Based on my previous research and work with my group I created my design challenge this week. The problem I chose to tackle was giving students the opportunity to socialise, as students on forums I visited say they find it difficult to find time for their social life between university and work. I framed this as the question, “how might we help students keep a social life while studying and working.” The outcome I hope to achieve is to give students a means to engage with each other as they have busy schedules due to university and other commitments.
Some constraints I found in my research were increased cost of living, leading to students having to work for longer, and have less free time, some students are unwilling to travel to clubs and events on days they don’t already need to be at university, working hours can be unpredictable, poorer students can become more isolated from their peers due to having to work more, and that students who spend more time working can be more likely to procrastinate from studies due to feeling overwhelmed.
The most promising potential solutions I considered were an app for students where they input their availability, and are matched in groups to meet up based on that, with suggested events or activities. I also considered that societies could use surveys to investigate the days most members are available to schedule sessions, instead of the current model, where the day is pre-set, and available students can attend. There could also be community schemes for student social events outside of university, or university funding to places like clubs and gyms, so that poorer students can also be included in these social areas. A more outlandish solution I thought of was a mobile game for young adults which requires real life cooperation with other players.
I found this task extremely helpful to get into the mindset of design strategy. This caused me to think more closely about whether an idea fit the needs of its intended users, by laying out the user needs and problem first. I will also conduct primary research this week to confirm the problem is faced by real users, as previously my research was restricted to statistics and student forums.
I conducted three interviews to test my hypothesis that students face problems maintaining friendships due to lack of available time between university and work, which was based on my earlier secondary research from forums and statistics.
The first interview was in the form of a phone call with a 20 year old student from Argentina.
Q- How many hours a week do you work, and how long do you spend in university?
A- I have to go to university from Monday to Friday for 6 hours each day, it’s quite demanding, and on top of that I work for about 30 hours a week.
Q- Is there any particular reason you work for so long?
A- In my country it’s quite hard to find part time work, and I like to travel a lot. Prices for everyday things like food and rent are very low here and the wage is scaled to that, but planes are as expensive as they would be in Europe, and it’s hard to afford hotels and restaurants on an entry level wage.
Q- How satisfied are you with your friendships?
A- I don’t really have much time for friends at all, any time I have left I’m doing university work, I’d only get to meet people less than once a month. Because of that I don’t really have any real friends, just people I work with at uni.