Scenario 12: Anonymous Community Engagement and Impact Tracking

Requirement Scenario: Anonymous Community Engagement and Impact Tracking

Actor

Registered User: Zeynep (A user seeking support for sensitive health topics)

User Persona

• Name: Zeynep
• Situation: Zeynep has been struggling with emotional eating and weight management. She wants to share her experiences and meal planning strategies with the community but feels uncomfortable attaching her real identity to these personal topics. She also wants to understand her positive impact on the community while maintaining some privacy about her metrics.
• Goal: Zeynep wants to share her experiences anonymously, engage with trending community content, track how her contributions help others, and customize which of her impact metrics are publicly visible.

Preconditions

1. Zeynep is logged into the Affordable & Healthy Eating Hub platform. (Requirement 1.7.2)
2. Anonymous posting feature is enabled on the platform. (Requirement 1.4.15, 2.4.1)
3. Impact tracking features are functional. (Requirement 1.2.13-1.2.17)
4. "This helped me" feature is available for meal plan posts. (Requirement 1.4.16)
5. "Top this week" module is operational. (Requirement 1.4.17)
6. Extended sorting options are implemented. (Requirement 1.4.18)

Main Flow

1. Zeynep logs into the platform and navigates to the forum. (Requirement 1.7.2, 1.4.4)
2. Zeynep browses the "Top this week" module showing the top 5 posts by likes in the last 7 days, refreshed every 15 minutes. (Requirement 1.4.17)
3. Zeynep views a highly-engaging meal plan post titled "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating - My 30-Day Journey" with 234 likes and 89 "This helped me" clicks.
4. Zeynep reads the post and finds it deeply relatable and helpful.
5. Zeynep clicks "This helped me" on the meal plan post to provide meaningful feedback to the creator. (Requirement 1.4.16)
6. The system updates the helped count to 90 within 60 seconds, making it visible to both the post creator and other viewers. (Requirement 1.2.16)
7. Inspired by the post, Zeynep decides to share her own experience but wants to post anonymously due to the sensitive nature.
8. Zeynep navigates to create a new post in the forum. (Requirement 1.4.2)
9. Zeynep enables the "Anonymous Posting" option before writing her content. (Requirement 1.4.15)
10. The system displays a privacy notice: "Your post will be published anonymously. Your username will not be visible to other users, but moderators can see your identity for safety purposes." (Requirement 2.4.1)
11. Zeynep writes her post titled "My Journey with Emotional Eating and Budget-Friendly Healthy Meals" describing her struggles and the meal planning strategies that helped her.
12. Zeynep creates a meal plan showing her weekly budget-friendly meals that support emotional wellness. (Requirement 1.5.3)
13. Zeynep shares the meal plan as part of her post. (Requirement 1.5.2)
14. Zeynep adds appropriate tags including "Meal plan" and "Mental Health". (Requirement 1.4.1, 1.4.7.c)
15. Zeynep acknowledges community guidelines by agreeing to the responsibility prompt. (Requirement 1.4.14)
16. Zeynep publishes the anonymous post.
17. The post appears in the forum as "Anonymous User" instead of showing Zeynep's username, protecting her privacy. (Requirement 1.4.15)
18. Over the next few days, Zeynep's post receives significant engagement:
    • 45 likes (Requirement 1.4.6.a)
    • 23 comments (Requirement 1.4.6.b)
    • 18 users click "This helped me" (Requirement 1.4.16)
19. All engagement metrics update within 60 seconds of each interaction. (Requirement 1.2.14, 1.2.16)
20. Zeynep navigates to her profile to view her personal contributions dashboard. (Requirement 1.2.13)
21. Zeynep views her impact metrics displaying:
    • Total recipes created: 5
    • Total posts shared: 8 (including anonymous ones)
    • Total likes received: 156
    • Total shares: 34
    • Impact Summary Badge: "Community Supporter - Level 2" (Requirement 1.2.14, 1.2.17)
22. Zeynep views the helped count for her shared meal plans showing 18 users found her emotional eating post helpful. (Requirement 1.2.16)
23. Zeynep decides to customize her privacy settings for impact metrics.
24. Zeynep accesses the visibility toggle options for each metric. (Requirement 1.2.15)
25. Zeynep sets the following visibility:
    • Total recipes: Show (public)
    • Total posts: Hide (private)
    • Total likes: Show (public)
    • Total shares: Hide (private)
    • Helped count: Show (public) (Requirement 1.2.15, 1.2.14)
26. The system saves Zeynep's preferences and immediately applies them to her public profile.
27. Zeynep views her own profile to confirm hidden metrics are not displayed publicly.
28. Zeynep views another user's profile to see how visible impact metrics appear to others. (Requirement 1.2.6)
29. Zeynep returns to the forum to explore more content.
30. Zeynep uses extended sorting options to browse posts:
    • First views "Top 7 days by helped count" to find most practical meal plans
    • Then switches to "Top 7 days by likes" to see most popular content
    • Then browses "Newest" to see fresh posts
    • All results load within 5 seconds despite the large content base (Requirement 1.4.18)
31. Zeynep filters meal plan posts specifically to see helped counts and find the most useful community resources.
32. Zeynep discovers her anonymous post now appears in the "Top this week" module with 45 likes, validating her contribution. (Requirement 1.4.17)
33. Zeynep receives real-time updates as her helped count increases to 22 within 60 seconds of new clicks. (Requirement 1.2.16)

Outcome

• Zeynep successfully posted anonymously about a sensitive personal topic, protecting her privacy while contributing to the community. (Requirement 1.4.15, 2.4.1)
• Zeynep engaged with the "This helped me" feature, providing meaningful feedback to content creators. (Requirement 1.4.16)
• Zeynep's anonymous post received significant engagement including likes, comments, and helped clicks, demonstrating community value.
• Zeynep tracked her community impact through the personal contributions dashboard showing comprehensive metrics. (Requirement 1.2.13, 1.2.14)
• Zeynep customized the visibility of her impact metrics, controlling which statistics are public and which remain private. (Requirement 1.2.15, 1.2.14)
• Zeynep received an Impact Summary badge recognizing her contributions to the community. (Requirement 1.2.17)
• Zeynep's helped count updated in real-time (within 60 seconds), providing immediate feedback on her post's usefulness. (Requirement 1.2.16)
• Zeynep discovered trending content through the "Top this week" module, which refreshes every 15 minutes. (Requirement 1.4.17)
• Zeynep used extended sorting options including sorting by helped count, likes, and newest posts with fast load times (<5 seconds). (Requirement 1.4.18)
• The platform successfully balanced privacy with community engagement, allowing sensitive discussions while maintaining accountability through moderator visibility.
• The impact tracking features motivated Zeynep to continue contributing quality content to the community.
• Other users struggling with emotional eating found practical help through Zeynep's anonymous post and meal plan.
• The "This helped me" feature provided more meaningful feedback than traditional likes, helping identify truly useful meal plans.
• Zeynep's experience demonstrates how anonymous posting enables vulnerable sharing while impact metrics recognize contributions.

Mockups

[Mockup 1: Forum Homepage with "Top this week" Module]
[Mockup 2: Meal Plan Post with "This helped me" Button and Count]
[Mockup 3: Post Creation with "Anonymous Posting" Toggle and Privacy Notice]
[Mockup 4: Anonymous Post Published as "Anonymous User"]
[Mockup 5: Personal Contributions Dashboard with Impact Metrics]
[Mockup 6: Impact Metrics Visibility Toggle Settings]
[Mockup 7: Public Profile View Showing Only Visible Metrics]
[Mockup 8: Forum with Extended Sorting Options (Top 7d by helped/likes, Newest)]
[Mockup 9: Real-time Helped Count Update Notification]
[Mockup 10: Impact Summary Badge Display]