Project 1 Discover
Make Observations (1.1)
Pose Questions (1.2)
Find information (1.3) Selling and buying books via the current system is a problem. We decided that it was a necessary thing that needs to be fixed. For the reasons listed in the image above, we decided on this topic to design a solution for.
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PROJECT I 2017/9/17 - Reflection
What Happened?
We came up with interview questions and reached out to members of the school communities to find out what they think about the way students buy and sell used textbooks at PAS. We then analyzed the collected information and identified trends and took note of information that we did not expect.
The cafeteria floor is always sticky
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School tuition
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The bathroom floor is always wet. Its disgusting. Am I stepping on water or am I stepping on diluted urine?
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No key card for the one elevator
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Hungry quite frequently
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miscommunication with the office staff
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No time to take a dump – need longer breaks
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not every one satisfied with the school lunch
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Gums are stuck to the bottom of the table (very nasty)
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Getting hungry before lunch
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No study rooms or a quiet space for productive work
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School size too small, easily cramped up
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Very tired (need naps)
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not having enough fresh air in the building
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Desks and tables are really noisy
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being too tired to have 3 classes in the row in the morning (nap is needed)
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Wifi sucks in certain places in school
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School internet
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No seniority in school
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Obviously teachers don’t have enough time to prepare for their classes
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Kids are too loud in the hallways
The pull-down projector screen is insanely difficult and annoying to use
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The school computers
The hospital-like campus, looks sort of like a temporary school for refugee
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Bathroom light turning off after like 2 min.
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Some of the office staffs?
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Lunch doesn't serve salad. Some of us are veggie
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It’s a school of complaints
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The trash can lids don’t open automatically (I don’t want to touch the lid it's disgusting)giving money that don't know where it goes
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Air conditioners sometimes insanely cold, some people complain about it.
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The “rock” band only plays pop music and edm + rap
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No place to hide during college visit
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Rock Band sucks
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Choppy wifi connection
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If you want to charge your laptop you have to go to a specific location in the classroom where the wall plug is available, often times taking turns
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Fan under the light
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Can’t hear announcements
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students putting trash under drawers
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People argue about how cold the air conditioner should be set on. Some like it cold and some have a fear of not being warm. - solution: those who fear the cold should wear jackets, and keep the air conditioner cold. Now everyone's cool, much better than turning the air conditioner of
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Small Campus
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wifi connections
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Too few teachers to justify the cost
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whether it's too hot or too cold in the classroom
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The computers in the computer lab are close to useless
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Some classes have so many students that it seems we’re being shipped to America.
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devices out of batteries
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Lack of infrastructure and equipment
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Not enough tissues in classrooms
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Not being switch classes. Jenny
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Smell of bathroom after disinfecting
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Chinese too bad ???yes
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32talking to people
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School security cameras can be accessed via wifi and exploited (if evil)
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little little space
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dealing with office ppl
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Buscher
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giving money that don't know where it goes
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Insecure school network
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can’t sell used textbooks
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Problem evaluation
Issue: Making PAS’s used book sale more convenient
Feasibility:
Po: The sale of used books is generally outside of the school’s (office staff) control and is done by the interact club. Since it’s student run, we have more freedom.
Shaun: It is a system, so it can be changed more easily. No physical infrastructure really needs to change.
Daniel: I think it’s feasible because our brainstorm determines the effectiveness of our solution, not stuff like how much capital we have to solve the problem
Significance:
Po: It’s significant because from my experience, there are lots of demand for used books and lots of supply as well. Therefore it affects a lot of people
Shaun: It can help people save money
Daniel: Sometimes schools run out of books, so it becomes crucial to students who don’t have books by then
Pose Questions (1.2)
Question formulation + Interview preparation
Questions we came up with to ask during interviews/ actual interview questions are based on these questions. Interview questions may differ depending on context and time limits
Questions we came up with to ask during interviews/ actual interview questions are based on these questions. Interview questions may differ depending on context and time limits
- Of the books you tried to sell, how many of them were sold?
- How long does it usually take (days or weeks) for a book you listed to get sold?
- What do you think of the school Interact club’s method of selling books? (stacking them on a table and asking people what book they’re looking for)
- Why are you trying to sell books?(ask 5 whys)
- Why are you trying to sell them before a certain date?
- Why do you think people will buy your books?
- What motivates you to sell your books? (ask 5 whys)
- What is the most annoying thing about book selling/buying?
- If you could change one thing about the current system, what would it be?
- Is time a concern for you, as in do you care how early in the school year your books are sold?
- What is the typical process of buying/selling used books? Describe in as much detail as possible.
Find information (1.3) Selling and buying books via the current system is a problem. We decided that it was a necessary thing that needs to be fixed. For the reasons listed in the image above, we decided on this topic to design a solution for.
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PROJECT I 2017/9/17 - Reflection
What Happened?
We came up with interview questions and reached out to members of the school communities to find out what they think about the way students buy and sell used textbooks at PAS. We then analyzed the collected information and identified trends and took note of information that we did not expect.
Think and feel - What were you thinking and feeling?
I was thinking that we could also do a survey via google forums and not just the interviews. I felt like the interviews were taking up too much time (approx 7min each) and we could've gotten more data if we also used alternative methods.
Evaluate - what was good and bad about the experience?
What went well was that our interviewees gave helpful information on what they thought, and even revealed new information that we were surprised about. What was bad was that we interviewed only a certain type of student, and our responses do not reflect the thoughts of the school's community as a whole.
What went well was that our interviewees gave helpful information on what they thought, and even revealed new information that we were surprised about. What was bad was that we interviewed only a certain type of student, and our responses do not reflect the thoughts of the school's community as a whole.
Envision - what else could you have done?
We could have sent out digital surveys that can be used to gain an idea of what each profile type thought of the current system.
Plan - What would you do differently next time?
Next time, we will find some other time to go and interview people from other profile groups. Since this time we were only able to interview people that were available during a study hall, the information might not accurately portray what most of the school would think.
The Interview notes
Observations
After the interviews, we organized the information collected in 2 different forms.
Next time, we will find some other time to go and interview people from other profile groups. Since this time we were only able to interview people that were available during a study hall, the information might not accurately portray what most of the school would think.
The Interview notes
Interview with Een Shang
Q: Describe the process of selling buying the second handed books
A: Facebook groups and contact the person who is selling or buying the book
Talk about price price is slightly tricky. People know how to compare prices and look at the condition of the book so it can get tricky
Q: Do you use the system often?
A: He uses it every year. He buys it from people that he is familiar with first and if that does not work he then looks for other people that he doesn't know
Q: Anything to improve in the current system,? anything inconvenient about it right now?
A: Negotiating the price is inconvenient because there is no standard price for the book. A lot of them are just expensive and the reasonable price level is not really known. Don’t know what a book should cost.
Q: Why is it in convent?
A: For the seller, the sellers just want to get more money out of it and lean towards a high price. The consumer doesn’t have a lot of choices and after buying it at a high price, you sell it at a high price again next year. It becomes a loop, and its not good.
Maybe create a standard for pricing the second handed books.
Q: Why do you think people don’t have a clear understanding of the price?
A: Most people don’t know how much the book was worth in the first place. A lot of books are even clean and untouched. Second and third hand books can look like new books. Books bought from the school are also paid by parents as part of the tuition cheque so the students themselves don’t know the real price of the book.
Q: Have you ever sold a book? explain
A: Tried to keep the price reasonable
main concern is about what price I bought the book at, and don’t want to lose too much in the process. Sometimes other sellers sell at a really ridiciolus price
Cheap book sellers are usually selling to close friends. Sometimes other people hear about the price and expect some sellers to sell it cheaper.
Q: comments about the system? the way its done?
A: Most inconvenient part is to locate the person and to get them the book. New students, etc, some don’t even speak english. The Facebook group is really annoying because sometimes language barrier they don't even know what you're saying and they also don’t know about the school campus, for meeting place.
Q: Should it be controlled??
A: not that supportive of that, but a standardized price would be useful for both buyer and seller.
Interview with Alice Hu
Q: Describe your experience
A: Facebook group - when someone comments for a book, they don’t look at the posts that are below the current newest post. They could’ve looked below to find the book they needed
Selling is sort of difficult because chasing people down can get complicated
Q: As a buyer describe your experience of the process
A: Buy from Facebook page. Search for the posts that are selling those books, comment on it., then compare the prices. Rare books, just buy it directly
Q: As a seller
A: hardest part is coming up with the prices
popular books sold easily
certain rarer books cant be sold because class doesn't exist anymore
Old books bought at original price are hard to sell
Q: any problems you have with the current system?
A: buyers are indecisive. or they cancel. or they forget that they already have the book. its annoying. and time wasting.
Q: current system, what would you change?
A: Id make it more organized. the Facebook posts are redundant about the same book but different seller. Posts flood out older posts and older posts need to be re-posted again. A standardized system would be less mesi. Make it look like a google sheet format perhaps. List book, price and buyer.
Q: why do you think some people don’t use the fb properly
A: they either lazy or don’t know seller won’t come looking for them
Q: Why is it the seller’s job to track down buyers
A: They think that the seller wants to sell the book more than they want to buy the book
McGill notes
Q: Trouble?
A: Yes, annoying —> negotiate price and self doing many stuffs
Encourage school to build a system fixing the problem
Organize all the stuffs
Not to pay tuition
Shaun Cheon —> selling book with a good price
Customer find Mcgill for books
asking for a fair price —> yeah
asking ppl who take the class
AP Cal —> pure luck—> getting ppl who drop the class to sell books
or give up
reasonable price is important
Bryan Ying
Q: Have you ever used the pas buy and sell book system? On fb? Or other means
A: Buying
When other people make me offers people kinda know what classes you are taking and the information goes around . The sellers will know.
A:Selling
Go on the Facebook thing it sometimes work and sometimes doesn't
1 case where this Spanish girl wanted to buy the book but did not reply
Dorm students organized their own book selling thing where they take the books and sell it for you at a decent price.
Q: What doesn't work about the Facebook group?
A: Its mainly dependent on the users to facilitate the communication. In my case, the buyer never responded. He only used it once.
I think the posting/ buying selling thing works.
Q: Experience as buying used books:
A: never bought directly from the Facebook group but people made me offers to sell their books
A: never bought directly from the Facebook group but people made me offers to sell their books
Q: Why is it easier to give it to the dorm students?
A: Don’t like going through the work of negotiating and stuff
Dorm students do the work and profit off it for a reasonable price.
Q: Why do you think its inconvenient ? Thats why you paid 30% more to sell the books.
A: Don't like to contact people you don’t know and doing the contracting price, etc.
Q: 1 thing you would change About second hand book selling/buying?
A: ....
Q: How many people know about the dorm students book service
A: At least 5 to 10 people from [his] class.
Q: Why don’t more people use it?
A: Its somewhat personal. Asking them to do it for you. But they're not doing it for large profit.
Daniel Chen
I just talk to people directly
They ask they come to you.
How do you negotiate price
They will say the price first and then usually i will agree
Example of buying book
Post on the facebook page,
1 or 2 hours i was contacted
The book was ap computer science
I would rate the facebook group 3 out of 5
I think its effective.
Its true that older posts get buried below new ones
How would you change it?
Categorization of books
If all cases can’t find book
Buying from school > other sources
Observations
After the interviews, we organized the information collected in 2 different forms.
Types of users, their needs, and insights
What the users Said, Did, Thought, and Felt according to the interview results
