When a mother needs help, she can just click "ask for a favor" from the favor link main menu. There she will see which favors are available at the moment. By selecting a specific favor, she’ll see a list of the members who are available to help. She’ll also see their location if they've chosen share that information. This helps a mother to decide who might be a better candidate -- the one who's at the grocery store closest to her home, for example.

When a mother first starts using Favor Link, the first step is to bookmark the locations that she wants the system to remember. Once you recorded a location, the system will know every time you are there and will be able to broadcast this information to other members.

Recording location is a two-step process.
• naming the location
• choosing the system should behave when the user is at the respective location.

For example, should all members automatically be able to see when the user is at this location, or maybe the system could ask her first if she wants the information broadcasted?

By using the presets the system offers, we minimize user input, and try to make it easier for mothers to be active within the service. We want them to be able to get help and offer help, and not worry about the tedious service technicalities.

offering to help

Offering to help within the system is defined by the kind of favor a mother is ready to do.
There are two ways that a mother can tell the system (and to other mothers) that she is ready to help.

• When recording a location, the mother can also specify what kind of favor she can do at this location. In other words, you can attach a default favor to a specific location. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. For instance, when you tell the system to record the grocery store, you can also tell it to set you as ready for grocery help every time you are there. When you leave the store, the system will no longer show you as ready to help with groceries.

• A mother can tell the system that she is ready to help out whenever she wants, regardless of where she is. She can enter the amount of time she’s available for, and what kind(s) of help she can do, and can choose whether or not to display her location, She can also set herself as available to help out later in the day, by setting a start and end time to her availability. The system will automatically remove her from the favors list when her availability expires.

The first screeen shows how to set location-based help. You can attach a default favor to a location (every time you go to the grocery store, you will be available to pick up groceries).

Alternatively, as shown in the second screen, you can input into the system a specific type of favor you can make.