GR1

User Analysis

Interviews

We interviewed three people:

• Dorm Manager
  • With regards to Cash spending, doesn’t always use cash, but when doing so takes out a specific amount and keep track of how long it takes him to spend it.
  • Keeps track of spending using banking websites.
• Desk Worker
  •  
• Dorm Resident
  • Regularly uses dorm facilities
  • Keeps track of dorm events
  • Keeps track of dorm maintenance
  • Monitors living conditions of other residents

Conclusions

From these interviews, we conclude that people typically use excel to manage and track their finances. We also found that people generally do not closely track and audit their spending.

Problem Statement

Members of a dorm community, including both those involved in management and usage of the dorm, need a convenient way to keep track of information about the dorm. This includes information about dorm facilities and their availability, living conditions of residents, and information about dorm-wide events and maintenance.  

User Classes

Users include the classes mentioned as interview subjects. Essentially, they are all people who need to keep track of dorm facility availability, usage, and maintenance, as well as living conditions of the various residents, though at varying levels.  

Dorm Manager

This user keeps track of receipts to monitor expenditure and detect credit card fraud. They may use some consumer software (a.l.a mint.com), or they may simply spreadsheet their expenses under excel and cross-reference against their credit/debit charges and cash-withdrawals.

This user currently keeps physical receipts, and every so often (fortnightly) takes the built-up stack of receipts and digitizes them into excel, discarding the physical receipts. The user does not digitize them immediately due to the excessive friction of digitizing each receipt as it appears.

Requirements

1. This user wants convenience above all else. Since it is for their own personal usage, there is no need for the anti-forgery properties provided by physical receipts or scans.
2. Data available in standard format (e.g. Excel) for importing into other tools, such that the user is not forced to immediately abandon his existing workflow to use our tool.
3. Low-friction method for scanning and tracking expenses, in order to encourage maximum compliance and thus accuracy.
4. Basic analytics functionality, so the user can use our app to discover easily common usage patterns and insights without the need for te 

Desk Worker

This user keeps track of receipts to monitor expenses on behalf of a business, organization or client. This user keeps receipts both in order to track expenditure as well as to justify his expenses to his client or organization, in order to be properly reimbursed.

This user keeps physical receipts for expenditures on behalf of someone else, and every so often hands off these receipts to the client/organization for their auditing, in exchange for reimbursement.

Requirements

1. This user needs some sort of difficult-to-forge evidence of each expenditure, in order to justify to a third party that the expenses were really made and were justified
2. The evidence have to be easily exportable/transferable to third parties, together with the consolidated data (which has to be in a standard format like Excel), such that the third party can quickly cross-reference the photos with the data to audit the expenditure.
3. The data will have to be kept private, as the third party (business/organization/client) will most definitely not want their expenditure records leaking out to the public!
4. The service must be completely reliable. The user cannot afford to lose the records of his expenditure  

Dorm Resident

This user makes personal use of dorm facilities such as exercise equipment, refrigerators, and mailing systems. They also monitor important dorm-wide information such as dorm event announcements and dorm maintenance announcements to participate in dorm activities and prevent disruption in plans respectively, as well as physically check on living conditions of friends and other residents they may need to get in contact with.   

Requirements

1. This user needs a way to look up the facilities present in their dorm, and their availability for usage.
   1. Packaging System (are desk workers present?)
   2. Laundry (are dryers/washers taken or usable?)
   3. Exercise equipment (do we have a treadmill and is someone currently using it?) 
2. This user wants to be able to access information on the progression of processes initiated by dorm facilities.
   1. Mail System (has my mail been shipped/arrived, where in the world is it?)
   2. Laundry (how much time until my clothing has dried?)
   3. Personal cooking (will my brownies ever finish baking?)
3. This user wants to be able to check the occupancy of dorm rooms.
   1. Room's semester occupancy (is this someone's address?).
   2. Room's current occupancy (is the person living here available?). 
4. The user wants to be able to conveniently request maintenance of facilities.
5. The user wants to be able to access centralized information about dorm events and maintenance.