KeepUp IUPUI
role -
sole researcher + designer
project duration -
2 weeks
tasks performed -
competitive analysis, interviews, brainstorming, prototyping, evaluation
tools -
Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop
Project Background
Buildings and facilities in a college building sometimes needs repair and maintenance. It quite often occurs that no once notices the issue until weeks go by and even if someone does, they do not know who to report it to. The idea is to improve the upkeep of campus facilities by creating a new system for reporting any facilities that are in need of maintenance.
The Challenge
Designing an experience that allows students to file report of a building or equipment issues on campus. The application should also consider how the reports will be received and handled by concerned authorities.
Main Features
Photo Evidence
An image helps in a more accurate identification of the issue that has occurred. Users can take an image at the site or can also upload from their device's photo gallery.
Details of the Issue
Providing additional information on the issue helps the authorities to know exactly what the issue is. By giving the exact location and severity of the issue helps the concerned authorities in assigning and managing all the work orders.
Managing Work Orders
The members at the community office can view the pending and completed work orders. The screen displays the issue, date the work order was filed, priority of the issue, and location. By viewing the details of the work order, the concerned authority will assign it to the correct contractor who will fix the issue.
Process
Research
To understand the problem space, I read online articles and forums on university websites as how students currently report the problems. I inquired about the process that Indiana University follows to report and solve a maintenance issue. To do that, I conducted interviews with students, faculty members, and staff members who work in the community office that handles all the work orders.
Competitive Analysis
In order to identify what other universities are doing to report and handle maintenance issues, I researched about 5 universities.
What are other universities doing?
Students living in campus housing can call the designated number, visit the office during office hours, and email the issue. There is no functionality for those who want to file an issue that occurs on other buildings of the campus.
Students need to file a worksheet on the website. The webpage is not easily accessible from the home page of the university's website.
ASU has a service request webpage where students can file a work order. The webpage has different request types that the reporter has to choose based on the issue they encounter. Students can upload images on the portal.
Students at Drexel University have to file a worksheet via their DrexelOne portal. To file the work order, students have to provide the location and description.
The only way students can file a maintenance or a damage request at WIU is by calling on a designated number.
User Interviews
To gather insights regarding the problems faced by users, I conducted 6 user interviews:
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3 Students
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2 Faculties
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1 Staff member at the Community Office
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Last month, I was going to attend my class in the Science Building when I noticed that the wall on the right side corner of the building was chipping off and cracks were starting to form on it. I was concerned and wanted to bring the issue to the authorities notice but I could not find anyone nearby or knew where to file the request. In the end, I told my professor about it and he said he will let the higher authorities know about it.
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Just 2 weeks ago, I had a problem with the computer system while I was setting up for my class. It seemed to me that there was an electric problem with the system. At that time, I looked around the building but there were no concerned authorities I could report the issue to. In the end, I had to make do without the system to deliver my class.
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One of the most prevalent issues we face is regarding not getting information about the problem fast enough. Students most of the times do not report the issue directly to us but convey the message via a faculty. The current content management system is not quite reliable and sometimes work orders take a lot of time to process.
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What's missing?
By conducting the competitive analysis and user interviews, I realized that the key user needs and insights are:
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Difficulty in registering a complaint
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Time-consuming procedure
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Unaware of online complaint-forms
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Complicated process
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Often not enough information about the issue
Ideate
Keeping in mind key insights identified during the research phase, I began to brainstorm the possible design solutions that would eliminate the user problems. Certain solutions that I brainstormed were:
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Display the contact number of Community Office in every class.
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A kiosk inside every building from where people can file complaints.
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A tablet inside every class and labs using which people would be able to raise a maintenance issue.
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A mobile app integrated with the university portal using which the students can register a complaint.
The Solution
After taking into consideration the plus and minuses of each idea, I narrowed down my final design solution to a mobile application which the users can easily install on their devices. The benefits of a mobile app outweigh the other ideas because:
Everyone has a smartphone
Huge plus point of being able to provide photo evidence while filing a complaint
No need to find a nearby device/person to register a complaint
Wireframes
After performing the background research, gaining key insights via interviews, and ideating the possible design solutions, I started to create the low-fid prototype for the application.
Submit an issue
Upload Images
Provide Details
View Work Order Details
View Pending Work Orders
Task Scenario
Bethany is an undergraduate student at IUPUI. Bethany slipped while playing soccer and fractured her leg and hence is on a wheelchair for the rest of the month. While on her way travelling to the library, she encountered that the Accessibility Push Button that opens the door for her is not working.
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To register a complaint, she took out her phone and opened the IU Maintenance App. Bethany then using the file complaint feature, reported the issue and provided images as well a video along with it.
Solution Overview
After creating low-fidelity screens/wireframes, I started to design the final hi-fidelity prototype. We were not attempting to revamp the whole experience of using an app while grocery shopping but rather integrating our design solutions into an app experience people are already familiar with.
Report an Issue
When someone comes across a damage or a maintenance issue, they can file a report using the 'Report an issue' action button.
Add Images
Adding images provides a much more clear perspective of the issue to the concerned authorities. Users can add as my images as they can by taking an instant photo from their camera or add an image from their device gallery.
More Details
Providing more details in addition to the images regarding the issue help the authorities in knowing more about the issue. Users can describe the issue in a few words, give the location where the issue has occurred, assign a priority, and elaborate the issue in 2-3 sentences.
Confirmation
Users receive the confirmation that their request has been filed and if they want, they can file another report.
Pending Work Orders
People at the community office can view all the work orders on their mobile screen. Information such as the issue, date the request was filed, location, current status, and priority is shown.
View Work Order and Assign
The authorities can view all the details about the work order and assign it to the concerned contractor.
Evaluation
I conducted 3 usability tests with students on the University campus and gave them the task to file an issue request. The key insights I received were:
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The users liked the fact that the application was imbedded in the IU Mobile portal and they did not have to install an additional application on their mobile phone.
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During the tests, users were able to fluently understand the flow of the application.
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Users thought adding the images in addition to textual information was very helpful.
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2 users mentioned that it would have been better if the application would automatically detect the location depending on the geo location of the device.
Learnings
Filing a maintenance issue was not something I had thought of before I started to design for the problem statement. While performing domain research, I realized that the current process to file an issue is not efficient and that the requests most of the time do not reach to them in time. Reaching out to the authorities, students, and faculties helped me in gaining key insights that helped me in creating a good design solution. The key learnings were to add a photo evidence of the issue, location, and give the authorities the option to view the pending and completed work orders as well as assign them to the right contractors.
If I had more time...
If I had more time, I would have researched more about the issue and interviewed the contractors as well who works on the issues. In addition to that, creating a detailed desktop portal for the authorities as they mostly work from their office desk and it is more convenient to handle the whole process on a desktop. Based on the usability insights, I would have added the functionality to detect the location automatically based on the GPS location of the device.
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