual property law, because the burdens of clearing potential infringement and obtaining rights in the work product generally are similar”. For example, a company sources a design for their website logo. Because they are creating this log internally, they are able to reduce the risk of infringement due to the fact the designs would be unique. When they outsource the logo design to the crowdsource, they are put into a high risk zone in which they might be utilizing a logo that has already been used in a previous project. Lieberstein, Tucker, & Yankovsky (2012) also state that internally sourced designs occupy the lowest risk area of the design source continuum and theoretically have the lowest clearance risk of the categories discussed, due to the element of control a company has over its employees. In addition, the work that is created by the employee qualifies as works made for hire. Therefore, legal issues arise when intellectual property are breached which can create a cause for concern for the small company. Social issues concerning crowdsourcing arise when matters that directly or indirectly affect a person or members of a society. Some may say that crowdsourcing reduces the number of employment opportunities and can remove a number of jobs away from the workforce. This is the due to the fact that employees are no longer needed if jobs are crowdsourced. Rosenberg (2011) states, “we are mainly interested in what crowdsourcing can do to help civilians contribute to social change in a way that is both useful and emotionally satisfying”. But if we look at the latter, we can see contributors may provide useless input for completing a project due to the openness of crowdsourcing.

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