University of Trento Italy

Human Computer Interaction

Final Assignment Report

Digital Social Innovation Service : Sanba

Group 8 Mood, Bipin Venkataswamy

175019 Senza Cognome, Megha Roopa Papu

175021

Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3

Idea generation and refinement ........................................................................................ 3

Brainstorming session. ................................................................................................... 4

Design challenge............................................................................................................. 4

Field study ...................................................................................................................... 5

Phase 1 (design validation) ........................................................................................ 5

How our problem statement changed! ..................................................................... 6

Phase 2 ......................................................................................................................... 6

Conceptual Design ............................................................................................................. 8

Stakeholders description ............................................................................................... 8

Empathy map ................................................................................................................. 8

Drawing user Scenarios ................................................................................................. 9

Prototype design .............................................................................................................. 10

Explanation of main functionalities in High-Fidelity prototype .............................. 10

Interaction Map .............................................................................................................. 13

Low fidelity prototypes ............................................................................................... 14

Paper Prototype (Low-Fidelity prototype): ............................................................ 14

User Testing and results .............................................................................................. 15

Redesign of prototype .................................................................................................. 17

Discussion and conclusion .............................................................................................. 17

Suggested improvements ................................................................................................ 18

How we could do better .............................................................................................. 19

High Fidelity Prototype preview .................................................................................... 19

Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 20

Introduction

Digital Social innovation is a current which drives many wellbeing projects of age. Many a times, Innovation gets restricted to areas where money is involved. Majority of public sector services in general tend to lag behind in innovation. One reason might be that they do not realize the need to keep up with technology as they are more isolated and are closed to the idea of innovation. Secondly, innovation is equated to risk than to convenience. One such area which is neglected is Opera Universitaria [operauni]. Opera Universitaria is an organisation which provides student housing to the students of UNITN in Trento and Rovereto. Opera offers around 1500 accommodations in the form of group homes or apartments in these cities. Studentato San Bartolomeo [sanba] is the residential complex operated by Opera. It is the single biggest block of opera consisting 830 places which accommodates Local and International students. The complex fully equipped with additional services like theatre, gyms, indoor and outdoor sport fields, laundry, music rooms, reading rooms and many more. This report intends to give an overview of the process undergone to create a service that helps students living in Studentato San Bartolomeo and Opera in general. The overall process can be roughly divided into three phases:

Idea generation phase

Prototype generation

User testing

Idea generation and refinement

(Note: The concept generated in this phase is different from the final service)

The main motive in this phase was to find a “problem statement” which could possibly address an acute shortcoming in service delivery. Since the subject of the group was Digital social innovation, the service had be a concept which could provide value to a community that we are associated with. There are three important aspects we gained in this phase.

Team bonding It was of prime importance for our team to work together. Although we were just two in the team, we had to synchronize our wavelengths and work towards a common goal. It is said that a team should be as diverse in ideology as possible to have a variety in thinking. Since both of us had a similar background we tried to use the “so what” concept to get a critical angle in the entire process.

Idea generation iteration Rather than confining the idea generation to this segment, we learnt that it could be beneficial to keep refining till the very end. Therefore we can think of this phase a tool which we used throughout the semester.

Quality over quantity The service concept might serve only the student base in Trento , which is not more. This might be a small market segment but through our interviews we learnt that the satisfaction quotient was rather high. The lesson we learnt was that the number of end users do not matter but the effect it brings does.

This section is divided into 3 parts namely, Brainstorming session, concept refining session and Field study.

Brainstorming session.

Brainstorming session was conducted to distinguish a clear problem statement that we had to explore to generate a service concept. As both of the team members were not Italians and had moved to the country a month back, we had find a problem statement which had to be in a community of English speaking people. The university and its subsidiaries were our main targets as we could identify few problems that we had to face during our mobility to Italy. The below table gives an overview of the concepts and discussions.

Table 1. overview of brainstorming session

Design challenge

The aim of this session was to finalize on a single problem statement. Based on the analysis

and verification of all the choices, a suitable and sustainable service had to be chosen. A list of all the information needed had to be made and a plan for retrieving the answers was to be discussed among the group. As the stakeholders were diverse and spread across the geographical area, each group member had to have a specific schedule to gain more from the situation. All the sets of activities were bookmarked. All the groups had a feedback round where each group could comment on the viability and feasibility of the design concept. The table below gives an overview of the workshop results.

Design challenge

Stakeholders Information Known Information needed about

Activities

Improve pre-arrival Information service of Opera universitaria

Students(Local and International) UNITN Welcome office, Opera universitaria

*OU provides no/less information to students before their arrival(esp. international students) *Students face bank transfer issues on their arrival *Welcome office has limited knowledge regarding housing *No bike availability system

Organisation hierarchy of OU, employees, customer service unit, relationship with Banks, social media presence, webpage management and welcome office

Search information on OU webpage. Compare information on what they offer. Talk to welcome office staff. Talk to students and OU staff about design challenge.

Table 2. Concise activity planning overview

Problem statement

Description Stakeholders Analysis

University admission

Improving University’s admission and study portal. Issues related to Esse3, Language and discrepancy in portals.

Students(local and international), Welcome office, UNITN

+ Ease of communication +Simpler solution -Less experience with problem -Problem not convincing

Bus schedule Improving and managing the bus schedule system of Trento transporti.

UNITN, TTE Sercizio, People of Trento

+Bigger market segment +Impact is huge -Language barrier -Similarity with many services

Opera Universitaria

Improve the pre-arrival information service for international students.

UNITN, Opera Universitaria, Students, Welcome office

+Recent experience +Ease of access +Student friendly -Topic too broad

Field study

From the activities mentioned in the earlier segment, we had planned a set of methodologies to collect more information. There are 2 phases in this segment where each phase refers to different problem statement. Overall this was the most crucial phases of service design. It was in this phase that we realized the non-validity of the initial problem statement. Therefore we had to change the design to accommodate a realistic challenge which could benefit all the stakeholders involved. The overall evolution of the design challenge attributes to this crucial phase.

Phase 1 (design validation) The group feedback (from our peer groups from “Digital Social Innovation”) in the previous workshop had given valuable insights on the credibility of the design. One of the comments inferred ”Local students have no problem since they can always refer to the website(is in Italian only) or friends and therefore the Opera universitaria would not treat this as a problem”. Somehow it brought the stark reality on the group wondering if the problem only persists as thought. There were 2 possible activities we could perform. One was a general survey and another was a semi structured interview. Survey had many drawbacks in this case. Since majority of students are Italians, the survey had to be in Italian as well as English. Both the team members were non-Italians and therefore creating a survey was difficult. Even if we created it, analyzing the response would be more troublesome as many key opinions would have lost in translation. Also, we did not have access to the sample set (of the customer segment we were looking at) in order to digitally share the survey with them. Therefore we chose interviews.

Group Interview (Semi-structured) The first activity we planned was to go on a semi-structured group interview where the main motive was to find the credibility of problem statement. We had some questions listed to ask the group. As the responses lead to discussions we even asked open ended questions to get more meaningful and deeper insights. Since the team members stay in San Bartolomeo, we planned to have the interview in the shared common kitchen where we knew many students. The group included 3 international students(Mexico, India and China) and 3 Local students(Rome, Naples and Puglia) Main findings from Semi structured group interviews: - The opinion on “Pre arrival information system” as a problem was mixed as expected.

- We (2 group members) had faced some communication problems when we moved in. We also

found out a few other students had similar problems. (Eg. Wrong information about the deposit,

we were not provided the inventory list in advance etc.)

- Local students felt the problems were less compared to the International students.

- Local students had other issues like “information and application process of scholarships”

- Unless prompted, none of the interviewees felt that pre-arrival information service was

problematic. Once brought on the table, everyone expressed their bad experiences. This shows

that the problem existed but the feeling dilutes over time.

- Everybody agreed on the problem with the bike distribution system.

- We also understood that out these students only a fraction of them are new students. This

means the service concept will address less than 750 students out of which only 200 students

might be critically affected students (international).

Due to these discussions, we were lead to look at other possible problems that the students face in the housing complex.

How our problem statement changed!

By the end of phase 1, it was evident that the service we had in mind “Pre-arrival

Information system” would have targeted very few users and the usage would reduce after the initial use. As mentioned earlier, we had to re-iterate again to search for a more sustainable problem statement to address. After interviews with people, we understood that ‘the pre arrival information’ problems that people face when moving-in are not so strong after sometime. Also, if we are creating a solution for those who are not even residents yet, they would not be aware of our service. So, that problem can simply be solved by better communication (which Opera universitaria administration is also trying to improve). Our Problem statement has changed from “improve pre-arrival information service” to “Making the services at San Bartolomeo housing more user-friendly, user centric and easy for the residents”. Hence, we realized that it is of more value to create a platform which enables the residents to make better use of the services that are already provided. Phase 2 describes our journey in this direction.

Phase 2

Individual Interviews with residents of San Bartolomeo.

We conducted interviews with each of these residents individually. The interviews were semi structured. Like we learnt during the lectures, we had listed some central questions that we asked each of them. As they gave us their opinions and shared their experiences we had the scope to ask for more clarifications or follow-up questions.

Resident 1: Phd student at University of Trento, Tunisian, Cannot speak Italian, taking Italian classes now. Has an international study experience abroad prior to this. Has stayed in Italy for 8 months now.

Resident 2: Master’s student at University of Trento, Dutch, Cannot speak Italian. On university exchange. In Trento since September 2014.

Resident 3: Master’s student at University of Trento, Italian. Staying in Trento since 3.5 years.

Resident 4: PhD student at University of Trento, Romanian. Knows beginner level of Italian. In Trento since 3 months.

Below are our collective learnings from interviewing the above residents; - We learnt about a lot of other problems people face after they move into Sanba: - Linen Exchange is forgotten. (About every 10 days, Sanba has free linen exchange for all the

students. Linen exchange dates are randomly posted around in the building (elevators,

notice boards etc.). On such days students need to bring their used linen to a particular place in the campus and exchange it with fresh linen).

- Need to check bus/train schedule every time they have to commute. - Many people are not aware of the concerts and other cultural events that happen in Sanba

(Opera universitaria) as they do not check the flyers posted in the common areas. When people get to know about the events and are interested in participating in them, they just forget to attend.

- Many people do not know about certain facilities (Projector rooms/TV rooms can be booked by the residents for entertainment for no cost). Residents who move in newly are not briefed about all the services and facilities they can avail. So, they happen to learn them over time.

- There is no bicycle queue and there are only a limited number of bikes. Many residents need a bike but they are unable to follow-up regularly and check if a bike has become available.

- The official website is only in Italian.

Interview with Mr. Pallanch, Student services, Opera universitaria

Mr. Pallanch is one of the key decision makers at the facility. The staff at the opera universitaria information desk guided us to contact him as we have questions related to administration. This was a semi structured interview where we had listed down the questions we wanted the answers for. The questions usually lead to discussions and other open-ended questions. Below are some of the key findings from Opera universitaria administration.

- Number of International students are increasing every year. San Bartolomeo houses over 30% of International students (where as UNITN has just 10% International students).

- There are 30 direct employees in the administration. Recently the administration had to be rearranged.

- Only 1 employee is responsible for the content management. - They have more than 170 free bicycles. They feel many students just keep the bike without

using them regularly. They want to do something about it but its currently not on their priority list.

- They do not have a direct connection with any of the banks (eg. for students to make deposit). They are trying to find an alliance but because of the difficult governmental policies, they are finding it hard to come up with a solution.

- They are also trying to find a solution of sorts in merging all the different student cards(bus pass, Unisport card, student card, café card). It is in an initial stage.

Website We wanted to know about of the the information made available by Opera universitaria on

the website. Each of us team members individually went through the Opera universitaria website and noted down any interesting findings. In the next group meeting we discussed the findings and how it can influence our design challenge. We noticed that the website was in Italian and had a lot of relevant information about the services available at the housing facility, the scholarships, News etc. We realized that it is more useful to the students who are getting scholarship from the Opera universitaria as they could check the latest information about the same. It is completely in Italian and not very user friendly for the International students.

Conceptual Design

Stakeholders description

We have two main stakeholders. They are Opera universitaria Administration and the residents at San Bartolomeo. Of the two, the residents are more involved and impacted by the service as they are the end users/primary users [HCI Course, Interaction design]. However, the involvement of Opera universitaria is likely to increase in the future, over time.

Empathy map

Drawing out the empathy maps helped us analyze our observations from different angles. We were able to prioritize and restructure the needs of the stakeholders in the design. From the field study, we had many findings and a lot of information. Using the empathy maps gave us an idea of which “needs” we should choose to implement in the service. It helped us distinguish between the wants and the needs of the stakeholders and choose what to implement.

Figure 1. Empathy map of Opera personnel

Figure 2. Empathy map of a student

Drawing user Scenarios [HCI Course, Lecture 5 - User Requirements]

Scenario 1: Paulina, 29, Masters Student

Paulina hails from Ecuador. She recently moved to Italy to pursue her Masters degree. Since she does not know Italian, it is very difficult for her to use the Opera universitaria web page. She could not locate the information regarding the gym opening time as the information is placed under utilities tab in the website. Since the information regarding laundry change happens once every ten days, she misses the day many times. She forgets to update her iCal with scheduled dates. This information is provided only on the notice board of her hostel. Still frustrated she explains her situation to a friend who shows her the new application which automatically reminds the linen change date. It also provides all the necessary information regarding the facilities of Opera universitaria. Paulina never misses the linen change dates and is happy using the fresh linen.

Scenario 2 Zeno, 23, Student Zeno is a young musician who wants to learn Music professionally. He is currently applying for School of music, Trento. He has been updated that he will be provided accommodation under Opera universitaria. He wants to know more about the services and facilities of Opera universitaria but he

can not find more information regarding it. In the Facebook page of Opera universitaria, he comes across an app called Sanba. He browses through the survival kit to learn all the information required. He knows that there are dedicated Music rooms in the hostels and he can use them to practice music. He can also meet people in Music room so that he can exchange information and may be form a band. Zeno notices the music events that take place in the theater of the San Bartolomeo residence. New events happen every week with music, plays and movies being the vital choices. He plans to attend atleast 2 events every month. He is very happy to understand student life of Trento even before coming to Italy. He spends his remaining time in China planning and dreaming about his stay in Trento.

Prototype design

Explanation of main functionalities in High-Fidelity prototype

- The application has a Welcome page which briefly shows the App Logo, App Name and the

permission to enter. - Once you enter, a home page/ index page is displayed with all the possible options to select. The

following options are explicit. - Events/Eventi

Opera hosts many cultural, scientific and educational activities at Sanbapolis. Sanbapolis hosts Festivals, Theatre plays, music concerts, Educational seminars, Movies, etc every week. Apart from these many workshops on Cooking, Furniture building etc are conducted regularly. The problem as-of-now is that the main mode of marketing/spreading the message is by using boards and flyers, which is not very efficient.

Figure 3. Example for traditional way of communicating event information

Through personal experience and discussion with friends we learnt that most of the times, people are ignorant about the events or they forget to attend the event even if they want to. To solve this problem we have added events page to our concept where the events and their details are listed according to a timeline.

- Transport/Transporti We wanted to include transport in this concept to amplify the app usage. There are many existing apps for Trento transport. Students at Sanba majorly use 3 to 4 major Buses and 2 trains to commute to either city or to their faculty. Hence we decided to include only limited options and provide an offline list of timetable for these. It should be noted that an application named “ViaggiaTrento” by Smart Campus Lab [Smart Campus Lab] provides similar service for users in Trento. The concept of integrating essential services under a single application was the main motive to retain this functionality. As part of simplicity, we had to take a design decision to have just 4 connections. These four options would take care of most of the transport mobility connections essential for students in Sanba.

- Canteen/Mensa Opera has a subsidiary named Uni.Cafe. Uni.cafe provides canteen services at different locations(faculty) including Sanba during mid-day and weekends. During this time, pictures are taken every minute and posted on their website. This picture helps students to judge the free places and crowd number at a location. Our application shows the opening hours of the canteen at Sanba and also gives the most recent image (when online) at this particular canteen. It should be noted that an application “iFame” by Smart Campus Lab [Smart Campus Lab] provides similar service for users in UNITN. The concept of integrating essential services under a single application was the main motive to retain this functionality.

- Linen change/ Cambio biancheria At San Bartalomeo residence, Opera organizes linen change facility 3 times a month. A set of basic linen like towels, bed sheets can be exchanged for fresh and washed ones in this activity. This activity is not compulsory but advised by the Opera. What we have understood from the research is that students are not told about this activity when they enroll at Sanba. The timetable for the linen change is placed in the notice board. Many a times students forget the linen change date as they do not check the notice board and eventually miss it.

- Weather/Tempo Trentino in general experiences a wide range of climatic change. The temperature change is sharp because of the mountains and valleys. Citizens in general keep themselves updated about the weather through TV or applications. By integrating this functionality in the service, we would accommodate essential utility concepts under a single service. We have restricted the information to 3 days including “the current day”. An hourly forecast can be included in future to facilitate in-depth knowledge.

- News/Notifiche Opera has a maintenance and service department which frequently posts important notifications like Power cuts, maintenance times, closing times during holidays etc. These can be useful for students if provided on a dedicated platform. Generally these are displayed on notice boards or on website.

- Survival kit There are many bare essential information about Sanba residence scattered around the official Opera website. This functionality tries to integrate all the information under a single page. Many frequently asked questions from the official website can be answered in the form of this functionality. In other words this is a “did you know” concept which would help newly arrived students and old residents alike.

- Feedback to Opera We wanted to incorporate an option of giving feedback/ suggestions for improving Opera services or the facilities. These comments will be directed to Opera from the Application in the form of an email addressed to the Opera alloggi@operauni.tn.it. Since the feedback is anonymous, we decided not to have a “feedback tracking system”.

- Exit app This functionality is used to exit the application and close the screen. A subpage is used to provide informal salutation for closing the application.

Interaction Map Enter Application Exit Application

Go to list of events Go to list of transport modes

Go to selection of building

Show list of latest news

Go to feedback page

Display the canteen

Show the weather

Go to list of useful information

Each subpage leads to detailed information Each subpage leads to detailed information

Acknowledgement

Display time table

Low fidelity prototypes

We initially deployed paper prototype to get a general feedback and validation of the idea.

Around the same time as user testing, we started working on our digital prototype to get a good perspective and understanding of its usage and working. Since understanding the software and learning to make the digital prototype takes considerable amount of time, we thought that we should start early to be able to finish the project on time. This decision was also based on the fact that we are just 2 students in the group.

Paper Prototype (Low-Fidelity prototype):

The concept was to include all the services provided by Opera Universitaria at San Bartolomeo Residence and other locations. A preparatory concept was generated to collect and design all the services in the paper-prototype. The intention was to list all the useful functionalities, plan a primitive map of interaction and note all the design decisions before making a paper prototype.

Figure 4. Story Board

Soon after making the story board [HCI course, Prototyping, story board], a well structured paper prototype was created. Similar to an application a set of screens were created on paper. Each screen refers to a page or a subpage. The user is briefed about the process in the beginning. He is told that he should consider this as an application sans color, size etc. The navigation between different screen is provided by the tester. The user is also told that a “boxed text” refers to a button and he can click it. Based on the click, the tester provides the linking screen. `

Figure 5. Paper prototype testing

Additional functionalities (These were excluded in High-fidelity prototype after user testing)

Gym: There are many gym facilities across Trento provided my opera. The opening and closing

times of these facilities are displayed in the application. A possibility of booking the sports facilities was also considered. Since all the bookings happen over manual written paper near the sports facilities, it is difficult to digitalize this concept. Finally this functionality had be removed and instead all the valuable information related gym is provided in the “survival kit functionality.”

User Testing and results

We conducted the user validation with the paper prototypes that we made. All the users who tested the prototype are residents at San Bartolomeo. They are already aware of the services provided and also about the drawbacks and issues. Hence, they were able to provide quality feedback which we will consider implementing in the next version of prototype.

The user was asked to treat each sheet of paper as a page/subpage on the actual application. Based on the button that the user clicked, we gave him the paper which represented the next subpage. The method was “Wizard of Oz” in the sense that they clicked on a button and then we provided the next paper as a result. Parallely, as one of us was assisting the user through navigation, the other was observing and taking notes for data collection [HCI Course, Usability study]. We had advised them to ask questions or interact if they had any problem. During user testing, we interacted and discussed with each of the users where they expressed their feedback. Also by asking some open ended questions we were able to dig deeper and learn their preferences.

Open ended questions that were asked to all users after the testing:

- Order the functionalities based on the “effectiveness” and “appeal”.

- Did you, at any point of time, find yourself lost in the service?

- Were there any terms in the service that confused you or did not make sense to you?

- Do you have any other functionality suggestion to make for this concept?

- Do you experience any problem with Opera that you want to be solved?

- Any other suggestion?

User 1: (Female, 27 years, Phd Student, Resident at Sanba)

- Suggested that the name of the app should not be Sanbaa as it could be difficult for the user

to find the app while searching on app marketplaces.

- Suggested that the term “Notification” can be confused with system notifications and we

can call it “Sanba News” Instead.

- Suggested that some Maps (Sanba map) can be added as they could be useful at times.

- Suggested that “Feedbacks” could be renamed to something more understandable

- Needed pop up notifications for linen change and events.

- Asked if we are also planning to have an Italian version as there are also many Italian

students at Sanba.

User 2: (Female, 24 years, Master’s student, Resident at Sanba)

- Events should also be displayed in the calendar format, than only the list format.

- Instead of using bus numbers, we could use the routes (eg: Sanba to Trento) and then

suggest the bus numbers.

- Apart from gym, information about sports could also be added.

- Suggested to add a tab with welcome information for the new-comers which includes details

about services like reading rooms, music room, laundry room, bikes and opening times of

the opera office at sanba.

- Suggested that there can be a small social network for the residents

User 3: (Male, 26 years, Master’s student, Resident at Sanba)

- User thought that “Notifications” means push notifications “Events”. This clearly tells us that

the name “Notifications” causes confusion and it has to be changed.

- Regarding bus Transport: Told that we should also add the name of the bus stop (eg,

Questura stop) at which the bus arrives along with the timings.

- Suggested that students should also be allowed to post events on the application.

- Suggested that under train transport, “Trento-Sanba-Trento” format should be used instead

of the format in the prototype (“Trento-Sanba” and “Sanba-Trento” ).

- User had question about what exactly feedback means (Feedback to Opera or Feedback for

the application).

- Suggested that we add the fixed menu options and their costs for the canteen.

User 4: (Female, 22 years, Bachelors Student, Resident at Sanba)

- Suggested that the current date and time can be added on the top-right corner on the

events list page. ( Also mentioned that it might NOT be very useful as the users would mostly

have time and date displayed at the top of their phone screens)

- Suggested that the general information about types of menu combinations and their costs

could be added.

- Suggested that having push notifications could be very useful as people forget linen change

and the events that they are interested in attending.

- Mentioned some extra information that can be added to the linen exchange tab.

- Suggested that sports information could be added also.

Redesign of prototype

The paper prototype provided a good benchmark for us to test the concept. Some of the redesign proposals were the direct result of suggestions from users during testing. Based on this many changes were made in the user centric [HCI Course, Interaction design] high fidelity digital prototype.

- We observed during testing that the order in index page was not effective. During our testing we observed that users are more interested in “Transporti”, “Events” and “Linen change” more than others. Therefore we had to re-order them to bring upfront.

- The concept of “Carpooling” did not appeal to users. Since we had extra back –up functionalities, we asked if “weather” would be more effective. Most of them felt knowledge of weather would definitely be more used than carpooling.

- A user suggested that there should be functionality where all the basic information about living in opera be present. Hence we created “Survival kit” functionality where all the basic information was present. We removed “Sports” functionality as we could provide the same information under “survival kit”.

- Based on the feedback, we changed the name of the application from “Sanbaa” to “Sanba”. The user suggested that samba is more colloquial and easy to find on marketplace.

- The color pallet of the digital prototype was decided to be colorful and playful. This could symbolize the multicultural diversity present in the residential complex. [HCI Course, Visual Design]

- The word “notification” was replaced by “News” as the latter synced with the functionality. - An acknowledgement note about receipt of feedback was added in the functionality.

Discussion and conclusion

The problem statement that we were trying to address at the beginning of the coursework was to provide all relevant and necessary information to people who are yet to move into Sanba. However, we realized quite early that the target customer segment was not big enough and that the problem itself was not a very significant one. Meanwhile we also learnt of the problems residents face during their stay at San Bartolomeo. This were problems that residents encountered in long term. We realised that creating a service that

would address these problems would be more useful. Also, it would cater to more people consistently over time. Hence, we created “Sanba - Making the services at San Bartolomeo housing more user-friendly and easy-to-use for the residents”

The field study was an interesting and also crucial part of the design process. We got important first hand information and new directions aiding the design. The group interview that we conducted at the beginning of the field study lead us to the real problem which was worth solving. The individual interviews were quite helpful since we could actually interact with the residents unlike in surveys. So, in the end we were happy that we chose interviews and not surveys. It was amazing how we developed new perspectives with each of the interviews.

For example, when we interviewed individuals we learn that “convenience and ease” mattered the most to them. When we interviewed Opera administration we learnt that they are also not very happy with some of the things around here in the facility. They are also trying to make it better in ways possible and they hope to do so over time. The interviews helped us understand the small details and at the same time gave us a “big picture” of the aspects that needed to be prioritized in our design.

We as a group, wrote down what we thought we needed in the application. Based on these, we started making the paper prototype. It was quite easy to make any corrections to the paper prototype and we enjoyed doing the user testing with it. As mentioned in detail earlier, we used the wizard of oz method to test. In retrospect, we believed that wizard of oz was a good choice because we spotted some problems which we would not have otherwise. Example: Users were asked to treat each paper as a page in the application and click on the buttons (Rectangle boxes in the paper prototype signified buttons). This way, we learnt which features/services of the application were more appealing to them. We could also see that they have difficulty in understanding something when they looked at it for a long time without clicking any button. In such cases we could ask them what the difficulty was and note it down.

We also wanted to make an interactive High fidelity prototype to get the look and feel of the application. We started to make it using Appgyver[appgyver]. We already made some improvements in this version based on the feedback from the user testing. However, we have more recommendations for the changes that can be made in the future which we will discuss in a separate section.

The service that we have created can be used by all residents at San Bartolomeo. We realize that the target customer segment is not very big. We have also learnt that dedicated applications like these are very useful for the segment they are made for. Hence, we hope to be the big fish in the small pond. We hope to help people in making sanba their home, sweet home.

Suggested improvements

Due to lack of time and scope beyond coursework we haven’t been able to include all feedback from the user testing in the high fidelity prototype we have made. Below are suggestions for the improvements that can be made in the future.

Effective settings tab for push notifications which can be customised could be implemented.

Menza menu/price plans can be updated in the future.

Upon approval from Opera, end user created events can be shown in the events page.

Upon approval from Opera, bookings for venues (Eg. Video sala F2b) or sports facilities can

be done via the application.

Have an attend button option for the events, so that the organizers get an idea of how many

people are going to attend.

How we could do better

We are only a two member team. We feel it would have been better if had more members in the team. Not because the workload would be significantly lesser, but because we would get more perspectives and ideas during all stages of the design process.

Testing High-fidelity prototype would have given more valuable insights and feedback. It was beyond the scope of course work. Hence we did not proceed with further development of High-fidelity prototype.

We have been happy with the insights that we got from the interviews. However we also wonder if using both survey and interviews would give us more insights.

For the feature “Feedback to Opera” we could not get an opinion from Opera universitaria. So, their approval would be needed to get that feature implemented in the real app.

It would be nice to show the prototype to somebody from the opera administration and get their feedback. That would have been very interesting but we couldn’t do it due to lack of time.

High Fidelity Prototype preview

Since the Digital prototype can be hosted for a longer time, it can be previewed by sharing. This segment describes the method to preview it on an iPhone or iPad. For best results, the preview is optimized for iPhones. Downloading Appgyver application The user needs to download Appgyver scanner application for their iPhone through the Appstore. Once downloaded, one needs to scan the below QR code.

Figure 6. QR code for downloading application After the scanning, the application is automatically downloaded onto one’s phone. Once downloaded, user can navigate through the service like a regular application. Hope you enjoyed the service and the prototype.

Appendix

Prototypes in contrast

Figure 7. Welcome page

Figure 8. Index page

Figure 9. Events page

Figure 10. Transport page

Figure 11. Canteen page

Figure 12. Events subpages

Figure 13. Linen change page and sub page.

Figure 14. News page

Figure 15. Feedback page

Figure 16. News subpages

Figure 17. Weather page Figure 18. Exit page