The class task this week made me consider more what makes something a direct or I direct competitor, some examples of indirect competitors to the university which stood out to me were social spaces like gyms, clubs and bars, as it made me consider the wider uses of a university besides its main purpose of learning and preparing for a career, such as the social aspect shared by these indirect competitors, and also other factors such as extra-curricular skill development and professional networking. This new train of thought spurred on by the task may be a useful avenue to pursue for the product.
Mind mapping with my research group also defined some users of the university I had not previously thought about in my research, such as the security, cleaning and kitchen staff. This also defined new goals, issues and potential solutions based on the wider array of users now discovered, such as administrative problems, like monitoring who has entered the university if students have forgotten their card, in which case another form of identification could be required, or the student’s details could be downloaded temporarily on a card which would be handed back at the end of the day.
The interview task was also quite interesting, I was the interviewee, and answered questions about a time I lost my debit card. This caused me to think about how the experience could have been improved, and the issues faced during the process, most notably the confusing UX of the banking app. Sharing these thoughts with the group was more fruitful than simply thinking about the experience by myself, as they were able to offer ideas for possible improvement which I hadn’t considered, such as the app automatically offering the user the option to request a new card after reporting an unknown transaction.