top of page

Project 1-
If payable facilities on campus were more user-friendly..

The topic of our first project for course COMP4461 Human-Computer Interaction is "If ___ on HKUST campus were more user-friendly...".

 

This project follows the flow of need-finding - results of the target scenario and users - ideation through mind-mapping & HTA - problem identification - verification of real user needs - solutions - evaluation.

​

Our central topic question is "If using payable facilities on campus were more user-friendly...", and our goal is to identify real user needs and ideate within this aspect of campus life, finally proposing solutions that can make the process more user-friendly.

​

To view the complete project and project details, please click the image below!

Needfinding

To identify the needs of HKUST students, we interviewed students around us on what they find the most inconvenient and not user-friendly in their experience of facilities on campus. We collected their opinions and here are some inspiring responses:

​

“I often go down to my hall’s 2nd floor or LG5 to reach the printer only to find it does not work.” -Year 3 SBM Cindy

​

“The charging of the air-conditioner is really too complex, is there any way to cut a few steps?” -Year 4 SHSS Yvette

​

“I wish there were a way to check the balance of my student card conveniently, so I would not need to return to the card reader after plugging in the card in the laundry machine and find the balance insufficient.” -Year 4 SSCI Louis

​

Through interviews with around 10 students, we derived our PoV statement according to the "[user] need(s) to [need] because [insight]" template:

​

"HKUST students need to access and pay for campus facilities quickly and easily because they have time-sensitive needs for them."

​

The users are HKUST students who have used these services, the need is to access and pay for them quickly and easily, and the insight is that as they are usually pretty occupied with their daily work and study, delays or obstacles in their daily facilities usage would be impactful.

 

A textual analysis was also conducted on our interview responses. It was found that "charging", "broken machine", "time-wasting", "air-conditioning", "printer", and "laundry" appeared most frequently.

Ideation

Using these keywords, we brainstormed on what are the possible difficulties HKUST students will encounter in these aspects through mind-mapping.​ 

​

We found that a lot of complaints we received could be grouped around the common theme of campus facilities and services that are payable by student card, and we have categorized our ideas around our keywords.

 

For each facility/service, we then conducted Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) to get an in-depth understanding of each step of the user journey, in order to identify specific pain points that we can work on to alleviate.

Three key observations:

​

  • Students have to walk to different locations in the user journey to charge their card

  • Facilities may often be unavailable, and the only available way to check their status is to reach the location and check it physically

  • The tasks requiring these facilities may be quite time-sensitive (e.g. having to print a document urgently, or needing to recharge the air-conditioning immediately in hot weather).

Problem Identification

To identify whether the problems we brainstormed were real user needs, we distributed a Google Form asking questions about the respondents' usage of the facilities and their thoughts on some proposed solutions.

​​

We asked respondents what difficulties they have experienced when using each facility/service. We found that:​

  • The main difficulty for the printing service is "Technical issues with the printer"

  • The main difficulty for the laundry service is "Long wait times for available washer/dryer

  • The main difficulty for the air-conditioning service is "Inconvenient to charge air-con money"

 

Then, we asked respondents for their opinions on some proposed solutions, and whether they would find them useful. It was shown that the majority of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that our suggestions would be useful.

Solutions

1. Display boards to display the current status of printers around campus. ​​

 

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

2. An app that users can install to check the status of machines,

including printers and washers/dryers, on their devices anytime and anywhere. 

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

3. A charging functionality in the same app, such that it can be an all-in-one solution for the usage of payable campus facilities in general

& NFC technology applied to the student cards such that the users' devices can be used to charge and top up the card balance,

without having to use physical add-value machines.

Storyboards

How could our solutions improve students' user experience with these facilities?

The problems and difficulties faced currently by users in checking the status of machines.

With our proposed solutions of the status-checking app and display boards, the user's struggles can be solved. 

The charging functionality in our proposed app will enable users to pay on the go, comfortably and effortlessly.

Evaluation

Our proposed solution fill the design goals we aim to achieve: 
Quick,

Convenient,

Easy,

Sustainable,

Extensible,

Widespread.

My Role & Refelection

For this project, my personal contribution includes need finding through interviews, textual analysis of the interview responses, creating the mindmap and proposing solutions with my groupmates together. I was also responsible for creating slides and presenting on need finding and POV results. 

​

This is a very interesting project as I first applied systematic knowledge of user needs finding and analyzing to user needs that are closely related to our own campus life. It might be an easier start as we could empathize with our target users (HKUST students) and immerse in the target scenario quickly without too much further research on users' backgrounds. However, it is even more inspiring as I start to look at facilities and systems around me with a user-centered perspective and think about what improvements could be made to reach a smoother user flow and better user experience.

​

In addition, my groupmates are really all active, and the communication is just so engaging and interactive. It is truly a pleasure to work with them together and to be inspired by each other's unique ideas. Besides, I really appreciate the chance to hear other groups' work as everyone's effort and sparkles are really insightful. Look forward to the next project!

​

bottom of page