Kategorie: Assignment #1

[A#1, P1] HelloFridge

Who is your user group?

Our stakeholders are hobby cooks at all levels and with different amount of spare time for preparing their meals. Our unique selling point is the special way how we approach the search of the recipe because the user will enter the ingredients and not the meal`s name.

What is the exact problem?

Take-away or food delivery is convenient, but it’s often too much plastic. To protect the environment we want to make it easier to find out which meal you can do with leftovers. From our own experience, we know: Even if we have ingredients, sometimes we decide not to cook because we are just too hungry and want to save time.

Where is your user group interacting with your software?

Because our goal is to encourage humans to finish everything at home before their food becomes bad, the people will use it at home, on the way home or before shopping, which is in most cases on the way home too.

When is the user group interacting with your software?

People are motivated the most to use leftovers when they are a few moments before mealtime like breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Why do your users need this software?

Inspiration helps with creativity and creativity helps to make delicious and novel meals.

How do you want to solve the problem?

The existing recipe websites will provide a valuable source of data. Our interview partner are frequent delivery user and we will make it with react native or flutter.

Use-case

a-Cook opens the application after he/she looked up his groceries at home
b-Cook selects the ingredients with the quantity where he/she can select single ingredients or a selection. For some items, the cook can select the weight(like cabbage) for others he/she needs to choose the amount (like eggs).
c-App start searching for dishes, possible to make with the ingredients.
d-Given the ingredients, the application will return a list of dish suggestions

Nice-to-have

-The function add new recipe. Since in the world of social media the mindset and practice of sharing is very popular we expect that a lot of people person will create content (the recipes) the same way they consume it… and the food.
-Machine learning to identify food in pictures. The user just needs to take a photo of the inside of his fridge. We can use this solution or that one.
-Shopping recommendations according to your previous dishes.

Marketing

Start a campaign where people post photos of the inside of their fridge #youarewhatyoueat #hellofridge

Who did what?

We did the brainstorm together but Mouadh was more involved in the research while Christian more involved in the writing. We lost Julian on the way.

What did we learn?

We identified some interesting solutions already and also had additional ideas.

What went well?

We had a good conversation and both of us are excited to make this project alive

What do we want to improve?

In the future we want to improve our writting tool because currently it`s bold.

[A#1, P7] Veritas

  • Project 7
  • Week 1
  1. Who is your user group?
    Anyone interested in politics and news.
  2. What is the exact problem?
    Today’s news is often inherently biased and lacks nuanced journalism. Some more, such as breitbart news, and some less, such as reuters. With the recent surge of social media, a large share of unsuspecting readers fall into a so called filter bubble, i.e., they only see news of specific political backgrounds, which they are anticipated to like. Some think, this may lead to political extremism [https://www.connectsafely.org/social-media-can-lead-to-political-extremism/], further deepening preconceived opinions and ideas. Anyone interested in politics and news.
  3. Where is your user group interacting with your software?
    When the general public are using, e.g., social media, and want to fact check an article or get a different view on the topic the article is about.
  4. When is the user group interacting with your software?
    The “check” might be both 5 minutes for the particular single news and also longer time, depending on how much the user wants to learn about different sources.
  5. Why do your users need this software?
    We believe that the majority of readers in filter bubbles are simply unaware of other political views, but when notified of their biased opinions, are willing to get an overview of the entire political spectrum. Usually, people seek to find out the truth, making this software particularly interesting.
  6. How do you want to solve the problem?
    We want to provide a web page where users can provide an url of an article which, then, gets placed onto a political compass. Other articles of the same topic will be shown on the compass too.

Reflection

On our first meeting we decided to give ourselves some time to come up with ideas and look for possible interviewee. We presented each idea and after thorough discussion agreed on the final one that we will work on during the semester. We considered all the pros and coins and general details that we need at this stage. Formulating the pitch was quite straightforward after that. As our users group is quite wide we need to definitely work on narrowing this group of interests before starting gathering the data.

[A#1, P2] Foodie

Who is your user group?

Our user group includes cooking enthusiasts who like to minimize their waste of leftover cooking ingredients and need some food inspiration as well as some help to organize the weekly shopping list. Stakeholders might be grocery stores, cookbook authors and publishers.

What is the exact problem?

It is difficult to use leftover cooking ingredients without having a matching recipe. Another challenge is to find the time to think about possible recipes due to work or study time restrictions. People with allergies or people who follow a specific diet have to manually filter out certain ingredients

Where is your user group interacting with your software?

Mostly at home, but it’s also possible to interact with the software while they are on their way home or to the supermarket.

When is the user group interacting with your software?

During meal planning.

Why do your users need this software? Why is that interesting?

Now that a lot of people are working or studying from home the need of having home cooked meals increases. However, many don’t have a lot of different recipes in their repertoire so the need to find different recipes increases. Many apps have countless recipes which means it can be hard to choose exactly the one you want, and it gets even more frustrating if after choosing one you see that one of the main ingredients is exactly the one you are allergic to or aren’t allowed to use based on your current diet.

How do you want to solve the problem?

We want to create a mobile app that provides the user with recipe ideas, that can be filtered by ingredients they already have at home and ingredients they don’t want in their meal. The app also supports the user by automatically creating a shopping list for all the chosen meals while excluding the ingredients that are already available. 

Seiten: Seite 1, Seite 2

[A#1, P4] JuurMates

Assignment #1 – Pitch Your Project

Who is your user group?
Our user group are law students who have to discuss legal issues. The app can also be used by other people engaging in law subjects who want to check a legal issue.

What is the exact problem?
Studying law is very learning-intensive. Because of the massive amount of content it is very easy to loose track of things.
When checking a legal issue (which is a very common task throughout university) you have to proceed in a structured way. To do so, there are standardized test schemes. Those test schemes are highly variable and nested. In certain cases some points are more important than others, some also may be irrelevant at all, some have to be expanded and so on.
The problem with the present system (e.g. many different documents) is, that those are not dynamic at all. This can lead to the usage of 10 or more different schemes to complete one assignment for university.

Where is your user group interacting with your software?
At their desk, in libraries, maybe even in trains – wherever they learn. It could possibly also be used for exercise courses in universities.

When is the user group interacting with your software?
When they are learning, writing a paper (e.g. Bachelors-/Masters-Thesis) or writing an open-book-exam.

Why do your users need this software?
As pointed our earlier, the great amount of content demands for a structured course of action. Obviously the present solution does not match that requirement. Therefore it is necessary to implement a software-solution that is dynamic and features a clear presentation of the needed scheme. This reduces the cognitive load for the students so that they can focus and learn the important contents of their present case.

How do you want to solve the problem?
Since studying is not bound to the students own desks where they most probably have an Computer, but takes place in trains, libraries or even coffee-shops we aim at creating an app for mobile devices that either guides the student through the specific scheme with questions for every step or that provides a possibility to dynamically create full schemes based on selections of the user. The actual implementation depends on the needs and wished of the user group and has to be specified in the upcoming interview.

Reflection

Who did what?
We brainstormed all together to find a suitable subject with good access to the user group. The actual contact to a student that explained the problem was made by Tobias which is why he (i.e. me) writes this Blog post.
Anil creates the presentation and the project pitch.
Simon came up with the brilliant name and provided ideas for the possible solutions for the problem.

What have we learned?
Understanding the users problems is hard. Especially in a field (like law) which is quite new to us and where we do not have expertise.

What went well?
We found pretty fast a user group which we have good access to. Also this group came up with a good problem that seems to be very manageable by algorithms and digital systems.

What do we want to improve?
Due to other courses and projects it was very hard to find dates for meeting. Therefore we just managed to meet Saturday evening which is far away from ideal. We want to improve that and meet earlier so we are not in fear of getting in a hurry.

And maybe we want to improve our group-picture…

[A#1, P6] Go Walkies!

Assignment #1 – Pitch your project

1. Who is your user group?​​​​​​​

Our Usergroup includes everyone who has a pet (espacially dogs) and wants to interact with other petholders or track the everyday life of his pet. Maybe even peope who think about getting a pet. Other stakeholders could be: Vets, petshop owners, travel companies/organizations, appartment renters, pet trainers, nationalparks … – everybody who has any (business) connection with pets. As contact persons we have family members and friends in an offline community.

2. What is the exact problem?

For dog owners (e.g.) it can be difficult to meet other people with dogs – espacially now with Corona-rules – and to have a community for a dog walk or training. There are a few options, but not a perfect one with even other features alltogether, like a map with trips for people going walkies or a checklist for traveling with your pet.

3. Where is your user group interacting with your software?

They could be at home (Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Smartphone, etc) or en route (Smartphone, etc).

4. When is the user group interacting with your software?

If a user wants to plan a (longer) trip with his pet or just a walkie, he needs our software to do it. Planning can be done everywhere (in front of the TV, on the toilet, waiting in a queue, …). For the tracking tools of our software applies the same, but it is used more often, perhaps on a daily basis (there might be a reminder for doing an entry).

5. Why do your users need this software?

The Planning part with a checklist for traveling with a pet is needed for just that. The users does not need to look in several sources for information, formulars and so on, because he has our software. But even more important (because it is happening more often), is the „finding a community“ part and getting variety in the daily walkies in nearer (?) environment and improve the social life of the users pet.

6. How do you want to solve the problem?

Using an open source map, the users can add routes, mark single locations (Highlights, pet locations, etc) for other people to see. One option is the location – feature, so that the users can find other users on his way.

(for our Reflexion please look at page 2)

Seiten: Seite 1, Seite 2

[A#1, P8] Social Gaming

Project Idea

  1. Who is your user group?
    People who are in need of social gathering during the pandemic time and want to have board games night online. Other stakeholders might be board game companies that want to   create an online version of their board game (or already have one) and want it to be known by a broad audience.
  1. What is the exact problem?
    It is difficult to have an overview over the online board games and thus to choose a game
  1. Where is your user group interacting with your software?
    At home with access to internet and a browser 
  1. When is the user group interacting with your software?
    At any time in their free time, the interacting with software depends on the common online time of someone’s friend circle
  1. Why do your users need this software?
    1. Pandemic time reduce the chance of meeting people physically
    2. psychological and mental need (lonely, lack so social contact, need to relax etc)
    3. time-consuming to search an online version of a social board game on google, currently there is no web app which helps people to communicate visually as well as play game together in the same application
  1. How do you want to solve the problem?
    We want to solve this problem by creating a web application: 
    1. helps people virtually interacting with each other 
    2. provides an overview of different kinds of social games, helps with selection
    3. includes embedded version of the online board game in our web application so the users won’t have to switch between different websites for different games all the time  

Reflection

Our team worked together on this blog post (with video chatting), we learned how to initialize a project idea with basic consideration for stakeholders, problem solving format, etc. The initial formulation of the project idea was quite smooth,  the only point we need to consider is how we specify our use groups and if we have access to them for further process. 

[A#1, P3] Scenic route

The scenic way of life: Scenic route

TEAM NAME: The scenic way of life

  1. Who is your user group?
    Our user group are people in big cities who want to spend their free time outside hiking in the most beautiful landscape possible.
  1. What is the exact problem?
    In this corona time, people cannot do many sporting activities, but they still have free time and wanna stay active in the best way possible, so they often choose having a walk. The problem is that existing maps applications suggest the fastest/shortest way to a location and not the most scenic one – the one person would love to spend their free time on.
  1. Where is your user group interacting with your software?
    The user is interacting with the software outside, in parks, on the street – in big cities.
  1. When is the user group interacting with your software?
    The user group is interacting whenever they have spare time (e.g. when going for an afternoon walk, on their way home, etc)
  1. Why do your users need this software?
    Hiking in metropolitan areas has been proven to be dangerous and stressful for pedestrians as well as for bikers and others involved in urban traffic. Users need our software to improve their quality of life and safety. Furthermore they are able to involve in cultural and educational aspects.
  1. How do you want to solve the problem?
    We want to create a mobile app that gives a route suggestion based on user’s preferences: 
    1. The level of hardness: easy, medium or advanced routes
    2. How much time user wants to spend
    3. Where does user want to start the route
    4. Where does user want to end the route

Reflexion:

Wer hat welchen Beitrag geleistet?
We developed the general idea together. After Milos generated the Blogpost, Marc prepared the slides for the presentation and Sebastian thought of the name and designed the group picture.
Afterwards we prepared the presentation.

Was habt ihr gelernt?
A sort of think tank to throw ideas around is a fun and productive way to develop and map out an idea.

Was lief gut?
We developed the idea quite fast and all of us were happy with it. Also the distribution of work wasn’t a problem and everyone was happy doing his part.

Was möchtet ihr verbessern?
One group member was a bit late to the meeting, so the other ones had to wait for him. This shouldn’t happen again. Also we should figure out if it is possible to edit other person’s Blogpost.

[A#1, P5] Sleepy Heads

We are Team 5, now also known as Sleepy Heads.

Our Team

Team picture – Icons from monkik
Angelika AlbertAyse Yasemin MutlugilTanita Daniel
Bachelor InformatikBachelor InformatikBachelor Informatik

Our project

1. Who is our user group?

Persons with insomnia or persons that want to record their sleeping schedule and behaviour are our user group.

Additional stakeholders are doctors and therapists.

What person will we consult?
We will consult a friend of Tanita, that has already experience with a sleeping lab and is interested in tracking her sleep.

2. What is the exact problem?

Patients with insomnia often have to fill out many paper sheets and may lose or mislabel one of those sheets, which can make it harder for doctors to make a diagnoses.

3. Where is our user group interacting with our software?

At home (in their bed).

4. When is the user group interacting with our software?

Before going to sleep and after waking up.

5. Why do our users need this software?

Our software is designed to increase the efficiency of recording the sleep schedule of a person. Everything is conveniently recordable in one app and there is no need for paperwork.

By recording sleeping patterns, it should provide the capabilities to improve the sleep quality and allow doctors to diagnose faster, easier and more accurately.

6. How do we want to solve the problem?

We want to create a mobile application where people can track their sleep (manually or via external trackers like Google Fit, Fitbit, Apple Health, etc) and also have the possibility to write down their dreams.

The app analyses the given data and provides additional suggestions and support for a better sleep. All data can be exported to PDF format and shared with doctors and therapists.

Seiten: Seite 1, Seite 2

Assignment #1: Pitch your Project

Due: Monday, 26th April 12 PM (noon)

In your first assignment, you will prepare a pitch to introduce your project, the problem you want to solve, and your team to your fellow students. This pitch[1] will set the bar for all groups, so be aware that preparation is key! In the end, it has to be clear to the audience:

  • What person will you consult? (name, profession, context)
  • What is the problem you think you are going to solve?
  • Who is on your team?
  1. Choose a team name.
  2. Create a team photo [2]. Please stick to the following format:
    PNG, 16:9 (e.g. 1024px X 576px)
  3. Stick to the project requirements when brainstorming project ideas with your team.
  4. Please answer the following questions (Five Ws + How):
    1. Who is your user group?
      And who might be other stakeholders?
      e.g., business person, parents occupied with homeschooling, young people backpacking by bike or boat, people over 50 living in rural areas, artists, etc.
    2. What is the exact problem?
      e.g., parents are overwhelmed with the homeschooling schedule of their children.
    3. Where is your user group interacting with your software?
      e.g., in the supermarket, waiting for a train, home office, on the road
    4. When is the user group interacting with your software?
      e.g., use it on the go for 5-10 minutes, on lunch breaks, while biking, daily in the morning, etc.
    5. Why do your users need this software?
      Why is that interesting?
    6. How do you want to solve the problem?
      e.g., a mobile app that checks WhatsApp messages for fake news
  5. Prepare a project pitch.
  6. Please stick to the hints for project pitches below.
  7. Summarize your work in a blog post!
    Use the provided template.
    Check out the instruction on How to … write a blog post on WordPress?

Hints for Project Pitches

  • All members of the team need to say something.
  • Five minutes per pitch and three minutes for discussion.
  • Maximum 4 slides.
  • ? Be visual: use slides, make a video, and be creative!
  • We all want to get to know the team!
  • Be prepared to answer questions!
  • Be ready to give feedback to other groups!

If you are wondering what is meant by projects, please check out the projects of last semester: Summer Term 2020, Summer Term 2019, and Summer Term 2018

[1] A pitch is a highly motivated, structured, and visual presentation.
[2] It could be a photo, some drawing of your group, or some icons/symbols per person. (Example)